Well, we have another measles outbreak caused by anti-vaccine morons.For reasons that are unfathomable to me, many seem to think that people should be free to refuse the measles vaccine because this is a free country (ostensibly, at any rate).
I'm going to tell you what I was told as a child: your freedom ends at the tip of your nose.
That is to say, your freedom ends when it starts to impact on the freedom of others.
For most, measles is not life-threatening, but there are complications, such as a one in one thousand chance of getting permanent brain damage. The chances of complications are more problematic for people with weakened immune systems such as infants, the elderly, and people with certain medical conditions.
One of the possible complications of the measles is pneumonia, which is more likely to be deadly for infants, the elderly, and people with otherwise weakened immune systems. Further, some of those people with weakened immune systems cannot be vaccinated, and for them the only protection they have to this incredibly virulent disease is the vaccination of others.
Look, I get that you think vaccines are icky because you read a web page written by someone who is scientifically illiterate, but your right to be an uneducated baboon is superseded by the rights of others to not get permanent brain damage or not die from your stupidity.
Governments in every free society have not only the right, but the responsibility to make vaccines mandatory.
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