EDITOR”S NOTE: This is another topical letter from Mark Wakeman, a 1965 graduate of Wayland High School, who is no stranger to weighing in on important issues.
To the editor:
This whole antivax furor really gets my goat.
As far as I know, there is no connection between vaccination and autism. This is one of those totally ridiculous rumors that spread like a, well, a plague. Right up there with smoking banana peels to get high because of a song called Mellow Yellow. (Doesn’t work.)
If a child can be sent home or refused entrance to a school because of head lice, which are inconvenient at worst, then they shouldn’t be allowed to participate if they are potential bearers of something much worse than “cooties .”
I agree that it is the parents’ right to make that decision, but it also has the potential of causing great harm to other children, and they DON’T have that right.
By taking it upon themselves to not participate in a communal health issue, they are forfeiting their rights to some of the benefits. Also, how do they explain to their children that they can’t attend school like their friends do because Mommy and Daddy are Luddites who don’t understand how important getting your “jabs” is.
I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:
What’s behind the ‘anti-vax’ movement? – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33774181
I knew a guy, professionally, some years ago. His parents did not immunize him against polio. The vaccine was available.
He contracted polio, and became a quadriplegic. He had enough use of the fingers of one hand, and learned to use a joystick to operate his motorized wheelchair. He loved his parents, but hated his all-to-preventable condition. He held resentment, and anger. He told me that if he’d gotten the polio before there was the vaccine, he would have felt very unfortunate, but not carried all the resentment and anger. He took his own life.