“It’s not 55 deaths, but millions of deaths prevented worldwide by vaccinations over the years. “
“And parents are too dumb to realize this without a gov’t mandate to vaccinate?”
WOW, what a statement!
Are you a parent? Have you MET some of the other parents out there? When you have anti-vaccine nutters out there dumb enough to actually twist the vaccine story upside down, convincing some parents that life-saving vaccines will cause retardation (Bachmann just advanced retardation about this issue with her comment) and you have Casey Anthony types out there, you really have to ask?
If youre a parent, you know the score - kids in daycare become germ buckets and disease carriers. Once they interact with other kids, they can pick up anything. I’ve had my share of coughs and colds, in past 15 years invariably picked up from our 2-5 YOs over the years, in fact I have a sore throat right now - start of year they pick it up and pass it on. Mine did. It’s one reason why I think daycare for under 1 year-olds is a travesty (but guess what, millions of kids are in them, arent they).
But that’s just colds and flu. Make it diptheria or measles and we are talking a more serious problem.
9 out of 10 parents will do the right thing. But 1 out of 10 ‘parents’ put their kids at risk in many stupid ways. Schools require vaccinations because without that ‘mandate’ many more kids would be carrying many more serious diseases and epidemics through the schools, harming other kids. The stats are clear on this - the California whooping cough case is just one example.
FWIW, that mandate with an opt-out is far far less burdensome than other laws, mandates and rules - from seatbelt rules to CPS powers - and does far more good than 99% of other Govt laws. To pick on this one real example of public health policy that works is frankly bizarre.