I just had to memorialize that line for when future alien anthropologists are poking around the broken remnants of human civilization, trying to figure out how a global civilization of such potential all went to naught.
See, Janice D’Arcy at the Washington Post‘s parenting blog brought up the Indiana measles outbreak, which fortunately has not (so far) led to a nationwide crisis among Superbowl visitors, because enough of us are vaccinated (or, among us olds, measles survivors) for herd immunity to work. (Per PBS, “the first 13 individuals infected had all chosen not to be vaccinated.”) D’Arcy goes on to discuss a backlash among doctors who understand the consequences:
… Increasingly, surveys are finding that more and more doctors are refusing to treat patients who decline vaccinations.
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A Wall Street Journal report last week cited several different surveys that revealed almost a third of doctors in Connecticut and a fifth of doctors in the Midwest dismiss patients who decline vaccinations…
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It’s unclear if the trend is changing any minds. (Several reports on vaccine skeptic blogs called those doctors “brainwashed.”) It’s also unclear if refusing patients is the best answer. Does it hold parents more accountable or does it endanger vulnerable children?…
Naturally, the first few dozen comments drew all the usual outcry from the anti-vaxers: Autism! Big Pharma! Aluminum! Illegal immigrants! Freeeeeedom! — as well as a heartening pushback from members of the reality-based community. But commentor MacGyver1rjq104’s claim that “smallpox makes people immune to AIDS” was both new to me and so blithely, stunningly packed full of new and improved levels of cluelessness that I really had to share it with you all. Say what you will about smallpox, at least it’s an ethos all-natural, as god intended!