In recent days, attention has turned to the philosophical and religious exemptions available to non-vaccinating parents in 19 states. An estimate based on state records indicates there are more than 13,000 kindergartners in California unvaccinated based on the beliefs of their parents. This morning a potential presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, waded into this debate and called for "balance" and argued parents should have a "choice" in deciding whether or not to vaccinate their children. Let's be clear: From a public policy standpoint, there is no such thing as balance to be given to this issue, because only one side of it has arguments based on medical science and rational thinking. Christie's comments this morning have all the earmarks of pandering to idiocy. Because we need balance in climate change debates too, and with HIV denial, or maybe we can teach the controversy over whether Earth is flat or sits on the back of a stack of turtles.

However, I do think the governor is right that there are choices to be made. So why don't we make this as simple as simple can be: If you don't want your child vaccinated, that's your choice. But the consequence of that choice is they can't attend a public school. We treat kids who bring some Jif peanut butter in their sandwich for lunch like terrorists who just tried to sneak a dirty bomb onto campus, but in 19 states we're willing out of "balance" to create a public health hazard because it would hurt the feelings of anti-vax parents to tell them to their faces that their beliefs are stupid and not worth putting the larger population at risk.



Hari Sreenivasan: I mean, in 2000, we declared measles was eliminated. I mean, that means not active disease transmissions. And when you look at the numbers, between 2001 and 2013, we had an average of about 88 cases a year. And, last year, we had 644. I mean, that is an enormous leap. Dr. Anthony Fauci: That is. And that’s very unfortunate. There were 23 separate outbreaks during the year 2014, which, as you mentioned correctly, 644 cases. That just shouldn’t have happened. People don’t fully appreciate that measles is not a trivial disease. It can be truly a very serious disease. Prior to the availability of vaccinations, we had about 500,000 cases in the United States and an average of about 500 deaths per year. That was essentially — as you mentioned, again correctly, essentially eliminated because we were measles-free. And then, because of the movement of — anti-vaccination movement and children not getting vaccinated, particularly when it is concentrated in certain areas, where there are a higher percentage in certain parts of the country. That really leads to that group and cluster, so that when you have an introduction of measles, wherever it may be, it could be in a recreational park or someplace else where people congregate, if you have a certain percentage of the children or of anyone who are not protected against measles, that’s how you get these outbreaks, which, unfortunately, could really have been completely avoided and prevented.

From the PBS Newshour The modern anti-vaccination movement takes advantage of parental fears of autism, and is linked to a thoroughly discredited study of the MMR vaccine by Andrew Wakefield. From there things spiral out into unfounded theories that fluoride and the pertussis vaccine cause brain damage. While there are potential health issues with vaccines based on the health history of the individual (just like every other thing one might stick in their body), there is NOT a single, reputable epidemiological study on this planet that has linked vaccines to autism. Not one. And if anyone thinks I'm wrong, please cite one in the comments. I've written about the vaccination issue before , going one by one through some of the more oft-repeated anti-vaccine claims. In the comments there were some who felt I shouldn't have called the anti-vaccine movement idiotic. That these are scared and confused parents making bad choices. But being scared shouldn't be a license to put everyone else around you in potential jeopardy. And if something is ridiculous and idiotic, it deserves to be called ridiculous and idiotic, since hopefully those that have an open mind can recognize it as ridiculous and idiotic. In this case, it's not only ridiculous and idiotic, it's also dangerous to public health.

Moreover, we've had this argument before. We, as a society over the past 30 years have, over and over again, made the decision that public health trumps individual choices when there are public consequences. It's the reason smokers are huddled around each other outside trying to keep warm during a lunch break. All sorts of laws have been passed to curb smoking (e.g., California is considering raising the age for smoking to 21) and restrict its use in public places. People can't smoke in office buildings. People can't smoke in restaurants. People can't smoke in bars. Hell, people can't even smoke outside in some places because of the potential damage that second-hand smoke could have on the public. And yet, here we are placating people who could possibly spread contagious infections in public places, and everyone involved knows about that possibility and we're all just waiting around for the bottom to fall out.

It makes absolutely no sense.



“Sometimes, I feel like we’re practicing in the 1950s,” said Dr. Eric Ball, a pediatrician in southern Orange County, where some schools report that 50 to 60 percent of their kindergartners are not fully vaccinated and that 20 to 40 percent of parents have sought a personal beliefs exemption to vaccination requirements. “It’s very frustrating. It’s hard to see a kid suffer for something that’s entirely preventable.” Two of Dr. Ball’s patients are unvaccinated girls who became sick with the measles last week, though they had not been at Disneyland and it was unclear how they had been infected. Their father called the clinic to tell Dr. Ball and has been sending digital photographs of the girls, their faces stippled with red dots, to update him on how they are doing. Dr. Ball said he spent many days trying to persuade parents to vaccinate their children. He tries to alleviate their concerns. He shows parents his own children’s vaccine records. But it has not worked, and lately, as worries and anger over this outbreak have spread, some families who support vaccines have said they do not want to be in the same waiting room as unvaccinated families. The clinic where Dr. Ball works has treated unvaccinated children for years, but its staff is meeting next week to discuss a ban. “Our patients are really scared,” Dr. Ball said. “Our nightmare would be for someone to show up at our door with the measles.”

From Jack Healy and Michael Paulson at the