An Italian politician who has railed against mandatory vaccinations, including the one for chickenpox, had to spend four days in the hospital after contracting chickenpox.

So, yes. There might be a God after all.

Massimiliano Fedriga, a senior member of the far-right Northern League party, is now trying to combat the disease as well as the world’s sense of schadenfreude. He insists he’s not an anti-vaxxer — only that he didn’t like the government mandate on vaccinations — but that’s the same sort of rhetoric used by Jenny McCarthy and other notable vaccine deniers.

He didn’t just request that the vaccines not be mandatory. Fedriga said the policy was “Stalinist.” Which I’m sure sounded better before he had to head to a hospital.

Dr. Roberto Burioni, who runs a website called MedicalFacts.it, said Fedriga was lucky things weren’t worse and it’s good that his own children are vaccinated. But his anti-vax stance remains dangerous.

“[Mr Fedriga], like many adults, did not get vaccinated… if he had been vaccinated as an adult he would be in perfect health. “If he had infected a pregnant woman we would be facing a malformed child or an abortion. “The only way we have to avoid such tragedies is to vaccinate us all to prevent the circulation of this dangerous virus, which could have hit a much more vulnerable person.”

Let’s hope someone in his party learned a lesson from all this since he obviously won’t admit any error.

(Screenshot via YouTube. Thanks to Brian for the link)

