As the furor over the nationwide measles outbreak grows with the number of unvaccinated infected people, the public majority that supports routine vaccinations of children has a question.
Why would parents choose not to vaccinate themselves or their children, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that the measles vaccine is safe and effective?
There is no rational answer, experts in public health and psychology say. The scientific evidence supporting the vaccine’s safety is strong. An infamous report published in a British health journal linking the vaccine to autism was retracted long ago and its author lost his medical license.
There is, however, a very human explanation, one that illustrates the power of the connection between the head and the heart, they said.
People feel much more responsible for a decision they make actively than if they choose to do nothing, said Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner and professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.
“People are much more afraid of their children dying from a vaccine than they are from a child dying of an illness that spreads naturally,” said Kahneman. “If something would happen to their child after being vaccinated, their decision becomes a focus of enormous regret.” Read more in Star Ledger.
Unvaccinated children who where born in this country are only part of the problem.
There are undocumented aliens in this country who are coming into this country with God only knows what kind of diseases.
There,I said it and it’s the truth.
Hide it or not. This needs to stop and stop now before other diseases that weren’t in this country before take hold.
A person with measles presents a serious threat to pregnant women. If a pregnant woman contracts the disease, the child is at risk of being born with serious medical conditions such as blindness, being deaf, deformities, etc. It is even possible for the birth to be terminated. No one has the “right” to subject a newborn to that risk.