I am always appalled by parents who follow trends instead of using common sense when making parenting decisions, because often the trendy path is idiotic. I'm sorry, but it just IS. Use common sense!
Get ready for a rant here.
Case in point: there is a whooping cough epidemic in Los Angeles, as reported in L.A.'s Entitled "Westsiders" Behind City's Epidemic. Parents are believing that vaccinations cause autism and are refusing to vaccinate their children. Measles is also on the increase.
"More parents in this demographic are choosing not to vaccinate their children as medical experts advise. They express their noncompliance by submitting a form known as a personal belief exemption (PBE) instead of paperwork documenting a completed shot schedule."
I recently got into a debate on Facebook with a lady who was determined that I change my mind on this topic. She said she wouldn't vaccinate because it causes autism.
I checked with a friend who has worked at the CDC for more than twenty years, and the FACT of the matter is that there has never been any proof that vaccinating your child increases the risk of autism.
What's really appalling is there is a place in America where the school system doesn't demand your child be vaccinated. Here in Georgia, you have to vaccinate, if you want your child in public school. It's the law. Thanks be to God.
The wealthy people in Los Angeles are putting their children's lives at risk by not vaccinating. This year alone, 3 infants under the age of two months have died from whooping cough. DANG! Really??? You'd rather have a dead child than an autistic child?!?
Before I go any further I need to state this: I have a cousin who is raising her autistic grandchild. SO don't lecture me about not understanding autism.
SO parents who don't want to vaccinate are putting all the children at risk, for something not proven to be true.
"Medical experts don’t find the threat amorphous at all. “Unvaccinated children put vaccinated children at risk,” says Stern. “When we vaccinate a child, there’s a certain percentage that don’t make antibodies. Herd immunity requires everyone to be vaccinated. If there are 10 percent unvaccinated, that puts everyone at risk.”
So the wealthy parents who believe in all organic food and family beds and all that sort of thing feel like they are right and they shouldn't have to vaccinate, or they can do it on their own schedule, not the regular schedule.
I like that this is how the article ended:
“All it takes is one bad epidemic and 90 percent [of skeptics] will change their mind.” Shapiro concurs. “A baby dies of whooping cough in the Palisades?” she says. “Let me tell you, everyone will be immunized. No question.”
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When my mother was born, both of my uncles [ages 4 and 6] had whooping cough. Mom was brought home to a divided house. My grandfather stayed upstairs and nursed the boys, and Mamaw and Mom stayed downstairs. Mom was kept away from her brothers until the danger had passed.
This is how one doctor in the article described whooping cough: “They cough so hard, it turns into vomiting and broken ribs; they end up intubated, to ventilate their lungs.”
I just don't understand parents who will risk a child's life AND risk the lives of every other child they come in contact with, for an unproven belief. It boggles my mind.
