Print Column: There Should Be Consequences for Refusing to Vaccinate
MINOT, N.D. – Over the last week I’ve published a print column and a podcast about the vaccination issue, noting the resurgence of communicable diseases like measles and the rise in the number of North Dakota parents opting their children out of vaccines.
The response to these pieces was ugly.
My inbox and social media feeds filled up with angry readers and listeners who insist that vaccines are a profit plot by the pharmaceutical industry. Who believe in vast conspiracies, including everyone from academics to public health officials to politicians, who promote vaccines because of one nefarious motivation or another.
Don’t try telling these folks about the well-documented, inverse relationship between vaccination rates and suffering/death from diseases like polio and chicken pox. It’s not the medicine, they tell us. It’s something else.
