What
is the most dangerous threat to our nation? You might have thought I
would say measles. Measles yes, is a threat to be sure, but it is not
the biggest threat. The biggest threat to our alleged first world
nation is ignorance, often religion based, and its denial of science.
Without our belief in science and the truth it tells our nation -- any
nation -- cannot survive. This is so because the testing repetition of
the hypotheses of science tells us what is true from what is not. We act
according to the truths we know and our society advances from its
prehistoric state.
You have heard this before: The earth is
not the center of our solar system the sun is; gravity keeps us anchored
to our earth; bacteria and viruses cause disease and not bad humors;
washing one's hands before a surgical procedure or cleaning a wound
prevents infection. It has taken man many thousands of years to acquire
the knowledge that those truths tell.
Wikipedia tells us "Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who was the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. He is often called 'the father of immunology and his work is said to have 'saved more lives than the work of any other human.' Jenner noted the common observation that milkmaids who acquired the milder cow pox were generally immune to smallpox."
He tested this hypothesis by inoculating a boy with the skin scrapings
of milkmaids who had cow pox. Ultimately the boy did not, when injected
with small pox, get the deadly form of disease. Hence the connection
was made between immunization of the weakened disease and its
effectiveness in preventing its deadly cousin.
Two hundred
years later vaccination derived from the science of Jenner's work proves
true and it does so thousands upon thousands of times. Science has
verified immunization through vaccination by repeated testing.
If the credentialed scientists are to be believed there is absolutely no relationship to vaccines and the causation of autism.
The man who promulgated this discredited theory has had his medical
license pulled and his "theory" discredited. When laymen listen to quack
science they expose not only their child to horrible diseases but
everyone else's child to them as well. Herd immunity works -- look it
up if you do not know what it is. The rights of smokers end where my
nose begins and one's ability to choose not to vaccinate ends where the
lives of others are risked. There is NO libertarian right to kill
simply because, based on faulty notions, they do not want to vaccinate
their child.
Finally, on a personal note, I am living proof
that an unvaccinated child can acquire a dreaded
preventable-through-vaccination-disease. The disease I acquired is an
anachronism now but it was not in October, 1954. Vaccination against
the paralysis-inducing disease, polio, was not discovered and tested
until April, 1955. Only six months stood between a physically normal
life and one marked by total paralysis of one leg, needing braces,
crutches, night casts ad infinitum x-rays, three surgeries, bedridden
for one year and other psychological trauma associated with it.
Children grow up and must carry the after effects of the disease as
adults and encounter the difficulties of aging and polio's attendant
problems. As an adult I have fractured my polio compromised femur three
times. Due to falls, a polio subject's pariah, I fractured my arm,
tore a tendon, dislocated a finger, fractured toes twice, suffered a
concussion as a child and acquired an eye problem as an adult from
another fall all due to the balance compromises of polio. Another femur
fracture and I could be nursing home bound before my time -- at least
that is what my surgeon told me in addition to saying "Don't fall!"
There was no number of miles my parents would have traveled, no limit
of money they would have paid, no stone left unturned if their child
could have had a life free from the monstrous after-effects of polio.
I, Children's Hospital told me, was lucky I had a mild case. Others had
it worse and still others, unable to breathe, sometimes died. I can
attest to the disease virulence of polio.
So far, through
mandatory vaccination our nation has become and remains polio free.
The disease, however, is out there lurking waiting for its vector to
present its gifts if vaccination nation listens to its cranks, religious
fanatics and know nothings within who act as charlatans to a public who
knows not what they do.
Chapel Hill Police
