ANTI-VACCINE MOVEMENT PAYS DISASTROUS DIVIDENDS

By U-T San Diego Editorial Board12:01 A.M.MARCH 31, 2014

For nearly 20 years, the anti-immunization movement has been gaining steam. Prompted by a thoroughly discredited report in a British medical journal linking autism to childhood vaccinations, by unscientific screeds from New Age spiritualists and by skepticism about pharmaceutical companies, tens of millions of people now see vaccinations as dangerous — especially for their children.

The toll this is taking on public health is awful. Outbreaks of infectious diseases that were all but conquered in advanced nations are now common in the United States, Europe and Japan.

This very much includes Southern California. Last week, San Diego County officials reported they had already documented 154 cases of whooping cough in 2014 — far ahead of last year’s pace.

And in Orange County, authorities reported the worst outbreak of measles in more than 20 years, with 21 cases to date in 2014.


This shouldn’t be happening. Too many parents don’t grasp that a refusal to vaccinate their children doesn’t just put their kids at risk. Experts say the outbreak risk for many infectious diseases goes up sharply when fewer than 90 percent of the public is vaccinated.


We urge vaccination skeptics to get informed by visiting this Centers for Disease Control website: cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/safety/default.htm.


America has enough public health issues. It doesn’t need one driven by ignorance and irrationality.


http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...ous-dividends/