As I read a Time magazine article about how parents tend to rely more on their "social networks"–made up of their friends and family–to decide whether or not they should vaccinate their children, one particular line stood out to me:
In the U.S., where parents haven't seen firsthand the deadly consequences of vaccine-preventable diseases, pediatricians are frustrated about spending more and more time defending the importance of immunization.
I immediately thought of the 1.5 million children that die every year around the world because they don't have access to life-saving vaccines while we waste precious time debating their safety from our privileged position in the world's most powerful country.
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¡Qué ridículos que somos! We take so much for granted that we should be ashamed of ourselves.
And if you're so callous that what happens to other children around the world because they can't get the very same vaccines parents here willingly reject is not something that concerns you, then you should at least have the decency to care about my children. It's one thing for parents to think that it's their right to decide what's best for their kids, but it becomes a completely different thing if their decisions can potentially harm my children.
In other words, parents against vaccines have to remember that if they want their kids to be members of our society, they have to be willing to follow certain rules. By opting not to vaccinated their kids or to vaccinate them at their own pace they're blatantly disregarding how detrimental this can be to the health of all the other kids around them. You better believe that if you're putting my child's health at risk, I will speak up!
It's a sad day when you find out that lots of parents out there are relying more on what their friends and family have to say about vaccinations instead of what pediatricians and other experts say. Vaccines have been proven to save lives over and over again. If you don't believe it, just ask the mother of any child in a developing country whose life has been spared thanks to a vaccine.
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