[SaneVax: In an ideal world, any medical intervention should be tailored to the individual’s needs. No two people have the same medical history, genetic background, or current health condition. It defies all logic and reason to assume vaccinations can be recommended and/or mandated for the general population with no consideration given to individual circumstances.]
“Vaccine policy should not be one size fits all” by Josh Mazer, The Baltimore Sun
(17 April 2012)
Rathi Asaithambi’s April 11 op-ed advocating a federally mandatory vaccination policy with no exemptions (“Time to get tough on vaccine refusal”) is based on straw man arguments and ignorance of documented adverse effects of vaccines. There is no “anti vaccination movement” involved in a “lethal war” against children’s health in the United States. The largest quantifiable set of objectors to current CDC vaccine policy is pediatricians.
In 2008, the late Dr. Bernadine Healy, former NIH director, said on CBS Evening News that a “one size fits all vaccine policy is medically indefensible.” But that is what Ms. Asaithambi is proposing. Medical decisions ideally are made in consultation between patient and doctor. Are there any more medical procedures she wants the federal government to mandate, perhaps medically unnecessary vaginal probes for women seeking abortion services are next on her list?
Vaccines have obvious benefits as well as obvious adverse effects.
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