Parma Ham wrote:I simply said there's a difference between reasoned conscientious objection and irresponsibility, and that I respect the former. Period. If you think I'm promoting vaccine refusal, then I don't know how to convince you otherwise.
I don't see where anyone said you are promoting vaccine refusal, and I don't think that you are. The point/argument that I'm making is that where you say "there's a difference between
reasoned conscientious objection and irresponsibility, and that I respect the former", I disagree with that. It doesn't matter which path you take if the destination is the same, and I have yet to see a valid "reasoned conscientious objection" that is backed up by scientific research and data. So no, I don't respect either one.
And just to clarify further, I'm not blaming religion for the lower vaccination rates. It's just one of many (unfounded) reasons why we're in the situation we're in now. Again, you can believe and do whatever you want (religious or otherwise), but your right to do so stops when you harm other people. To take religion out of the equation entirely, let's say, for example, you're a vegetarian. You can stop eating meat. You can try to convince other people to stop eating meat. You can post memes on facebook and go to rallies and campaign for better treatment of livestock. You cannot bomb a meat packaging facility, injuring/killing the people who work there. (Lest you think I'm being extreme, if the anti-vaccination movement gets any stronger and the herd immunity is further weakened, the potential for an epidemic is similar to a bomb just waiting to go off.)
I could think of a dozen more examples, but really, how lovely that we have the privilege and luxury to engage in this "debate" in the first place. In other parts of the world, where there are vaccine shortages and these diseases
are killing people, there are parents lined up begging for their children to be vaccinated. And even in this country, we're not that far removed from the generation whose parents were terrified of their kids getting polio, but I guess that's easy to forget from that aforementioned position of privilege and luxury.