Should vaccinations be mandatory?

[Dylan]

[Southern Dad]

How many people look to President Obama as a leader? Think of how many people saw that message from him in 2008 and decided to forego their kid's vaccinations because Barack Obama, a very intelligent man told them that he believed that autism was linked to vaccines.

[The Comrade]

he never said he thought it was linked to vaccines.

[Southern Dad]

[The Comrade]

not really, no. the anti-vaccine crowd already claims to have positive evidence of a link not "the science is still out" about it. while wrong, he hardly gave them credibility.

[Dylan]

[Medius]

[Southern Dad]

[Indy]

Once again, we see things like religion and idiot conspiracy theories attacking science, where the thinnest of conjecture or basically wild baseless claims are used to defeat the science behind vaccines that have already proven their effectiveness.

In this country, all you need is religion or right-wing ideology (same thing in that's a religion) to dismiss science. Welcome to your downward tumble, America.

I notice that this week both Hannity and Chris Christie are now positioning vaccines as something that parents should have a "choice" about, transparently tying the idea of vaccines to big gov't and of course... eek! Obama.

Yes, they should have a choice: a choice to live on an island of quarantine with those same children if they want to start indulging in such rank, reckless stupidity.

[Professor]

There were about 650 cases last year. This year, which we've been in for only 1 month, already has seen over 100.

A stat posted earlier in this thread put the adverse reaction to the vaccine at 1-in-a-million. There are 316 million people in the US. But, all 316m don't get the shot every year. You usually get it twice, when you are young (recommended for every 10 years, but very few people do that). That means that roughly 8.1 million people are vaccinated every year. So, 8 kids react badly to the vaccine.

Which is worse - 600 or 8?

Stop the BS - get vaccinated, and tell everyone around you to get vaccinated. Being 100% honest here, if I found out that my kids' best friend wasn't vaccinated, I would highly consider no more sleepovers at their house or mine.