It’s high time Washington (and Oregon) join California, Mississippi, and West Virginia and eliminate religious and moral exemptions to child vaccinations. While I hesitate to brand all anti-vaxxers as simple nut cases, it is oh-so-tempting to do so.
The bottom line though is that their freedom to endanger themselves and their own children ends at my and my child’s nose, religious beliefs and philosophical objections notwithstanding. Like it or not, we all live in a large, diverse, complex society, the safe functioning of which requires that we make certain concessions to personal freedom. We can’t choose which side of the road to drive on. We can’t allow people to drive drunk. We can’t allow people to shoot off their guns on a crowded city street just for kicks.
And we shouldn’t allow people to forgo vaccinating their children against highly contagious and potentially deadly diseases simply because they don’t want to. If a single child dies as a result of the current measles outbreak, it’s on their heads alone. A pox on such people, literally.
