No Vax - No Pax (of Mind)

No Vax – No Pax (of Mind)

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

February 6, 2015

When should the public good take precedence over personal freedom? Some would suggest never, that once the public good begins to outrank personal freedom, it snowballs down the slippery slope to the disintegration of all personal freedoms melting into complete government control of the lives of the citizenry.

My paranoia may run pretty deep, but there are actually times where the public good is just that – good for all the public. The ongoing debate on vaccinations is a prime example. While it is the right of parents to not vaccinate their children, they do so at great risk to the health of their children. This is especially true with a greater and greater influx of illegal aliens into the United States – many, if not most, are not inoculated against some of the more basic diseases that seem to be spreading more freely in recent months and years.

Apparently Disneyland is not the happiest place on earth. Since a measles outbreak, safe to say Disneyland is the scratchiest place on earth. Many of those affected have not been vaccinated and are in greater danger of the disease worsening. Further, should a non-vaccinated child enter school there is an increasing chance of that child getting and spreading a disease.

The irresponsibility of parents opting not to inoculate their children due either to ignorance or simple willful stupidity should not come at a cost to the general population of a school community. And that includes students, teachers, staff, and parents. Ignorance based upon the incorrect assumption that vaccinations cause autism. That fallacy has been oft refuted by numerous respected members of the medical community.

A non-vaccinated child in the public schools could prove to be costly. As litigious a society as this is, should disease claim victims around the school, the parents could be sued, but more importantly, so could the school, the city, county, and/or state where the school is located.

But like so many parts of American society we the people have options. If parents wish to send their children to a public school, get them vaccinated. Simple enough. If there is a religious restriction, those children should attend a school geared to that religious belief. If a child is allergic to certain vaccinations, a doctor’s note should be presented, a waiver signed barring the school and its jurisdictions from being held legally liable.

After all, if an entire school is barred from bringing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch because one child has a peanut allergy, a pound of prevention for barely an ounce of cure, then vaccinations should be required.

This is the same principle I have adopted pertaining to drug testing all welfare applicants. If workers are required by potential employers to take and pass a drug test for gainful employment, then welfare applicants should have to take and pass the same drug test to sit on their collective tuchuses and collect our hard earned tax dollars.

For those who complain such a requirement is an invasion of their privacy, remember, they are not required to accept government money, i.e. welfare.

Simple common sense solutions to not so complex problems when the political correctness and stupidity are removed from the equations.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.