Measles and vaccinations: Opt-out choice is far too risky

Measles is one of those nasty diseases we had, through near-universal vaccination programmes, almost eradicated but it is at an eight-year high across Europe. With four months in hand, 2018 has already recorded more cases of the highly-infectious disease than any year since 2010.

Measles and vaccinations: Opt-out choice is far too risky

Measles is one of those nasty diseases we had, through near-universal vaccination programmes, almost eradicated but it is at an eight-year high across Europe. With four months in hand, 2018 has already recorded more cases of the highly-infectious disease than any year since 2010.

It would be tempting but dangerously foolish to dismiss this as a rite-of-passage illness. That may be the case in the vast majority of occurrences but anyone familiar with the devastating impact one strain of measles — rubella — can have on an unborn child could not share that view. Indeed, they would insist that complacency is simply not an option.

Unfortunately, complacency may be, at least in part, at

the root of the disease’s resurgence. So too is the vocal but minority opposition to vaccination. We have adopted a live-and-let-live approach to vaccinations, other societies are not so tolerant. Some link welfare payments and school places to compliance with vaccination programmes. That may seem oppressive to those who oppose vaccinations for whatever reason but this is one of those rare cases where it is actually is a case of black or white: You are either a vector for the disease because you are not vaccinated or you are not because you have been vaccinated.

There seems, despite all the fake news scaremongering about vaccinations, little room for compromise on this public health issue.

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