Boston Herald Says Anti-Vaxxers Should Be Hung

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you surely know that the current political and social climates encasing the vaccine issue are overwhelmingly turbulent. And they are showing no signs of easing up, particularly after a harsh Boston Herald writer suggested that anti-vaccinationist should be hung.

The editorial staff member who left his or her name from the piece was writing about the Minnesota “measles outbreak” that’s infected 41 children (no injuries at all). The focus from the writer is on a Somali community that has long been suspicious of vaccines. But the writer goes on to claim that anti-vaccine people are targeting the community with anti-vaxxer propaganda, which has, in turn, led to the “outbreak.”

Yes, the anti-vaxxers appear to be plying their trade with the Somali community in Minnesota — and the result, sadly, is a dangerous outbreak of measles.

The recent outbreak is now up to 41 kids, all of them under 10. The Washington Post reported Friday that the number of children of Somali descent in Minnesota who have received the vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) plunged from 92 percent in 2004 to 42 percent in 2014 — not nearly enough to immunize against those diseases.

And then comes the final blow. A dose of reality.

These are the facts: Vaccines don’t cause autism. Measles can kill. And lying to vulnerable people about the health and safety of their children ought to be a hanging offense.

This is one of those moments, in my opinion, that someone’s truth is exposed. This wasn’t said in an emotional tirade, it wasn’t a thoughtless Tweet, this was the conclusion of an article that made its way through numerous layers of editorial watchfulness. It was never called out in any layer of optics as “too harsh.” It was written. It was thought through. It was edited. And it was left to “hang” in the article’s conclusion.

The full article is here.

This is the reason we can’t have any moderate exchanges. This is divisive, intended to fire up the bases so that everyone argues and hates one another.

Photo by theglobalpanorama