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Religious anti-measles vaccine campaign in Zimbabwe kills 700 kids. Will it happen in America? [1]
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Date: 2022-09-06
Zimbabwe’s health ministry announced two weeks ago that 157 children had died of measles since an outbreak hit the country in April. By this weekend, deaths had increased to 698. Few of these dead children had to die. But religious superstition and science denial condemned them to their brutal fate.
Zimbabwe is home to fundamentalist Christian sects that are opposed to vaccination. Instead, they tell the members of their cults to rely on self-proclaimed prophets for healing. That is insanity — and these fundamentalists should face criminal consequences for abetting a homicide.
But in Zimbabwe — as in so many other parts of the world — if you say you are acting according to the instructions of an invisible entity, for which there is no evidence, then you are golden. And you can continue spreading your dangerous nonsense without penalty — while those who follow it often have to bury their children.
Measles was a notorious killer. Before medical science created a vaccine in 1963, it was responsible for 2.6 million deaths a year. By 2000, that number had fallen to 536,000. And by 2018, deaths had declined another 73% to 142,000. Medical analysts estimated that in those 18 years, the measles vaccination prevented 23.2 million deaths. This is a heartening statistic. If you are a Christian, you should thank God.
But that is not the way fundamentalist religion works. It has to be against something. Anti-LGTBQ+, pre-marital sex, feminism, and science are effective rallying calls to increase your power and keep the cash flowing.
Zimbabwean authorities are so concerned they have contemplated making vaccination mandatory.
Dr. Johannes Marisa, the president of the country’s medical society, told The AP on Monday that the government should escalate an ongoing mass vaccination campaign and embark on awareness programs targeted especially at anti-vaccine religious groups. The Washington Post reported him as saying,
“Because of the resistance, education may not be enough so the government should also consider using coercive measures to ensure that no one is allowed to refuse vaccination for their children,” He urged the government to “consider enacting legislation that makes vaccination against killer diseases such as measles mandatory.”
If only we could do that here. But there are too many religious leaders in cahoots with conservative politicians who are opposed to saving lives. The law holds that someone who drinks, drives, and kills someone is guilty of homicide. But if you choose to leave your children unvaccinated and they die of infectious disease, you caused their death — but there is no penalty.
Many states allow a religious exemption to mandatory school vaccine requirements. This is madness. Your freedom to practice your religion should not allow a child to become a ‘Typhoid Mary’. Why is it so hard for the self-named “pro-life” crowd to understand that life is the ultimate right? In the Declaration of Independence, it is the first right enumerated.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Yet 44 states permit a non-medical (religious or philosophical) exception to mandatory vaccines for school children.
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