Congressional Leaders Just Took a Stand Against Anti-Vaxxers

Preface by TLB Staff Writer: Christopher Wyatt

The following article makes it clear that there is a plan to silence anyone who questions vaccines. The non vax / anti vaccine community is strong but unless we switch direction and acknowledge that we need to evolve and be more bold in our approach I am afraid that we are going to win a few battles but lose the war for human health. I am a strong believer that we can no longer call for safer vaccines or vaccine choice. As a community resisting vaccines we have to firmly say NO MORE VACCINES!!! and encourage others to disobey any law that encourages or forces vaccination.

All of us have a duty to bravely make hard choices that go against societal norms and to stand up for the rights of those who can not. Instead of ignoring news about outbreaks of childhood illnesses we need to be following such news and pointing out that outbreaks such as the recent mumps outbreak in the United States is happening in the mostly vaccinated. We need to be calling out pro vaccine bias in the media and correcting inaccurate details in news stories that paint anti vaxers to be dangerous spreaders of disease. We need to be talking to law makers and we need to be out in the street in record numbers protesting vaccines. We need to be telling our stories of vaccine injury to any man, woman, or child who will listen.

None of us can afford to be sitting on the computer chatting back and forth with people who already agree with us. If a vaccine is being given we need to be out in the real world educating and protecting others from harm. Standing up for our rights is becoming more important with each passing day and I am begging the anti vax community to wake up and take a much stronger stand against vaccines before it is too late! (CW)

Congressional Leaders Just Took a Stand Against Anti-Vaxxers

By Kristen V. Brown

With Donald Trump in the White House, the fringe anti-vaccine movement has seen more support in Washington than ever before. The president has not only met with leaders of this dangerous movement, but entertained appointing an anti-vaxxer to a committee charged with investigating ‘vaccine safety.’

In response, a bipartisan group of House and Senate health committee leaders is sending their colleagues in Washington a clear message: vaccines save lives.

“As Members of Congress, we have a critical role to play in supporting the availability and use of vaccines to protect Americans from deadly diseases,” they wrote in a letter released Tuesday and signed by six key legislative voices on public health issues, including Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, and Democratic Senator Patty Murray.

The letter doesn’t call out Trump by name, but it does clearly paint the growing movement against vaccines as dangerous.

“Already this year, states and communities around the country have reported outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough,” they wrote. “The reason for these outbreaks vary, but we know there are increasing trends around the country that have led to lower vaccination rates in some communities, allowing outbreaks of infectious diseases to take hold with increasing frequency.”

Indeed, as the anti-vaccine movement has spread, we have seen a resurgence of diseases once thought to no longer be a problem in America. The spring of 2015 saw the first death from measles in the United States in 12 years. That same year, vaccine refusal helped spur a measles outbreak at Disneyland. This week a story in The Washington Post reported that in parts of Texas, where the anti-vaccine movement has thrived, vaccine coverage is slipping below the 90 to 95 percent levels needed to prevent disease outbreaks.

There is a preponderance of evidence making clear that vaccines are safe, but this fringe movement rooted in debunked science is now actually threatening public health and safety. And the White House, in lending an ear to the movement’s leaders, has given it a broader platform. Truly, this is terrifying.

Encouragingly, the letter implores fellow members of Congress to stand up to all this malarkey.

“It is critical to recognize the importance of protecting public health against vaccine-preventable diseases,” the letter reads.

SOURCE

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