Admittedly, that biology class was a very long time ago but I seem to distinctly recall Professor Pasteur saying that:
- Persons vaccinated against contagious diseases were not likely to become infected with those diseases,
- Unvaccinated persons exposed to a disease are likely to catch it and suffer the consequences: itchy rash, a pox, paralysis, death – whatever, and
- Infected persons acquire an Evil Superpower enabling them to cast the disease into their unvaccinated friends, family, co-workers, and passers-by without laying a hand on them.
To be clear, I was not Dr. Pasteur’s best student. Nonetheless, it seems the dangers of being unvaccinated fall mostly on the unvaccinated and, of course, those required to care for them should they get a disease.
While parents of vaccinated kids get to send them off to school all day to learn words and things, parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids have a good chance of staying home to care for them, and learn if their child will be that occasional measles case that develops acute encephalitis and permanent brain damage, or dies from respiratory and neurological complications. Or if that limp is just a little sprain or a touch of polio.
That said, even Dr. Pasteur would have to concede that there is an undeniably Positive Aspect to the anti-vax movement. Namely, Job Creation.
Unvaccinated children beset by diseases that a vaccine could have been prevented are creating countless new jobs in the medical, hospice, and even funeral industries. And that’s not counting countless jobs with medical equipment providers, such as makers of hospital beds and bedding, ambulances, braces, wheelchairs, breathing apparatus, syringes, plasma bottles, disinfectants, sanitary wipes, tongue-depressors, and pharmaceuticals – particularly anti-anxiety drugs for parents of infected children – not to mention good-paying jobs in factories here and abroad making those softly flashing bedside monitors used to detect and record a patient’s vital signs, right down to the last beep.
So before belittling anti-vaxers as ignorant, uncaring and/or religious zealots, let’s not forget: Like the wine-inebriated tourist who plows his SUV into a local tree or school bus, or the gun dealer who makes it possible to populate an entire hospital ward or cemetery section with paying customers, anti-vaxers are – first and foremost – Job Creators.
Remember, too: Hospitals and urgent care centers that treat the infected don’t build themselves. That requires architects, engineers, cement workers, and other tradesmen, not to mention truck drivers to haul the building materials, and workers to build the roads those truckers need to get those materials, and workers, to the job site.
The job-creating power of anti-vaxers is nothing to be sneezed at.
Because space is limited, we are not able here to even begin delving into the vital educational opportunities the anti-vax movement provides for young medical students, interns, and staff currently in training to treat the infected. Professor Pasteur ( rest his soul) would certainly agree that “teachable moments” are critical to the education of America’s doctors, nurses ,and other healthcare professionals who will someday stand ready 24/7/365 to treat the suffering of millions upon millions of unvaccinated Americans.
Provided, of course, those Americans have health insurance.
It’s common sense and someone whom cares about their wellbeing make correct choices. Most things induced into the lungs are medical to help the lungs perform breathing. Smoking or vaping is quite the opposite. Choose appropriately. Let people dod to themselves what they will.