What A Dumb Thing For A Doctor To Say

Vaccines have been widely used in the U.S. for the past sixty years or more.  As a result, we've almost totally eliminated polio, diptheria, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, and pertussis.  These are among the many diseases preventable with proper vaccinations.

There are no federal vaccination laws, but all fifty states require certain vaccinations for children entering public school.  Most private schools require the same.

"Freedom!"

But while commenting on the recent measles outbreak (infecting only the stupidly unvaccinated), Sen. Rand Paul, who is an ophthalmologist, couldn't refrain from going into full-Libertarian batshit mode:

He said all vaccines should be voluntary.  

He said there were "many cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines."

He said, "The state doesn't own your children, and it's an issue of freedom and public health."

Puh-leeze!  The "many cases" are so few as to be statistically insignificant, and there is no proven link between vaccination and mental disability.  And how about the many millions of us who grew up vaccinated and free from preventable diseases?  What are we, chopped liver?

If it's "an issue of freedom and public health," it's one where the greater good by far falls on the side of public health, not on some selfish and mistaken notions of personal freedom.

Vaccinations are voluntary.  Just don't send you unvaccinated kid to school or to any public place, ever.  Please consider the rest of us.  Your kid is an epidemic waiting to happen.

Rand Paul 2016?  I think not.  Not that year or any other.