Homeless in Arizona

A lot of the Democrat atheists I know like Jennifer White and folks in atheist groups she belongs to like HSGP (Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix), AU-GP (Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Greater Phoenix), FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation, Phoenix Chapter) and Secular Coalition for Arizona feel the same way. That the government should force these people to get vaccines at gun point if they voluntarily refuse to.

The seem to feel that the government should force their scientific atheist views on people at the point of a gun.

Personally I think vaccines work 99.999% of the time, and that it's a good idea to get vaccines.

But I think it's wrong for the government to force anybody to do anything. Especially forcing people to get medical care they don't want. And in a very small number of cases these vaccines can cause severe medical problem or even death. So the fears of these people are justified if you look at it from that perspective.

Source

Montini: Two words for anti-vaxxers: 1. Arizona 2. Measles

EJ Montini, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:44 a.m. MST June 7, 2016

Maybe we’ll get lucky this time.

Officials with the Arizona Department of Health Services and Pinal County Public Health Services District have reported more than a dozen cases of measles at the Eloy immigration-detention center. Backtracking the movements of those infected public-health officials say they’ve identified stores, restaurants, a casino, a church and a high-school graduation where the infected individuals may have passed on the virus.

Health officials limited access into and out of the facility, and hopefully the disease won’t spread.

The biggest defense against that happening is what’s called “herd immunity.” In other words, because so many of us are vaccinated infected individuals are less likely to spread the disease or come into contact with a genuinely vulnerable person. For example, a pregnant woman. If such a person gets the measles in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy it can lead to bad results.

It’s also a big danger for people with immune system problems, and for people already dealing with illnesses like cancer, whose immune systems aren’t working because of the disease or because of the anti-cancer treatments.

A brief message for anti-vaxxers: Our immunities are protecting you and your children, while your unvaccinated children are putting others at risk.

We’ve had this discussion before.

There are too many unvaccinated kids in Arizona schools.

Parents who don’t vaccinate their kids are taking away the very protection that kept their kids (and their pregnant moms) from being infected.

Last year, California passed a law requiring all children enrolled in public or private schools or day cares to be vaccinated, regardless of their parents' religious or personal beliefs. There are medical exceptions. But those who don’t like it can choose private school or home school or some off-campus program. We should do that here.

I asked Gov. Doug Ducey’s office about that last year and received a statement that read: "Gov. Ducey believes vaccines are one of the greatest medical achievements of the last century, saving lives and even eradicating fatal diseases altogether. He encourages all Arizona families to be proactive, consult their pediatricians and vaccinate their children."

"Encouragement" is a good thing, but not good enough. There’s a difference between a health decision that impacts only you or your child and one that could impact all of us. Immunization – or lack of it – affects all of us.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention succinctly put it this way: “When measles gets into communities with pockets of unvaccinated people, outbreaks are more likely to occur. These communities make it difficult to control the spread of the disease and make us vulnerable to having the virus re-establish itself in our country.”

Sorry, anti-vaxxers, but re-establishing measles in our city, county, state or country is NOT your right.