Vaccine is not about your freedom

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

In 1736, a young parent by the name of Benjamin Franklin delayed smallpox inoculation for his 4-year-old son, likely at the insistence of his wife. The child contracted the disease and died. Our Founding Father later wrote he “long regretted bitterly” that he hesitated. 

Franklin’s older brother was a prominent anti-vaxxer, as were many in a day of little knowledge about this form of prevention. Some thought the vaccine was worse than the disease. 

However, the clearly demonstrated safety and value of dozens of vaccines for other diseases over the past three centuries has removed all doubt from mature minds. 

In asserting a right to be free of the shot, many Americans are junking not only science and history, but the constitutional law that Ben Franklin taught. Democratic law says the community, not the individual, decides. 

 

KIMBALL SHINKOSKEY

Woods Cross, Utah