A panel of doctors on the Fox News program “Happening Now” unanimously pushed back on Wednesday against the show’s host when she wondered if “personal liberty” is a legitimate reason to not vaccinate children.
After noting that “most Americans are vaccinating their kids,” host Jenna Lee popped the question.
“There is a question,” Lee said, “about personal liberty and having the choice to make the choices for your children, and also what’s good for the community.”
She asked if the doctors thought there should be a “federal regulation” forcing children to get vaccinations.
One by one, the doctors unequivocally pushed back against the “personal liberty” point.
“Look, I think that vaccines have prevented millions of children around the planet from dying,” Dr. Manny Alvarez said. “If we get into a philosophical argument about whether vaccines are safe or not—they’re safe.”
“This goes from being a personal decision to a public hazard if you’re not vaccinating your child,” echoed Dr. Darria Long Gillespie.
“We will need something from the top down to make sure that everyone stays vaccinated,” said Dr. Frank Esper.
Watch the clip, courtesy of Fox News:
Your personal liberty ends where your ability to give me the plague begins.
The vaccine herd effect: If I’m vaccinated and you aren’t, I’m protecting you, but you are not protecting me. You and yours can get vaccinated or leave the herd now.
Soon Fox will issue an apology: “We regret giving a platform for informed experts to draw fact-based conclusions on our network. We know we let our loyal viewers down, and for that we sincerely apologize. Please know that we’re working hard to make sure this never happens again.”
The problem is that there is a cult of the individual that has infected this nation. This country became great because we worked together contrary to the ideas pushed today by the radical right.
Pertussis has shown us that even the herd effect is not infallible.