Anti-vaccine hysteria has made strange bedfellows of California granola-heads and right-wing politicians, who share only a penchant for science denial. Granted, this sort of thing is right up the alley of Libertarians, who clutch their guns and resist being told what to do. Chief among them is Rand Paul – who just had his Tetanus booster! The self-certified ‘doctor’ is siding with anti-vaxxers while admitting that he and his children have had their vaccinations
Republican Chris Christie found himself wading in the weeds after trying to drive down the center of the road on this one. Christie came out one day last week, both for and against vaccinations. Just tell him what you want to hear, for cryin’ out loud, so he can tell you that he firmly believes in it! It is getting downright frightening when even Glenn Beck comes down on the side of vaccinations, while many Republicans who are first to deny a woman’s right to chose, are quick to advocate her right to expose your children to measles, and seriously compromise her own pregnancy.
Closer to home, a mother is more likely to experience miscarriage or stillbirth if she is exposed to German Measles during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. If born, her baby is likely to suffer hearing loss, brain damage, heart defects and even cataracts as a result. It will be sad indeed if science deniers experience unnecessary tragedy as a result of a brain fart by Jenny McCarthy which she has already walked back.
The alien connection – it’s everywhere! The outer fringes of the Republican Party claim measles is brought in by – who else, but South American immigrants. Is there anything we cannot lay at their tired feet? Those job-snatching opportunists are killin’ our young-uns, too! Maybe not. Republicans from the outer limits were quick to blame our non-existent Ebola epidemic on ‘illegal aliens’ from South America. Recently Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks and his posse declared that the measles scourge is brought in by the very same illegal ‘aliens.’
The thing is, Brooks’ theory isn’t plausible. While the U.S. vaccinates (or did) at a rate of 92%, our South American neighbors are even more conscientious! Mexico – the country where all evil dwells according to right-wingers, vaccinates at a rate of 99%! Likewise, Panama has a 98% rate, Belize a 96, and Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador come in at 93%…Still higher than ours. This leaves us with only one logical conclusion. If Mo Brooks and his buddies are to be believed, and ‘aliens’ are bringing deadly measles into this country – they are not from the south, they can only be ‘aliens’ from space! Those diabolical – and irresponsible devils are probably taking our jobs, too.