Those who reject vaccination endanger others
While I realize that the vaccine debate drives clicks — I’m guilty of falling for it myself or I wouldn’t be writing this — it’s insulting that the Post-Gazette would publish an ardent antivax letter (“Vaccine Freedom”) on April 26 of all days, let alone at all.
April 26, 1954, marked the start of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine being introduced in trials across the country. Dr. Salk’s vaccine is arguably one of the most important contributions anyone has made to the advancement of mankind and is certainly the most important thing to ever come out of Pittsburgh — no offense to the trend of putting french fries on salads or being a bad driver.
As much as Pittsburgh is built on the legacy of the extraction of natural resources and production of steel, it owes the fact that we aren’t Detroit to the field of medicine keeping the city afloat the past 30 years and spearheading so much of its revival. Giving a soapbox for opinions that have been proved wrong again and again and have no scientific basis behind them is grating at best, destructive at worst and betrays so much of the legacy that pioneers like Dr. Salk left us.
Leave the pseudoscience to the Dr. Oz and Jenny McCarthy crowds. The PG is a Pulitzer Prize-winning paper; it should be better than that. I don’t mean to discount any alleged medical problems the anti-vax people believe are due to vaccinations, but I absolutely discount their mission of destroying herd immunity.
If you don’t want to vaccinate your kids, keep them away from responsible members of society. The key word is “society.” If you want to live in one and reap its benefits, you don’t get to endanger it because of anecdotal evidence and fear. MICHAEL GEORGER
Swissvale vaccination puts yourself at risk and also the most vulnerable among us. There are sometimes adverse reactions to vaccines. Adverse reactions are both well documented and rare. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created to ensure fast response to their needs and to ensure that vaccines are readily available at a reasonable price.
Ms. DeLucia concludes: “I pray people will take the time to clearly research what goes into these vaccines and act accordingly.” Her prayer is answered. Research goes on every day to ensure that vaccines in the U.S. are both safe and effective.
We have a segment of society that believes what they want in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are wrong. I pray that they will not be allowed to mislead others who are looking for the facts. CHARLES J. VUKOTICH JR.
Mt. Lebanon
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy “slammed” Donald Trump’s pick of Elinore McCance-Katz to head the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“Murphy Criticizes Trump Nominee,” April 25). He cites her previous work with SAMHSA as his reason.
According to Mr. Murphy, SAMHSA was “actively opposing the transformative changes” and has a history of “silly, feel-good, anti-scientific, redundant and wasteful actions.”
It’s a shame that Mr. Murphy didn’t apply that same criteria when he cast his vote in favor of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
We welcome your opinion
It has been reported that each trip to Mar-a-Lago that President Donald Trump takes costs $3 million.
In four years at six trips a quarter, that would cost almost $300 million.
Those conservative Republicans sure do like to spend those big bucks on themselves.
Barack Obama or Bill Clinton would have been impeached. M. MARINO Oakland