When did public safety measures become a choice?

How vulnerable is Ontario to measles outbreaks? A rise in cases is about to collide with a falling vaccination rate, March 5

Why are vaccination rates even allowed to fall? When did public health and safety measures become voluntary? Should we allow restaurants to opt out of public health standards? Should we allow drivers to decide that speed limits and traffic lights don’t apply to them?

I understand that anti-vaxxers wilfully ignore centuries of evidence about just how lethal childhood diseases are, but why are our politicians ignoring the warnings from public health officials by pretending that vaccination is a personal choice?

Vaccines work by providing herd immunity, stopping infectious dis- eases from spreading in the first place. In today’s densely populated and highly interconnected world, the need for such immunity should be obvious. Prior to the measles vaccine, hundreds of thousands of children died annually from this now-preventable illness.

Herd immunity protects those who, for various reasons, cannot take the vaccine or for whom it fails to confer immunity. Allowing peo- ple to refuse vaccination doesn’t just put those kids at risk, but also other children who don’t have the choice to get vaccinated.

An even worse side effect is that anti-vax nonsense is spreading to nations without the infrastructure to treat these diseases. This makes international containment even more difficult, while condemning millions of children in the devel- oping areas of the world to an early death.

We have the wealth and capacity to keep diseases like measles at bay. Why aren’t we setting an example for the rest of the world on how vaccines can keep us safe?

Here we go again. The anti-vaxxers claiming that their rights are being abused. They forget that with rights there are responsibilities not just to themselves but to their society.

If they wish to exercise their right to remain unvaccinated they should be permitted to exercise that choice.

However should an individual de- velop an illness that could have been prevented, he or she should pay the total cost of the treatment out of pocket.

Peter Anastasiades, Markham

To the anti-vax crowd that once again suspects secret agendas and demands proof of vaccine efficacy, consider this: There are roughly 7.3 million Canadians over the age of 65, about one of every five of us, and the great majority of them were vaccinated against measles, and other childhood maladies. Somehow, they have survived for decades, in mostly good health.

Proof that vaccines work passes by you on the street, in the malls, sits next to you on the bus and is often a part of your daily life.