It’s great to live in a wealthy, healthy society where people can seriously argue over how much leeway parents should have in deciding whether to have their kids vaccinated.
In less fortunate regions of the globe, people can’t afford the luxury of such debates. They recognize that diseases such as measles are mass killers — a half-million kids died of the disease worldwide in 2003 alone, according to Foreign Policy magazine. And so they have embraced vaccinations that will spare their children.
In recent years, the results have been astounding.
“Between 2000 and 2008, the nations of Africa achieved an astonishing 92 percent reduction in measles mortality, and by 2012, an 80 percent decrease in the number of cases,” Foreign Policy added.
Measles, which used to be the No. 1 cause of child deaths in poor countries, is now No. 14.
To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Why is it even a question?
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