Some parents in California are reportedly considering hosting “measles parties” — social gatherings where unvaccinated children can come into contact with infected kids — to build up their children’s natural resistance to the infectious disease. Julie Schiffman, who has chosen not to vaccinate her two children, told KQED’s California Report that she was recently approached by a friend who invited her to a measles party. The friend offered to arrange a play date with a child who currently has measles. Schiffman turned her down…. Now that we’ve developed safe and effective vaccines to protect kids, doctors say it’s unnecessary to expose them to diseases in this way. After all, the whole point of vaccination is to build up kids’ immunity in a controlled and less medically risky way. Public health officials in California are warning parents against participating in measles parties, particularly since the disease is among the most contagious in the world. In a recent email, the California Department of Public Health said that such a practice “unnecessarily places the exposed children at potentially grave risk and could contribute to further spread of the outbreak.”
John Cleese once said that truly stupid people are those too dense to know they’re intellectually inept. While I hesitate to call anyone “stupid,” I really have to wonder about parents who would consider sending their child to a “measles party” in the hope that they’d be infected and build up their immunity.
WTF???
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always thought that one of the responsibilities of a parent was to protect their offspring, not take stupid, ill-advised risks with their health. When there are safe vaccines available, why would anyone think it the responsible thing to purposefully expose their children to a contagious (and potentially deadly) childhood disease?
Is it just me, or does this seem the very definition of child abuse?
This isn’t the first time this idea has been tried. In the early 1900s, some parents tried deliberately infecting their children with measles…only to end up losing them to the disease.
To be blunt, the idea of deliberately infecting a child with measles in the thinking it will build up their immunity is as stupid as it it irresponsible and dangerous. You won’t immunize your child because it’s too “dangerous,” but you’re willing to roll their dice and actually expose your child to a potentially lethal disease? Man, that’s some industrial grade stupid, knowhutimean?
How is it that one must obtain a license to hunt, fish, drive, own a business, and any number of other things…but any nimrod with functional plumbing can make a baby? Even worse, they believe they and ONLY they know what’s best for their child.
I don’t doubt that parents who would consider a measles party love their children. What I question is their intelligence, parental fitness and personal judgment. If you’re willing to place a child in harm’s way over vaccinating them…do you even deserve to be a parent?
Who’s protecting the children?
