New Hampshire's GOP are taking a stand—against the polio vaccine

Kids can't protect themselves. They don't have the ability to make their own informed choices. Please don't destroy the evidence-based protections we have that keep them from dying, being crippled, having to get a machine to breathe for them permanently, etc. We have decades of data and it's overwhelmingly clear: vaccines save lives and do so incredibly safely.

Every time a child is seriously harmed because a parent ignored vaccine guidelines the parents should be charged with criminal neglect. It's no different than if you fed your children say, mercury, and then claimed you believed it was helpful because of Facebook gurus or similarly unaccredited sources. In both situations a child is being permanently harmed due to choices they have no ability to understand, resist or protest and thus we need laws to protect them.

Also, not only are the anti-vaxxer parents endangering their own children, but also everyone else's by increasing risk of their kids becoming vectors/reservoirs for infection and potential mutation into new strains that could evade current vaccines. "High mutation rate is an important characteristic of viruses that can enable them to evade immune responses and propagate infection." So not only are anti-vaxxers making choices for their own kids, but potentially also others' kids. It's not guaranteed but it's rolling some high-stakes dice.

Not to forget, making choices for the very weakest we have: Children that are too sick to be vaccinated. Your “uneasiness” towards a little jab millions of people have survived absolutely fine might take someone else's little wonder away. Because you circle jerked a bit on facefuck or shitter.
- Also any kids who do get vaccinated are more at risk.
It's no different than if you fed your children say, mercury, and then claimed you believed it was helpful because of Facebook gurus or similarly unaccredited sources.
I totally agree that children should be vaccinated.
But I just want to point out that there is a difference between actively doing something to harm your kid, and passively not doing something to protect your kid.
Lack of protection is not equivalent to active harm.
Parents should still be required to vaccinate their kids.
- Letting your kids play in traffic isn't acceptable even though it is passively not doing something to protect them. That's because being different doesn't mean that one is always fine.
  Not vaccinating kids* is like letting your kids play in traffic and letting them drag other kids into traffic too.
  *the exception are kids who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons

"Nobody gets these diseases anymore, so we shouldn't worry about requiring vaccines against them" /s

Before criticizing the GOP for this, let's not forget the kind of degenerate that Salk was: not only did he not seek profit for the polio vaccine, but he also worked on AIDS vaccine research.

So I think the GOP should be lauded for their consistency here! Surely the work of someone who wanted healthcare for all (regardless of means) and who supported efforts towards a disease which was at the time synonymous with certain "lifestyle choices" cannot be trusted.

(Big fat /s, but I really hope that's obvious.)

Like a spoiled child who won't go to bed, conservatives continue to throw a tantrum against the inevitability of progress.

They won't rest until they've reset us to 1945.

In 1945, mothers would kick ass to get their kids properly inoculated.

Live Free or Die should be changed to replace the “or” with an “and.”

They fucking Don’t Open Dead Inside-ed it.
- Live Die Free or

polio is a horrifying disease

So pretty much all the people who lived their lives in iron lungs thanks to polio are dead now and the Republicans want to drop the vaccine requirement? Do these guys have a warehouse full of old iron lungs they're hoping to profit off of?

Never forget...

warehouse full of old iron lungs
Oh my…it is with great sadness that I must admit you might be onto something here.

My father’s parents were told he would die when he had polio and was hospitalized. I wouldn’t be here if the doctors were right. My mother was a little girl when the vaccine was new. Antivaxxers piss me off.

My mom knew jack about science, nor cared. But she went off about how thankful they were for the polio vaccine. As a child, they were all scared shitless of it.
Said much the same for smallpox. She had one of those ring scars from back in the day.