by Brian Shilhavy | HEALTH IMPACT NEWS | February 12, 2015
The New York Times has published an opinion piece from a pro-vaccine doctor who earns millions of dollars in royalties from the sale of childhood vaccines. The title of the article is: “What Would Jesus Do About Measles?”
According to this medical doctor, Jesus would force everyone to vaccinate their children for the sake of the “greater good.” This pharmaceutical industry insider is calling on all states in the U.S. to remove the religious exemptions for vaccines that currently exist in 48 states.
Could the day come in the United States of America where parents who refuse to vaccinate their children will have their children removed from their home by force and injected with vaccines they do not approve of against their desire?
Yes. Not only could it happen, it already has happened.
Parents in Philadelphia Lost Custody of Their Children Who Were Forced to Receive the Measles Vaccine
In 1991, Philadelphia had a measles outbreak that reportedly infected 1400 people. Nine children reportedly died during this time, and seven of them reportedly were from two “fundamentalist Christian churches” where most members did not vaccinate their children. So during the media frenzy surrounding the measles and the MMR combo vaccine that includes measles, much like we are seeing today over the Disney outbreak in California, public health officials stepped in and convinced a court to allow them to take the children from their parents and force them to be vaccinated:
Public health officials turned to the courts to intervene. First, they got a court order to examine the churches’ children in their homes, then to admit children to the hospital for medical care. Finally, they did something that had never been done before or since: They got a court order to vaccinate children against their parents’ will. Children were briefly made wards of the state, vaccinated and returned to their parents. At the time, a religious exemption to vaccination had been on the books in Pennsylvania for about a decade. [1]
As is the case today, not everyone who came down with the measles in 1991 was unvaccinated. Some of the cases occurred among those fully vaccinated as well. The vaccine is not a 100% guarantee that it will prevent the measles, and there are documented cases showing that the measles vaccine itself can “shed” and cause measles among those fully vaccinated. (See: Dr. Suzanne Humphries, M.D. – Vaccine Strain of Measles Virus Found in Measles Outbreaks.)
In reading the accounts of the 1991 measles outbreak in Philadelphia, much is written about how certain church members did not treat their children after they became infected with the measles. There are also reports of pre-existing health conditions among the children who died.
The opinion piece in the New York Times this week mentions how the ACLU allegedly refused to get involved with the civil rights issue involved in taking children away from their parents and forcing them to become vaccinated. However, the whole story is not reported.