One sign that younger Americans are beginning to resist regulation by the government is the increase in the percentage of parents who refuse to have their infants vaccinated. The public health bureaucracies issue warnings against this, but parents ignore it.
In the liberal city of Portland, Oregon, something in the range of 10% of parents are refusing. This indicates a loss of trust in the establishment.
Historically, Americans have done what public health officials have required. The public has trusted the theories and practices of these organizations. A loss of compliance here indicates a major change in the public’s degree of confidence in the official theories.
A new study concluded that infants on alternative immunization schedules are growing from 2.5% in 2006 to 9.5 % in 2009. While fewer babies in the Northwestern state are being vaccinated, parents are being admonished to stick to the recommended schedule of regular vaccines.
This is a rapid increase. Three years is not much time for attitudes to change. But change they have.
This man has got the picture.
Steve Robison, epidemiologist at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and researcher for the study, remarked: “The fact that there is an alternative schedule means that there is alternative advice. Most parents are getting their kids the recommended shots. They are not getting it at recommended times, making them fall behind. These kids are at greater risk, and we don’t see them catching up.”
This resistance reveals the power of the Internet to undermine the public’s confidence in the official opinion of various government bureaucracies. If parents have lost faith in the public health establishment, they have lost faith in other establishments, too.
The medical establishment recommends 23 different immunizations before the infant reaches age 2.
So far, there has been no outbreak of any of the threatened diseases.
This is going to be a large laboratory test of the public health system and its effectiveness. Will there be a pandemic? Or will nothing much change?
Will resisting parents change their minds before a pandemic?
What percentage of non-vaccinating parents will it take to put the public at risk?
If this resistance continues, and no outbreak occurs, more parents will join the resistance, this resistance will spill over into other areas of government control.
Anything above 10% resistance to official ideas will spread fast. The 10% figure is a tipping point. This figure has been confirmed in a recent study. In Portland, young parents are almost at the tipping point.
__________________________
Published on June 25, 2012. The original is here.
© 2022 GaryNorth.com, Inc., 2005-2021 All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.