I'm a retired Family Medicine physician living in Shepherdstown. I have
advanced degrees in Medicine and in Public Health. Over my long career I
saw the value of immunizations which are usually required for attendance at
public schools in West Virginia. During my overseas career in many
underdeveloped countries I saw what happens when these safe and effective
immunizations are not required (or even available) to the public.
The required vaccinations here in the United States (and especially in
West Virginia) are so effective that many physicians have never even seen
rubella, mumps, measles, polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, and chicken
pox. I have seen *all* of these infections in the overseas communities
where I worked, and there was little that I and my local medical colleagues
could do to significantly alter the outcome of the infections since
"treatment" of these infections is too often ineffective. Prevention with
vaccines is the only solution.
We cannot go there. The illnesses being prevented by "routine"
vaccinations are horrific and completely unnecessary in our country.
"Religious" or "philosophical" or "political" exemptions to the vaccines
are meaningless when the child (or adult) is lying in front of you dying.
Don't ask medical personnel in West Virginia to pick up the pieces of the
lives shattered by these infections in unvaccinated children and adults.
John W. Aldis, MD
AAFP, MPH & Tropical Medicine
jwaldis(a)gmail.com
Mobile:(304) 283-0041
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