Freedom To Let Others Die

We live in the reality theatre of the absurd. The fact that Donald Trump is President should be proof enough of that. And two stories today only highlight the absurdity of our politics today.

First, as a measles epidemic breaks out in multiple states, Politico reports that Republicans are blocking attempts to tighten exemptions to immunization laws in response to the crisis. Democrats have introduced bills to further restrict exemptions from mandatory vaccinations in six states, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Washington, New York and Maine. In all six states, Republicans have opposed those measures. And, in New York, those Republicans have been joined by the anti-vax crusader Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in opposing a mandatory vaccination program ordered for parts of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in response to a significant measles out break there. In Mississippi and West Virginia, Republicans are actually proposing to expand exemptions, leading to more unvaccinated children and increasing the likelihood of a major outbreak in two of the poorest states in the country.

A measles outbreak in the early 1990s resulted in the deaths of 89 children, That outbreak, and ones in 1993 and 1994, created an enormous push for vaccinations which eradicated the disease in this country as a point of origination. Because of almost total infrequency of the disease, some doctors are now unable to diagnose its symptoms properly and, combined with the mobility of today’s society and the lack of vaccinations due to exemptions or simple refusal, the disease is able to be spread quickly and over a widespread area. One misdiagnosed man ended up infecting 39 people in New York and Michigan.

The outbreaks across the country this year will be the worst since the turn of the century, when the disease was eliminated as an endemic disease, with over 500 cases reported and climbing. So far there have been no deaths but misdiagnosed or poorly treated measles has the potential to kill, with over 100,000 deaths linked to the disease worldwide in 2017, most of whom are children under 5 years of age.

Today, many schools in the Denver area are closed as a massive manhunt continues for a woman reportedly “infatuated” by the Columbine massacre which occurred 20 years ago today. Police believe the woman may have mental health issues. After making threats to Columbine and other area schools, the woman traveled from Miami to the Denver area. Incredibly, she was then able to buy a pump-action shotgun and ammunition, apparently in preparation to replay the source of her infatuation. Law enforcement is engaged in a large and wide-ranging operation to locate her somewhere in the foothills west of Denver.

At least the religious objections and the unfounded fear of autism will only allow those adults who refuse vaccinations to potentially kill their children and others of like-minded individuals. The parents of students at Columbine and other Denver schools, and most every school in America for that matter, don’t get to make even that choice when their sons and daughters are killed by easily preventable gun violence.

The currently configured GOP takes absurdist positions that reject science and prevention. It is no surprise that Republican legislators would object to immunizing children people in the midst of a public health epidemic. It is no surprise that Republican objections to real gun restrictions allow a mentally unstable woman who has made credible threats of violence to somehow buy a pump-action shotgun and ammunition in order to kill more innocent children. It is no surprise that Republican refuse to crack down on polluters who poison the neighborhoods around them. It is no surprise that Republicans deny climate change which will uproot millions and incite violence, exactly what we are seeing now in Central America. It is no surprise that Republicans refuse to expand birth control in order to reduce abortions. It is no surprise that Republicans refuse to support any kind of national health insurance. Because when the GOP reads the word “freedom”, to them it also includes the freedom to let others needlessly die.