OPINION (FW) – As the measles outbreak continues to spread across America — a nation in which the viral infection had been previously eradicated — a lot of people are wondering why in the world anyone would keep their children from receiving vaccinations to prevent these kinds of illnesses. As it turns out, there are a couple of big reasons and one pretty crazy reason.
We’ll first dive into the crazy reason parents choose not to vaccinate their children. Several years ago, in her 2007 memoir, “Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism,” TV personality Jenny McCarthy claimed her now-16-year-old son Evan developed autism at 3 years old after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination. Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) similarly claimed in 2011 that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine could cause “mental retardation.” READ MORE
