How vaccine denialism in the West is causing measles outbreaks in Brazil

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/vaccine-denialism-measles-outbreaks-in-brazil

Earlier this month, Jenny McCarthy, the anti-vaccine movement's loudest proponent, disavowed her earlier arguments. Instead, she claimed that she never told anyone not to vaccinate their children and that she simply opposes doctors giving children multiple immunization shots at once.

That McCarthy eventually took one small step toward the nearly universally agreed upon fact that vaccines save lives and don't cause autism is good news, but it may be too little too late: the anti-vaccination movement in the United States has helped to usher in outbreaks of preventable diseases in states coast to coast.

In New York and California, measles outbreaks are bigger than they've been in decades. A decrease of vaccinations across Europe brought with it 26,000 cases of measles in 2011. And one Australian survey found that 83% of Sydney homeopaths advised their clients against vaccinating.

Opting out of vaccines or insisting on a schedule for administering them, as McCarthy now suggests, that puts others at risk (because your own child could be protected by herd immunity) is unconscionably selfish. That the good that comes from vaccinating children against deadly diseases can be characterized as a "gray zone" – let alone subject to national debate – is the height of First World Problems.