America Embarks On Dumbest Science Debate Ever

Are we really going to do this? Yes, apparently. We are going to have a "debate" about Is It Good To Vaccinate Your Kids, Yes Or Not Yes? (The answer is "yes," by the way.)

Let's start with the good news, and then we'll move on to the "Christ, is it cocktail o'clock yet?" bad news. A recent study from Pew Research Center shows a majority of U.S. Adult-Americans, 68 percent, believe parents should have to vaccinate their kids. Good, they are correct, and that should be the end of the story. But of course it isn't.

Because 30 percent of American "adults" think -- like Gov. Chris Christie does or does not, who knows? -- that parents should have the Freedom And Liberty^TMto decide whether to let their kids maybe die from polio or measles or other supposed-to-be-eradicated diseases from the last century.

And is it worse among the kids these days? Of course it is, because millennials are terrible, and 41 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds think parents should have the freedom to expose their children and anyone else they want to diseases that a decade ago we basically only knew about from history books and stories from grandma and grandpa.

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Oh, and yes, grandma and grandpa absolutely believe parents should have to vaccinate their kids because they remember whentheirsiblings and friends used to drop dead from that stuff, before scientists invented vaccines so that wouldn't happen anymore.

But now this fringe group of idiot parents who refuse to vaccinate their children is getting bigger. And they have support, though, thankfully for now, they're still a minority. And people who actually daydream about running the entire U.S. government are like, "Well, gosh, some say this, some say that -- let's leave it up to parents to decide whether to infect schools and towns and Disneyland. What could go wrong?"

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At least they'll have the support of dumb selfish bastards like this guy: Jack Wolfson, a supposed cardiologist and no, we don't know where he got his "medical" degree, who straight up flat out does not give a fuck if your kids die from being exposed to his own "pure" un-immunized children:

“I’m not going to sacrifice the well-being of my child. My child is pure,” he added. “It’s not my responsibility to be protecting their child.”

Asked if he could live with the idea that his unvaccinated child could cause another child to become gravely ill, the cardiologist was dismissive.

“I could live with myself easily. It’s an unfortunate thing that people die, but people die. I’m not going to put my child at risk to save another child,” he said,before adding, “If a child is so vulnerable like that, they shouldn’t be going out into society.”

He seems nice. And like a good doctor. And a good dad. And we can't wait to see Chris Christie and the rest of the Republican Party pander to people just like him. Because yeah, that's where the we're heading.

See, in 2009, according to Pew, "there was no difference in views on vaccinations along party lines." But what kind of America would be be if we didn't politicize every damned thing, including the virtues of killing the neighborhood kids with measles? So of course there is a slight partisan gap on Parental Disease Liberty now:

A majority of Democrats (76%), Republicans (65%) and independents (65%) say that vaccines should be required. But Republicans and independents are somewhat more inclined than are Democrats to say that parents should be able to decide.

But now Republicans seem to think this is the latest front in the War on Stuff, so yay! Now we can sit back and enjoy the parade of potential presidential contenders try to not look like total idiots -- at least on the issue of vaccines -- while still trying to make some kind of argument for the "liberty" of letting their parents infect us all with their diseased children.

Carly Fiorina gave it a shot -- or not shot, your choice! -- in Iowa recently, when she said, "I think vaccinating for measles makes a lot of sense. But that’s me. I do think parents have to make those choices."

And oh look, here's Rand Paul on the Laura Ingraham show, explaining how he's "not anti-vaccine at all" but "most of them ought to be voluntary." He's a doctor, you know. We imagine if he does decide to run in 2016, he'll have at least one cardiologist rooting for him.

Who will be next to explain how vaccines areprobablya good idea, but not quite as good idea as letting parents decide for themselves whether it's a good idea? No idea. But we'll be watching. From a nice, safe, vaccinated distance.

[ Pew Research Center / Rawstory / Buzzfeed ]