A recent contributor stated that he would reserve his “beliefs” for something else rather than believe that poking something into the body will do any good. (Feb. 13 Letter, “Measles outbreak is insignificant.”) Well, science by its very nature, is never exact and that’s why many tests and experiments are required to prove a theorem. However, the theory behind immunization and antibiotics has proved to be correct to a very high degree of probability; as experience has shown over the past 100 or so years. The measles vaccine, in particular, has been proven safe and effective and has earned a high degree of trust and “belief.”
As for the comment regarding 121 outbreaks in a population of 300 million being “insignificant,” I can only say that it’s not insignificant for the victims. Also, measles is very virulent because it can be transmitted in the air. A single child could infect an entire school, then 121 could quickly mushroom into thousands. There are 600,000 deaths from heart disease and about the same number from cancer each year. That’s only 0.2 percent of the population which looks pretty insignificant to me. Does the writer think we should ignore these statistics as well?
Roger Sayer
Mukilteo
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