Truly excellent letter to the editor about mumps 'outbreak' in Canada

[Guest guest]

Vaccine objectors have varied backgrounds

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/letters/story.html?id=f235b236-fbfa-

4745-8921-700207742595

Vancouver Sun

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Re: Mumps outbreak nears 200 cases, Aug. 26

I was surprised to read the hyperbole and religious bigotry in what was

supposed to pass for informative journalism on the mumps outbreak in the

Fraser Valley.

Two hundred cases is " spreading like wildfire " ?

It seems to me that if three-quarters of the confirmed and suspect cases are

from an unvaccinated or partly vaccinated population, one can hardly blame a

religious group.

Would the article have been printed if it had referred to a high

transmission rate among vaccine objectors from native groups or the local

Sikh temple or homosexual men and women? Of course not.

That reporter Pamela Fayerman felt it acceptable to take Dr.

Brodkin's comments and twist them into a smear of " unnamed Christian

fundamentalist groups " is reprehensible. There are many good reasons why

intelligent people from all socio-economic and faith backgrounds may decide

not to immunize themselves or their children against one or more diseases.

Better research into why people choose not to vaccinate would have made a

more interesting article.

Laurie Geschke

National president

REAL Women of Canada

Maple Ridge

© The Vancouver Sun 2008