Yup we are the herd.

The interest of the state is to protect the health and welfare of its citizens. The mandate to vaccinate is based on extremely sophisticated epidemiological predictions of the ratio of “herd protection” (i.e acknowledging it is unrealistic to imagine it possible to vaccinate everyone, but calculating a percentage necessary to protect the whole) necessary to prevent epidemics (see, for example, Optimal Vaccination in a Stochastic Epidemic Model of Two Non-Interacting Populations). When, for example, you have a “known” herd vaccination rate that falls below 50% (and CA has the obvious problem of an undetermined number of undocumented immigrants) you court an epidemic. The Vatican’s response is a reasonable and prudent ethical response: protect your own children and your own community. CA experienced an epidemic of Whooping Cough last year – frighteningly among infants too young to be vaccinated – because the “herd protection” fell below 50% for two reasons: parents were refusing the childhood DTP vaccination and adults were simply unaware they need to be re-vaccinated every ten years.

Please note that I did not say alternatives are not available. Some manufacturers have offered alternatives, but quit selling them – I presume – because they weren’t profitable. I know individual physicians who purchased an entire box of doses to inoculate their own children and donated the remainder to clinics (perhaps they will read this and relate the story!). The technology is available, it is just not profitable.

And this is why you don’t have to be “an irrational idiot” (a persistent believer that vaccines cause Autism, etc.) to refuse, not vaccination per se, but rather vaccines that are produced by such means. All the media hype over vaccination (from both Progressive and Conservative corners, I might add) conveniently ignores this fact.

“…until an alternative could be found.”

As long as this ‘industry’ is allowed to exist, allowing for cheaper production methods, an alternative will not be found. It is as simple as that. And so it is that the state not only allows this ‘industry’ to continue, it also mandates complicity in murder. They (and this is primarily a spiritual, not political, battle) will not be satisfied until everyone is compelled to partake of the blood of their sacrifices.

Starting July 1, 2016, all children enrolled in public or private schools or day cares must be vaccinated against whooping cough, measles and other diseases, regardless of parents’ religious and other personal beliefs. Children with specific medical conditions, such as immune system deficiencies, may be exempt if they have a doctor’s note.

Whatever you think of the “intrusion” of government into your parental right to choose the best course of action for child’s health (and if you do not immunize, you are both an irrational idiot and a threat to countless other children and the community as a whole), consider further, as an Orthodox Christian, that it is impossible to immunize your children with a vaccine that is not derived from the cell line of an aborted fetus. Importantly, this situation exists not because major pharmaceutical manufacturers who supply the vaccine do not have other technology at their disposal (e.g. recombinant DNA) to avoid the aborted fetus cell lines, but it is simply less expensive and more expedient to continue as is.

American Roman Catholics pressed the Vatican for intervention, and were offered a moral “concession,” that until an alternative could be found, and in the greater interest of the health and welfare of their children and the community as a whole, Roman Catholic parents should vaccinate their children with the products available. From what I am reading, the groups who advocate for Vatican intervention with vaccine manufacturers accepted, but were not satisfied with this directive, and continue to ask for further assistance. I strongly suspect that the Orthodox, on the whole, even are aware of the reality of the problem.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/i-had-an-abortion-t-shirt_n_1435234.html

I’m reluctant to see abortion criminalized at the very earliest stages of pregnancy (when there are no obvious signs of life like a heart beat or brain waves). It’s these sort of reports, however, that make me want to rethink that. What used to be seen as only an unfortunate and ugly “necessity” (at best) are now being seen as a badge of honor. Pretty ugly stuff.