I can remember when they were not. I can remember my mother pushing my head down so my chin hit my chest as a "test" that I did not have polio. I had whooping cough, chicken pox, mumps and measles. Whooping cough nearly killed me. Measles could have deafened me; thank God it did not.
Epidemics were killing people! Lots of people! A smallpox epidemic killed the entire Jamestown Colony! The Native American populations were dying by the thousands of measles because they had no immunity.
Today these diseases are almost extinct in the United States.
And we have got complacent because of it. Conservatives and even some liberal parents are waging a war against childhood immunizations using the same twisted logic some Supreme Court justices are using to consider abolishing the affordable care act.
Basically, "I" have the right to my liberty, even though it endangers the general welfare.
Much has been written about the commerce clause in the court arguments. Is the mandate a tax? Can the government force a citizen to buy health insurance?
I would suggest this completely misses the point.
What is critical to the constitutionality of the act is in the Preamble, that every child memorized, that every tea party patriot carries: that the Constitution is "to provide for the general welfare".
The "Public Welfare" was included in the Constitution primarily because of public health!
Welfare...two parts...WELL...FARE! When the Preamble was written, welfare was aimed at the public's protection against epidemics. Welfare as a poverty program was unheard of; they had indentured servitude and debtors' prisons.
At that time, the only protection was government enforced quarantine, sanitizing drinking water, etc. Government was the most effective deterrent to disease, and not very effective at that. There were no immunizations!
Epidemics were the primary threat to the "general welfare" until the mid-twentieth century in the world. Far more people died of typhoid fever than by warfare. Vaccines were not invented until late in the 19th century.
Today we assume the primary threat to health is non-epidemic disease; cancer, heart disease, diabetes.
We do that because most pandemic diseases have been controlled in the industrialized world; most have not in Asia and Africa.
We have over 50 million people, many children, without health insurance. Many are not getting immunizations. No health care, no doctor, no clinic, no shots!
By having no national health care, and basically saying a person either gets it through employment or buys it, we automatically exclude many children. Children are the targets of epidemics. Children are attacked by viruses , they have no immunity!
Moreover some liberal and religious zealots are now refusing to get their children immunized because of their "liberty as parents".
This is a direct threat to public well...fare.
Public Health Officers call it "herd immunity". If a population is immunized over 90%, a viral epidemic has no real chance to take hold. Well over 50% of children have no health insurance. This is a ticking time bomb!
We have had the swine flu scare, the bird flu scare; Africa right now has viral diseases that are killing thousands.
And conservatives are praying the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Health Care Act to save their liberty. Justice Scalia likens the health care mandate to being forced to eat broccoli.
If the Court overturns the Act, it will forever be known that we chose to be free to say no to broccoli, rather than be forced to save children's lives.
Have you ever seen someone with full onset polio? Have you ever seen full onset smallpox? Have you ever seen a child cry itself to death with cholera? You probably haven't. If we continue down this wing-nut path; you will!
Government were instituted for basic reasons. One big one was to cooperate, pool resources, to fight epidemics to survive.
During the Dark Ages governments across Europe were weak. Feudalism was the main form, and did a miserable job dealing with general welfare and health. The Black Death and Bubonic Plague were results of "liberty" through feudalism and limited government. One half of Europe died!
Viruses do not care if you are a lord a vassal, a knight, a king...they kill you all the same. Disease is a great equalizer. When you do a bad job with health for the general welfare, everyone is as risk. Even the 1% can get polio; witness Franklin Roosevelt.
It is just a matter of time before a killer virus develops for which there is no vaccine. There have been countless pandemic warnings. World health organizations plan constantly for pandemics that start in countries that have poor to non-existent public health care systems.
Viruses evolve, they adapt, and they need breeding grounds. Populations with widespread gaps in health care are breeding grounds. The United States, without a universal health plan, is a breeding ground.
So, pray hard so that Scalia's fight for liberty succeeds so you can get sick. And having health insurance is no protection, it is those who don't have health care who will breed the germs that can kill your child.
Ironically the death panel that the tea party so disingenuously lied about to stir opposition to government backed health care is sitting in judgement right now: It is The United States Supreme Court!
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