To the editor:
(re: “Anti-vaxxers ignore science,” June 6)
Bob Bender hit the nail on the head with his recent letter.
A quick look at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website provides all the evidence one needs to have to understand that vaccination saves lives. Perhaps logic is not the antidote to the anti-vaxxers’ appeal to pathos?
The enactment of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz’s bill to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccinations is a watershed moment for the health of New York State. For me, the horrors of the pre-vaccination days are quite real. Each winter, measles left some children in my neighborhood with profound hearing loss, and our parish praying for a child suffering from measles-related encephalitis.
The horror of losing my brother from polio more than 70 years ago affects my family to this day.
This legislation will prevent such tragedy from harming an untold number of families in the future.
Deirdre Burke