Inoculation Debate

Fear and paranoia are the driving forces behind the debate over the danger or benefit of childhood inoculations. Theorist Eve Sedgwick observed that paranoia is contagious and replaces thinking that is more measured and reasoned. A paranoid response is often naïve and pious and rooted in suspicion that in the end proves to be without merit. The fear of contamination is based on the belief that a dangerous and foreign substance can threaten us on contact. While there are dangerous contaminants the vast majority of viruses and bacteria that a person encounters present no threat.

In the opinion of many that the contaminants that exist in the atmosphere and the air we breathe present a constant threat to man’s health. Pro-environmental activists fear that the man-made chemicals that have polluted the atmosphere present a greater health risk than natural chemicals that exist in our world...