Giving Compass' Take:

• As the number of measles cases in the U.S. climbs, here are three moral reasons for parents to get their kids vaccinated against measles and other diseases. 

• How can donors spread awareness of the importance of vaccines? 

• Here are five facts about the measles outbreak. 

The U.S. hit a terrible and entirely preventable milestone this week: Measles cases are at a 25-year high.

This alarming statistic is not due to changes in public health policy or medical practice, but the rise of the anti-vax movement. Researchers who study the beliefs of parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated have found they have both religious and political motivations.

As a bioethicist who investigates how cultural and societal values impact medical care, I consider the position of anti-vaxxers to be morally indefensible.

Here are three reasons why.

  1. Failure to contribute to the public good: Years of research involving hundreds of thousands of people have proven vaccines to be safe and effective. One reason why they are so effective – to the point of complete eradication of certain diseases – is because of what scientists call “herd immunity.”
  2. Impact of health choices on the vulnerable: Viruses do not affect everyone equally. Oftentimes, it is the elderly, infants and people with weakened immune systems who are most at risk.
  3. Health is communal: Anti-science attitudes are dangerous because they undermine our ability to make decisions together as a society, whether about education, infrastructure or health. For example, if too many people treat the scientific consensus on climate change as just “one perspective,” that will hinder our ability to respond to the massive changes already underway. In a similar manner, treating the science on vaccines as just “one perspective” negatively impacts everyone.

Read the full article about why children need to get vaccinated by Joel Michael Reynolds at The Conversation.