Letter: Bachmann gives bad vaccine advice

Regarding the letter "Parents should have say over vaccines" [Sept. 26], vaccinations have been the single greatest advance in medicine in the past 100 years, but from the very beginning there have been naysayers who were worried about side effects. As with all medical interventions, there is always the possibility of negative side effects, yet in the case of vaccines in use today, the benefits have been proven to far outweigh any real or imagined negative consequences.

Any suggestion that making the human papillomavirus vaccine mandatory is a new intrusion into our personal freedoms is not completely correct. Mandatory vaccinations are nothing new. The smallpox vaccine managed to wipe out a great plague, mostly because of a commitment to mandatory vaccinations around the world.

Today a number of vaccines are required before a student can attend public school in the United States, and for good reason. Vaccination protects not only that person, but other potentially unvaccinated people who may come in contact with that individual. No vaccine is effective in every person, and getting the whole group vaccinated helps to protect those in whom the vaccine doesn't work.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) did not simply quote what the mother of a child said. She said in her own words that the HPV vaccine has "very dangerous consequences" and that it puts "little children's lives at risk." Those were her words. They were completely inaccurate, inflammatory and dangerous to the young women who may not get this vaccine because of Bachmann's uneducated opinion and irresponsible statements.

Bachmann said herself that she is not a doctor nor a scientist. Then why is she giving medical opinions? You have to question her judgment. She should stick to politics, and let the people who understand the science provide the medical opinions.

Dr. Michael Melgar, Great Neck