@MforMumThinking of Kate O’Hara and poor little Rosie. Shame on you@MadMum. #Irresponsible #JusticeforRosie #vaccineswork
Her mother-in-law had been right to warn her, Madeleine realized now, the full horror of it all overtaking her. The public loved to express an opinion—never more so than on the internet—and right now, the full force of those primarily negative opinions was headed directly her way.
These people didn’t even know her. They had no idea what was going on with this situation—outside of what Gemma Moore had told them, that was.
Gemma Moore.
She was behind all of this. Yes, she and the other woman had locked horns a little on the panel show, but for Madeleine, at least, it had been harmless banter, just for the cameras. What had she done to seriously deserve all this?
“Oh, my God. What do I do?” she whispered into the silence of her kitchen.
She thought about deleting some of the comments beneath her blog and on Facebook (unlike Twitter, at least she could get rid of those) but then hesitated, knowing full well what internet trolls did when they thought they were being “silenced.”
They just got louder.
Her head spun as she tried to think through her options. It was true that people had short attention spans, and she supposed she could just ignore this. However, she was also smart enough to realize that to remain silent was probably the worst thing that she could do.
Damage control...
She bit her lip, realizing the other further-reaching implications of all this, too. She could only imagine what was being said around Knockroe, by people who actually knew her and Kate.
She had to address this. Being up-front and honest about what had happened was the right choice. It had always been her modus operandi both on-and off-line, and that wasn’t going to change now.
Madeleine pulled up her word processor and began to type a fresh blog post—one that she hoped would go viral just as quickly as Gemma’s news story.
She wasn’t a villain and this was all being blown way out of proportion. Madeleine was sure people would understand once they heard her side of the story. She would explain everything and let the world know that she wasn’t a bad person, or an irresponsible mother.
With luck, Kate would hear about it and read it, too, and finally she might be able to reach Rosie’s mum in a way she couldn’t thus far.
She’d let Tom do things his way and, based on what had happened that morning, it had proven to be the wrong move.
Madeleine would make this right. She had to.
28
THE DAILY RECORD—WEEKEND OPINION
Should childhood vaccination programs be compulsory?
A recent study released by the American Medical Journal found that uptake of childhood vaccinations has steadily declined over the last decade. In some American states the coverage is now below 85%, leading some government officials to push for mandatory vaccination of all schoolchildren.
This move is being viewed by some as an attack on human rights, while others are applauding the decision. There are no official figures available in relation to the uptake in Ireland. We spoke to leading pediatrician Dr. Marcus Geraghty about his views on the future of the Irish vaccination programs.
“The main worry is the uptake figures. If the number of people availing of the vaccinations falls below 90%, the whole program is at risk,” he said.
“Nobody likes the term ‘herd immunity,’ we don’t like to think of our kids as cattle. The reality is that if you have a large number of unvaccinated children, outbreaks become more common and prolonged. You end up with a situation where very young babies who haven’t yet had their shots end up infected, and so the program fails.”
When asked if he felt children’s vaccinations should be mandatory, he said:
“That is a very difficult question to answer. I think education of parents is key. We have to ask, why are some people deciding against vaccination? I think the emergence of often false information via the internet has a lot to do with it. Parents have come to me and said they have read about vaccinations causing autism and a myriad of other complications. These anecdotal stories are unsubstantiated and they cause undue stress to parents in much the same way as my self-diagnosing the cause of a headache using Google. Invariably it will tell me I have everything from cancer to a brain tumor.
“The reality is that for many years these vaccinations have saved children from serious diseases that have been proven clinically and medically to cause suffering and death. We put warm clothes on our kids in winter so they don’t catch colds, we apply sunscreen to stop them getting sunburn and melanomas. We make them wear helmets on their bikes and scooters. If you have it in your power to protect, you should do so. Should vaccinations be mandatory? No.
“Should people vaccinate their children? Absolutely yes.”
We then quizzed Dr. Geraghty about the medical reviews—namely that of Dr. Andrew Wakefield—that had drawn links between autism and the MMR vaccination, to which he replied:
“I’ve read the review you’re referring to. It has been totally debunked and indeed retracted by the author. Unfortunately, it’s caused some serious doubts among parents that we need to address, and again it goes back to the education issue.”
