First polio, and now rickets. REALLY?!

I just read that rickets is making a comeback. As a refresher, rickets is a softening of the bones due to lack of Vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium. You can get vitamin D from dairy, eggs and mushrooms, among other sources. And sunlight. The sun helps us make vitamin D.

This is of particular concern in the United Kingdom, where the foods are not fortified with vitamins like in the US.

What is causing this? Children playing inside, copious use of sunscreen, and lack of good nutrition. And when I say lack of good nutrition in the UK, I really mean lack of parental guidance in what goes into the mouths of their children.

There is also a polio epidemic in Syria, putting Europe at risk. Polio is a disease, unlike rickets, which is a deficiency. Polio is spread through contaminated food and water. Vaccines against polio are turned down more and more by parents in the US because of what the CDC refers to as "herd immunity", which means that it is pretty much eradicated.

Not so anymore. Say someone from Syria flees to Europe. It can take up to one year for symptoms to surface, and in the meantime, this person is spreading the polio virus to a number of people. Just one of those people comes to the US, where a child may or may not have a vaccination against it...see the problem?

Then there are people like Jenny McCarthy who are extremely vocal against routine vaccines. She thinks her son's autism was caused by his vaccinations. However, I will bet you that she had all of her vaccines.

There is a religion (which I call "cult") called Christian Scientists who are against vaccines. There was recently an outbreak of measles among Christian Scientists. Bet those with the measles rethought those shots then...

On a side note, it looks to me if they have the word "science" in their title, they would do a little scientific research on whether or not they need to be vaccinated.

The CDC called me a few weeks ago to conduct a survey about whether or not I have had my children immunized. I told them that they have had all of their shots and then some. They were very glad.

I think Mellie Grant says it best when she had to do a PSA on immunizations: "I am holding the sticky hands of children who pick their noses, and telling their idiot parents to do their job and immunize their kids. How stupid do you have to be not to immunize your kid? Isn’t it just natural selection if your unimmunized ,snot-nosed brat gets smallpox in the 21^st century?"