Substantive issues—at least of the kind discussed here—are thin on the ground today. But, of course, as Clarence Darrow said at the Scopes trial about creationism: “Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding.” So is fascism, which makes it ironic that, according to Mashable, well-known Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig published the cartoon below in the Melbourne newspaper The Age:

This is clearly Leunig’s ignorant reaction to the state of Victoria’s new “no jab, no play” law that will take into effect next year, a law that mandates, sensibly, that preschoolers can neither go to day care or attend kindergarten without getting their shots. (Whooping cough, for instance, has shown a dramatic rise in the state.)

And this isn’t the first time that Leunig has privileged parents’ rights against the “God of Science”. Here’s a cartoon that he published in The Age in April:

Clearly he’s rejecting “what science thinks” in favor of “maternal instincts” and “a mother’s love”. Well, Mr. Leunig, let’s see “a mother’s love” keep somebody from being infected with whooping cough, diphtheria, or polio.  Leunig’s “vaccination = fascism” stand was confirmed in a statement:

In a statement emailed to Mashable Australia, Leunig said his cartoon was not about the value of vaccines. “It is about the punitive deprivation and coercive authoritarian force being increasingly and systematically applied by Federal and State governments to parents who want choice in the matter,” he wrote. “There is a human rights issue here that is deeply disturbing and worth talking about in a clear-headed way that is free of hostility and insult.”

Yes, let’s talk about that “human rights issue.” What about the human right of a young child to be protected from disease, safely, in the face of his parents’ unfounded and ignorant fears? What about the human rights of society as a whole to not allow infected children to mingle with uninfected ones, possibly infecting those whose vaccinations didn’t take or who couldn’t be vaccination for real medical (as opposed to religious or philosophical) reasons? What about the right of society to ward off epidemics by making sure that all children have vaccination, so producing “herd immunity”?

If forced vaccination is a violation of human rights, so are income taxes, driving laws, Social Security, and state-sponsored medical care. Leunig needs to rethink the balance between the rights of individuals and the needs of a liberal democratic society.

U.S. Representative Barry Loudermilk is a Republican, of course, and represents Georgia. And he’s on a House of Representatives science and technology subcommittee, apparently because (according to Wikipedia) “he holds an Associate degree in Telecommunications Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Education and Information Systems Technology.”

Whatever science Loudermilk absorbed in school doesn’t seem to have become embedded in his brain, or was effaced by his Republican colleagues. For, as Mother Jones reports, he didn’t vaccinate “most” of his kids, whatever that means:

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who recently became the chair of a key congressional subcommittee on science and technology, didn’t vaccinate most of his children, he told a crowd at his first town hall meeting last week.

Loudermilk was responding to a woman who asked whether he’d be looking into (discredited) allegations that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had covered up information linking vaccines to autism. He responded with a rather unscientific personal anecdote: “I believe it’s the parents’ decision whether to immunize or not…Most of our children, we didn’t immunize. They’re healthy.”

This isn’t really a surprise, since by my count, 72% of the House’s member of the full Science, Space, and Technology Committee (mostly Republicans) are outright  climate-change denialists or have voted against bills to alleviate global warming.  Some committee: we have foxes infesting the Henhouse of Science!

Here’s the incriminating video; the stuff on vaccination begins at 1:26:00. He also says that he thinks it’s the “parent’s decision whether to immunize their children.”

How embarrassing is this? I want to move to, say New Zealand—or any place where there are no Republicans.

h/t: Gregory