You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘retribution’ tag.
I am now breaking a vow of silence and entering dangerous territory, the swirling vortex of controversy that is Autism and vaccination. This is a difficult path for my conflict avoidant self to tread. The amount of blog space devoted to this subject is long, the tone is invariably impassioned and the feelings involved are raw. In a way, this is more interesting to me than the question of whether vaccines cause Autism itself. Why is this such a lightning rod of an issue?
The answers are actually rather complex, but the biggest factor is dealing with children, whom we subject to multiple needles full of mysteriously weakened viruses and various unknown and frightening substances at regular intervals in our weakest and most vulnerable population. This undoubtedly requires a great deal of faith and trust in the medical field. I know that we doctors do not always behave in a manner completely worthy of this trust. The parent child relationship is intense. Our desires to want the best for them are very real. There is a very real impulse to take the frustration that comes along when all is not well with the child and direct it at the physician. I know, because I walk the tightrope associated with this in dealing with the parents of sick children every day. My hope is that I might allay a fear or two without appearing to be insulting the impassioned opposition. I have a hard time faulting parents for caring too much.
America has a love affair with blame. When tragedy hits, do we ask what we can do to help, what we may have done to add to the problem, or other such pedestrian nonsense. Heavens no, we want to know who screwed up and we want them to pay. Who let this happen, we ask. Journalists make it their only question. Headlines wring out for weeks. Politicians will find someone to throw under the bus. People will go into defensive mode. If we run out of proper candidates, we then pile it on God. Hand wringing is everywhere, but actually identifying and solving a problem, now that is rare. Read the rest of this entry »
Recent Comments