Banning unvaccinated children from public spaces? Appropriate? Ethical? Legal? Justified?

This was a measure implemented in New York State, 2018, where a state of emergency was declared concerning measles. Unvaccinated children were barred from attending public spaces and schools.
Indeed, here in the U.K, there has long been talk that children who have not been vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella, will not be allowed to attend school (unless they have had them).
Anti-vaccination rhetoric has increased year on year, especially since the paper written by Andrew Wakefield, which attempted to link the MMR vaccine to autism.
If his report had been published in the Sunday Sun, no one would have paid it much mind; publish it in The Lancet, and it must have credibility as The Lancet is one of the world's most lauded medical journals. 
Pro and anti-vaccination believer - no one can deny that you can take 12 children and generalise the results to the world's population with any certainty. Yet, this is what Andrew Wakefield did, The Lancet published it, and measles, once an infection that had nearly had its day, was on the increase again.
Does it cause autism? No one knows. It might, it might not. The argument is not whether it does or doesn't, but instead that there is no evidence to prove it either way.
You can believe it is responsible for your child developing autism, or it was simply destined to be. I chose to believe that the MMR wasn't accountable for Jakey being identified as autistic; looking back, he had certain traits that now seem to suggest he was on the spectrum. Yes, it could just have been the behaviour of a one/two-year-old as standard, and nothing to do with a learning disability and mine and Vicky's decision made him autistic. 
There is no way to know or tell. Autistic tendencies only really show from a child being aged two onwards. So, the consideration then becomes 'am I prepared to risk my child becoming deaf, blind, developing encephalitis or indeed dying, for the sake of him potentially being autistic, but alive and able to see and hear?'
As an Infection Prevention and Control nurse, I felt comfortable with my own knowledge, experience, and facts gathered to make an informed decision alongside Jake's mum. But it was our decision, and is in no way something that I did or would ever dictate is the absolutely right thing to do for children; it was merely our decision based upon conclusions we came to using evidence, both for and against, the MMR jab. 
There is no doubt that Andrew Wakefield's report had a considerable impact on immunisation conversations and caused suspicions that have been hard to reverse. Indeed, the more politicians and healthcare staff push for immunisations, the warier the public is going to be. Understandable. You know the whole 'me think the lady doth protest too much.'
Andrew Wakefield was struck off by the General Medical Council for his upon-evidence based claims, but the damage was done. Reports of pharmaceutical involvement to promote the expensive use of the single jab vaccination process circulated his statement, with the participation of Big-Pharma undeniable in many respects when it comes to anything medicinally related. 
But again, I am dealing with facts; neither stating an opinion one way of the other is correct, but providing facts, all of which can be checked independently. 
Do I believe there is money to be made from vaccinations for those in the world who don't actually need more? Abso-fucking-lutely! There is no doubt. 






So, one may rightly ask why this blog topic?
Well, it is purely to try and identify a 'both sides' perspective. 
This is mostly due to a post I read the other day, where anti-vaccination campaigners and believers were discussing the oft-discussed COVID-19 vaccine.
Now, let me state quite clearly, I have serious concerns about a vaccination that is repeatedly proposed to be ready this year; that is too short a time for a vaccine to have been developed and tested adequately and to be proven safe... well, as safe as any vaccine can be (something we will touch upon in a moment).
The frustrations I do have are where someone willfully and forcefully states their opinion as fact. Not could be, might be, there is a chance of... but 100% truth.
And in regards to vaccinations, if you voice anything other than the same opinion to many anti-vaxers, all you will receive in response is 'you sheep!' repeatedly. And I mean,  frequently , as in the only reply you will get. 
Now, I am generalising, and I know there are many pro and anti vaccinators who can see both sides of the conversation, as can I. 
Pro 1 - Vaccinations can save children's lives.Con 1 - Vaccinations can cause severe and, sometimes, fatal, side effects.
Pro 2 - Ingredients in vaccines are safe (in such small doses, ingredients such as aluminum and formaldehyde are not harmful; there is more aluminum in breast milk and formula than there is in any vaccination)Con 2 - Vaccines contain toxic ingredients (Formaldehyde, found in some vaccines, is a carcinogen and can, in some circumstances, cause severe neurological damage and cardiac impairment, amongst other symptoms... so can smoking. The conflict is not everyone who smokes gets cancer; not everyone who is vaccinated is affected by the small amounts of formaldehyde)
Pro 3 - Vaccinations can save children's lives and save parents moneyCon 3 - Vaccinations are unnatural, with natural immunity being more effective (vaccinations can be seen as a prime example of an oxymoron - all the ingredients of a vaccination you would naturally come across in your childhood and indeed lifetime, but not all in one go, which is what a vaccine does in its administration. The oxymoron of the vaccination is that it takes a potential pathogen alongside all the toxic ingredients and places them in your bloodstream. This would never occur in natural immunity)
On and on it goes - two sides to every aspect, as with many things in life. 


It is not that there is a right or wrong, but that there is a choice, a choice no one should be vilified for making, whichever side you sit on.
Yet, many conversations in the world today state not opinions or beliefs, but absolute facts. And usually from those who have no background in medicine, pharmacy, infection control, microbiology, pathology, surgery, neuroscience, etc. That doesn't mean that any one of those specialties has the definitive answer either, with many in all groups being adamant and steadfast in their interpretation of 'the facts.'
The only fact is that, when it comes to our children, it is a parents choice to decide what is best (at least at the moment, but we won't go there!). Vaccinate or don't, the parents will have considered it long and hard, whichever direction they chose. They should not have their choices made to sound like they were wrong, because they are only wrong to another parent. 
I love Star Wars. Others may feel they represent the worst cinema has to offer. I don't agree but accept that Star Wars is not everyone's cup of tea, and that is fine. I bear no ill will to those who don't like something, nor would I try to make them feel bad (I am vastly oversimplifying, but only to illustrate the point simplistically).
When you consider that, when we vaccinate our children, we take them somewhere to be deliberately stabbed and caused pain. We take them to. have a vaccination forced upon them against something that they don't currently have and may never have, exposing them to all the of the potential cons mentioned earlier. It doesn't make you a bad parent, just that, as a parent, you believe the means justify the end. A personal belief.
Parents who do not wish to stab their children or have them filled with a concoction of ingredients sound entirely sensible to me, if you consider it in, again, such simplistic terms. 
But life is far from simple. We all know this, now more than ever.
I shall leave you with this.
Seatbelts.
In rare circumstances, a seat belt might actually cause harm by rupturing the spleen or damaging the spine. But the benefits massively outweigh the risks, and there are most likely, not many parents who wouldn't put a seatbelt on their kids or themselves. 
It is not an argument of who is right or wrong when it comes to vaccinations for our children (and I am not talking about the COVID one... I have already mentioned my concerns on that), but that, as parents, we each weight up the benefits and the risks and act accordingly. 
Whichever side you fall on, we love our children, and always believe we are doing the right thing as far as we know and are concerned. 
At the end of the day, that is the only fact that matters.