Gandhi Quotation Is Most Unfortunate

The piece you directed me to has this quotation in the closing section.

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“Vaccination is a barbarous practice and one of the most fatal of all the delusions current in our time. Conscientious objectors to vaccination should stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defense of their conviction.”

• Mahatma Gandhi

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This is false doctrine, no matter how revered the proponent.

People can have their own personal views on religious, political, philosophical, social, …, issues. One can have his/her own personal pseudo-science. But opinions and faith-based ideas that deviate from what has been empirically established cannot be considered valid science.

Good science strives for objectivity and a transcendence of personal (idiosyncratic) beliefs that are not supported by empirical evidence.

There are many sides to every issue, but on the issue of vaccination the science is clear and proven: the good outweighs the risks and drawbacks by many orders of magnitude.