An intentionally unvaccinated four-year-old from Palermo, Italy, recently died after getting sick with diphtheria.
Anna Rosa's mother attacked the doctors in a Facebook post yesterday, calling them "incompetent" and accusing them of "underestimating the situation."
Baby girl dies of diphtheria, parents under investigation; cousin also tests positive but is vaccinated and doing well.
And not surprisingly, the responses to the child’s death are fairly predictable.
Responses to the Unvaccinated Sicilian Child Who Died With Diphtheria
What kind of responses?
Well, for one thing, the child’s parents are actually blaming doctors for not saving their child, even though she was intentionally unvaccinated and had a life-threatening, vaccine-preventable disease.
A life-threatening, vaccine-preventable disease that is fatal in up to 4% of cases even with early treatment.
That it is still fatal with treatment is likely why we have recently seen diphtheria deaths in Germany (an unvaccinated 10-year-old), Latvia (an unvaccinated 4-year-old), and an adult in Australia.
Not to mention all of the deaths in countries where diphtheria is still endemic!
What else?
The child’s parents are being investigated for manslaughter for their choice to not get her vaccinated!
“The Prosecutor's Office of the capital has opened an investigation, registering the parents of the girl in the register of suspects on charges of manslaughter by omission. At the center of the proceedings is the couple's choice not to subject their daughter to the mandatory prophylaxis against diphtheria, a disease preventable for decades through vaccination.”
Palermo in shock, killer diphtheria at four years old: father and mother under investigation
Manslaughter for not vaccinating your child?
Why?
Well, for one thing, childhood vaccines, including the diphtheria vaccine, are mandated in Italy, and there is no opt-out simply because a parent objects to vaccination on religious or personal grounds.
There is also speculation that parents in Sicily are using fraudulent means to bypass this vaccine mandate.
So while prosecuting parents may not be a good idea, if they deliberately falsified their child’s records or made fraudulent claims to bypass the vaccine mandate, then that might strengthen the prosecutors’ case against them.
Wait, why might prosecuting parents for not vaccinating their kids be bad?
Mostly, if parents are afraid of being prosecuted when their intentionally unvaccinated kids get sick, then they might delay or skip seeking treatment.
“The AAP does not support the stringent application of medical neglect laws when children do not receive recommended immunizations.”
Religious Objections to Medical Care
Still, unvaccinated children have rights too, don’t they?
They have a right to not get sick and not die from a vaccine-preventable disease.
So what should prosecutors do?
“The parents reportedly refused vaccinations out of unfounded fear that they could cause autism, citing the case of a cousin in whom the condition allegedly arose after a vaccination injection. The refusal did not only concern Anna Rosa: none of the other children were immunized. Only after the tragedy did the parents agree to vaccinate the other children.”
Palermo in shock, killer diphtheria at four years old: father and mother under investigation
They should go after the anti-vaccine influencers who were able to convince these parents that vaccines are associated with autism!
They should prosecute and shut down the anti-vaccine influencers who are scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their children, causing outbreaks and deaths.
Whose books, websites, and social media accounts influenced the parents of Anna Rosa and scared them enough to make them skip getting her vaccinated?
Which anti-vaccine influencers helped cause the death of little Anna Rosa, just four years old?
Which anti-vaccine influencers will see any consequences for helping cause the death of little Anna Rosa?
Not surprisingly, RFK, Jr, Andy Wakefield, Del Bigtree, and Peter McCullough are all popular in Italy. As are their own, home-grown anti-vaccine influencers, like Stefano Montanari, Red Ronnie, Claudio Messora, Gianluigi Paragone, Giovanni Frajese, Andrea Stramezzi, Raffaella Regoli, Sara Cunial, Alessandro Meluzzi, and Mariano Amici.
Which anti-vaccine influencers will see any consequences for helping cause the death of these other unvaccinated children in Italy?
at least four children with measles during their large outbreak in 2017-18, including an intentionally unvaccinated 9-year-old in Rome
at least three infants with pertussis - none born to mothers who had received a Tdap during their pregnancy
a child with SSPE - a late complication of measles
Deaths that, of course, aren’t only occurring in Italy…