The many comments from experts regarding the incontrovertible need for vaccinations against childhood illnesses have pretty much said it all ("Amid measles outbreak, public health officials take on obstacles to vaccination," Feb. 9).
However, none of them have addressed the role that the media have played in disseminating false information to the public. Out of an entirely misplaced sense of fairness in reporting, the media have abdicated the responsibility for accurate reporting.
Constantly reporting statements made by climate-change deniers such as Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe without prominently reporting that the overwhelming number of scientific experts accept the reality and proof of such an event perpetuates the problem. The same holds, to a lesser extent, in the vaccination debate.
The media must be more aggressive in stressing the falsity of anti-scientific claims when it reports them.
Alan L. Katz, Owings Mills