Ellington

Mississippi should be lauded as first in protecting its citizens, especially children, from infectious diseases.

I am old enough to remember nightmares of infection by diptheria, measles, whooping cough and other scourges, which have been so well controlled by vaccination that some people have forgotten them.

They are returning in places like Beverly Hills, Calif., where parents have the power to decline protecting their children out of entirely misplaced fears of autism based on a small amount of discredited research and Internet conspiracy theories.

John Davis,

Jackson