Note from Fluoride Action Network:
We have published Paul Connett’s response to this syndicated column by Rekha Basu in the Des Moines Register (Iowa), the Daily Republic (Solano County CA), Daily Sun (AZ), The Ledger (FL), The Daily World (WA), Post-Bulletin (MN), and perhaps many other newspapers, because the initial publisher (the Des Moines Register) refused to print it even though the article slandered Connett. For an unknown reason, the Des Moines Register was the only newspaper to change the title of this article from

Stop rejecting science in favor of superstition

when it was first published to

From fluoride to vaccines, resistance to proven health protocols has us sliding backward.


Measles were eradicated 19 years ago in the U.S., yet there were 387 cases of them between January and March. That’s primarily because people who never were vaccinated traveled abroad, contracted the disease and brought it back, where it spread among others who were never vaccinated. A major reason they weren’t vaccinated, more than 50 years after the measles vaccine became available, is because of their religious beliefs.

None of these reported cases was in Iowa. However, in 2017-18, 8,740 religious exemptions from vaccinations were granted in the state, more than three times the 2,572 granted in the 2006-07 school year. That’s cause for concern.

On a parallel issue, Americans stopped losing their teeth to decay after communities began adding fluoride to their drinking water in the late 1940s. In the 1900s, the No. 1 reason for admission to Mayo Clinic was tooth infection, says an Iowa health department official; everyone had dental decay or lost teeth.