When did it become wrong to be skeptical or wary? When did not going with the status quo become this horrible thing?
I guess it’s probably always been that way. Society likes people to conform, to go along with the program – whatever that program might be.
I have to say, I am tired of the snarky articles about so-called “anti-vaxxers,” I’m tired of the angry, insulting Facebook threads and memes that label concerned parents in all kinds of disparaging terms. These are often people I care about and admire, people with whom I can discuss in rational terms a variety of subjects – but it all breaks down when the topic of vaccines is raised. Vilifying us and berating us – it’s not going to accomplish the bridging of any divide. People aren’t going to be browbeat into leaving their worries behind and seeing vaccines in a new light. It’s not going to happen. All the anger and bad-mouthing is going to do is widen the gap even further.
Those of us who don’t have our children vaccinated – at all, or according to the recommended schedule – are not “anti-vaxxers” (except for certain groups who don’t vaccinate because their religious beliefs prohibit vaccines). That’s pretty much the same as calling people who are pro-choice “pro-abortion” or “baby killers.” In fact, the decision not to vaccinate is very much, in my mind, tied into being pro-choice. I have the right to choose for myself what I feel is best for me and for my family. Don’t I? Why does that make me bad, or stupid, or uninformed, or cavalier?
My concerns about vaccines are very real. Even if you don’t agree with my concerns, please at least try to understand and respect that I am a mother who is just as devoted to her kids as you are, who is just as concerned about their well-being as you are about your kids. My decisions concerning vaccinations are not made lightly, nor do I believe that they are made based on junk science.
Fact: certain people are injured by vaccines. This simply cannot be denied. That every vaccine includes a surcharge that goes into the Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund – that there is a Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, however flawed it might be – acknowledges that some people are injured by vaccines. And no, it’s not just crackpots and armchair scientists and hippy-dippy mommies who have serious concerns about vaccine safety; there are credible, educated people in the science and medical fields who have concerns.
When you look at the package inserts of the vaccines that are routinely administered to infants and children, you see things like “encephalitis,” “seizures,” “Guillain Barre syndrome,” among other possible side effects – however remote. The fact is, some people actually do experience those side effects. If a vaccine can cause seizures, how can anyone really think that there is no possibility of other neurological side effects? And how can anyone think that artificially manipulating our immune systems over the years cannot possibly have resulted in less than desirable immune system responses?
I know about the outbreaks of Whooping Cough and measles, okay? So please don’t bother sending me articles about that stuff. Of course I don’t want my kids to contract a serious, preventable disease, and of course I don’t want your kid to, either. In the end, though, I have to do what I feel is best for my kids, and unfortunately, that may not be what other people want me to do for their kids.
We need to stop bashing each other. It doesn’t help, and it’s not going to change anyone’s mind.
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