Five Reasons NOT to Vaccinate Your Child
There are plenty of arguments for having your child immunised against disease. Like you, my doctor has suggested vaccinating my child to prevent them from getting ill, but those doctors have failed to tell me about the claims that vaccinations are linked to other conditions, such as autism. Instead of taking advice from doctors, here are five reasons not to have your child vaccinated.
Reason #1 – You Hate the Human Race
Have you ever had smallpox? No? Smallpox used to be a serious threat to peoples health and lives. Two million people a year were losing their lives to smallpox every year until 1975. It isn’t a problem any more because everyone got on board the vaccination train. By surrounding affected areas with vaccinated individuals, leading to the total eradication of the disease. If people started banging on about links to autism during this time, we’d still have smallpox. By refusing vaccinations, you’re weakening the herd. Stop it.
Reason #2 – You Think It Causes Autism
In 1998 Andrew Wakefield (at the time Dr. Andrew Wakefield) claimed during a press conference that there are links between autism and vaccines, claiming that he had twelve autistic children in his study that only showed signs of the condition after receiving a vaccine. This kick-started a huge, very vocal movement trying to convince people that they can’t have their child vaccinated otherwise they’ll get autism. Quite annoyingly, this group seem happy to ignore the fact that it was revealed by a journalist that the entire ‘research’ was a sham, the results faked and Wakefield was stripped of his qualifications. No other evidence supports is fake claims.
Reason #3 Your Agenda is More Important Than Your Family’s Health
If you’ve been pushing a belief for a long time, it’s hard to turn your back on it even in the face of glaring evidence. Even with Wakefield’s public shaming, people are still pushing the autism angle. It must be a bit embarrassing for those who’ve been making the claim for almost fifteen years based on his research, but let’s get serious here – your priorities are in the wrong place. Accept that you were in the wrong, and look after your children…stop spouting nonsense like “it hasn’t been proven that it DOESN’T cause autism!”
Reason #4 – You’re Mentally Deficient
Are you having trouble doing up your shoelaces? Is it difficult for you to tell the time on an analogue clock? Perhaps even a digital clock? Then you might have considered not vaccinating your child. This is a process that helps protect your child from serious illness, which is more than a necklace of amber is going to achieve.
Reason #5 All of the Above
In that case you’re Jenny McCarthy.
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This is a thing of beauty.
Very well stated as someone who has never studied anything other than the pablum fed to you daily by big pharma.
Your point would be more valid if I weren’t a seasoned pediatric nurse who grew up in Sweden, where Big Pharma is null and void, but vaccines are mandatory if you expect to enroll your kid in public schools. You are extremely pompous AND naive if you think you know better than the evidence that is presented in the eradication of major diseases like polio, German measles, Rubella, and Pertussis, all of which have killed millions. No flu shot? Fine. But all other childhood vaccines, give me ONE sane reason not to participate.
I don’t live or write in the United States. Big Pharma doesn’t fed me anything.
Nice try.
listen ms carmen you would also know if you did your research that vaccines are filled with all kinds of shit xcuse my french ……..that i would never ever give my children here are a few ….i shall add Formaldehyde,Antifreeze,Mercury,Hydrochloric Acid ect ect … the damn list goes on ….so never will i ever inject this shit into my children whom i love dearly love with all my heart ….BOOM IN YO FACE …
This is funny because of how wrong it is.
LOVE this!
I agree with your overall points, but I didn’t like your crack at people with learning difficulties.
Mentally deficient = stupid. Not handicapped.
As the non-immunised begin to die off, we will slowly reduce the incidence of the dumb-ass gene
This is great!!!
I knew someone who didn’t vaccinate their youngest child as they believed it caused Autism, as their oldest child had Autism.
The child was diagnosed with Autism anyways.
Mythbusted.
I agree! Vaccinate! The reason these diseases haven’t been around is because of vaccinations! Why would people follow someone’s medical advice whose claim to fame is taking her clothes off?
Love it, sharing it xx
Absolute brilliance!
Correct on all points, save that I think you’re giving Jenny McCarthy too much benefit of the doubt intellectually.
I live in Canada, and there is an outbreak of the measles in daycares and schools cause people refuse to vaccinate their kids!!!
nicely satirized
Interesting. In an effort to be provocative, I’d also say “You Blame Yourself.” Parents that have kids with problems tend to find a place to put blame, and that place tends to be other than inward. It is difficult for a person to think “my genes caused lifestyle altering difficulties that will last throughout my offspring’s life.” As a new parent, and a neurotic Jewish one at that, I’m constantly thinking “by allowing my 17 month old to (fill in the blank), I’m sure that means hes going to be forever (scarred, obese, scared, as neurotic as his father, etc).
Hilarious, Aaron. And you don’t have to be Jewish to feel that way. We all blame ourselves one way or another. I’m thinking my son’s hyperactivity is somehow directly related to my taking antimetics while I was pregnant (after dropping below the 100lb-mark…) so I could keep some food down. Sheer nonsense, my reasoning voice says. Possibly, my inner Doubting Thomas says…
Wonderful!!!! Finally a great response to the cursed argument that vaccines cause autism. Thank you. Hopefully, this spared many children of developing the measles.
…or you might also be Jennifer McKinney, also known as MckMama. An irresponsible parent whose agenda, clicks on her blog & controversy is more important than her children’s health. Google if you haven’t read her, she’s a sad trainwreck.
REALLY well done! I’m a public health researcher with a degree in cell and molecular biology and I seem to get dragged into this debate all over the internet – and have never to this point been able to encapsulate it so neatly and clearly as you have here. I’ll be directing people to this page for a long time, that’s for sure!
Oh, but Dr. Andrew Wakefield had his qualifications stripped because he exposed the lies of the medical establishment! I mean, if all his research was fake, they wouldn’t care if he was still a doctor!!!
And he’s really bigfoot! Who covered up the truth about aliens! His knowledge about autism was given to him by the frozen head of Walt Disney, then they conspired together to fake the moon landing and attack the World Trade Centre!
If he was faking research, wouldn’t that be a reason to strip him of his credentials? He’s spreading lies under the guise of a trusted educated professional….. they may have feared (rightly) that he’d get people killed.
brilliant
there is an American woman promoting anti vaccination in Australia, called Meryl Dorey – we have suddenly whooping cough and measles epidemics, when these diseases were nonexistent here.
She also believes that the Illuminati are putting chips in us with these immunisations, that there is no such thing as cancer, AID’s, etc. So covered by 1-4 above
Brilliant!! As a pediatrician, I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to battle this modern day McCarthyism. I have seen measles and whooping cough return as a result of those blind enough to follow her drivel.
Love this!!! I’m a public health nurse and constantly run into questions around this topic. A really good read for people who don’t get it is “Your Child’s Best Shot”
I am now your willing slave.
Hey folks, thanks for you support for the article and the site. I’m glad that I received such positive feedback for my writing.
In the past two days I have received some negative feedback on the above article, much of it making ham-fisted attempts at insults, and I chose not to make it publicly visible. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, this is an article written to amuse people frustrated by the anti-vaccination lobby, and based on their tactics in public forums I have no interest in this becoming the same looped argument that has appeared in other blogs addressing this subject.
Secondly, and much more importantly, they parrot almost the same misinformation as each other, much of which is completely false as evidenced by quick web searches and I have no intention of allowing misleading information appear under my banner.
Before writing to me or commenting in this thread because you disagree with it, please note the following points;
#1 Andrew Wakefield is not and doctor and he has NOT had his license reinstated in the past few months in the UK or the US. This is a matter of public record, don’t try and tell me differently.
#2 I am aware that Mr. Wakefield claims that the findings of Brian Deer are, in his words, a ‘conspiracy’ against him. Brian Deer has invited Wakefield to sue him, the Sunday Times of London, any Medical Journal who have published the results and the British General Medical Council for libel if Wakefield feels that his ‘research’ will hold up under scrutiny.
Wakefield has not taken him up on this offer. It is also worth noting that Wakefield has attempted to sue Deer for libel in the past, and lost the case.
#3 There are, on occasion, instances when a child has been given a vaccine and has taken a negative reaction to it or cannot be administered a vaccine due to existing medical conditions. These are unfortunate cases, but they are in a vast minority. Attacking the entire concept of vaccination because you’ve been involved in an isolated case with a negative outcome has the same logic as me claiming that the health benefits of eggs are fraudulent because I suffer from an egg allergy.
As a personal response to the people who have written to me citing specific cases of children unable to receive vaccinations – wouldn’t it make more sense to promote vaccinations in order to reduce the chance or your unvaccinated children being exposed to a harmful illness?
If you want to make a claim concerning any of the above points, you already have my response so hopefully I’ve saved you the time of writing out your complaint. Remember: if you don’t like my article feel free to write your own. I promise not to flood your comment section with insults and false claims. In fact I’ll go one better – I won’t even read it.
Here’s wishing everyone a very happy, very geeky Christmas!
Thank you for being honest that you won’t read it. Those who don’t understand a topic rarely want to engage those who do. That’s not an insult, it’s just fact. You state a lot of junk that’s just lies above, and fine. It’s your blog, lie all you want. When those of us you are speaking about come in with the truth, you don’t print us. That’s fine, just helps your lies above look legit. Sad, really, you sound intelligent and an honest, open, and fact filled discussion could have been a lot of fun.
Claims that I “are clearly in the pocket of Big Pharma” or wishes that my children “suffer what others have suffered” (both actual quotes from deleted comments) don’t lead to an honest, open and fact filled discussion that could have been a lot of fun.
I’m confident that if you want to mount an argument against my post you wouldn’t want such comments detracting from your discussion. If you have any genuine criticism, go right ahead.
If you spent more than five minutes w parents who have CHOSEN not to vaccinate you would see that MOST of them know nothing of Jenny McCarthy’s research and Autism is last on their long list of reasons to not vaccinate.
This is rude and demeaning. You really have no idea what led these parents to not vaccinating, clearly you have not had to watch your child suffer a reaction or you just don’t recognize one. (Probably the latter)
The article only addressed parents who chose not to vaccinate due to a misguided belief that they will lead to unrelated conditions, such as autism. Parents of those few children who have suffered ill reactions directly caused by vaccinations or are unable to receive a vaccination have my sympathy. It must be immensely difficult for a parent to be unable to protect their child.
I wondered why all the comments in the thread were pro-vax. If you’re so confident you’re right, open yourself to criticism. It’s self-congratulatory and dishonest to post only your positive feedback – if all the anti-vax people are wrong, this will be revealed by showing their comments and through the ensuing conversation. But by allowing only a one-sided debate you’re pretty much saying “my arguments aren’t that strong, so I won’t allow any debate in case my weaknesses are revealed.”
I stated the reasons why above. If I receive any responses that aren’t coming from deranged conspiracy theorists I’d have no problem including them on my site. Up until now every negative response has been everything from threats of violence to accusations of bribery.
On the other hand, pro-vaccination comments I have made on YOUR website have been deleted without explanation. Quite the hypocrite, aren’t you?
saw apparently Meryl, (head of the AVN, anti vaccination network), had dropped in to play the victim. So thought i’d add my bit on behalf of those genuine victims, those she murders or condemns to a life of disability.
This is the same woman who harasses the parents whose children she murders (not an isolated incident)
“The AVN have also been accused of harassing the parents of a baby who died from whooping cough, going so far as to call the Director of North Coast Area Health Service demanding to know the details of the child’s death. ”
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3731884.html (for a well-referenced and researched article by Dr R Dunlop)
The NSW government has warned everyone about Meryl and her discredited non-science. “The Commission recognises that it is important for there to be debate on the issue of vaccination. However, the AVN provides information that is inaccurate and misleading.” http://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-Releases/PUBLIC-WARNING-/default.aspx
That’s certainly in line with the kind of responses I’ve received.
The AVN aren’t that good at checking their sources mind you. On THREE occasions their moderators have approved links to this article on their website. Perhaps Meryl should worry about getting her own house in order before she launches an attack on mine.
Granted, she did prove herself quite the hypocrite by later deleting my comments of her site.
Was that in response to my comment? Believe it or not, there is more than one Meryl in the world. I have nothing to do with whatever Meryl you are talking about. I am not the head of any anti-vax network. Actually, I’m not a part of any anti-vax network full stop, other than a couple of facebook pages. Nor am I even in Australia. If it was in response to my comment, I am shocked and offended that someone would jump in and make these ridiculous claims about me when they have no idea who I am. Get your facts straight!
And for the record, nobody here has ever posted any comments on my blog… which I ran for a couple of months about trying to live a greener life. Clearly people here have me confused for someone else. My surname is not Dorey… and nor am I a hypocrite.
My apologies to Meryl for the case of mistaken identity.
There are cases where tree have been adverse reactions to all vaccines, however now they ask if you have allergies to eggs since it is an ingredient that has caused te adverse reactions. All vaccines are now provided so that if you have the allergy you can still get the same vaccine without the trace of egg in it. Working in healthcare I have seen people that had reactions to the flu shot because they had an allergy to eggs and it is policy now to ask for allergies before administration of injections.
Vaccinate your children to prevent, healthcare is all about prevention. Be smart in all aspects of your health and prevent instead of getting sick and wanting help when you could have prevented the illness.
I have 4 wonderful beautiful children that have NEVER and WILL NEVER be vaccinated.
I am neither dumb or Jenny McCarthy or any of the other stupid things you seem to think that all us parents that choose not to vaccinate our children are.
The are the most healthy children that I know of and almost never get sick.. Your body has great defenses and yes in some cases there are and would be a need to vaccinate (like if going to a different country (3rd world) But in any other case I say do your research and know what is in the vaccines in your country.
Here in Canada Ontario they do NOT require you to have your child vaccinated to go to school.
This is something that most people do not know but it is true! Just fill out a form and get it singed by a guarantor and you are allowed to have your children in school.
Just would like people to be informed about their choices
Gotta watch out for those 3rd world countries. Everyone knows that illness lives there.