As I was taking my morning Facebook scroll on Tuesday morning I came across a post from the parent of a five-month-old girl who had contracted measles from an unvaccinated child. While the post was -understandably- a little sarcastic in tone the message is sincere, get your kids vaccinated!
While none of that was really surprising, I was shocked by the number of anti-vacciners that posted in the comments. One after the other shared the same bogus claims and harmful rhetoric that probably convinced the carrier's parent not to vaccinate in the first place.
Here's the truth though folks, a lot of what is commonly said against vaccines isn't true. What is true is the anti-vaccination movement has led to an increase in several preventable diseases.
There are now outbreaks of diseases such as measles, mumps, whooping cough, and chicken pox that had largely been eradicated by vaccines. Don't believe me? Just last year the University of Iowa had over 100 cases of mumps on campus.
Not exactly the kinds of diseases a college student is generally on the look out for. On the plus side, the nasty swelling that accompanies mumps could help prevent some of the more standard college diseases. But I digress.
What, you might ask, would make a parent decide to forgo potentially life-saving vaccines? Well the anti-vaccine arguments for infants generally boil down two points, autism and allergic reactions.
For such lauded geniuses as Jenny McCarthy who make the autism argument, I have news for you. Andrew Wakefield's study claiming a link between vaccines and autism was not only dishonest, but was fraudulent to a degree that eventually led to Wakefield's ban from practicing medicine in the UK.
I think it's also important to notice that those claiming a link with autism seem to be under the impression that their child developing a mental handicap is somehow worse than them contracting a potentially life-threatening disease. Food for thought.
The second major argument against infant vaccination is the possibility of an allergic reaction. News flash, the chances of a child having a life-threatening allergic reaction to a vaccine is one in a million. Far weaker odds than the 90 percent chance an unvaccinated person has of contracting measles if they come into contact with the disease.
Still everyone has the right to be wrong. You have the right to say the wrong thing, to buy the wrong birthday present, or to make the wrong financial decision. It's only human, and generally I will staunchly defend that right.
However, your right to be wrong is suspended when you make the decision to put the lives of others at risk. That right is completely revoked when those who are most at risk are other people's children.
