Are You For or Against Vaccines?

I am not for or against vaccines. I’m a mom of a 13-year-old and a 2-year-old (plus two “bonus!” kids). I’m exhausted by the continued polarization of this issue. It’s a personal choice– totally up to the parents to decide. Parents’ concerns about dangers of illness and dangers of vaccine damage are both equally valid.

You can’t weigh a person’s fears against someone else’s fears to determine whose fear is more worthy. Just like you can’t weigh a person’s philosophical choice to prefer mass vaccination to promote herd immunity against another person’s philosophical choice to opt out and stay home when they show symptoms of illness. It’s personal because it’s…personal. And it should be treated as such.

What I’m for is parents not being lied to or fear-mongered in either direction, be it from big pharma or from anti big-pharma. What I’m against is parents being bashed for not agreeing with the mainstream, being called stupid, or ignorant, or sheeple.

I’m seeing pro-vaccine activists barrage social media with extremely hateful comments at every opportunity. People are accused of wanting their kids to die from disease, or else they’re accused of infecting other people with disease, namely fragile people who cannot safely get the shots.

I used to see the anti-vax and select/delay crowd fighting back, but now, it seems they’e mostly gone quiet. My sense is they have just given up trying to reason the uncivil, and the unhearing.

The arguments the more rabid pro-vaccine side uses have not changed since 2001.

-The vaccinated fear the unvaccinated because the unvaccinated can…infect them…with the diseases that they are already “immunized” against.

-The vaccinated hate the unvaccinated because the unvaccinated get sick and willfully (or just out of sheer stupidity) go out and infect vulnerable populations who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons. I’ve never seen anyone mention how the vaccinated also spread disease around, out of ignorance that they are infectious.

-Outbreaks are always the fault of the unvaccinated. Despite that cases of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis often go underreported in vaccinated populations. This is due to the simple fact that people tend to assume a bad cold is just a bad cold if they’ve been vaccinated against pertussis. A person is contagious if they’ve got pertussis, vaccinated or not. Who is more likely to unwittingly spread it? Who is more likely to negligently spread it?

The debate gets side-tracked over and over because it’s an unwinnable argument. No one is really right or wrong, when it is about personal beliefs and senses of responsibility. It’s about whether you fear disease more, or whether you fear the vaccines more.

It’s about whether you think that the frail should isolate themselves, or whether you believe the infectious isolate themselves.

It’s about whether you think a parent has the right to decide how to time selected/delayed shots, based on their lifestyle.

Or is it about a belief in a theoretical happy middle in which the frail confidently live without fear in a community has been completely vaccinated. In this fantasy world, the sick are responsible citizens when they stoically go to work with a terrible cough, because they had gotten vaccinated against pertussis.

There is science on all sides of this controversial topic. There are prestigious pediatricians who oppose all vaccines. There are homeopaths who believe that certain childhood diseases may be essential for the body’s development. There are naturopaths who support selective-delayed vaccines and holistic approaches. There are pediatricians who believe in following the US recommended vaccine schedule. And there are smart moms and dads and caregivers who agonize over what to do and may or may not know a kid who died of a shot or an illness, or was suspected to have been disabled by a shot or an illness.

So it’s an unwinnable fight and I am sick to death of it. Tired of the minimizing of each others’ fears. Tired of the bashing and hateful talk. Tired of the fearmongering.

The bottom line is unless vaccines become mandatory, there are always going to be people doing it a different way than everybody else. Outbreaks will happen and that will be frustrating and scary. Negligent people will spread illnesses and that will be awful. But it is still a right in this country to refuse vaccinations. And it’s a right I am grateful for.

In all these years, I have become less afraid of disease AND less afraid of the vaccines. But it wasn’t being shouted down that changed my mind. It was just seeing how strong my children’s bodies really are. They have been sick, and they have had shots. We are so fortunate that they are healthy. I thank god all the time for that and I only half-believe in god anymore. But as a general rule, I chose to cover all my bases.

2 thoughts on “Are You For or Against Vaccines?”

kiuwiyuk says:

10/12/2014 at 5:13 pm

I am not for or against vaccines. I’m a mom of a 13-year-old and a 2-year-old (plus two “bonus!” kids). I’m exhausted by the continued polarization of this issue. It’s a personal choice– totally up to the parents to decide. Parents’ concerns about dangers of illness and dangers of vaccine damage are both equally valid.

You can’t weigh a person’s fears against someone else’s fears to determine whose fear is more worthy. Just like you can’t weigh a person’s philosophical choice to prefer mass vaccination to promote herd immunity against another person’s philosophical choice to opt out and stay home when they show symptoms of illness. It’s personal because it’s…personal. And it should be treated as such.

What I’m for is parents not being lied to or fear-mongered in either direction, be it from big pharma or from anti big-pharma. What I’m against is parents being bashed for not agreeing with the mainstream, being called stupid, or ignorant, or sheeple.

I’m seeing pro-vaccine activists barrage social media with extremely hateful comments at every opportunity. People are accused of wanting their kids to die from disease, or else they’re accused of infecting other people with disease, namely fragile people who cannot safely get the shots.

I used to see the anti-vax and select/delay crowd fighting back, but now, it seems they’e mostly gone quiet. My sense is they have just given up trying to reason the uncivil, and the unhearing.

The arguments the more rabid pro-vaccine side uses have not changed since 2001.

-The vaccinated fear the unvaccinated because the unvaccinated can…infect them…with the diseases that they are already “immunized” against.

-The vaccinated hate the unvaccinated because the unvaccinated get sick and willfully (or just out of sheer stupidity) go out and infect vulnerable populations who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons. I’ve never seen anyone mention how the vaccinated also spread disease around, out of ignorance that they are infectious.

-Outbreaks are always the fault of the unvaccinated. Despite that cases of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis often go underreported in vaccinated populations. This is due to the simple fact that people tend to assume a bad cold is just a bad cold if they’ve been vaccinated against pertussis. A person is contagious if they’ve got pertussis, vaccinated or not. Who is more likely to unwittingly spread it? Who is more likely to negligently spread it?

The debate gets side-tracked over and over because it’s an unwinnable argument. No one is really right or wrong, when it is about personal beliefs and senses of responsibility. It’s about whether you fear disease more, or whether you fear the vaccines more.

It’s about whether you think that the frail should isolate themselves, or whether you believe the infectious isolate themselves.

It’s about whether you think a parent has the right to decide how to time selected/delayed shots, based on their lifestyle.

Or is it about a belief in a theoretical happy middle in which the frail confidently live without fear in a community has been completely vaccinated. In this fantasy world, the sick are responsible citizens when they stoically go to work with a terrible cough, because they had gotten vaccinated against pertussis.

There is science on all sides of this controversial topic. There are prestigious pediatricians who oppose all vaccines. There are homeopaths who believe that certain childhood diseases may be essential for the body’s development. There are naturopaths who support selective-delayed vaccines and holistic approaches. There are pediatricians who believe in following the US recommended vaccine schedule. And there are smart moms and dads and caregivers who agonize over what to do and may or may not know a kid who died of a shot or an illness, or was suspected to have been disabled by a shot or an illness.

So it’s an unwinnable fight and I am sick to death of it. Tired of the minimizing of each others’ fears. Tired of the bashing and hateful talk. Tired of the fearmongering.

The bottom line is unless vaccines become mandatory, there are always going to be people doing it a different way than everybody else. Outbreaks will happen and that will be frustrating and scary. Negligent people will spread illnesses and that will be awful. But it is still a right in this country to refuse vaccinations. And it’s a right I am grateful for.

In all these years, I have become less afraid of disease AND less afraid of the vaccines. But it wasn’t being shouted down that changed my mind. It was just seeing how strong my children’s bodies really are. They have been sick, and they have had shots. We are so fortunate that they are healthy. I thank god all the time for that and I only half-believe in god anymore. But as a general rule, I chose to cover all my bases.

1. rcrown2 says:
  
  10/13/2014 at 12:13 am
  
  Wow, I’d say you have a lot on your mind when it comes to vaccines! Thank you so much for sharing, and I totally agree with your stance. There will never be ONE right answer as we are all different individuals with so many different variables to consider. All we can do is keep concerned about ourselves and our family and let others worry about themselves.
  
  Thanks again and have a great day!