Conversation with an "Anti-Vaxxer."
I picked this up from a FB viral (no pun) copy/paste post. Beautifully put:
Conversation with an "anti-vaxxer"...
Q: So you're an "anti-vaxxer"?
A: No, I'm pro-informed consent.
Q: Don't you worry about your child getting sick from vaccine preventable diseases?
A: No, not really. I actually have less fear of many of those illnesses now that I've done my research.
Q: But what about polio?
A: Polio is asymptomatic in over 90% of cases. When symptoms do present, they're usually mild and flu-like.
Q: But we don't see iron lungs anymore because of vaccines.
A: We don't see iron lungs anymore for the same reason we don't see computers that are large enough to take up an entire room. Technology has come a long way.
Q: But even if the risk of getting something serious is small, don't you want to protect your child with vaccines just in case?
A: I do want to protect my child, and that is one reason I say no to vaccines. Because in my cost-benefit analysis, the chances of my child being harmed from vaccines is greater than the chances of my child being harmed from one of those illnesses.
Q: But it's not just about your child. It is your responsibility to vaccinate your child to protect immune compromised people through herd immunity.
A: First and foremost, my responsibility is to my child. I will not set my child on fire to keep someone else warm. What parent would knowingly risk their child's life for the sake of the herd? Would you? My child is not a human shield. Secondly, herd immunity is a myth. We do not have vaccine induced herd immunity and never have.
Q: But don't you think vaccines are a victim of their own success? They eradicated polio and other diseases, so you probably haven't seen them thanks to vaccines.
A: Correlation does not equal causation. The history of vaccines is more complex than that, and I no longer believe that vaccines can take the credit for eradicating any diseases. We have never had widespread vaccination for scarlet fever or typhoid, yet, they are no longer a threat. Amazing what sanitation can do. Polio has also not been eradicated. I may not have lived through the "polio" era, but I am living in a time with a different kind of epidemic. My child's generation is the first to have a life expectancy that is less than that of their parents. People are sicker than ever with autoimmune diseases, deadly allergies, neurological problems, and cancer. We can not cling to a controversial problem of the past to make crucial decisions for today. We have to do something about the problems we are currently faced with, and giving more vaccines is not an acceptable solution.
Q: Do the ingredients in vaccines concern you?
A: Yes
Q: You know there's formaldehyde in pears, right? And mercury in tuna?
A: When's the last time you puréed a pear and some tuna, then injected it intramuscularly? We have a digestive system for a reason, and the mucosal tissue is one of the most important components of the human immune system. I don't think bypassing those functions is without consequence. Ingestion and injection are not the same thing. It's the same reason you can drink snake venom, but being bitten in the leg with the same venom can kill you.
Q: But the science is settled and doctors and scientists agree that vaccines are necessary.
A: Science is never settled. As history has shown, science can be dangerously wrong. It can also be heavily influenced by financial interests. And doctors and scientists do not all agree about vaccines. There are many doctors, nurses, immunologists, and researchers who are aware of the shortcomings of vaccines. And if we want to really discuss vaccine science, we need to demand that there be more of it, because vaccine science is severely lacking. It is the tobacco science of our time. The current vaccine schedule (which has more than tripled since vaccine manufacturers became protected from liability) has never been tested for safety. There hasn't been a randomized double blind placebo controlled study comparing the outcomes of the vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. Vaccines are the epitome of quackery.
Copied and pasted, feel free to do the same or share. :)
(I usually only accept payouts for original material. I meant to set this to "decline payout" as it is not my original work, but just clicked "post" out of habit. I will put the rewards to good use here on Steem in promoting other content! Forgive me, Steem-Os!)
This is pretty awesome. The guy/gal was spot on with their answers.
In fact I am going to resteem this... I know you wanted to decline payouts, oh well.
Resteeming this will get it maybe a little more visibility and it also makes it easier for me to find these answers later on if I am in a discussion about vaccines.
In my state, they will not allow a child into any sort of public school without vaccinations. This includes elementary, middle, high school, and college. That should have been mentioned somewhere in this conversation. I would have liked to see a response to that.
Effectively, it is bigotry and theft. Bigotry in the same sense as it would be if gay
individuals were not allowed into schools because they might have AIDS, and theft because your tax money has paid for those places/institutions you are now being kept out of under threat of violence/force.
I just saw this on FB as well and was going to post it but thought I'd better check and make sure I'm not duping content... and I saw your post :)
I wonder what the general energy and attitude is going to develop here on steamit regarding vaccines and science in general. Reddit was a shithole of science-religious fanatics which really hurt free-thought and expression of ideas and theories. I hope this community is more welcoming of free-thinkers.
"Q: So you're an "anti-vaxxer"?
A: No, I'm pro-informed consent."
My answer would be; no I'm anti- mandatory vaccination.
Even though I'm not against vaccinations.
"And if we want to really discuss vaccine science, we need to demand that there be more of it, because vaccine science is severely lacking."
Demand where? government?
Let's say they have demanded more (mandatory) science (payed with taxes), and it's proven to be safe. Would that justify mandatory vaccination?
Edit; I know, I know you have to start somewhere, and I'm glad that from, a lot of sides/angles people are consciously or unconsciously rebelling against the mandatory aspect of government, that's a positive thing.
Excellent comment, and totally agree. Actual independent (read: non-state-controlled corporate interest) science needs to be done, and ultimately the only issue I really have, is with mandatory (violence backed) vaccination.
I'm not against vaccinations......... I said, Well I actually, refused a few.
One of the vaccination was for (against) pertussis, whooping cough.
A family member had it for a long time but did not infect me which, according to my thinking means I'm immune, since it's highly contagious. The doctor was talking her talk, but the answer stayed NO.
And I would have walked away if they would have tried it.
I decide which ones I take and which ones not.
Maybe I am marked as having O.D.D. (dsm-5) I bet the have something for that too.
(I was gonna type, lol but that last sentence is not funny at all, if you think about it)
Thank you for this post. It is important that the message regarding the truth about vaccines is shared.
What an awesome dialog! Hopefully will get a few people to think rather than just reflexively dismiss... Thanks!
😄😇😄
Reflexively dismissing was what inspired my post I just made. I will admit my idea for that post came from thinking exactly as you did that many people will see the topic and will immediately put up mental barriers and likely not even read it. This is a great shame as the dialog in this post is well worth reading.
I hope so, too.
Yup!
This one is quite old. I have read it at least 2 times over the years.
Too bad it still has the same flaws.
I for one would be interested in hearing your analysis of said flaws? :)
Do you want to point out each flaw you see, specifically?
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