# Anti-vaxxers are ignorant scumbags that kill children **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 1, 2016, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626 "2016-09-01T01:59:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 63
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1242 "2024-12-30T00:13:35Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > What will change is that a great majority of non-delusional parents who’ve been “fence-sitters” will react to surges in preventable infectious disease by getting their kids vaccinated. Exactly It’s all about monkeysphere. What got them into this idiocy was disinformation spreading amongst extended family and mummy-groups about vaccines. What will get them out of this idiocy will be permanent disability and child funerals amongst extended family and mummy-groups. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1243 "2024-12-30T01:29:24Z")
I saw a meme on Facebook that said, “Would you trust this man to make your healthcare decisions?” Oh, hell, I wouldn’t trust him to make HIS OWN healthcare decisions. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1244 "2024-12-31T16:23:06Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Just hope it turns you into the “antiheroic but generally on the good guy side” Magneto and not the “kill all flatscans” Magneto. Couldn’t I turn into Cosmic Boy instead? Almost the same powers, none of the moral ambiguity. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1245 "2025-01-13T15:08:24Z")
The Boston Globe [has an op-ed today](http://bostonglobe.com/2025/01/13/lifestyle/crunchy-moms-organic-anti-vaxxers-anti-food-dye/) on a new(-ish) phenomenon: crunchy Trumpian moms, pro-organic, “pure” food, RFK Jr.-loving and seeing pediatricians as the enemy. > [@](#): > > “The pediatrician went full-on psycho,” said Venuti, who is studying to be a midwife, and now has two children, ages 6 and 4. “She told me the cemetery is full of dead babies who didn’t have vaccines.” Sheer evil, them docs! > [@](#): > > “It’s not always easy to live outside of cultural norms,” said Mackensie, an executive assistant in the Boston area, who said she stopped vaccinating her children after her son fell ill with a high fever following a vaccine. But, she added, “We’ve decided this is what we are doing, and we’ll deal with the consequences from it and live as truthfully as we can.” Actually, Mom, your kids (and others they’re exposed to) will “deal with the consequences”, not you. > [@](#): > > Finding a medical practice willing to take children who aren’t vaccinated can also be a challenge. A national survey among pediatricians in 2019 showed that 51 percent of pediatricians reported that their office had a policy to dismiss families if they refused vaccines in the primary series for their children, and 37 percent of pediatricians reported that they often or always do this, an increase since 2013. Good to see more pediatricians taking a stand to protect kids, including the most vulnerable ones in their practices who are being treated for cancer or otherwise are immune-deficient. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1246 "2025-01-13T15:14:22Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Good to see more pediatricians taking a stand to protect kids, My sister-in-law pediatician’s practice started requiring vaccinations after a baby died of whooping cough. Caught it from a sibling. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1247 "2025-01-13T15:30:33Z")
Jeeez… y’know, the whole vision of childbearing as “miracle” , of parenthood as a deputization from God Himself and the filial bond as this magical mystical phenomenon whereby the Universe/Holy Ghost/Earth Mother imbues the father or mother with special infallibility… smh, this is where it leads. This species really does crave thinking we are serving a cosmic power, don’t we? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1248 "2025-01-13T15:37:37Z")
Deep down, they actually believe that this “Power” serves _them_. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1249 "2025-01-13T15:43:49Z")
“Truthfully” ignorant and stupid. They ought to try and be “truthfully” educated and compassionate - their world and everyone else’s would be a better place. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1250 "2025-01-13T16:03:21Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Good to see more pediatricians taking a stand to protect kids, What do these moms need a doctor for anyway? Antibiotics aren’t any more natural than vaccines, after all. Do your own research! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1251 "2025-01-13T16:35:55Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > “The pediatrician went full-on psycho,” said Venuti, who is studying to be a midwife, and now has two children, ages 6 and 4. “She told me the cemetery is full of dead babies who didn’t have vaccines.” > > Sheer evil, them docs! To be honest, any cemetery that’s old enough will probably have a lot of people who died without vaccines (babies or older), since they didn’t exist prior to 1796. But it’s a fact that vaccines save lives. When a doctor is giving someone documented facts that are important to maintain health and you don’t like what they’re saying, it’s not the doctor who’s a “psycho”. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1252 "2025-01-14T00:26:07Z")
My maternal great grandmother bore six children and only three lived to adulthood. This was in ther period around the turn of the 19th to 20th century. According the my grandmother, her youngest, born in 1904, one died of diptheria, one of whooping cough, and the other died the day after he was born. That child was a twin, and mom had been very ill with some terrible fever while pregant. He looked fine at birth, then died next day. His brothrt, my great uncle George was the one expected to die, and he was so red and scrawny. The other sibling who lived to adulthood died in her mid thirties. I’ve had every vaccination available, both in childhood and later as needed. If I’d had children they would have got the full course. I’m religious(Christian) and I’m glad God gave folks the brains to develop medicine. Would antivaxxers decline care for a heart attack? What about ulcers? Are any of them diabetic, and do they take insulin? What’s so different? I’d never want to live in “the good old days” My grandmother, mentioned above, told me she didn’t believe in them, she was glad to live in times that had good medicine, indoor plumbing, and her favorite, air conditioning. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1253 "2025-01-14T01:10:23Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Good to see more pediatricians taking a stand to protect kids, including the most vulnerable ones in their practices who are being treated for cancer or otherwise are immune-deficient. I agree, to an extent. If the kids can’t see a pediatrician at all, they may suffer from that even aside from preventable illnesses. That’s the only quibble I have with the policy. Maybe an alternate approach would be that such-and-such families can only be seen on Tuesdays, or some other restriction. I’ve said here before: We modified our kids’ vaccine schedule, once Dweezil was diagnosed on the spectrum. We never believed vaccines caused autism - we knew from the beginning that Wakefield was a crackpot. But there was, for a bit, some concern that there was an autoimmune component (my nephew was put on relatively high dose prednisone for a bit, and some of his behaviors seemed to improve). So we slowed down Moon Unit’s schedule, not allowing her to have more than 2 at once, and so on. She was fully caught up by the time she was 3 or so and ready for preschool, because we’re not COMPLETE morons. We also held off on the HPV vaccine for a couple of years - because a) it was super new, and b) the manufacturer had sunk a lot of money into lobbying to have it made mandatory. That just didn’t sit right with me (and I felt that the risks were comparatively low, given my kid’s activities). Not ideal, I know, but as before, she DID get it by the time she 16 or so. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1254 "2025-01-14T01:20:53Z")
I had one vaccination when little and I got almost everything. I would’ve preferred to be vaxxed and not gotten sick but back then, they just didn’t cover all the bases. I am glad I got the moderna 2 vaxes back in 2021. When I got covid last March it was mild, only a few days of fatigue. I have no boosters. When my cough goes away I will get my flu vax. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1255 "2025-01-14T01:25:47Z")
A lot of vaccines didn’t EXIST back when we were kids - Chicken pox vaccine wasn’t introduced until my son (now 30) was 3 or 4. When I was a kid, you just caught everything. Supposedly I had chicken pox as an infant (3 older brothers), and definitely had or was immunized for rubella (confirmed by blood test when we were thinking of reproducing). Mom and the pediatrician argued over whether I’d had measles (she said yes, he said no), and the doc solved it by immunizing me anyway. I also had the mumps vaccine when I was 11 or so. Dunno if that was MMR as it is these days; likely not, or the “measles yes or no” debat would have been moot. My COVID (September 2022) was similarly relatively mild; I’ve had bad colds that were worse (as an asthmatic, colds frequently devolve into bronchitos / secondary bacterial infections). Aside from a couple of days of anosmia - just long enough to be interesting - and a lingering cough, it was No Big Deal. I do get every booster they offer. Flu shot every year, I still need to schedule RSV, but pretty sure I’m otherwise caught up. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1256 "2025-01-14T01:26:49Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Chicken pox vaccine wasn’t introduced until my son (now 30) was 3 or 4. I got chicken pox as a kid, there was no vaccine yet. It was a nightmare. Damn I wish I could have been vaccinated. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1257 "2025-01-14T01:28:03Z")
I _wish_ they’d had the HPV vaccine back in the day. I wasn’t active til my 20s but still actually got it a few years ago. No fun. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1258 "2025-01-14T01:29:26Z")
Same here, I was in kindergarten and cried because I couldn’t go to school. I remember the pox in my hair. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1259 "2025-01-14T01:31:41Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I remember the pox in my hair. I remember the pox EVERYWHERE. And I mean EVERY where. I still have a scar on my inner thigh and it has been probably 40 years. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1260 "2025-01-14T01:36:55Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Same here, I was in kindergarten and cried because I couldn’t go to school. I remember the pox in my hair. I guess I’m lucky - since I had it so young, I don’t remember it at all. Mom, however, was likely pretty frantic, with 4 kids sick. She once said that this was the only time the doctor ever made a house call - and apparently he was not thrilled that I’d caught it that young, but it wasn’t like there was any way to prevent it!! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1261 "2025-01-14T01:54:58Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I still need to schedule RSV, but pretty sure I’m otherwise caught up. At least you only need to get RSV once, or so I was told when I inquired about getting a booster shot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626.md?page=62) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626.md?page=64)