# 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:** 83
**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:** [April 21, 2026, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1642 "2026-04-21T18:57:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There are plenty of people who say they don’t remember any autistic kids when they were growing up, including antivaxers who’ve decided that autism only appeared after the vaccine schedule was expanded. Just because people were ignorant about the existence of something doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. I think that’s something a lot of people struggle to understand. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1643 "2026-04-21T19:20:59Z")
Not very Pit Like, but I’d like to say a thank you for the generation (oft-represented here) that had to live with those consequences and pushed a life saving service on my generation (born mid 70s). Yeah, it’s literally never something we even thought about - it was just what you DID, and yeah it was PAINFUL to see the obvious risks of the Anti-Vax movement crawl in. Or in Pit terms, FUCK those people and the river of death and grift they and their brain parasites live in. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1644 "2026-04-21T21:43:33Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Measles is one of those childhood diseases a lot of people remember as being not that bad. And for you and many others, that’s probably true. What people tend to forget is the children who suffered from brain damage, hearing loss, damage to their lungs, or being sickly for a few years because they had a compromised immune system. Vaccines have been so successful a lot of people have forgotten why they were needed in the first place. That’s all true. And back then we didn’t even know about the capacity of the measles virus to ‘re-set’ a body’s immunity to _other_ microbes. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1645 "2026-04-21T21:50:44Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Physicians For Informed Consent is run by longtime antivaccine figures like Paul Thomas and Bob Sears If I recall correctly, Bob was the sleaze who admitted that vaccines saved lives - he advised his patients to live like parasites in the safety that decent people built by getting vaccinated. “Hide in the Herd” was his motto ---
**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:** [April 21, 2026, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1646 "2026-04-21T22:30:42Z")
Here is an interview with Bob Sears on PBS: > **[Dr. Robert W. Sears: Why Partial Vaccinations May Be an Answer | FRONTLINE |...](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/robert-w-sears-why-partial-vaccinations-may-be-an-answer/)** > > In the absence of consensus between concerned parents and public health officials over vaccine safety, partial vaccinations for children may be a middle ground, says pediatrician Robert Sears. He’s not going full anti-vax, but his argument is that he wants to compromise for people who are anti-vax and suggest that they just vaccinate less than suggested. Seems reasonable, except I think it’s bullshit. People who are worried about getting vaccines aren’t going to be persuaded to “ease into them”. They aren’t going to take them at all. Even though he’s still insisting that vaccines are important, he’s going about it in a really stupid way. Also, this quote… > As a doctor, how I approach that is, I say: “OK, you have the right to your opinion. Let’s figure out how I can work with you as a doctor in a way that understands your worries, understands you don’t trust the CDC. So how can I, as a doctor, work with you?” I don’t think any real doctor can operate that way. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1647 "2026-04-21T23:25:00Z")
Good old Bob Sears! I see that interview occurred before “Dr. Bob” was placed on 35 months probation by the California Medical Board for gross negligence in issuing an improper vaccine exemption for a two-year-old. Lots of softball questions in that interview. An informed journalist might have asked him why he minimizes the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases and fearmongers about illusory dangers of aluminum-based vaccine adjuvants, which improve immune response.\* And Sears has continued to promote the debunked theory that vaccination causes autism, repeated in his 2023 book. Promoting an unscientific delayed vaccine schedule allows people like Sears to dodge accusations of being antivaccine. But by hyping nonexistent dangers of vaccination, he and others (like Paul Thomas) actively discourage parents from seeking any vaccines for their kids. More on Dr. Bob’s recipe for disease return can be found [here](https://medium.com/@jsteier_29203/seeing-through-sears-what-parents-need-to-know-about-the-vaccine-book-a8e95bde5de6). \*antivaxers’ attacks on aluminum adjuvants have been addressed by years of research demonstrating their safety, mostly recently [in this large-scale study](https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/major-new-study-finds-no-health-risks-aluminium-childhood-vaccines). ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1648 "2026-04-22T00:34:27Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > People who are worried about getting vaccines aren’t going to be persuaded to “ease into them”. They aren’t going to take them at all. For what it’s worth, this is what my friend did with her daughter, at least that’s what she claimed, and I have no particular reason to doubt her. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1649 "2026-04-22T02:01:57Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Seems reasonable, except I think it’s bullshit. People who are worried about getting vaccines aren’t going to be persuaded to “ease into them”. They aren’t going to take them at all. Even though he’s still insisting that vaccines are important, he’s going about it in a really stupid way. This was called vaccine hesitancy a few years back and it might work for some people. When my sister had her kid, she grew a bit nervous because of the anti-vaxxer propaganda out there and she felt a bit overwhelmed as a new parent. Her doctor ended up recommending a delayed vaccination schedule in lieu of no vaccinations at all. Was it ideal? No. But since he was looking at the possibility of an unvaccinated child I think the physician made the right decision. My sister has since gotten over her vaccine hesitancy. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1650 "2026-04-22T02:10:37Z")
In many cases, the severely affected ones had other disorders, which can usually be definitively diagnosed now, that killed them before they would have started school anyway. ---
**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:** [April 22, 2026, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1651 "2026-04-22T02:11:38Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Was it ideal? No. But since he was looking at the possibility of an unvaccinated child I think the physician made the right decision. I guess in these specific cases, it makes sense then for these parents. It seems like Sears hasn’t been this reasonable though. > **[CA Medical Board Takes Action to Protect Children’s Health: Dr. Bob Sears...](https://vaccinateyourfamily.org/ca-medical-board-takes-action-to-protect-childrens-health-dr-bob-sears-placed-on-probation/)** > > The Medical Board of California ordered a 35-month probation for Dr. Bob Sears, a pediatrician infamously known for advising alternative vaccination schedules for young children, promoting the unproven theory that vaccines cause autism, and being a... ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1652 "2026-04-22T03:46:40Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > This was called vaccine hesitancy a few years back and it might work for some people. Used to. I used to spend a good amount of energy with the “vaccine hesitant”, listen to their concerns, prioritize which vaccines were most important to get in as soon as possible and which were not such a big deal to wait on. Fairly often, not always but a good fraction of the time,I would get those kids vaccinated if not fully mostly by age two. Not ideal but better than if we had not engaged and compromised. But yeah: “used to” … it is a different crowd now. The yield from engagement is now nil. There is no engagement. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1653 "2026-05-07T21:40:52Z")
> Although it is not a vaccine, the vitamin K shot has been swept up in the same post-pandemic tide that has led to a drop in key childhood vaccines [Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth](https://www.propublica.org/article/more-parents-decline-vitamin-k-shot-newborns) ---
**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:** [May 7, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1654 "2026-05-07T21:46:26Z")
Among antivaxers feeding fears of vitamin K shots: RFK Jr.'s Children’s Health Defense, because nothing says defending children’s health like promoting fatal brain bleeds. [https://childrenshealthdefense.org/protecting-our-future/vitamin-k-shots/](https://childrenshealthdefense.org/protecting-our-future/vitamin-k-shots/) ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1655 "2026-05-08T13:47:05Z")
Man, that’s the article to read if you want to raise your blood pressure. Some of these people… Here’s one father whose child died after he refused to allow a Vitamin K shot: > "A third family, who made their decision after reading about vitamin K on social media and talking with their midwife, dismissed the vitamin K shot altogether. Instead, the father expressed outrage at the hospital for not delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord. He said he believed doing so would have allowed his son to be infused with vitamin K from the cord blood, a popular theory on social media. Research, however, shows that while delayed cord clamping can raise the baby’s hemoglobin levels, it does not have the same effect on vitamin K. > > “I figured the hospital was already pissy with me because we didn’t vaccinate at all,” he told ProPublica. “They lost out on all the money from that.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1656 "2026-05-08T15:08:17Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#): > > “I figured the hospital was already pissy with me because we didn’t vaccinate at all,” he told ProPublica. “They lost out on all the money from that.” He sure showed them. Plus he can now sell those never-worn baby shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1657 "2026-05-08T15:22:06Z")
These people enrage me so much that I find myself flipping from hour to hour between two positions on how to, as a society, deal with them. 1. Jail them for child endangerment, have zero tolerance, “I don’t believe in vac…” =\> child(s) taken from them. 2. Divide the world in 2, have all these idiots move to the other half, wait a few generations, repopulate the empty half. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1658 "2026-05-08T15:23:28Z")
Or were hidden away, like many kids with disabilities. You wouldn’t know there was a child in an institution or living on a farm with a grandparent. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1659 "2026-05-08T20:38:28Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#): > > “I figured the hospital was already pissy with me because we didn’t vaccinate at all,” he told ProPublica. “They lost out on all the money from that.” Among the many, many stupid things these people have chosen to believe is that a hospital would have made “all the money” from a vaccination shot. That’s the line taken by the anti-vaxxers who ARE making a lot of money from the credulous nature of their audience: that Big Pharma (and, apparently, Big Hospital) are making massive profits off each shot. The reality is that most vaccination shots in the US are made under programs public (Medicaid for poorer families) or private (insurance through an employer) that give shots at little or no profit _ **because they save money in the long run** _. But the stupids eat up the idea that ‘_getting my baby vaccinated would have made the hospital thousands in profits_’ and the like. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1660 "2026-05-08T21:27:18Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > > [@ShadowFacts](#): > > > > “I figured the hospital was already pissy with me because we didn’t vaccinate at all,” he told ProPublica. “They lost out on all the money from that.” > > He sure showed them. Plus he can now sell those never-worn baby shoes. Not to mention the money he would have spent raising the child. The fact that the child was cheated out of an entire life by this asshat’s ignorance/credulity/whatever doesn’t seem to figure into the equation. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1661 "2026-05-08T22:29:56Z")
When my BFF’s uncle was born in the late 1940s with Down syndrome, this was what all the doctors told his parents to do with him - “put him in an institution and tell everyone that he died.” The main reason they recommended this was so OTHER people wouldn’t have to look at him. (headdesk) Of course, they refused to do that, and he lived into his 40s, something nobody could have predicted at the time. As for hospitals, etc. making a lot of money off vaccines, my biggest issue with the Hepatitis B vaccine’s dose at birth was how many of them had to be discarded whenever the techs at my old hospital went upstairs periodically to clean out the OB refrigerator. We had to pitch them, because we didn’t know how long the refused doses had been out of the refrigerator, or if they were even in the patient’s room which would render it “contaminated” by health care standards. Our cost was about $50 each. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626.md?page=82) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626.md?page=84)