# 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:** 85
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1682 "2026-05-12T09:20:00Z")
Nanochips in newborns in the 1980’s? You really heard this, or is it another figment of your fervent imagination? ---
**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:** [May 12, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1683 "2026-05-12T16:06:05Z")
They may not have used the exact terminology “nanochip” but _similar_ things were already well within the public mind by the 80s. Novels like Cyborg (1972), the source for the “6 Million Dollar Man” and countless other works would mean functionally similar ideas were in the minds of some at least. * * * Back to anti-vaxxers, some of them come into it looking to find a _reason_ bad things happen. And when they’re hurting and weak, they fall down a hole, and THEN, the preach the New Faith bringing harm to _others_. I’ve mentioned this before on this board, but I had a lover (brief) in College that I kept up on through friends of friends. She was actively rebelling against a very traditional Christian upbringing at the time, so was experimenting (note, I do not say she wasn’t heartfelt!) with free love, spirituality, free choice, and other more expansive ways to live. After college she got married, and was more of a traditional progressive Democrat who considered herself spiritual but not religious, was for environmental causes, hated guns. And then she and her spouse had their first child. Diagnosed with autism around age two. And then she snapped. I’m not going to speculate (even in the Pit) if she had anti-vax trends previously (it happens on both sides of the political spectrum though generally for different reasons), but after flailing around trying to find a “fix”, it seemed she found the anti-vaxx movement as a way to _explain_ to herself why this had happened, and of course, to find someone to blame, to focus the hurt, pain and despair onto. And a few years after _that_, well, most of my information is lost. She became a very vocal supporter, and the friend of friends who had been my contact cut ties with her. At that point (this is all Pre-Trump and MAHA by years of course) she was somewhere between a Libertarian (who still wanted support for those like herself that had been harmed by Big Phama/Big Medicine) and a nihilistic “everyone is corrupt, burn it all down except those of US in the know” CT’er. So, long story short: there’s a lot of ways for people to embrace anti-vaxx philosophy, some are hurting for real, honest reasons and lashing out. I’m more tolerant of them emotionally (a _personal_ choice TBC!) but hate the harm they do to _others_ and do NOT forgive them that. The fact that so very many of them are conned into their beliefs in a moment of weakness by all the out-and-out cons that are selling them on their own products (clicks, books, supplements, etc.) - oh those fuckers are the ones that make me want to join the “burn them all down” types from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1684 "2026-05-12T19:14:19Z")
They may not have been called that, but yeah. That was around the same time that a woman told me that the Federal government put microchips in money, and drove around and fired some kind of ray gun at houses to see how much money they had hidden. I didn’t believe that either. ---
**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 12, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1685 "2026-05-12T21:53:01Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > > [@Kimstu](#): > > > > What I still don’t get is how these anti-vaxxers rationalize their belief that a vaccine against a disease is liable to give you some mysterious unrelated condition **that the disease itself won’t give you**. > > They’re just going to say “from the other stuff included with the vaccine”. Once they trust other anti-vaxxers ahead of the medical establishment, they can’t be reached. Yes, this. With the advent of mRNA technology these nutbars got new energy: ‘IT’S MESSING WITH OUR DNA!!1!!!’ etc. > **[What are mRNA vaccines and how do they work?: MedlinePlus Genetics](https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/therapy/mrnavaccines/)** > > mRNA vaccines use a piece of mRNA that corresponds to a protein on a virus. Vaccines for COVID-19 are the only mRNA vaccines authorized or approved by the FDA. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1686 "2026-05-12T23:25:14Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Interesting article about RFJ Jr [running an inquiry into vaccines](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/health/kennedy-vaccine-safety.html?unlocked_article_code=1.h1A.cBCc.IbA4WpUQtVi8) in NYT today (gift link) > > Quite likely the inquiry will produce the result that RFK Jr has pre-ordained, or at the very least it will be spun that way. Then for the next few decades it will be trotted out by anti-vaxxers as evidence that a huge inquiry by the biggest health agencies in the world found that vaccines were dangerous. So the dumbest fucks on earth are gonna kill us. I guess that’s the way it’s always been… ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1687 "2026-05-13T00:35:16Z")
[I’m currently reading a book](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/218206/life-on-the-edge-by-johnjoe-mcfadden-and-jim-al-khalili/) that posits quantum tunneling may influence biology at the DNA level. I wonder how hard it would be to start a “No more quantum tunneling” campaign? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1688 "2026-05-13T00:35:33Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > They’re just going to say “from the other stuff included with the vaccine”. Once they trust other anti-vaxxers ahead of the medical establishment, they can’t be reached. Yeah they said it was the mercury (it wasn’t) which must have been magic since the mercury seemed to still increase the autism rate even after it was removed. ---
**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 13, 2026, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1689 "2026-05-13T01:58:18Z")
RFK Jr. seized on a small fraction of flu vaccines (in multidose vials) still containing thimerosal (mercury-based preservative) to trumpet the necessity of its removal, but yes, mercury has been gone from virtually all vaccines for more than two decades. For replacement fearmongering, antivaxers have seized on aluminum (used in some vaccines as an adjuvant to improve immune response and make it possible to use fewer antigens), but two major recent studies have made it overwhelmingly clear that aluminum in the tiny amounts used in vaccines is safe. [https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00997](https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00997) [https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2025-088921](https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2025-088921) Still, there are plenty of faux toxins for antivaxers to scare parents about. > **[Toxic myths about vaccines](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/toxic-myths-about-vaccines/)** > > Antivaccine activists would have you believe that vaccines are loaded with "toxins" and are therefore dangerous. While there are some chemicals that sound scary in some vaccines, they dose makes the p The other biggie in the antivax arsenal has been the “too many too soon” mantra, which argues that the poor kiddies’ immune systems are overwhelmed by vaccines - but antigenic stimulus from vaccines is dwarfed by the challenges children’s immune systems face every day in their environment. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2026, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1690 "2026-05-13T02:43:31Z")
Formaldehyde is a scary word, but my understanding is that the average vaccine contains about 1% as much as the average pear. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1691 "2026-05-13T03:19:26Z")
OMG you admit vaccines contain a TOXIN! A toxin that is a known human carcinogen and respiratory irritant and biocide used in _industry_ and for _embalming_! I _knew_ vaccines were dangerous and now you totally admit it. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2026, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1692 "2026-05-13T03:49:08Z")
> **[Sunlight damage to cellular DNA: Focus on oxidatively generated lesions - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28109890/)** > > The routine and often unavoidable exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation makes it one of the most significant environmental DNA-damaging agents to which humans are exposed. Sunlight, specifically UVB and UVA, triggers various types of DNA... Sunlight alters DNA. So, it should be easy to convince antivaxxers to crawl into a hole and never come out again. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1693 "2026-05-13T04:19:46Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Formaldehyde is a scary word, but my understanding is that the average vaccine contains about 1% as much as the average pear. Which also happens to be less than the amount we produce naturally as part of our metabolic processes (and very quickly metabolize) Great Og, people are dumb ---
**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 13, 2026, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1694 "2026-05-13T08:59:54Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > So the dumbest fucks on earth are gonna kill us. > > I guess that’s the way it’s always been… To quote Friedrich Schiller (in translation): > [@](#): > > Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield! > Against stupidity the very gods > Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason, > Resplendent daughter of the head divine, > Wise foundress of the system of the world, > Guide of the stars, who art thou then if thou, > Bound to the tail of folly’s uncurbed steed, > Must, vainly shrieking with the drunken crowd, > Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss. > Accursed, who striveth after noble ends, > And with deliberate wisdom forms his plans! > To the fool-king belongs the world. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1695 "2026-05-13T18:42:40Z")
That is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1696 "2026-05-13T18:55:37Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > RFK Jr. seized on a small fraction of flu vaccines (in multidose vials) still containing thimerosal (mercury-based preservative) to trumpet the necessity of its removal, but yes, mercury has been gone from virtually all vaccines for more than two decades. And the mercury that was in vaccines is not the variety that gets metabolized, like that in fish, and in fact runs right through you without staying. And of course they invented some other problem. I’m up on this because I just proof read my wife’s expansion of her book on vaccines, which was published in 2019. Her publisher and editor asked her to update it for Covid and mRNA vaccines. (She had mentioned them but they were not as prevalent back then.) I found some wacko anti-vaxx quotes for her. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1697 "2026-05-13T19:10:51Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Nanochips in newborns in the 1980’s? You really heard this, or is it another figment of your fervent imagination? In the 1970s, I wrote a sci-fi story about a plot to do just that (but to college kids rather than babies), ---
**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 13, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1698 "2026-05-13T19:15:07Z")
Probaly the word used in those times was “microchip” and not “nanochip” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1699 "2026-05-14T01:53:05Z")
Published 12 years ago, no less! ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1700 "2026-05-14T20:12:11Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > actually the implantation of a microchip My pacemaker has a bluetooth interface to my phone. It’s so big that it would be hard to not notice. The battery lasts a little under ten years. The microchips they implant in pets do not have batteries. Sensing them requires a device that is closer than the device is big. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626/1701 "2026-05-14T20:32:38Z")
> [@Ancient\_Nerd](#): > > The microchips they implant in pets do not have batteries. Sensing them requires a device that is closer than the device is big. What they are talking about was science fiction at the time, and still is. We’re getting closer to possibly being able to implement that kind of miniaturization every year, but we are still very far off. We are talking about something small enough to inject via a standard hypodermic needle. That’s basically advanced nanotechnology. Still the sort of speculative science you see in futuristic fantasy stories (aka science fiction). But these are often the kinds of people that see all technology as some sort of magical force capable of anything, barely a step above being in a cargo cult. That’s the kind of constantly terrified, willfully ignorant person that latches onto conspiracy theories as a lifeline to try to make sense of a world they understand even less than your average person. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626.md?page=84) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-vaxxers-are-ignorant-scumbags-that-kill-children/764626.md?page=86)