I’m not one myself, but my family sort of is and I had an anti-vaxxer doctor that I went to for various treatments for things. But it seems like people look at anti-vaxxers as being at the same level of climate skeptics. So personally, I’m conflicted on the issue and don’t really have an opinion.
Is being anti-vax a valid position?
No.
Because Anti-Vaxxers are the medical equivalent of being anti-climate change, anti-gay marriage and anti-voting rights act. With an added dose of if you don’t vaccinate you are putting your belief in bad science against the health and wellness of the community and the world.
Because they put the entire society at risk.
I’d be fine if only they suffered for their stupidity. But unfortunately, it’s everyone else. They were probably vaccinated themselves.
Anti-Vaxxers are probably worse than climate skeptics in my immediate short term. Most people don’t have any real influence on climate change but lots of people need to make the choice to vaccinate their children for herd immunity to be effective and help protect my own children.
I would change doctors he instant I found out about them being anti-vax. That’s like a lawyer who believes in sovereign citizens.
This. By not vaccinating their children, then sending them to school, they expose other kids, some of whom cannot take vaccines.
Unless your last name is “Koch” you being a climate change denier isn’t going to affect me personally.
If, however, you are an anti-vaxxer you not only endanger your children, but you put other people in the community at risk because you’re not taking a simple and well-established step to prevent disease or spreading disease.
Plus, it should be “anti-vaccer”.
Because these people are fucked up – they make the claim, “well, it’s MY child and it’s MY decision.” No, it’s fucking not. The diseases can infect an entire population. And their reasons are absolute fucking bullshit. People can and will die from because of anti-vaxxers. Many already have.
Thanks to vaccination, we wiped out smallpox, probably one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind. We’re extremely close to doing so with polio – but it’s only a plane ride away.
It’s also not fair to put your own child at risk because of a dangerous myth. We prosecute parents who deny their children life-saving medicine all the time – why should this be any different?
Fuck anti-vaxxers. If it were up to me, I’d give all of them tetanus and forbid them treatment.
They put their own children at risk. Morally, they are no different than followers of a cult that forbids any sort of medical intervention. There’s no moral difference between exposing a child to debilitating or lethal diseases, and refusing chemotherapy for a child with a cancer that can be effectively cured with modern medicine, or refusing antibiotics for a child with an easily treatable infeciton.
They put other people at risk. Some people can’t be vaccinated because other illnesses preclude it. Some people are ignorant but might have vaccinated themselves and their children if it weren’t for evil motherfuckers that spread harmful lies. Finally, most people are (thankfully) vaccinated, but they rely on heard immunity since vaccines are not 100% effective.
They put my (hypothetical, future) children at risk.
If it was entirely up to me, refusing to vaccinate your children would be grounds for the state to take them away. In our less absolute government, refusing vaccination should merely bar entry into public schools, or social interactions with anyone who cares for the health of their family.
On a personal level, ostracism and opprobrium are the only tools I have to keep my family safe from willing and enthusiastic disease vectors.
Their beliefs are wrong.
Their beliefs kill people.
I see them as much worse than climate change deniers. Climate change science is complex. Results are not immediately apparent, and some consequences may take decades to emerge. This doesn’t make climate change deniers any less wrong, but their beliefs aren’t as directly and immediately fatal.
Because I have never met one who isn’t an idiot.
I’m tired of idiots putting non-idiots’ lives at risk.
How is this even a question???
It’s like asking why people who drink and drive are hated!
As long as only one or two out of 1000 were infectious, the other 998-999 were safe - one getting mumps suck to be that kid, but the rest are OK.
This is “Herd Immunity”. That fails when 100 of the 1000 are infectious - the diseases now have a massive pool of misery - enough to overwhelm the vaccines in the kids with rational parents.
I remember, in the 1950’s, kids had to have documentation of vaccination to enroll in Elementary School.
Now we have to dust off that procedure - all because “My opinion is as valid as your “Science””.
On the plus side, a few thousand dead kids just might be the trigger needed to shut down “fake news” and “I heard it on Facebook, so it MUST be True”.
It now seems either horrifying or charming in a creepy way: there was once a real, widely held belief that “The newspaper wouldn’t print that if it wasn’t true”.
The Anti-Vax creeps were the ones who embodied the “Opinion beats Fact” mantra.
I suspect it will take at least 10 years to undo the harm of “Reality Programming”.
p.s. - the folks on the island aren’t really castaways - there are at least 5 Production Company folks with a couple of tons of audio and video gear.
I suspect there is plenty of food on the boat(s) they all sleep in.
The number of lives that vaccination has saved is staggering.
17.1 million lives saved by the measles vaccine alone since the year 2000.
If I may Godwinize this thread: vaccination is far more virtuous than Hitler & Stalin & Pol Pot combined were evil.
Vaccination is no small thing, it is by far the most significant life-saving discovery of science-based medicine, and the negligible risk vs overwhelming efficacy of vaccines is fully settled, it has been researched more thoroughly than any other aspect of medicine. None of the alleged health risks from vaccination that are touted by antivax conspiracists have any basis in reality.
What is real is the disease and death that is already happening because of lowering vaccination rates.
Anyone opposed to vaccination is an anti-science conspiracy-theorist crank who is putting the lives of their own children and many others at risk.
You should change doctors immediately, and treat your doctor as you would if he recommended leeches and trepanning for a broken ankle.
You’re conflicted and don’t really have an opinion?
Really?
Okay then!
No! You mean Gilligan, the Skipper, the Howells, Ginger, the professor, and Mary Ann can all leave the island any time they want? Gilligan doesn’t even have to fall out of a tree and hit his head picking coconuts? The professor doesn’t have to dream up a way to get off the island without Gilligan always messing it up? Color me shocked.
May we ask in what way you are conflicted? That statement would seem to indicate that you see some validity to the anti-vaxxer position. I would be curious to know what you think that is.
Why do people hate anti-vaxxers?
Because I’m 64 years old and I went to school with kids who could only walk with crutches and braces on their legs because they’d had polio before there was a vaccine for it.