Quite frankly I’ve only been sort of asked this one time and it was someone asking if our family got the annual flu shot. I said just my wife because shes around alot more kids.
Other times I just mention that we are more careful with vaccines and asked more questions than before. But our kids have all the required vaccinations.
This comment indicates that you have no idea how vaccines work. Vaccines are literally using parts from (or completely dead) viruses to train your immune system to recognize and destroy them in the future. Comments about how you would rather use your immune system than a vaccine indicate you haven’t done even a tiny amount of research on the subject as this is literally in the first paragraph of the wikipedia article about vaccines.
So do I. But, people do harm to society all the time in a myriad of ways. I think the Randian Libertarian down the block is doing harm to society. I think the mail carrier who idles his truck on my block for a half hour every day is doing harm to society. I think I might have done harm to society when I went to work with a bad cold a few weeks ago. We all do harm to society all the time. Just because vaccines are your personal hobby horse, it doesn’t necessarily mean that being an anti-vaxxer is really doing more than the garden-variety, thoughtless, stupid, or misguided harm that we all do every day. Being evil is one thing, being mistaken is another, and this guy is mistaken. He thinks he’s doing the right thing, just as much as you do. It’s something we all live with.
Get over it, and get over yourself.
I agree that anti-vax is ignorant, socially irresponsible, and dangerous. But then, so is religion, and I can hang out with religious people and respect their right to their opinions.
In addition to having beliefs, people are PEOPLE and deserve some respect, and have other gifts to offer.
Finally, a little lesson I occasionally have to remind myself, from Bertrand Russell. The things we get the most heated about are usually the things that we don’t have rational reasons for. If we have good reasons, then we can present them dispassionately. We get upset when we can’t present our reasons clearly, but just KNOW WE ARE RIGHT. Actually, I have to remind myself of that a lot, especially when spending time with my Fox-watching parents (whom I love dearly but sheesh!)
Well put, and right on point.
Huh, I was not aware. So in a thread titled, “Pictures of my new kitten” I’m supposed to go in and say, “You are wrong those aren’t kittens.”?
Also the only way I could go to an anti-vaxxers house is to burn it down hopefully with them in it so they don’t murder the world with their super-germs.
Oh, wow. Two things I hate all at once: anti-vaxxers, and forced fake socializing with people I work with.
People don’t understand civil disobedience anymore. When you do something wrong, whether it’s breaking a law, or a social contract, you are supposed to take the consequences. Stealth anti-vaxxers are probably actually less moral than the Jenny McCarthyites, who at least make their views known (and by doing so also expose them to the scrutiny that helps fence sitters see that bridges are not made of paper).
This is where the party ends for me too. Besides, anti-vaxxers who socialize with a lot of other anti-vaxxers through an organization, or a church, can harbor a slightly mutated strain of something that can infect a vaccinated person. It’s often been said that a vaccinated person in a low vaccination area is at higher risk than an unvaccinated person in a high vaccination area, and it’s quite true.
I hope that baby is OK.
And BTW, it is possible that everyone who received a shot from the same nurse who came by work got sick, and everyone who didn’t get the shot did not, because the nurse had an infection she passed on to everyone. It’s also possible, albeit less likely that there was something wrong with the vaccine, but it’s doubtful it would be a single vial (unless that nurse really screwed up, or did something malicious), and you’d hear about a recall. None of that means that vaccinations don’t work, make you sick in and of themselves, or cause autism, diabetes, MS, lupus, blah, blah, blah.
It’s also possible that confirmation bias was at work. The boss probably didn’t track who got the flu later in the year.
Anyway, I vote for not going to the party. Say you have to go to synagogue services that night. It always works for me.
Good points.
Also, whatever happened to just live and let live? Why being so judgemental?
Well, you kind of have to, don’t you?
Wait, he’s an anti-vaxxer? … 
He’s a menace to society then. There was a time I would have been polite about that, but herd immunity has fallen far enough my attitude has changed.
These idiots killed someone, that’s what happened.
QFT. That excuse has gotten me out of MORE Christmas parties…
That was my point. It’s like going to a party and knowing your SO’s boss is a member of NAMBLA. I guess as long as he doesn’t bring it up, I could get through the obligation.
This. I would go, and talk about other subjects.
But if you are a vaccine crusader, don’t go. It will be too awkward, and may well do more harm than not going. You can come down with food poisoning that night, or have a prior engagement.
So it is fine to work for an anti-vaxxer and take home a paycheck, but not socialize with them for one night? I submit if you and your husband are truly committed then he shouldn’t even be working for the anti-vaxxer.