Parents in my neighborhood don’t know much about the effects of Polio. Some of our older friend or our parent’s friends might have a slight limp or even a more debilitating one but for the most part Polio is something that’s been gone from the US for a number of decades.
You know what’s back in the US? Whooping Cough. Yeah, Whooping Cough was “that thing” that our parents worried about. It was unheard of in my generation but a group of self-important parents who have decided that Vaccines will give their children autism because of a single fraudulent study that was retracted several years ago (see the shamed researcher here) or perhaps because of anecdotal evidence provided by a Playboy Centerfold.
Interestingly the Taliban is currently not allowing 140,000 children to get the Polio Vaccine. They say they’re doing it because the US had used a physician as a spy and they believe that could happen again. This will likely be considered one of the worst war crimes of our lifetime. Time magazine states, “Using children as medical poker chips is indefensible under any circumstances…”
But wait? What about the parents who choose to not vaccinate in my neighborhood. They’re like local heros… you know… debunking science and all that. They’re so counter culture, they’re pro-kid, they’re like martyrs. What about the kids in Oregon whose parents wanted them on a “different schedule”.
Both Washington and Oregon have seen an increase in pertussis (whooping cough) diagnoses in recent years. In 2002, the Washington State Department of Health reported fewer than 600 cases. During a 2005 outbreak, more than 1,000 cases were reported. The number fell below 300 in 2009, but climbed again to almost 1,000 cases in 2011. So far this year, 2,092 cases have been reported in that state. A similar trend was reported by the Oregon Health Authority: There were fewer than 200 cases in 2002, increasing to more than 600 per year from 2005 to 2007. Pertussis cases dropped to around 100 the following year, and steadily increased to 320 cases in 2011. As of June 2012, 338 cases have been reported in the state of Oregon – almost three times as many as were reported at the same time last year.
— Jessica Stoller-Conrad
Anti Vaxxers what is the matter with your thinking? Is it not enough that you don’t care that your children could become critically ill? Do you really have to put everyone else’s kids at risk? The arrogance is astounding and every time I hear a parent say “I didn’t vaccinate” or “I didn’t vaccinate yet” I think to myself, “There goes a really bad parent.”
A couple of thoughts. First of all, I completely agree on the selfish and deluded anti vaccine movement. And my first reaction reading the headline about the Taliban blocking the polio vaccinations was even more proof of their regressive and evil philosophies. But if the U.S. did really use a vaccine program to hide a spy, even if theend results were positive, I’m not too thrilled about that either.
Interesting post Jessica. I think about vaccines often because many of my friends are anti-vax and the idea of vaccines being an issue kinda came about when I was pregnant six years ago. (Or so it seemed to me). I chose to vaccinate my kids. I have no regrets about it.
I often think of how lucky we are to have them as an option here in North America.
I even asked a friend once what she would do if she went on vacation somewhere, say Africa, with her kid that is not vaccinated and she said she would give him whatever shots were required. Interesting, I thought…
One International Day of Peace a few years (I think) back, the Taliban agreed to a ceasefire and allowed an Org. to enter a very dangerous area of Afghanistan and in 1 day 1.4 million children were given the Polio vaccine. SO much can be done in such a short period.
It saddens me beyond words to hear this, though it is not surprising…
Heidi
Every time I hear a parent say that they don’t believe in vaccinations I want to go sneeze in their face and on their food.
Let’s just see what happens. If we are really lucky their son/daughter will contract some awful disease through no fault of their own and then potentially pass that along to lots of others.
It reminds me of people who say that they can drink a six pack and still be safe drivers.
Well all those things might be true and they might not. It is one thing when you take risks for yourself and your family and quite another when you start to involve others.
LIKED IS VERY GOOD
Don’t agree at all with the use of humanitarian programs to hide undercover actions
No one possibly could.
People need to go watch Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – you know, the one with Robert De Niro from the 90’s. There’s a short scene in the beginning where Smallpox was running through England like a gale force wind… “this is an anti-poxy, and it will keep you from getting and spreading the disease” – Anti-Vaxxer freaks out, and ends up stabbing the doctor, not getting vaccinated, and no doubt, becoming a walking biological weapon.
Bad for everyone.
I’m completely okay with walling up a state like… Wisconsin or something, and sending all the anti-vaxxers there to hang out and be their own biohazard community – after they have their children removed from their “care” of course.
I’m disgusted by this post. As if to assume every parent who doesn’t vaccinate is a bad parent. Excuse me, are you even aware of how many aborted baby cells are in these vaccines? And why should I bother to pump my babies bodies full of chemicals to avoid the chicken pox, or whatever else, when every other sucker parent is already doing it?
I ONLY vaccinate for the very important illnesses. (Polio, mumps…) I have 6 children from ages 5-22 years old. Not one…NOT ONE…has ever been seriously ill, had an ear infection, got some random disease or contracted any other bogus illness out there.
When someone can explain to me why a newborn baby needs a Hep B shot when they haven’t had sex or shared a drug needle yet, then there’ll be something to talk about.
Until then…maybe you could rethink your thoughts all of the “bad parents” out there.
I’m pleased to hear that a cluster of cells can get your ire up but protecting people that are actually living and breathing is controversial.
Amen. I am disgusted by this post too. I will take the opinions and thoughts of Jenny McCarthy any day over the uneducated rantings found in this article because she is a parent who lived through hell and was motivated to find out WHY. That is a powerful thing. My own son was badly injured by a vaccine (allergic reaction, seizure, and respiratory arrest) and now has mild brain damage. Two pediatric neurologists verbally confirmed it was due to vaccination though both conveniently refused to put that to paper. That is the society we live in, where doctors in the know are too afraid to tell you that are very serious risks with vaccination. I was told point blank not to vaccinate that child ever again.
That event spurred 5+ years of research and I decided not to vaccinate any of my kids. You can call me a bad parent and I can tell you where to go because unless you have lived that you have no frackin idea what you are talking about. If you care so much about being infected then vaccinate your kids and get boosters for yourself and you should be covered right? If vaccines work then what is it you are afraid of? Perhaps the inconvenient fact that many of these outbreaks are occurring among vaccinated populations and have NOTHING to do with unvaccinated children/adults.
Vaccines have major risks associated with them just as most drugs do. McCarthy and many other parents had an unfavorable outcome when they played vaccine roulette and so they demand SAFER vaccines and spread the word when all doctors can do is recite the pharma sales pitch. I don’t think that makes them akin to terrorists.
Sorry, I don’t buy the doctors won’t write it down because they are afraid of being sued bit at all.
I am sorry that you went through hell with your child. My heart goes out to you because no parent should have to do that and it is worse for the kid because they are the one suffering.
However your argument here is flawed for a variety of reasons some of which have been addressed but let’s bring them back up again.
Your decision could turn you into the proud mother of the next Typhoid Mary. If you don’t know who she was look her up.
Your decision not to vaccinate puts others at risk. Your decision could wreak all sorts of untold havoc.
The overwhelming majority of people do not have unfavorable reactions to vaccination. There is a reason why so many educated medical professionals endorse them and it is not all because they are being paid by the drug industry.
That is a convenient bogeyman to use.
It is one thing to put your family at risk and another when yo do it to others.
“When someone can explain to me why a newborn baby needs a Hep B shot when they haven’t had sex or shared a drug needle yet, then there’ll be something to talk about.”
Here’s why….
People can contract Hep B in more ways than just sex and needles. It is a virus that affects the liver, and it can be passed through BLOOD AND SALIVA as well as other bodily fluids.
Where do you get your information, only off of anti-vac sites? I have read this argument over and over again on so many sites, just rolling my eyes in disbelief.
Once contracted, you may not show signs for months, which means someone can be infected and not know it, giving plenty of time to pass it along.
Still wanna talk about it?
I had the hep b vaccine in college because I was working in the emergency room.
As I recall hep b is particularly dangerous because it lives outside the body for up to 7 days regardless of climate.
Why are you showing Jenny McCarthy – she is not anti-vaccine – just an advocate of them being scheduled properly.
I totally agree that it is crazy to not be vaccinated in this day and age – however you do it – just do it!
Time Magazine 2009:
Your collaborator recommends that parents accept only the haemophilus influenzae type B (HIB) and tetanus vaccine for newborns and then think about the rest. Not polio? What about the polio clusters in unvaccinated communities like the Amish in the U.S.? What about the 2004 outbreak that swept across Africa and Southeast Asia after a single province in northern Nigeria banned vaccines? I do believe sadly it’s going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe. If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it’s their f___ing fault that the diseases are coming back. They’re making a product that’s s___. If you give us a safe vaccine, we’ll use it. It shouldn’t be polio versus autism.
People listen to this shit. It’s shocking to me that anyone would take her seriously.
I really do not understand how people let anti-intellectualism become a “thing.” How it become a viable option in public discourse and policy decision making is just beyond me.
I’m a supporter of vaccines for our kids. I think Polio alone is enough of a reason to do it, let alone all the other stuff. But, if somebody doesn’t vaccinate their child, they have to live with the consequences
Actually that’s not true.
We all have to live with the consequences. Until recently adults didn’t really have to worry about whooping cough boosters unless they were traveling to an emerging nation. Now the pacific northwest has record numbers of whooping cough. Why? Because a bunch of really special parents decided that their little public nuisance should be allowed to go to school with zero regard to anyone else.
I’m in Oregon. I just had my Whooping Cough booster at 42 years old. My son got an extra Whooping Cough shot at his well-child check last November.
Whooping Cough is awful. Wanna cough so hard you can’t breathe and possibly cough up blood? Would you like your infant to cough so hard they can’t breathe and possibly die? Probably not. Speaking in general, here, (not you, Anna, specifically) counting on herd immunity to “protect” your child from perfectly preventable diseases is maddening. Don’t tell me that you are waiting for their immune system to “develop on it’s own.” (I’ve heard that excuse) That person who decided not to immunize their child exposes your child who is too young for the vax, you and your child have to live with the consequences too.
I have a friend who has his kids free from vaccines. He is a chemist and he knows what is in the vaccines. After what he showed me I am not surprised why he chosed to do so. His kids are resistant to flus and super vibrant fit. As for whooping cough, I had it when I was 13, all the doctor could od was give cough mixture and antibiotics but i had it for two months. A grasping teen who was prevented from going to school. In the end My mum gave me the natural remedy and it went away after 1 week. 3 pcs of Canfer leaves and piece of rock sugar soaked, simmered in hot water for five minutes than drink. I am saying there are choices and alternatives. Yes ultimately it is a choice
This is an issue I flip flop on constantly. Note that both my children are fully immunized. Am I concerned about the schedule of the immunizations and how that may be tough on a young baby immune system – absolutely. But I have I seen real proof that these immunzations cause autism or other things – absolutely not.
Like many things in life I believe the correct path may be somewhere in the middle and wish that people would focus on finding real answers (like ensuring the vaccines are non-toxic, etc.) instead of being so focused on who is right or who is wrong.
Amanda Peet said it beautifully. People who do not vaccinate their children are parasites. They’re depending on everyone else to keep their children from getting the dread diseases. She went on to say that anyone listening to her opinion and acting upon it was an idiot, as she’s an actress, not a doctor. The CDC and all of the major health organizations have gone on record again and again saying that vaccines are necessary. Nothing is 100% safe, but the failure to vaccinate is so much worse. As I have previously said on this blog, I’m old enough to remember life before polio vaccines, and it was not good. The hubs and I just got pertussis boosters and shingles vaccines and happy we are to be protected.
Someone made a really great point on another recent anti-anti-vax post recently- something along the lines of, “What about the people your supposedly healthy un-vaccinated child is exposing to these diseases? People who have compromised immune systems, are elderly, are infants and haven’t gotten the vaccines yet, or people who, in more rare instances, the vaccine wasn’t as effective for? Is that really YOUR choice to make to expose them to these diseases as well?”
I don’t think I did their comment justice, but you get the point. Just because you/your kids get the vaccine doesn’t mean that you can’t/won’t be harmed by the idiotic actions of anti-vaxxers.
I had whooping cough in February 2011 when I returned home from a business trip to Orlando. Missed 3 weeks of work. It’s horrible that they won’t vaccinate those children.
I had it in high school (and had been vaccinated as a kid). Can you imagine being a baby/young child and having it? It’s bad enough as an adult when you know what’s going on :(
Even if you do believe that the vaccine works (which is debatable considering more children who end up with pertussis were immunized within the last couple of years prior to their illness), when was your last Pertussis shot? You realize that if it was longer than 5-10 years prior to your illness, you were equally as “unprotected” as an unvaccinated child, right?
It speaks volumes that you believe your missing work for a short period of time is more devastating than the life long side effects that many children deal with as a result of vaccination injury.
I remember when my child was first scheduled to get vaccinated and my husband made an off-hand remark about how his dad (my son’s grandfather) asked about whether the vaccines would be safe for him, and that it is known to cause autism. I remember getting so fucking angry, not just at my husband, but at my father-in-law for poking his nose where it doesn’t belong. I told my husband, “Don’t come to me with shit like that because your ‘Father said so. If you go READ UP ON IT for hours and hours and then come back to me with, ‘I have my doubts about vaccination,’ then we’ll talk properly, but if you come to me with ‘Dad said…’ we are NOT speaking.” Then he had the gall to ask me if I had read up on it. I was like: Bitch, what do you think? The vaccinations went as scheduled. Sorry for the profanity, but I was really angry.
You are awesome Anna!
I just don’t understand how anti-vaxers think. To me, not vaccinating your child is as dangerous as not putting your child in a car seat. I had whooping cough 5 years ago at age 33 (I was vaccinated as a child) and also developed pneumonia with it. To say it was the most miserable experience of my life would be an understatement.
if you were vaccinated how could you possibly have gotten it isn’t the vaccine what protects you from getting it
Pertussis vaccines require booster shots
Even if you do believe that the vaccine works (which is debatable considering more children who end up with pertussis were immunized within the last couple of years prior to their illness), would it not have been Katie’s responsibility to get her booster nearly 30 years after her initial immunization? You realize that all vaccines require “boosters” even by the CDC’s guidelines and thus any adult who hasn’t gone for them within the last 5-10 years is equally “unprotected” as unvaccinated children, right?
Our family friend’s older brother, in his forties I believe, got Polio as a child and even then it was rare but his mom decided not to vaccinate him back then and guess what happened! I am never going to understand why any mom wants their child to suffer through chickenpox and measles to gain natural imunity. They wouldn’t need it if the disease was ERADICATED and the way to make that happen is for everyone to be immunized. I am sick to death of hearing the bitching about having to get booster shots. Let me ask you, would you rather suffer the pinch and possible burn of a shot that lasts all of ten seconds, or die of an illness that you could have prevented. The worst part is in the US almost every single child has access to free immunizations so it isn’t about money.
All of my kids are fully vaxxed and I spaced out my youngest child’s shots so he didn’t have so many in one visit. This herd immunity way of thinking is going to kill people. If you travel and are exposed to measles and bring it back with you, then play with the kids that have no immunity, herding won’t work!
The problem with not vaccinating your kids is that you expect them to be protected by other kids presumably vaccinated by less “enlightened” parents. People, herd immunity only works if everyone gets the vaccine. When you don’t vaccinate your child against pertussis, you actually put your neighbor’s newborn baby at risk, since that baby isn’t old enough to be vaccinated yet. I think that anti-vaxers are lousy citizens. It really pisses me off.
I agree. I wish people would stop to remember that vaccinations are for the community and not just a singular health issue that impacts only the child and his or her family. They exist for a reason, unless we want history to repeat itself.
One of the commenters called the anti-vaccine parents ‘anti-intellectuals’, and that’s a very accurate assessment–you could not convince these parents of anything, no matter how logical or legitimate your argument was…
The idea of using individual cases of unvaccinated kids as an argument that vaccines are unnecessary is ridiculous. The efficacy of a vaccine program is measured by monitoring large populations, not individuals. And we participate in vaccine programs to protect large populations, not just individuals.
Of course, we are all human, and it’s always hard to think about others when it is so much easier to just think about ourselves…
My 54-yo mother nearly died of pertussis because some anti-vaccination [self-censored] didn’t immunise their kids – she recovered well, but there’s bound to be people who are less fortunate. These antivaxers should be labelled as a terrorist organisation akin to Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Jemaah Islamiyah, militant IRA etc, as their encouraging the rebirth of these age-old diseases is to me morally tantamount to detonating car bombs or slamming a plane into a landmark.
You realize that the vast majority of children who end up with pertussis are vaccinated, right? And that if your 54-yo mother hadn’t been vaccinated in the last 5-10 years she’s entirely un-vaccinated even by the CDC’s guidelines, right? Moron.
I’m a strong believer in vaccines. It’s a public health issue. There’s a reason Polio is less common than it used to be…because of the vaccine.
Non-vaxed children put EVERYONE at risk. Including adults that have not been vaccinated in a long time and their vaccine has worn off. It increases the amount of hosts for the disease and proliferates it into the community. Yes…there are risks BUT, the benefits far outweigh them. It wasn’t pretty for me to watch my cousin, when I was a child, walk with those funny looking crutches. “Why?” I asked my mom. Because he had polio as a child. It was devastating! People forget how horrific these diseases can be and take for granted (and take advantage of ) the vaccinating that has occurred for years.
Non-vaxed children put EVERYONE at risk. Including adults that have not been vaccinated in a long time and their vaccine has worn off. It increases the amount of hosts for the disease and proliferates it into the community. Yes…there are risks BUT, the benefits far outweigh them. It wasn’t pretty for me to watch my cousin, when I was a child, walk with those funny looking crutches. “Why?” I asked my mom. Because he had polio as a child. It was devastating! People forget how horrific these diseases can be and take for granted (and take advantage of ) the vaccinating that has occurred for years. And by the way, the Taliban would risk their own children just to proliferate horrible diseases in a terroristic way.
go Jessica! Whooping cough hit our home a few years ago and it was very scary. Very awful. Those that don’t vaccinate scare me