Once in a while something shared on the internet comes my way that I feel moved to write about. The below is one such internet gem, a meme shared on Facebook that is frankly, an angry, misinformed rant.

On the surface the meme can seem convincing, but if you spend a little time trying to find studies to back up these statements, it soon falls flat.

So piece by piece I’m going to break it down so that by the end of it, we’ll all have learned some valuable scientific information about vaccines, and understand why the above meme constitutes bogus, manipulative, propaganda.

So let's dig in:

“The diseases haven’t gone away. They are just held in check because sensible people vax their kids.”

While the aim of vaccines is to keep VPD's (vaccine preventable diseases) in check, the stats just don't add up. Despite extremely high and stable vaccination rates, death from infection has actually increased dramatically since the 1970’s – an era when we received over 4 times less vaccines [1-5].

Some people aren’t sensible; they don’t vax their kids. Yes, I’m looking at you, sunshine – you with the Ph.D from Google U and the post-doc from Whale.to.” “

Vaccines have the ability to cause severe, permanent injury, and death [6-8]. While some screening is recommended, infants commonly receive vaccines without any testing and minimal to no screening to verify whether they will react badly. The CDC recommends administering ALL the vaccines a child is eligible for at the same doctors visit – up to 9 vaccines at once [9,10]. This practice has never been studied for safety [11]. This is NOT sensible, it is reckless.

“Because your little cherubs are un-vaxed they are far more likely to catch the diseases. 23 times more likely for whooping cough, 35 times more measles for example.” 

While it's true that unvaxed kids are more likely to show symptoms of VPD's, there's very few studies that show unvaxed kids are more likely to actually contract or transmit VPD's compared to vaxed kids.

That's because there's almost no vaccine shown to protect recipients against INFECTION. Studies show vaccines can reduce symptoms of infection in many recipients, but not ensure protection against contracting or transmitting infection. [12].

“Your kidlets are much more likely to be exposed to the diseases, because anti-vaxers like yourself hang around with other anti-vaxers.” 

This is an assumption that comes with no actual data. Vaccinated individuals are still likely to contract diseases, likely from other vaccinated individuals, because when exposed they may still become infected and pass on the infection – albeit with minimal or no symptoms [12].

While there are some studies that show unvaxed kids are likely to have more VPD's (or at least show the symptoms of VPD's) it's usually in babies too young to be vaccinated anyway, so it doesn't really count in this situation. These limited studies also don't take into consideration the overall health of vaxed vs unvaxed populations, they only test for VPD's. What about all the other diseases and illnesses we face which vaccines are implicated in causing?

Non-communicable diseases including cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neurological disorders have now overtaken communicable diseases as greater threats to our populations health. This is why advocacy groups have been calling for an independent, saline-control, vaxed vs non-vaxed study analyzing the overall health of both groups. So we can understand once and for all whether the benefits of vaccinating outweighs the risks.

“Your little darlings then spread their vile viruses and bacteria to innocent children who are too young to be vaxed. Those innocent children get sick with killer diseases spread by people silly enough not to vax – like yourself.” 

"Vile viruses and bacteria” are more likely to be found in the vaccinated population. Many outbreaks of disease occur almost entirely or exclusively in vaccinated populations. As we know, vaccinated kids are still likely to contract and pass on infections to vulnerable individuals because most vaccines DON'T protect from contracting or transmitting VPD's. [12]

Additionally, vaccine recipients can spread disease when shedding vaccine viruses after being vaccinated with live vaccines [12]. Vaccinated kids are a danger to vulnerable individuals, just as unvaccinated kids are.

“No vaccine is 100% effective; some vaxed kids will also catch your revolting diseases. We need high vax rates for herd immunity.” 

"Revolting diseases" don't belong to unvaxed kids anymore than they belong to vaxed kids. The only difference between a vaxed and unvaxed child is that when the vaxed child contracts a "revolting disease" they likely won't show symptoms. But it doesn't mean they don't have the infection lurking inside them, unknowingly spreading it everyone around them - which makes them possibly even more dangerous than an unvaxed child. At least when unvaxed kids get a VPD they'll likely show symptoms so their parents know to keep them at home.

Also, we've had extremely high and stable vaccination rates for over a decade, it has not stopped epidemics [1,2]. If a vaccine isn't effective enough, the answer isn't forcing EVERYONE to get the vaccine, risking side effects possibly even worse than the VPD the vaccine was trying to protect from. The answer is to make the vaccine more effective, and safer while you're at it.

It's also worth repeating that death from infectious disease has increased dramatically since the 1970’s – an era when we received over 4 times less vaccines.

“Infect enough children and some of them will die, more of them will suffer permanent disability, and all of them will have experienced an unnecessary and unpleasant disease.” 

What about death, permanent disability and unnecessary and unpleasant experiences caused by VACCINE INJURY? Because the necessary studies comparing the overall health of non-vaccinated vs vaccinated populations have not been done, whether the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks is still unknown. Forcing parents to take that gamble is totally unethical.

“All of that suffering will be YOUR fault for not vaxing your rugrats.” 

No, it won't. Trying to blame non-vax parents for the fall-out of ineffective, dangerous vaccines is truly despicable. If you want someone to blame, the blame lies squarely and solely with vaccine manufacturers.




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