I am. So angry.
Listen to me.
I do not care whether or not you believe vaccines cause autism. Even though studies have shown time and time again that vaccines don’t cause autism and the original study stating that there was a link with autism and vaccines was fraudulent, it does not matter.
The reason that people are concerned about vaccines causing autism is because they’re not thinking of the long-term. Here’s the truth: when you are choosing to not having your child vaccinated because you’re afraid of autism, you are actively choosing death over a neurodevelopmental disorder. Let me phrase that in another way – you are either picking autism or death. It doesn’t have to be the death of your child. It can be literally any child. And death is the worst case scenario. Autism is not the worst case scenario. Death is always and will constantly be the worst case scenario.
There are children who are too young to get vaccines. There are kids who have compromised immune systems that cannot get vaccines. Your child getting vaccinated prevents these illnesses from spreading and keeps those children safe. It’s called community immunity and it’s important to maintain that so people don’t die.
tl;dr – Stop being a selfish asshole and get your kids vaccinated. There are worse things in the world than autism.
And before anyone starts coming to my inbox screaming about how “I don’t know how bad autism can be”, I know. Not only do I have a neurodevelopmental disorder, but I also had a friend with a severely autistic brother that could not talk when he was fifteen. I know. And even after witnessing him and being through my own shit, I would still get my kids vaccinated because I want them, and other kids, to live.
WTF, people.
Why the fuck do you think that your fear of autism (ungrounded, btw), beats someone else’s RIGHT TO LIVE?!?!
You don’t want to vaccinate your kid. Goody gumdrops.
You expose your godchild – who’s too young to be vaccinated.
You expose your sister-in-law – who is going through chemo (because having cancer isn’t bad enough), and immunocompromised.
You expose everyone they come in contact with – BECAUSE MEASLES STAYS ACTIVE FOR UP TO TWO HOURS ON SURFACES AND IN THE AIR OF A SPACE.
Number of people killed by symptoms associated with autism diagnoses: 0.
Number of people killed by measles in 2015: 134,000
Number of people killed per annum before vaccination became widespread in 1980: 2,600,000 (paraphrased from WHO).
(Source: World Health Organization. http://who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/)
VACCINATE YOUR FUCKING KIDS.
Measles is not harmless. Researchers noticed that after the measles vaccine came out, kids started dying less from other diseases as well. It turns out that measles suppresses your immune system for YEARS (and no, no amount of vitamin C or zinc is going to make up for that).
Source (on mobile so these are going to be ugly links) NPR article (easier reading, you don’t have to be a scientist): http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/05/07/404963436/scientists-crack-a-50-year-old-mystery-about-the-measles-vaccine
Article in Science (a very highly ranked journal): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6235/694VACCINATE YOUR FUCKING KIDS
I want to make it clear though, it’s not okay to not vaccinate your kid even if it did only hurt your kid. Your child is a human being, not your property and your job as their guardian is to protect them and keep them safe. Letting them die from a preventable disease isn’t exactly living up to the job description. Unless there is a medical reason not to (and a real one, not one you read on some woman in Oregon’s blog), vaccinate your fucking children.
Measles making comeback as parents opt out of vaccines
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