Journalist/Mother decries "stupidity" of "anti-vaxxers"

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Britannica: Michel de Montaigne

Journalist/Mother decries "stupidity" of "anti-vaxxers"

From The Independent:

• The anti-vaxx movement has reached peak stupidity – more than half of US parents believe immunisation causes the flu

I have to say, this is one of the most poorly-substantiated articles I have ever read. The author cites "Researchers in the United States" and then instead of sourcing any actual research she links to a short Beckers Hospital (Chicago) blurb that in turn quotes, without a link to any original statement, what Beckers claims is the opinion -- certainly not a research paper -- of a doctor who works at Arnold Palmer hospital in Orlando, Fla.

After clicking a few links on the Arnold Palmer site, I located a blog contribution written by the named "research" source that merely contained information for parents regarding their kids' annual flu shots (provided you click yet another link, this one to a Facebook page), and with no personal research on the part of the author cited, and certainly not the damning opinion boldly presented by Becker's Hospital and thereafter the Independent's journalist.

Shockingly shoddy journalism to be sure, but when you consider the emotional state of the Independent's contributor ...

• The first time I caught flu, my children got it too. That feeling of helplessness made me resolve that I would never leave them at risk again

... and the quality of the Independent itself, I guess it shouldn't be all that surprising. I feel a bit sorry, though, for this nervous mother who felt a need to express her deep-felt resentment of the less nervous. 

But, oh for pete's sake, girl - if you allow your children to move out of their playpen you're putting them at risk!  If you're feeling helpless, get some emotional counselling. You need to take measures to see that your children are not infected by your fear. And you need to stop trying to infect other mothers with it as well.

Your lack of confidence in the straws you've grasped is revealed when you resort to insults and name-calling in order to dispel the power of the opposite view. You're coming across as more of a rabid anti-antivaxxer-ite than a serious perveyor of ideas and information.

You reduce alternative health practises to the use of "crystals and herbs" when in fact they may  well involve more scientific education and knowledge than you yourself possess.

It also seems to make you terribly nervous that:

• Researchers in the United States found more than half of parents believed their child could get flu from being immunised against it.

Is "believed" your word or the "researchers'" word?  You believe in the vaccine and some others don't, but why should you feel threatened by the beliefs of others?  If you feel safer trusting in drug manufacturers (and keep in mind that your doctor gets his/her information about drugs directly from the manufacturer/profiteer, and not from his/her medical training) what is it to you personally if others don't? How can those others harm you or your family if you are all vaccined up?

Oh, yeah. There's that two week wait until the flu shot starts to work. Well, keep your kids at home if you're that scared, but please don't tell them why. You don't want to produce another set of worried-out-of-their-minds adults.

In fact, keeping the kids at home may actually safeguard others. There's a small chance that your children's nasal flu spray could infect a person with a compromised immune system.

You see, your reasoning for why the flu vaccine can't possibly cause flu is a tad faulty, You don't appear to have heard of "live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV)", which admittedly rarely infects others, but does have the capability nevertheless.

Frankly, you come across as more paranoid than knowledgeable:

• The immunisations are given at a time of year when bugs and viruses are rife and simply leaving the house for a pint of milk means running the gauntlet of germs to get home in one piece.

I feel for you if you're tempted to do without milk for your children, but the truth is bugs and viruses are rife ALL the time. At some point, one has to come to terms with one's environment. In the immortal  words of Gilda Radner as Roseanne Roseannadanna:

• "It's always something — if it ain't one thing, it's another." 

And then she asked:

• "What are ya tryin' to do, make me sick?!"

One also needs to know that "immunised" and "inoculated" are two entirely different concepts. Your child gets "inoculated", but may not necessarily be "immunised".

You don't want to hear, either, that the drug industry is a massive money-maker -- but only if the drugs are sold -- and you are, perhaps unwittingly, doing your bit to that end.  Pharmaceutical products, are heavily advertised, just as are household cleaners and cosmetics, but with the added inducement of gut-wrenching fear.

Even your dog has now been added to the flu-shot consumer base.

Your statement that your family's vaccines are "free" is misleading at best. Everyone's tax dollars pay for them, more and more each year. In Canada, our government has no alternative but to pay for each year's version of a flu vaccine, even if it's been assessed as virtually ineffective, because there are "long-term contracts" with purchase orders made out in advance.

Feb. 2018: QZ.com:

• A paper from Canadian scientists published last week suggests that the vaccine is only 17% effective against H3N2, the strain that’s causing 80% of flu infections. Worse, in those aged 20 to 64, it’s only 10% effective.

And how about an NCBI study done in 2015 that concluded as follows:

• Universal influenza immunization programs, available in virtually every province and territory, may need to be reconsidered in light of emerging evidence that repeated flu shots may blunt the vaccine’s effectiveness in subsequent seasons.

It's sad that you feel compelled to use words like "stupidity" and "tin-hat", and to suggest that the world is deeply indebted to Ph.D's just for the rigors of acquiring the title.  Clearly, you don't realize, or perhaps don't even want to know, that there are Physicians and Ph.D's among the people you call "stupid" and "tin-hat"?

Check out Vaccine Choice Canada where:

• ... we salute the many doctors, retired or otherwise, who’ve spoken out with deep concern about the impact of multiple vaccines on children’s health.

Your insulting language reminds me of a fledgling Born-Again who feels threatened by the evil logic of the non-believer and so has to degrade and deride in order to avoid being influenced. Learn to live and let live just a little bit. And when the flu statistics get you down, consider the number of deaths in vehicle accidents in the United States alone.

You probably allow your children to ride in cars, but what will do you if ever there is a persistent TV campaign, complete with "experts" advocating against doing so, creating guilt and fear in your very soul?

There are people my age (late 70's) who've never had a flu shot and never catch the flu. That's not because they believe in crystals (although that does sound intriguing); it's because they prefer to believe more in the possibility of good health than in the opposite, and they tend not to follow fads.

There are also some who do come down with the flu even though they've had the shot a week or two before. But that's life; that's what it's all about. Aretha Franklin: YouTube

Don't know who said it first -- probably some existentialist --  but the phrase "all events are neutral" is a good one to ponder. It's not what happens; it's our reaction to what happens that creates our reality. Fear can cause us to leap at remedies that may be counter-productive. And it's important to remember that feelings of helplessness, worry and fear are the biggest killers of all.

Try not to pass your fears on to your children. When I was a kid one often heard, "Put on a hat; you'll catch your death of cold."  It was all about hats and boots back then; not vaccines. Wonder what it'll be about in another 70 years when we (well, not me) look back and think how naive we all were, thinking that the germs wouldn't eventually win; forgetting that overuse of antibiotics ruined their effectiveness, and people began again to fear hospitals -- as much as they did in the 18th century when puerperal (child-bed) fever was iatrogenic (doctor-induced) -- because of the superbugs now thriving there.

I think it's well worth being reminded of a caution attributed to the I Ching: "Even if all are terrified within 100 miles, the worshipper does not drop the sacred implements."