[SaneVax: If you shop around to find the best car for your needs – are you anti-car? Of course not! So why, when someone asks any sort of question about a vaccine’s safety, efficacy, or need do they get the anti-vaccine label? What suddenly became wrong with asking questions and doing some research before deciding whether or not something is right for you and your family?
If an open honest discussion cannot be held about vaccines, we are going to end up with one of two outcomes. Either vaccines will be forced on everyone regardless of the disability and death they cause some; or medical consumers will reject all vaccines regardless of their potential value. In either scenario it will be children and ultimately society who are the losers. Let’s put some common sense into the debate.]
We’re “Anti-Vaxers” Because We Don’t Have a Choice
By Jennifer Hutchinson, VacTruth.com
The line has been drawn. There are pro-vaxers on one side and anti-vaxers on the other.
Let’s look at each side. The website, ProCon [1], sums it up pretty well.
PRO-VAXERS
- All children should be vaccinated according to the AAP schedule.
- There should be no exemptions because unvaccinated children risk public health.
- Vaccines prevent serious illnesses and death and have, throughout history, eradicated diseases.
- Vaccines are 90 to 99 percent effective. If a vaccinated child does get a disease, it’s milder and less serious.
- Vaccines are safe. They do not cause autism.
- The risks of not being vaccinated outweigh the risks of vaccines.
- Vaccines generate about $20 billion a year in the U.S.
- Vaccines save society money. Every dollar spent on vaccines saves the public $18.40, or $42 billion, in medical costs, missed work, disability, and death. (This amount is from a 2003 article. I’m not sure if it is accurate for today and whether it’s a per-year figure or not.) [2]
ANTI-VAXERS
- Parents should have the right to make an informed choice about vaccines, including refusing them. The government shouldn’t intervene.
- Forcing parents with religious beliefs against vaccines to vaccinate their children violates their First Amendment rights.
- Many diseases were eradicated or almost eradicated before vaccines were available, mostly due to better hygiene and nutrition and clean water.
- Vaccines create artificial immunity, which damages the natural immune system and leaves children more susceptible to diseases of all kinds. Diseases strengthen the immune system and leads to natural immunity. Recent disease outbreaks, such as measles and whooping cough, are mostly among vaccinated children.
- Vaccines can cause serious and sometimes fatal reactions. They can lead to autoimmune disorders and cancer as well as brain inflammation, which can cause autism or death in some children.
- Since diseases aren’t usually life threatening, the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits.
- The lifetime cost to care for a person with autism is approximately $3 million.
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