I met one of those anti-immunization parents today. I imagine they spend a lot of time reading sites like these, put up by the holistic "health care" types who probably amongst them don't have two degrees to rub together - let alone any sort of training in biology. Here is a description of the qualifications of the author of the above site:

I was once a victim of the never-ending flow of propaganda from the medical establishment (which I think of as the "disease" establishment because they focus on disease rather than on prevention and wellness) who wants to maintain a monopoly on the word "cure" and who wants us to believe that we have no control over our own health and that our only hope to get "well" is with drugs, surgery and radiation. Below is my account about how I achieved optimum health without drugs, surgery or radiation.

Right. If she can't have perfect health, it must be the fault of doctors. Oh and, by the way, even though she couldn't understand a scientific paper if it was spelled out in one-syllable words, she's going to assert all this stuff she has heard is true.

I couldn't agree more with taking charge of one's own health. But it's not the doctors who want control, it's the insurance companies. There is also a lot for us to learn about some diseases such as cancer - from what I have seen, most forms of chemotherapy are roughly as effective (and counter-productive) as bleeding someone with leeches. But that's just because we don't know enough yet of the different types of cancer that can all look the same, just because they occur in the breast, for example. It's clear from recent developments that some treatments work fantastically well - if your cancer is the right type. We have a way to go in getting people typed properly, but we're getting there.

The science behind the success of vaccines couldn't be more clear, however. While there are risks involved in any activity, medical or non (who knows what environmental toxins have leached into the granola that Ms. Holistic is eating?), it is the risk/benefit ratio that matters when making the best choices for our survival. While the risk/benefit ratio of having chemotherapy is not predictable for a specific individual, and thus easy to second-guess, the risk/benefit ratio for a vaccine is both predictable and extremely low.

The last time I ran across an Anti-Vaccinite I just had to laugh, because she told me she had put off shots for her baby because she felt "his immune system should develop naturally, without anyone telling what to do." I would have explained to her on the spot that something "telling" your immune system "what to do" is exactly how it develops in the first place, but fortunately by this time she had done her internet research and come to the conclusion that it was best to go ahead and get the kid his shots. I was glad to see that the kid may actually end up with half a brain.

But the person I met today just disgusted me, and made me want to go into House mode. When I pointed out that her kids were far more likely to suffer from preventable disease than vaccination side-effects, she didn't respond or look at me. I'm sure she's heard it all from her doctor anyway. But what she and other Anti-Vaccinites fail to understand is that she is nothing more than a parasite on society. Any parent living a hundred years ago would have jumped at the chance to drastically reduce their children's chances of developing a fatal disease, because many of these parents had watched their kids die. A-V parents get away with it now and act smug because of a simple public health phenomenon: if enough of the kids around her kids are vaccinated, then her kids have a low probability of coming down with the disease. Of course, many vaccines are imperfect and the ideal is not to be exposed in the first place - the probability of which drops for my kid when you Anti-Vaccinites are running amok. Hopefully, my kid will never pay the price for your stupidity. But it's much less likely that your kid won't.

Labels: health, humans, vaccines