The vaccine wars

Well, I have done something that I know I never should have done.  I entered the abyss that is online discussions.  More specifically, I waded into the "to vaccinate or not vaccinate" debate.  Katie and I are both staunch pro-vaccination.  I think even more so now that we have a child.  We want her vaccinated, and we expect everyone around her to be, too (which reminds me, I'm supposed to remind my parents to get their flu shots before coming out here in October, since Penelope is both too young to be vaccinated for the flu and most at risk for complications).  Anyway, I digress (as usual).  So, I'm on Amazon.com, looking at diapers, and down at the bottom, I see a discussion thread titled "To vaccinate, or not, that is the question."  This thread already had 2000 posts on it, so, against my better judgment, I started reading some of the most recent posts.  In general, people were being civil, and trying to make rational arguments, but it was clear that the anti-vaccination side was "winning," and by that I mean that they were sticking around while the pro-vaccine folks got frustrated with them and left the discussion.  I think this is the general problem with the debate.  Those in favor of vaccination frequently give up and call the other side "crazy" and move on.  The result is that such message boards get filled with nonsense and make it seem like everyone believes that vaccines are bad and, the pro-vaccination side ends up sounding like whiners.  So, at 10:30pm (not the best time to make rational decisions), I decided to enter the fray and take a stand in the name of pro-vaccination.  The only problem is that while I know that most of the anti-vaccine research is bubkus, I'm not deep enough in the field to know which studies to cite, or what the real rates of this and that are.  So, I tried to actually stay away too much from the science, and focus more on why I believe folks should vaccinate their children even if their are risks (which, of course, there are).  Anyway, you can read my first post here, and then scroll down to see all the continuing discussion (warning, it's getting long).  For better or worse (probably worse), my post sparked some interesting responses.  This morning, I then tried to address some of them, but now the responses are greater than I can keep up with.  So, tonight, I'm planning to wade in one more time and see what happens.  This could really become a full time job.  But, I would also invite any of you out there who agree (or disagree) to share your views, and stick around to fight for them!  One thing I'll point out, though, is if you do decide to post, you may want to go to your Amazon account, scroll down to where it says "Community" and then "Your Public Profile".  From there, on the upper right, you can edit your profile and change your name to a "PenName" so that your posts don't have your full name associated with them.  I don't mind people knowing my first name, but I don't like the idea of someone on the web trying to find out who I am in real life.

So, anyway, yeah, I'm in waaayyy too deep.  Damn Internet!

Tags: 

Comments

I think you really hit the nail on the head--those who are anti-vaccination tend to stick around while those who are pro-vaccination get frustrated and give up, so it looks like the anti-vaccination people are "winning." And I can see why the pro-vaccination crowd would drop out; it can be overwhelming to try and respond with reason to people who are not really interested in reason at all. This is not to say that there aren't risks to vaccination, of course--but from what I've seen a lot of the anti-vaccine arguments come from fear rather than any real evidence. Good for you for deciding to take a stand. You're braver than I am. (P.S. Since Matt and I are also both staunchly pro-vaccination, does that mean Penelope and baby Fox can have a playdate at Christmas?)

Thanks for the support, Celeste. I ended up getting into a long back and forth with two individuals. There is really no convincing people, but I think I was so annoyingly persistent that they gave up arguing with me. It's like they say, if you can't beat them, join them. But it was a ton of work. On the plus side, I learned a lot more about the vaccines that Penelope's getting. The crazy thing about all this is that I would read the same things that the anti-vaccine folks would and come away more convinced then before that vaccines were good (for example, if you do the math, the risk of dying from measles in this country is probably higher than polio, yet more people are scared of polio). Meanwhile, they would read it and say that there is "no evidence" that vaccines are effective, or safe, or whatever they happened to be arguing. So, yes, baby Fox can play with Penelope this Christmas. Just watch out. Our baby is HUGE and will crush your baby! Ok, maybe not. For some reason, I always think of babies as puppets, and playdates as a time for parents to use their puppets to interact with each other. Or sumo wrestle each other!