So what exactly do anti-vaccine folks want?
What are they trying to do?
Are they trying to scare parents away from getting vaccinating and protecting their kids, hoping to drag us back to the pre-vaccine era?
What Are the Demands and Goals of the Anti-Vaccine Movement?
Of course, some of the folks who are anti-vaccine don’t actually like to be called anti-vaccine. Instead, they prefer to say that they are pro-safe vaccines. So for them, it is rather obvious – they want safer vaccines without toxins.
Now, since vaccines are already safe and don’t contain any toxic ingredients, it would seem like their work is done already, right?
Another goal is having fewer vaccines on the immunization schedule. Jenny McCarthy often pushes the Turn Back the Clock immunization plan, wanting kids to only get vaccines that were on the 1983 immunization schedule, back when kids still died of meningitis, pneumonia, blood infections, severe dehydration, epiglottitis, and cancer from Hib, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, chicken pox, HPV, and meningococcal disease, which are now vaccine preventable.
Other members of the anti-vaccine movement talk about vaccine choice. They want to be able to choose whether or not they should have to vaccinate their kids.
Again, done. No one is forcing parents to vaccinate their kids. We may not have a choice on whether or not your unvaccinated child gets sick and puts someone else at risk for getting a vaccine-preventable disease because they were too young to be vaccinated, had a medical exemption, or their vaccine didn’t work, but you can certainly make the choice to skip or delay any vaccines you want.
“I also warn them not to share their fears with their neighbors, because if too many people avoid the MMR, we’ll likely see the diseases increase significantly.”
Dr. Bob Sears in The Vaccine Book
What are other goals of the anti-vaccine movement?
Have you heard about the anti-vaccine folks who want to quarantine all kids who have recently been vaccinated for at least six weeks? Why quarantine kids who have been vaccinated? They are worried about shedding…
Would anyone go so far as wanting to ban vaccinations? Yup. So much for vaccine choice.
Some others want to rescind the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which they think will help make it easier to sue vaccine manufacturers. That’s one of Andrew Wakefield‘s demands in his movie VAXXED. He and others never mention that if you are suing in civil court, then you must meet a higher burden of proof for vaccine injury than you do in Vaccine Court.
Remember when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. thought he would be appointed to some special Trump commission on vaccines?
“We want safe vaccines, robust transparent science and an honest and independent regulatory agency focused narrowly on public health rather than industry profit.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Mercury, Vaccines and the CDC’s Worst Nightmare
Kennedy’s vaccine commission never happened, but that hasn’t stopped him from pushing for an independent regulatory agency.
I’m not sure who would run or be a part of Kennedy’s independent regulatory agency though, as he believes that “Congress, the regulatory agencies, FDA and CDC, the IOM, the NIH, the AAP, the science journals, the university science departments and the press” have all been compromised by Pharma.
Kennedy also wants thimerosal out of vaccines, which, as most people know, is already out of all vaccines on the immunization schedule, including about 100 million doses of flu shots this past year. But like others, he seems to be moving on to aluminum as his new target.
What else?
- Del Bigtree wants the CDC to remove the claim that “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism” from the CDC website, despite the mountain of evidence that vaccines are not associated with autism.
- A vaccinated vs. unvaccinated study.
- Placebo controlled vaccine trials that only use saline.
- For vaccines to be tested together.
- To take antifreeze out of vaccines.
Fortunately, it is easy to see why the demands and goals of the modern anti-vaccine movement are dangerous, unethical, and unnecessary, and like parents who decide to skip or delay vaccines, will simply put us all at risk for more outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease.
What to Know About the Demands and Goals of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
Whatever their demands and goals of the anti-vaccine movement, the effect is that they are scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids from life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases for no good reason.
More on the Demands and Goals of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- Wakefield’s “Vaxxed” Demands Less Safety
- An antivaxer starts a WhiteHouse.gov petition for a five year moratorium on childhood vaccines. Hilarity ensues.
- Del Bigtree vaccine safety complaints – HHS Vaccine Program responds
- Anti-Vaccine Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Claims to Head Trump Vaccine Panel
- Calling on Congress to Do the Wrong Thing
- Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part IV – Anti-Vaccine Hysteria
- Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
- Quoth antivaxers: “We demand transparency, except when it might embarrass us”
- A favorite tactic of the antivaccine movement: When science doesn’t support you, use the law
- The “One Study,” or why the anti-vaccine movement doesn’t really understand science
- “Vaccine Shedding”: Time Up For Another Vaccine Myth
- Antivax 101: Tactics and Tropes of the Antivaccine Movement
- Jenny McCarthy: “We’re Not An Anti-Vaccine Movement … We’re Pro-Safe Vaccine”
Last Updated on April 13, 2018