There are a ton of flaws in the “logic” of the anti-vaccine movement.
Just consider how many theories they have for why vaccines are associated with autism…
- It’s the MMR vaccine – the Andrew Wakefield theory
- It’s thimerosal – but MMR never contained thimerosal…
- It’s glyphosate – the Stephanie Seneff theory
- It’s the vaccines you get while you are pregnant
- It’s the vaccines you get as an infant – but you don’t get MMR until you are 12 months old
- It’s the vaccines you get as a toddler – but what about the kids who get diagnosed as infants?
- It’s just something about vaccines – but what about the autistic kids who are unvaccinated and whose parents weren’t recently vaccinated?
It’s fairly easy to see that these folks just want to blame vaccines…
The Fatal Flaw in the Anti-Vaccine Movement
That’s not necessarily the fatal flaw in the anti-vaccine movement though.
Is it that all of their ideas and theories are so easy to refute?
- outbreaks start during shedding season?
- vaccines don’t work and we just rename diseases to make them go away?
- if vaccines work, then your fully vaccinated kids aren’t at risk, right?
- vaccine ingredients are toxic, especially the ones that are hidden in vaccines.
- vaccine inserts prove vaccines aren’t safe
- anything that happens after you get a vaccine, even if it is weeks, months, or years later, is a vaccine injury
There are hundreds of these types of arguments that anti-vaccine folks use to scare parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.
Of course, none are true.
That it only takes a few minutes of research to prove that they aren’t true isn’t the fatal flaw in the anti-vaccine movement though.
The fatal flaw is that when enough folks listen to them and immunization rates drop, we get outbreaks.
“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
Ironically, Dr. Bob obviously knew this would happen, warning folks not to tell anyone – in his book that likely increased fears about vaccines!
And what happens once we start to see a lot more outbreaks?
In addition to a lot of unvaccinated kids getting sick, folks line up to get their kids vaccinated and protected.
This is a cycle that experts have talked about for some time.
It’s the reason that the anti-vaccine movement, which has been around for hundreds of years, can never really win. They will never take us back to the pre-vaccine era.
Anytime their ideas take hold a little too much, nature fights back. Diseases, especially measles which is extremely contagious, come back. And we have to work to control the outbreaks.
But that more kids eventually get vaccinated in outbreaks isn’t the only fatal flaw in the anti-vaccine movement.
Tragically, the other fatal flaw in the anti-vaccine movement is that since these are life-threatening diseases, people end up dying from vaccine-preventable diseases. And the risk of that happening goes way up during a large outbreak.
Vaccines aren’t perfect, but they are safe, with few risks. They are also very necessary.
It shouldn’t take an outbreak to convince you to vaccinate your kids.
More on The Fatal Flaw in the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- VAXOPEDIA – Anti-Vaccine Points Refuted A Thousand Times
- VAXOPEDIA – Why Are Anti-Vaccine Folks Panicking over the Measles Outbreaks?
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- Don’t Be Distracted by Vaccine Myths and Misinformation
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- WHO – What are some of the myths – and facts – about vaccination?
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- Misconceptions about Vaccines
- Anti-Vaccine Myths, Pharma Shill Gambit and Vaccine Court
- The Zombie Apocalypse of antivaccine myths that won’t die
- A taxonomy of reasoning flaws in the anti-vaccine movement.
- The Anti-vaccination Movement: A Regression in Modern Medicine
- Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm–an overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement.
- Fact or fallacy? Immunisation arguments in the New Zealand print media.
- WHO – Six common misconceptions about immunization
- Teen Gets Vaccines During Outbreak, Despite Moms Belief
- Vaccinations jump 500% in antivax hotspot amid measles outbreak
Last Updated on February 10, 2019