Are you skeptical about vaccinating your kids?
That’s good!
You should be skeptical of just about everything. Many of us are.
It’s good to ask questions, do research, and doubt what people tell you…
The thing is, you can’t just be skeptical about stuff you don’t want to believe. You should be skeptical about everything. So don’t blindly buy into anti-vaccine arguments because they’re what you want to hear.
They’re likely the type of propaganda you need to be more skeptical of!
More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic
Wait, why would I want you to become a vaccine skeptic?
Well, if you do it right, you are going to realize that vaccines are safe, with few risks, and that they are very necessary.
Our first 8 questions hopefully got you started on seeing through anti-vaccine arguments, but here are some more you should think about:
- If the MMR vaccine is associated with autism, then how come the incidence of autism went up when they stopped using the MMR vaccine in Japan? Remember, Japan stopped using the combination MMR vaccine in 1993 because it had been linked to aseptic meningitis (the problem was with the mumps vaccine strain they were using, which was different than the one used in the United States, where there was no aseptic meningitis issue). And rates of autism have increased in Japan, just as they have in other countries. So much for the idea that the MMR vaccine is associated with autism, right?
- If vaccines don’t even work, then how come every time vaccination rates have dropped in an area, we have seen outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases?
- If vaccines are associated with SIDS, then why did the incidence of SIDS go down so much when we put infants to sleep on their backs, even as they were vaccinated and protected against more diseases?
- If vaccines don’t really work and we just change the names of the diseases, like smallpox became monkeypox, then where are all of the kids with monkeypox?!?
- If vaccines are associated with SIDS, then why didn’t the incidence of SIDS go down in Sweden when they stopped using the DPT vaccine between 1979 and 1996?
- Why didn’t the reanalysis of CDC’s MMR autism data, the whole thing behind the CDC Whistleblower and Brian Hooker’s paper (which ended up being retracted), find an association between the MMR vaccine and autism in everyone, not just the small subset of African American males?
- If the Brady Bunch measles episode was supposed to push the idea that measles was mild, then why did Marsha end up vaccinating her own kids?
- What else do you believe? Do you believe in chemtrails? Homeopathy? That you shouldn’t treat kids with cancer with chemotherapy?
Be more skeptical of the misinformation that anti-vaccine folks use to scare you away from vaccinating and protecting your kids.
More on Becoming a Vaccine Skeptic
- Anti-Vaxxers Should Be Able to Answer These Questions Correctly
- How Do Anti-Vaccine Folks Think?
- Answers To Frequently Asked Questions About Immunizations
- Making Sense of Anti-Vaccine Arguments
- What Are the Pro and Con Arguments for Vaccines?
- Inappropriate Use of Vaccine Studies
- Answering Vaccine Skeptics
- The Viral Threat: Measles and Misinformation
- Study – No effect of MMR withdrawal on the incidence of autism: a total population study.
- No, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is NOT a “vaccine skeptic.” He is antivaccine. So is Donald Trump.
- Vaccine skeptics – let’s be clear, they are really science deniers
- Scientific skepticism – the anti-vaccine zealots regularly misuse the term
- Study: “Belief in Conspiracy Theories Associated with Vaccine Skepticism”