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 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.
Can you believe that there were only 37 measles cases in 2004?
This year, we sometimes get reports of 37 cases in a week.
What happened?
A rise in measles cases all over the world happened. And since folks do travel, that led to outbreaks in any community that doesn’t have high rates of vaccination.
How an Anti-Vaccine Safety Handbook Has Caused the Longest Measles Outbreak in Recent History
And that’s where the PEACH Vaccine Safety Handbook comes into play.
Since at least 2014, the PEACH project folks and have been distributing their magazines filled with misinformation about vaccines in Orthodox Jewish communities.
In addition to Lakewood, the PEACH magazine was sent to “a mailing list that included a comprehensive directory of Pittsburgh families affiliated with various branches of Orthodoxy.”
And it found its way to Brooklyn and other Orthodox communities. Many of the same communities where we are now seeing the largest measles outbreaks in recent history, although there are plenty of outbreaks in other places too.
Surprisingly, PEACH is pure PRATT – anti-vaccine points refuted a thousand times.
The cartoons were a nice touch, but should have been a tip-off that none of it was true! There is even a cartoon about the HAZMAT myth.
It all does look very official and sounds scary though, so it is easy to see how parents could be mislead by the magazine, especially when they seem to cite references for all of their “facts.”
This PEACH timeline was originally posted on several anti-vaccine websites back in 2007…
But let’s look at some of the facts in the above timeline:
is there any reason why Germany might have seen a rise in diphtheria cases in 1945?
Ghana was not declared measles-free in 1967. Unfortunately, Ghana is still not measles-free…
while the SV40 virus did contaminate some polio vaccines, it has not been associated with causing cancer or any other problems
whooping cough cases rose in Sweden and the UK because they stopped using the DPT vaccine in the late 1970s and 80s over fears of side effects. Of course, we now know that these fears were unfounded and many kids suffered because those fears were hyped by a few doctors, the media, and players from the start of the modern anti-vaccine movement
frivolous lawsuits over DPT side effects is what led to the rise in DPT prices
Jonas Salk testified that “mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases in the USA since 1961” because the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines had already controlled wild polio in the United States!!!
What about the idea that “the February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine?” That’s actually kind of true. But it was just a survey of a small number of employees at Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center, most of whom believed that they actually were immune because they had likely been exposed to rubella so much in the past.
The rest of the magazine continues with the same kind of propaganda, trying to make folks think that vaccines don’t work, vaccines aren’t necessary, and that vaccines are dangerous.
I wonder what they say about Shaken Baby Syndrome? Is it a vaccine injury too?!?
As we have seen with these growing measles outbreaks, although it makes a catchy slogan, you can’t always vaccinate later. You can wait until it is too late.
“I can only conjecture. But it has to be a combination a propensity towards conspiracy theories and religiosity gone awry based on bad information and in my view a gross misunderstanding of Halacha.”
AntiVaxxers – Religious Views Gone Awry
And that’s how you end up with the longest lasting measles outbreak in the United States in nearly 20 years.
More on How an Anti-Vaccine Safety Handbook Has Caused the Longest Measles Outbreak in Recent History
Apparently, Jamie McGuire is a best-selling author.
According to Yahoo Lifestyle, she is the “author of 20 books in the New Adult genre (for ages 18-30), including Walking Disaster — which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists — as well as the apocalyptic thriller Red Hill.”
And she wants everyone to know that she does not consent!
Can You Prove That Jamie McGuire Books Don’t Make Teens Do Drugs?
What does Jamie McGuire not consent to?
Since her whole post is about proving this and that about vaccines, which she seems to think are bad, I am guessing that she does not consent to getting vaccinated or to vaccinating her kids.
The thing is though, no one is trying to force her to vaccinate her kids.
You can just say that you don’t want to vaccinate your kids, coming out as another anti-vaccine pseudo-celebrity, without hijacking “I do not consent” messaging.
Anyway, her concerns about vaccines have been addressed. Indeed, they have been talked about a million times. If she were truly aware, she would stop being misled by anti-vaccine arguments that scare parents away from thinking that vaccines are safe, with few risks, and necessary.
“In 1979, the Swedish medical society abandoned whole-cell pertussis vaccine and decided to wait for a new, safer, more effective vaccine – a strategy that was soon adopted as national policy. During 1980-83, annual incidence for children aged 0–4 years increased to 3370 per 100000, with rates of serious complications approaching global rates. In subsequent years, Sweden reported more than 10000 cases annually with an incidence exceeding 100 per 100000, comparable to rates reported in some developing countries.”
Ganarosa et al on Impact of anti-vaccine movements on pertussis control: the untold story.
Pertussis came back.
In fact, endemic pertussis came back.
“Our evaluation of pertussis in the unimmunized child population gave an answer to the question of whether pertussis nowadays is a harmless disease which does not demand general vaccination. The present situation regarding pertussis in Sweden and the low efficacy of the antimicrobial treatment indicate an urgent need to prevent the disease by general vaccination as soon as a safe and effective vaccine is available.”
Romanus et al on Pertussis in Sweden after the cessation of general immunization in 1979.
