Maggie's Farm

"Who really owns our body?"

I am sympathetic to this arguement. I want smaller government and more freedom. But where to start? Certainly there is zero arguement that anyone can make that seatbelts, life jackets or motorcycle helmet are necessary for the betterment of society. My seatbelt or my motorcycle helmet can only save me. So lets get behind repealing all the laws that are not intended to benefit all of society but are nothing more than sticking the governments nose into private lives. Then the question is can the government force me to put a seatbelt, a helmet or a life jacket on my children? This gets right to the meat of the problem. Can the government force me to protect my children? Haven't even touched the more complex issue of can the government force me to protect all of society. You would have to look for a long time to find someone who believes we should all be allowed to drive around without seatbelts and car seats for our children. So I come back to the question; who owns our body? It's not black and white it's grey. Some things make so much sense that it would be foolish and criminal to not take those steps to insure the safety of innocent people. So lets agree that you as an adutl can choose to not wear seat belts or helmets or life jackets but everyone under the age of 18 must and to not do so would be punishable. That probably wouldn't get you an arguement with most people. So now we come to vaccinations. Should a parent be able to refuse to vaccinate their child against really dangerous childhood diseases? Clearly by the same standard that we require seatbelts the answer must be "no! But there is an additional factor as well; that vaccinations not only protect those who get them but protect innocent potential victims who for various legitimate reasons cannot undergo a vaccination. The answer when it comes to vaccinations is in fact a double "no!". In a modern society vaccinations are and shoud be mandatory.

I am not unsympathetic to many of your points. But when it comes to vaccinations I do disagree. It is not the same thing as Ebola was. It is not like the low flush toilet. And I'm not sure that the Amish are free of illnesses or have never infected anyone else. That is one of those things that they probably don't talk about.
Vaccines and the effect they have had on humans is the biggest story of the 20th century. WW II caused the deaths of between 50 million and 100 million people and vaccines is a bigger story then even that. Vaccines have saved more lives then all the wars in the 20th century took. Vaccines work extremely well. You will hear, from the antivaxers, that vaccines "cause" health problems and even deaths but in general this isn't true. In those rare, very rare cases when there is an apparent reaction to the vaccine it isn't the vaccine that poisoned or sickened the individual it is that individual's own health and immune system that is at fault. Just as eating peanuts doesn't arbitrarily randomly kill or injure one person in 100,000 vaccines don't randomly injure one in a million. There is an allergy or an immune system problem or some other medical condition that the person has that causes a reaction. To some this point does not matter. I get that. If you or a loved one is one of those people with an undiagnosed immune system problem and the vaccine triggers a reaction you don't care that it isn't the vaccines fault. You don't care that almost any medical treatment, even a common blood test might trigger the same response. To you it is the vaccine. I can't change the fact that 1 in a million might have a reaction or 1 in 20 million might die after a vaccination. All anyone can hope to do is understand it and explain it.

But make no mistake, that is NOT what the antivaxers are doing and not what the predatory quacks and self styled guru's of natural health are doing. They are lying, exaggerating, dissimulating and scare mongering. Not for the good of mankind but for fame, notoriety, to sell products of their own or to facillitate ambulance chasers. They weave an appealing story, they seduce the innocent and ignorant and they even tempt the people who should now better. But they are wrong.