The vaccine soap box.

So I am mad at Mr. Andrew Wakefield, because he caused me, even for a brief time, to not trust the expertise of the medical community.  I blame him because he has caused thousands of other parents worldwide to mistrust doctors as well - and more importantly, the power of vaccinations.  I blame Mr. Andrew Wakefield because I believe the decrease in the percentage of vaccinations worldwide makes all of us less safe from diseases that should not be killing our children.  Because the percentage of infants that have been vaccinated has dropped from 95% to 80% in the years since his study was published, it puts more people at risk of contracting  illnesses, and a greater risk of those infected people at getting into contact with others that have also not received vaccinations.  And what of the parents (or grandparents), who DID receive the proper vaccinations in infancy, but for whom the vaccinations have waned with age?  What is to keep them safe at this point?  When measles, whooping cough and countless other illnesses were practically eradicated thanks to vaccines, the whole of society was safe.  Now we are not.

And if you are one of the parents who thinks I am dead wrong, let me just say this.  I totally could be.  I am willing to admit that.  I have been wrong about a whole host of things in my 29 years, and am fully willing to admit I could be wrong about this.  But here is why YOU should be mad at Dr. Wakefield (for you, the believers, I will still call him Dr. Wakefield, as he does for himself.  Although he has no valid medical license, he still graduated from medical school and has a right to that title.) - he is blaming you, not himself, for what has happened.  He maintains that his study was about autism and bowel disease, and never about vaccinations.  It was you - the silly, overreacting parents - who made the link between autism and vaccines, not him.  It is a conspiracy, you see, to discredit him.  And since you were the ones that read his study about "bowels" and turned it into "vaccines", you are partially to blame for what has become of him now.  And I hope you are ashamed for that. NOT! I should have know better when Jennie McCarthy was his spokes woman.



Damn you people who prey on new parents!