Good parents vaccinate their babies and bad parents don’t. Or so the media reports suggest. Firstly let me say I’m not for or against another parent getting their child immunised. This is a decision they must make themselves.
There are sound risk-to-benefit arguments for getting a vaccine to the life threatening diseases. I have a grandfather who just survived Polio and can tell you all about it. But not since ‘weapons of mass destruction’ has there been such one sided ‘news’. Some of the reporting makes a Coco Pops ad seem like a well-researched scientific argument. There were emotional interviews from parents of a child that died from a vaccine preventable disease.
But none from any relatives of people who have suffered serious side effects from the vaccine and yes, this does happen. The journalists have decided you need the jab and they will do whatever they need to make you have it.
There must be plenty of doctors feeling silly now, they have wasted time and money learning all about medicine prescription. All they needed to do was get a job at a newspaper and they can advise everyone what pharmaceuticals they need. They don’t even need to see your child face to face!
Each vaccine is huge stress to a child’s immature immune system. Are they healthy enough, are there any contra-indications? Doesn’t matter just line up, No Jab No Play! We’ll even mix a heap of vaccines together in one shot so it’s more convenient.
But “it’s all for the kids”? If certain papers are so worried about the kids, what about that colour insert brochure, eight pages of alcohol ‘specials’? Go down to the emergency ward next Saturday night and see if alcohol plays any part in injuries or deaths. I wonder if there is a kid anywhere in Australia who suffers from some sort of abuse at the hands of a parent or carer under the effects of alcohol. But there’s no urgent story in the paper on banning that.
In fact, you’ll find many paid advertisements to sell more of it. All for the kids? Maybe if the drunk parent got a good deal on their bottle of rum they’ll go easier on the child?
What about obesity, is that a concern for Australian kids at the moment? Try finding the story on outlawing junk food. Surely, somewhere between the full page colour ads for cheap two-litre bottles of soft drink or sugary cereals and fast food, surely, the paper that is so worried about our kids has a story trying to outlaw those products somewhere? I can’t find it.
But I did see other brainless parrots jumping on the bandwagon saying yes it’s just bad parenting not to get your kids immunised. The inspired, critical reasoning on their view? “I got vaccinated and I’m OK!” I’m guessing that the guy who died from it won’t be writing an answer to that opinion any time soon.
If an opinion can become law because people with the power to decide otherwise lack the spine to go against what comes down to emotional blackmail, where next?
There is scientific evidence that a higher BMI increases your chance of many illnesses and death. I’ve got it! Let’s ban the fat kids from school. We’ll make it a law! Parents are too dumb to decide things like that anyway right?
I’m wondering where all the big mouths will be when a parent is told that unfortunately their child ‘is one of the few’ who has suffered a reaction to the vaccine. Japan stopped immunising when at least four babies died after receiving vaccinations. I bet the columns were on a different topic that week.
Where will the ‘know it alls’ be when a devastated parent asks what the hell is Guillain-Barré syndrome and why does my child have it now? Why is a parent considered a ‘conspiracy theorist hippie’ if they want some independent research done into drug safety? At the moment the drug company selling the product, does all the safety checking and reporting. That’s like asking the used car salesman if the car he’s selling is okay.
But vaccines aside, I hope this isn’t the thin edge of the wedge of laws that decide what you must do to your own child.
Media is run by businesses out to make a profit. That’s normal. But when they intentionally sway public opinion into an actual law change, someone out there with a lot of money has to be thinking, how can they get that working in their favour?
Every parent should get involved and do real research and make a well informed choice, whatever they believe is the correct decision, as to what happens to their child. Just hopefully they are still able to legally make that call.
