I'm sure this story from MSNBC will be blogged all over among those who care, but there's just one part of it I'd like to quote here. It speaks so eloquently to the fallacious reasoning, the true lack of knowledge, and, yea verily, the self satisfaction some people just can't help revealing. It's from a mother who has chosen not to vaccinate her child.
"I think doctors tend to be taken back by how much I know,” she said, adding later: “I’m a public health official’s nightmare, not because I’m not responsible, but because I’m too responsible.”
Margulis said she worked hard to boost her children’s own resistance to disease. She nursed two of her kids past the age of 4 and said she makes sure they eat healthful foods and get regular exercise. She believes her children's systems are strong enough to tolerate disease — and even hopes that they'll get the chance to gain natural immunity.
“I would love for my children to have measles,” Margulis said. “Please get me chicken pox and get me measles.”
She rejects the idea that her decision endangers others.
“People say, ‘You’re putting my kid at risk, but that doesn’t make any sense at all,’” she said. “If the vaccine works, I’m just putting my child at risk.”
Are these decisions about her and her amazing level of responsibility and her knowledge and her wonderful decisions and her being someone's nightmare, or are they about her child? If she knows so much, she'd know that back when the only choice for feeding an infant was breastfeeding and the only kinds of foods available were "healthful," pesticide-free foods, and the only way that people spent their days was in physical activity...people still contracted and died from these diseases. If it were as simple a formula as breastfeeding+relatively clean food+exercise, the human race would never have been susceptible to these killers in the first place.
It's a pity that she's proud of being a "public health official's nightmare." Why is she proud of that? It means that someday, she may be the worst nightmare of many other parents who live in her community. It may mean that her own decisions may someday haunt her in her own worst nightmares. Right now, it's just a head-shaking moment that she thinks it doesn't "make sense" that her decisions might endanger others. Down the road, that head-shaking moment could turn into a tragedy.
As for her last comment about putting her child at risk with vaccination--having a child in the first place means accepting that you put that child at risk. Every bite that child takes could be the one the child chokes to death on. Every leaf of fresh organic spinach could be the one that carries uremia-inducing bacteria. Every time they strap into the car could mean death in the next few minutes. Having a child means taking on risks. Being truly responsible means that you do an honest cost-benefit assessment for the risks you can and make honest decisions based on how that assessment turns out, not based on hyerbolic, fearful, control-freak emotions. This woman is so proud of being "responsible"--with the obvious implication that those parents who do choose vaccination are irresponsible, ignorant sheep--yet I can't find any examples from her of exhibiting any real responsibility. Just obvious, narcissistic self satisfaction shining through.
Somebody needs to go back and do a little reading on the facts. She may think doctors are taken aback by her "knowledge," but my guess is there's something else that sends them into shock.
15 comments:
I totally agree with you Emily, on the cost benefits decision, because I was as fearful of menengitus as some people appear to be of "unexplained" autism.
I remember avoiding any kind of public contact with the "crunchies" in our sub-rural town, for the first 6 weeks of my daughter's life because I was worried she might catch something. There was an idea at that time that you could duplicate the affects of vacination with "herbs" and "natural remedies".
So I feel very confident that on balance, the diseases we have avoided are worth any percieved risk. I say percieved as the talk 9-10 years ago in Aus' was about high temp's,febrile convulsions and potential brain damage as a result of an adverse reaction to a jab. (no mention of autism)
10 years later and I am still comfortable with my decision.
My decision. xx
Hammie, exactly. It is a decision for every parent to make, and I know that many parents deciding either way put a lot of thought into that decision. We delayed Prevnar back in the day because it was new and I wanted to research it some more; ditto varicella. We also delayed a few others (Hep) that simply were not mission critical. So...everyone has their own analyses to make. One thing I do know: A one-month-old, otherwise completely healthy infant in our community died from acquiring whooping cough from an unvaccinated, older vector. The baby's lungs essentially exploded. Stories like that--which, unlike vaccine injury stories can become legion, very quickly--really bring reality home.
What gets to me about these quotes and very similar things I've read elsewhere from similar folk is the attitude that they are smarter, better, more responsible, and more "natural" (for lack of a better word) than parents who choose to vaccinate. We obsessively fed our oldest organic foods, he was breastfed, they spend most of their time outside, etc., etc...and even with all the care, knowledge, research et al. we put into our children's upbringing, there are no guarantees--and there's really no reason for a feeling of superiority either way.
I admit to significant irritation with people who don't vaccinate healthy children and yet rely (in this case, openly) on folks like me (you know, the sheep) to do it, thus keeping their own children protected. Oughta be an equal-opportunity risk there, in my opinion, but that probably makes me a Communist. ;)
Phew. That was practically a whole 'nother blog post.
E
Emily,
Thank you for an eloquent and thoughtful post. The sound you hear in the background is my applause.
(Unfortunately I then went to read the full article and the comments (ai-ai-ai) at which point migraine set in. I am beginning to develop a real grudge against the colloquial public use of "educate yourself" and "my research" in this particular arena.)
Thanks for keeping it real.
Regan
We had a whooping-cough scare in my congregation when an unvaccinated older child brought it to a church event (arrived coughing, was diagnosed after the fact), and my kiddo and a couple of others were not yet old enough to be fully vaccinated. Fortunately the little ones all stayed healthy, but it could have been tragic.
Ack. Just ACK.
Are all the parents who are advocating for vaccinations are fully vaccinated as well? The way the comments are posted here tells me that the moment you meet someone who has this and that disease, you will or might have it. You see, I had mumps, measles and chicken pox when I was young. I did not die unfortunately or fortunately. My siblings had small pox and I did not have it. I had mumps but my siblings did not. It is an over reaction and really, it is too much.
I don't think anyone on here is "advocating" for vaccines, per se, but instead taking issue with the fact that some people seem to view those who vaccinate their children as inferior, uninformed sheep.
I was fully vaccinated with everything one could vaccinate against in 1968 and after. That did not include chicken pox, which I caught from my sister when I was 14 years old and suffered from severely, with high fever and delirium and missing two weeks of school, among other things. Oh, and scars.
What would be too much is if a child died from any of the illnesses against which we vaccinate when that death is avoidable, and when I say "illnesses," I'm not talking only about measles or chicken pox. I notice that I have yet to see an antivaxer call out to polio or diptheria or whooping cough or tetanus and pray that their child gets it.
Over a hundred years ago, everyone at nothing but organic food, and most everyone got lots of exercise, and breastfeeding babies was the only way to do things.
Despite those things, thousands of people died every year from diseases we now vaccinate against. A shocking number of babies never lived past their second birthday.
Want to claim the social health improvements all on good hygiene? They have plenty of good hygiene in Switzerland and the UK, where these diseases are still spreading around, and being brought to to the US and other countries. What those countries don't have are sufficient vaccination rates.
When antivaxers claim special dispensation for their own children because they do everything "right" they are being so totally selfish, because it's everyone else who gets to suffer the consequences, especially infants and those who are immunocompromised and cannot receive vaccines.
andrea
I heard Tim Buie of LADDERS give a lecture recently called "These Kids."
He talked about how today everyone, and I mean everyone, is an expert. Teachers, parents, friends, neighbors .... everyone. They throw around the phrase "these kids" so generally. Advice is dispensed from every corner.
He went on to say that no one, including himself, is an expert ... not even close. There's still so much to learn about the biology of ASD.
Made sense to me ...
I had the chicken pox when I was sixteen years old. I didn't perish. I really think choosing to vaccinate is the parent's decision.
And I think that, too. And chicken pox is pretty much the most harmless disease against which we vaccinate. How do you think you'd've fared if you'd gotten diphtheria or polio?
The mother who said “People say, ‘You’re putting my kid at risk, but that doesn’t make any sense at all,’” she said. “If the vaccine works, I’m just putting my child at risk.” is Jennifer Margulis, a writer and editor: Toddler True Stories.
Evidently her Ph.D. in American literature did not teach her risk-assessment.
The index case in the 2008 San Diego measles outbreak was an unvaccinated 7 year-old child, who infected several infants too young to be vaccinated.
Liz Ditz:
And don't forget about the people who can't be vaccinated for whatever reason (allergies spring to mind).
It's not even just the babies.
Emily,
Ms. Margulis may be the daughter of Lynn Margulis, or at least she states such on her blog. It might not be relevant to her opinions on public health, and her opinion of her personal qualities (or maybe it is), but I thought that given your biology background that you might find that an interesting sidebar.
Regan
Regan, that is an interesting sidebar. I did not know that. Liz, I took only the briefest look at her site earlier and didn't even note the PhD. Sometimes, doctor of WHAT philosophy is the question that springs to mind when you see those letters.
E
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