What I read today was a short set of cited statistics and studies supporting the effectiveness, safety, and broad application of all vaccines. What struck me about this article was not the lack of fact checking on both sides of the issue (such as the claim that the preservative Thimerosal was outlawed in 2001 and hasn't been used since, when in fact the ruling was that it was ordered to be replaced whenever a suitable replacement was found, and by my own personal experience was still in use as recently as 2010), nor was it the complete dismissal of an entire field of study based on the fraudulent findings of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, but instead, it was the systematic presentation of facts and figures in support of the authors point coupled with the expressed dismissal of the anecdotal instances of vaccine linked autism.
I'd like to show you something. This is a Joel -->
Joel is one of our 10 year old autistic twins. When you post an article or opinion completely dismissing the link between autism and vaccines, or any vaccine related injury for that matter, you are dismissing Joel. To me, Jeremy. To my wife, Hannah. To my father, Bryan. To my grandmother, Thelma. To his uncle, Jacob. Whether our story and experience is anecdotal and coincidental or not, it is a defining aspect of our life. In our house, autism and vaccine related injuries have two faces, and their names are Andrew and Joel.
This is an Andrew
The disconnect and anonymity afforded to us by social media and the internet has its advantages, but it also has had a tremendously negative effect on the dynamics of interpersonal relationships. You need look no further than the nearest fast food restaurant and watch a large portion of its patrons who never look up from the screen in front of them to interact with the people around them to see this in action. I have very little suspicion that those of you who post, or even share an article speaking on most subjects, particularly vaccines, do so with the intent of alienating and demonizing an entire group of people who suffer daily. And that's the truth of our reality. I love every part of my boys more than words could possibly express, but a day does not pass when we do not deal with the painful and brutal realities of life with autism. For every one Jenny McCarthy or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who take to the public eye with their stance there are literally thousands who suffer at home, in silence, and often alone. I know that because that is exactly what we did for years. Rejected by friends, family, the medical community, the school system, churches and oftentimes the public at large we shut our doors and mourned our very existence hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel that never seemed to arrive.
Demeaning, mocking, or even simply seeking to disprove our opinion is like trying to steal a part of our identity. And yes, you can fault us for investing too much of ourselves in a single instance, but when all evidences (in our situation at least) point towards it as a logical conclusion, can you really blame us? Maybe you can. Maybe the dismissal is easy for you. Maybe the dismissal is a little more difficult for you now (which I have no shame in saying was my intent). Either way, my story is not the central point of the entire vaccine debate.
The vaccine debate is not, at it's core, about public health, differing opinions, anecdotal instances, or hard statistics and studies. The vaccine debate is, as it's central issue, a philosophical, humanitarian, and liberty issue. Herd immunity seems to be finding it's way into these arguments more and more often, and I believe, will eventually become the lynchpin for the entire vaccine debate. At some point in the future, facing the current (at the time of this writing) 2 confirmed cases of the Ebola virus in the US, the resurgence of diseases like measles, and the persistent fear of biological warfare our society will reach a crossroads where we are forced to decide at what point the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. When do we ask, when do we demand, and when do we force an individual who is guilty of no crimes to subject to a procedure which could possibly do them harm. Before you jump all over me for assuming that there is a definitive link between vaccines and autism and dismissing the idea that vaccines are completely safe, I suggest you do a little bit of research on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, at least someone out there believes that it is possible to be injured from vaccines. Even if the statistical likelihood is so small that many would deem it negligible, does that make it an acceptable practice? Who decides what, and who, are acceptable risks and casualties for such a decision?
Human nature makes it easy for us to demand the safety and security of the many over the few, or even the individual when we find ourselves in the majority. And yet, in spite of the fact that by law an ambulance is forbidden from exceeding the speed limit and is bound by the same laws at traffic junctions as every other civilian vehicle, if you find yourself riding in the back end of one, you want to be moving as quickly as possible towards your destination. Classic stories posed some of these quandaries centuries ago, and Hollywood has recently rediscovered the entertainment value of the heroes dilemma, to save a single soul, or an entire city. When does majority rule supersede the God given inalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness?
These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves. At what point do I decide that your right to choose not to vaccinate yourself and/or your child is less important than my right to be protected from a disease? When does the risk become great enough that my choice is no longer valid? When is the expression/affirmation of my opinion on the matter important enough to alienate or demonize an entire sub-culture?
Parents of special needs children are already fearful that our society is well on it's way in a journey that ends with the euthanasia of the weak, broken, and or non-contributing members of society. Please think twice about the endgame of some of the articles you post or opinions you express. Numbers and percentages are meaningless when I hold my little boy, and I hope they are the same for you.
What I want to communicate with this is two fold: 1st, the faceless enemy that chooses not to vaccinate their child, for whatever reason, is not faceless. We are families who have wrestled with very difficult circumstances and issues and made the decisions we felt were best for our family. Please be mindful of this, not only when forming your opinions, but also when expressing them. 2nd, the main arguments that seem to be recurring in the majority of media I've encountered recently addressing this issue are a very slippery slope and they have consequences that reach far beyond the facts and figures surrounding a simple debate about vaccinations. We like to believe that humanity has evolved beyond the barbaric practices we read about in the history books like genocide, euthanasia, and child sacrifice, but I doubt that any of the civilizations who practiced such atrocities had done anything but delude themselves into justifying their practices in pursuit of progress.
