Controversial, anyone?

Oh, Facebook, you're good for so much: I can share photos and info for my far flung family and friends; they can share photos for me (not specifically, but you get the gist); I can catch up on current events; I can share what I believe to be the injustices and failings of the world and you can tear me a new one over it. It's a beautiful thing, really.

It seems there is a new hot topic to rage over every day. A new cause to support. A new soapbox to climb. It just so happens the topic that has me blogging today is not a new one but a decades old one. Only a couple of decades, sure, but it pre-dates Facebook and that makes it ancient, no?  But Facebook has given it new life (more so the Internet and social media as a whole but let's just stick to my frame of reference, m'kay?). I've always been fairly liberal. A "you have the right to fill-in-your-blank-here kind of girl", unless your fill-in-your-blank is harmful to yourself or others and/or based on ignorance.  And while that is not always as black as white as it looks on paper, it has served me well. Don't be mean and at least try to have an educated opinion about whatever it is you've taken up.

"What is it that's got you so up in arms you've decided to blow the dust off ye ol' blog, Eyvi?" you ask. Vaccines, that's what. I heard that sharp intake of breath, I know what you're thinking. It's a loaded topic. One people feel very strongly about. Well, me too, gosh darn it. And I've got something I'd like to say about it. I'd like to direct you to the title of the blog if you feel that I should keep my opinions to myself, thankyouverymuch.

In 1998, Dr Wakefield released research that suggested a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism and bowel disease (Ha! Never heard about the bowel disease correlation, had ya?). No one else could support his findings. NO ONE. Eventually he admitted that he falsified his findings. So, if you're one of the parents that believes your kids going to catch autism from the MMR vaccine, or all vaccines because, again, bet you didn't know he focused on that one, than stop it. The doc you've put your faith in and entrusted the health of your children to LIED. For money. The Lancet retracted the original article and most of the other supporting doctors have withdrawn their support.

Are the additives in vaccines your concern? Formaldehyde? Removed before packaging.  Thimerosal or mercury. Despite not being able to find convincing evidence of harm the CDC ordered it removed or used sparingly in vaccines in 1999. It is currently only used in Flu vaccines.

There also appears to be some asinine idea that they don't even work. I can't even with that.

Let me tell you why I feel strongly about having your kids vaccinated. Because if you don't you put other kids at risk. Not mine, because mine have been vaccinated (and neither of them is autistic nor did they die on the spot or sprout a second head). There are people who can't, for one reason or another, receive a vaccination and because you've decided you know better than your medical professional, you are putting that person and others like them at risk. You've decided that the info you found on the internet or heard some zealous actor tweet about was enough to warrant putting others in danger.

Congrats on being selfish.

My kids had the chicken pox when they were little. My doctor had offered the vaccine but it wasn't yet covered by our insurance at the time and at $100 a pop, I couldn't afford it. If I had my time back I would have made sure we could have afforded it. Miss Sprite spent 4 days in bed. She had a fever of 104 degrees that piggybacking Tylenol and Motrin couldn't break. She had blisters everywhere: her eyelids, nostrils, throat, EVERYWHERE. I have never seen anyone so miserably uncomfortable. Calamine lotion and Aveeno oatmeal baths did diddly to relieve her. She couldn't eat. She could barely suck on the freezies I kept offering and or swallow the Pedialyte I insisted on. It was heartbreaking. I would have given anything to be able to help her. And you are willfully saying you are okay with putting your kids at that kind of risk.

Smallpox is gone. Polio is all but gone. Measles have been popping up and spreading fast. Who do you think is to blame for that? Vaccines work. If you aren't vaccinating your kids you ARE putting other people at risk, including your children. Trust me, if they have to go through what my daughter went through, you'll wish you had vaccinated them.