"You should just keep him inside and homeschool him."

So happy!

So, as many of you know, I am avidly pro-vaccination. I was recently on a pro-Vax board, Shot of prevention, commenting on an article. An anti-vax person came by and commented on my comment, telling me that I should "keep him inside and homeschool him," because she did not want to vaccinate her kids due to Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (Abbreviated FUD) about vaccines. But, even if she was afraid of vaccines, her opinion was that she should be allowed to go to public school while unvaccinated, but that since my son could possibly get terminally ill from a vaccine preventable disease, I should keep him in a bubble. Now, mind you, I do often think about just wrapping him up and keeping him in a bubble so that no one and nothing can hurt him! Especially knowing that there is an anti-vaccine movement, and not many, some but not many, people who are staunchly AV will ever be swayed to vaccinate their kids and themselves.


But, to get back to this comment. This really angered me, as well as some of my very pro-vax friends. The anti-vax movement is definitely based on FUD (and a nutty D-list actress spreading lies) and there are so many lines I hear all the time from AVers. One is "If your vaccines work, why are you afraid of my unvaccinated child?" I hear this at least 2-3 times a day on boards and pages I am on. This is the most illogical statement. Many people are afraid of the unvaccinated due to the diminishing herd immunity that happens when enough of the population is unvaccinated. There are also people for who vaccines just do not take. They do not seroconvert, and thus do not produce antibodies to the vaccination. We also know,  no vaccine guarantees 100% immunnity. Some have only an 80-90% efficacy rate. Therefore, the more people who are not getting vaccinated, the more herd immunity lessens and then people like Ben and his heart buddies, people who the vaccine does not work for and people who can not be immunized for medical reason are the ones most affected. 

This brings up another point. While for some people, a vaccine preventable disease might not be that bad, or even a "right of passage in childhood", for others, these same diseases can be life threatening. For instance, If Ben were to get Chicken pox, or Measles, it would be very critical. We have 72 hours to get him a VZIG or IVIG shot. And even that, the effectiveness is not known, but it is the best preventative they have for immunocompromised patients. This is why I am so very staunchly pro-vax. Not just for my own child. But, also to protect all children like him as well as those who are too young to vaccinate or medically unable. This is one of the differences between pro-vax people and anti-vax people. Pro-vax people worry not only about their own children, but about the welfare of all of those around them. Anti-vax people do not seem to care about any other children but their own. Which, this would be fine if they were basing their decision on any kind of science, or if it was not a public health issue. They are not. Their decision is based on FUD and misinformation. There are many different myths going around right now about vaccinations. Quite a few of them have been refuted here.

Like I said before, I would love to wrap Ben up in a sanitized bubble. But, that is not possible, and it also defeats the purpose of having a heart transplant. We didn't  get him the transplant so that he could sit in our house all day and never see another person. We got him the transplant so he could grow up and live a normal life like any other normal little boy. Now, of course, that means I will forever be nervous about any little germ out there, especially VPDs. And I will be looking closely at the vaccination rates at any school we send him too. And I will be asking the administration at any school he goes to to make sure that we are notified right away if someone in his class comes down with any contagious illness more major than a cold. As I said above, if he is exposed to chicken pox, we have about 72 hours to get him preventative shots. These are all things we need to do to keep him safe so that he can grow up in to a smart, healthy little guy!