The Story:
A social media storm erupted recently when an anonymous individual said that he has figured out an alternative to vaccination … and the alternative sounded a lot like … vaccination. Some commenters have suggested that the incident illustrates ignorance at the heart of the anti-vax movement, a multifaceted alliance of people who believe that vaccines are bad for children or, in a humbler formulation, that parents should be allowed to opt out of the vaccination of their children.
The Comment:
In the middle of January 2020 someone wrote on Facebook, “I am not antivax, but I understand why some parents do not want those chemicals in their children’s bodies. I think instead of chemical shots, the doctors should give a small piece of the virus, so the body can build natural immunity, like the chicken pox playdates we had as kids.”
That, of course, is exactly what ‘the doctors’ do when they vaccinate a child.
It is probably too much to suggest that this one incident discredits the whole of the anti-vax movement. But the brouhaha has done no good for that cause!
The Think to Know:
Marianne Williamson, who had briefly made mandatory vaccination an issue in the presidential campaign, has dropped out of the Democratic primary sweepstakes, so that this Facebook post will likely have little impact on that sweepstakes this year. But the issue will not disappear.
