Reblog: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All

Re-blogged (with author's permission) from The Fearless Parent, Louise Kuo Habakus. 
Link to original post here (originally posted on The Fearless Parent Mar 31, 2017). 

The title is deliberately provocative, but entirely accurate - do not make assumptions. 


         How The Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All

Editor’s Note: We will be following along with The Truth About Vaccines free docuseries that is launching on April 12 and discussing some of the key issues raised. This post is perhaps the most important backdrop to begin the discussion. Sign up here and follow along with us.

Step back and take a good look. It’s a full blown, parent on parent brawl. I’m struck with an urgency that the vaccine discussion is perilously off track and acutely needs correction. The anti-vaccine controversy isn’t really about disease, public health, science, autism, or chronic illness. It’s not even about vaccines.

It’s about the role of government in our lives

As parents face off and hurl epithets, colossal special interests are having a field day codifying a set of laws that are systematically and comprehensively taking away our fundamental rights. It’s a massive overreach. 

Will you grant government bureaucrats carte blanche to define and ultimately direct the education and welfare of your children across a broad spectrum of issues, and to allow your children to be taken away if you do not comply?
Yes, that’s exactly what this is about.

So stop saying whether you vaccinate

It doesn’t matter. And acting as if it does is a big part of the problem. Whether you choose all, some, or no vaccines, it’s way past time to quit publicly disclosing your family’s personal medical information as a badge of honor. Just because other people are asking doesn’t mean that you should do it.

There are myriad reasons that factor into each family’s decision, relating to matters that are simply no one else’s business. You shouldn’t have to explain or justify any of them. You shouldn’t open yourself to the possibility of needing to explain or justify any of them. It’s entirely feasible to have an educated and thoughtful discussion on vaccination without oversharing. In fact, it’s probably more effective that way.

For a bit of context only. Should couples with a family history of Down’s syndrome be permitted to have children? Should people reveal blood test results that provide a very early warning of Alzheimer’s? Or how about genetic markers whose expression will make you a less desirable employee, mate, or insurance risk? And so on.

This is precisely the point. If we don’t treat this critically important decision as the intensely private affair that it is, then we co-create a culture in which it’s legitimate, then appropriate, and ultimately imperative for others — bureaucrats, doctors, schools, employers, reporters, neighbors — to ask and then tell us what we must think and do. 

Read the rest of the post here. 

I'm looking forward to the follow up post she promises at the end. It's focus is about eliminating parental rights, but I am sure there is cross-over into individual rights and personal liberty. 

Regardless of which political party is in the majority the end result is that our personal liberty is being eroded - and we are complicit in this. We are electing people who look like us (in terms of worldview) and who are doing what we want - providing us "benefits", perpetuating the lie you can get something for nothing. The cost for a false sense of security is being owned. We are on Uncle Sam's plantation. 

Please be sure to read the comments - the author replies to some comments about the title of this piece and I think her reply is accurate.