Fear and ignorance

The ambiguously named "Do Not Vaccinate" (DNV) has posted something rather telling on JABS today.

I don't have much contact with other children and the only people I know of who've had measles and whooping cough are myself and friends the same age who all made a full recovery. I am concerned about the childhood illnesses, but the vaccines frighten the hell out of me and I would not let my daughter have them under any circumstances.

While it's a bit obvious to say that DNV is unlikely to have much contact with people who didn't make a full recovery from measles, because they're, um, dead, the telling bit is the last sentence. "Vaccines frighten the hell out of me and I would not let my daughter have them under any circumstances."

The reason DNV, and I'm sure a lot more people are frightened, is two-fold. Firstly, having an vaccination is a medical procedure. I'm not, and I'm sure DNV isn't a doctor - we don't instinctively know everything about the human body, and there's always going to be that element of worry with any medical procedure, whether it's having a wisdom tooth removed, heart and lung transplants, or having a vaccination.

The second reason is linked to the first - the fear of vaccines is fermented by morons and agenda pushers like John Stone and Jackie Fletcher (with the help of the Daily Mail and idiot broadcasters like Jeni Barnett). They succeed in their campaign to persuade parents not to vaccinate by deliberately spreading misinformation and lies. It's in human nature to mistrust authority, and lying to parents inflates this mistrust. Positive vaccination stories ("Lots vaccinated, nobody ill!") don't sell papers, while positive and accurate information is rubbished as the voice of the authorities, and not to be trusted. Anyone supporting vaccines is rubbished as a "Big Pharma stooge" - and what's an easier target for vitriol than "Big Business"?

So - parents like DNV aren't vaccinating their children to potentially save their lives because of a lack of good information from what are seen to be "unbiased" sources (don't forget, the likes of Stone and Pigfucker can spin the World Health Organisation as the instrument of Satan and the Bavarian Illuminati), through fear born of ignorance, and because of the mendacity of the JABS regulars and the likes of Jenny McCarthy and Generation Rescue.