Dear Anti-Vaxxers,
Let me tell you what a miracle modern medicine truly is. Today, because of years of research and lab tests, we in the modern world can live longer, healthier lives and can avoid many diseases that our ancestors had no choice but to suffer with. Especially diseases affecting infants, children, and adolescents such as myself.
A person with diabetes now has a treatment and can live their lives as they wish, people with heart problems can have a pacemaker installed, a person's poor eyesight can be repaired via laser surgery. All of these things and many more were things that previous generations never could have thought to be possible. Really science has done a lot of good.
However, despite the science and reliability behind many medical treatments there are thousands like you who deny getting a vaccine or getting your children vaccinated.
Now vaccines are something of modern science that are worthy of admiring. I'll tell you why. Here you have an invention of medical technology that prevents a disease from attacking your body's immune system and other systems of the body. Years ago, people did not have the luxury of vaccines and so they had to watch their children and loved ones go through polio, measles, the mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and other devastating diseases that are eradicated now.
How vaccines work is rather simple; the serum contains small traces of the virus (HIV, Meningitis, Hepatitis, the Flu Virus, etc) that enter the body and are immediately attacked by your white blood cells. The white blood cells tear the virus cells apart, which kills the white blood cells in the process, and forms antibodies. The antibodies left over then provide a defense against the virus cell the next time you are contact with it. And thus immunity is born.
If you got sick from your Flu shot then that means your immune system had no defense against the virus in the first place and is developing a way to fight it. That's it.
I am seventeen years old and have been vaccinated multiple times throughout the years for the required vaccinations and nothing is wrong with me. I have never gotten sick from them, I do not have autism from them, and I had no complications from vaccines. I am a perfectly healthy teenager and I attest my good health partially to vaccines.
I know what motivates anti-vaxxers like you. It's fear; an illogical, irrational primal fear generated from misinformation. You fear something bad is going to happen to either yourself or your children (if you have children). But as far as I see, that fear is unwarranted. There is risk in many medical treatments, be it surgery, chemotherapy, or even taking certain medications.
To be frank, the fact that many anti-vaxxers are mothers disgusts me. It disgusts me because I think anti-vaxxers with children are selfish and they are selfish for putting their child and other people's children at risk healthwise. You are only doing what you think is right for your children, which I can understand, but you are extremely misguided. You are not aiding any child by denying them vaccines; you are potentially harming them.
Then again, no one should really be too surprised that anti-vaxxers such as yourself are around. All of us in the developed world take for granted what we have. Hardly a soul realizes truly how lucky we are to have the medical technology and standard of living we have. We don't have to face rampant disease like those who live in poverty infested countries.969Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQJkf9H6jL
You read about the Ebola virus that was spreading in West Africa didn't you? Did you read about the death toll? Did you read about how even doctors and nurse, the people treating Ebola patients, were being picked off one by one because of their exposure to the virus? A vaccine has now been developed to stop Ebola dead in it tracks and you know what? It's been proven to be highly effective in trials.
So tell me this anti-vaxxer; since you are so against vaccines, would you deny the people of West Africa and their children that vaccine? According to you vaccines are dangerous and bad for one's health; yet the one thing that might finally slow Ebola down is your greatest enemy: the "dreaded" and "awful" vaccine!
I sincerely hope for your sake and the sake of the people you love, that you at least consider my words and actually do some proper research of your own. The Internet is not a reliable source; read a medical journal or textbook, read some books on microbiology and human biology, or talk to a doctor.
Yes, talk to a doctor. You may not trust them but they are the ones who went to medical school for several years; not you. They are the ones whose job is know about diseases and conditions of the body. They are the ones whose knowledge is based off of research and credible sources; not some blog on the Internet that is intent on spreading lies and deceit. Journalists are NOT credible sources so why are you relying on them for medical information?
So, anti-vaxxer, I leave you with my thoughts and opinion on this matter. I assume you are a rational human being and will consider what I have said.
Sincerely,
A Pro-Vaccine Citizen
Here's some articles for your reading pleasure:
http://time.com/3982723/changing-minds-vaccines/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/health/guinea-ebola-vaccine/
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