Letter: Debunking the theories of the anti-vaccine movement

The anti-vaccine movement has been growing in the last while, and the damage they have done is getting more and more widespread.

They scream at us that any actions we take to stop them is a censorship, a repression and a violation of freedom of speech. You have the right to say pretty much whatever you want. However, you do not have the right to spew lies that will get innocent people killed.

They point out that there’s Big Pharma putting all kind of unnecessary and toxic drugs in the vaccines. That right there smacks of paranoia.

Big Pharma does not make money off vaccines. Why do they develop them? So that instead of a 50-per-cent death rate by the age of five, we have a fraction of a percentage.

There are toxins in the vaccines: Of course there are. That’s why we pay chemists and scientists to figure out what our body can handle, so that the vaccine works and we don’t die of stuff like polio.

There’s more people with disabilities today: Well, of course this is related to vaccines. You know why? Vaccines have increased the survival rate of the population from 50 per cent to more than 99 per cent. That means children with weakened immune systems are given a fighting chance to survive.

Autism is caused by vaccines: Nope. Not a shred of evidence there. There has been around 400 studies done and not one of them has found a link.

That one study making a connection was peer-reviewed and found to be done without the proper scientific controls in place, done without effort and wasn’t actually remotely done in a scientific manner. A Grade 7 student could do a better study than that.

Autism has been increasing: No. It hasn’t. The numbers are actually about on par now as in the last 20 years. It’s still holding at 1.79 per cent of the population with autistic behaviour, as an estimate whereas the numbers currently show 1.2 per cent of the population are confirmed autistic.

Children have reacted badly to the shots: That is true. The shot itself isn’t harmful. What children tend to have a reaction to would be an allergy. There are people that are allergic to needles, or the chemical compounds in the vaccines.

Diseases are falling: Yes, disease rates are falling. Vaccines is a part of that, and so are other methods we have taken to combat viruses.

My point is that the vaccine is safe for 99.99 per cent of the population. It’s not safe for those with near-nil immune systems such as those with cancer, autoimmune disorders and allergies.

I will not have my children grow up fearing polio because someone freaked out over a 0.001 percent chance of a complication and spread outright lies out of fear. They do not have the right to that to my children.

They do not have the right to bring back polio, measles and all those viruses we have spent several centuries trying to wipe out.

We must draw the line in the sand and end this threat now before it spirals out of control or our children will never forgive us. Above all, we must never cease educating the population about the dangers ignorance brings us.

Travis Morgan
Whitefish