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So, I'm going to rant for a second. A friend of mine is a single mom with an autoimmune disorder that forces her to take immunosuppressants. I have Crohn's disease, and so I find myself on them from time-to-time myself, so I take this story somewhat personally. 1/
Anyway, her immune system affects her lungs, and she's constantly down with various lung ailments. She plows through, because, she's a badass. But *this* time, she wound up at the hospital. Not so much because of her immune issues, but because of FREAKING WHOOPING COUGH. 2/
Now you say "Sean, how does she get whooping cough? Wasn't she vaccinated?" The answer is yes, she was, but the immunosuppressants affect those vaccines, and leave her vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. This isn't a problem, AS LONG AS THE OTHER PEOPLE AROUND HER VACCINATE.
And I say "her" but it is also me if I am on immunosuppressants. And this is the bottom line. People sometimes view vaccination is a personal choice, because they see it as only affecting them and their family. 4/
I'm broadly speaking comfortable with this mode of argument, and am generally speaking willing to give a lot of leeway to people in how they raise their kids, since to me families are sort of the "quarks" of our society. 5/
But vaccination doesn't just affect you. If you don't vaccinate yourself/your kids, and you/they become a carrier, you can kill people with compromised immune systems. Of course the rub of it is that we don't have credible evidence that vaccines cause autism. 6/
And even if we did (again, we don't), having a kid with autism is better than having a kid killed by influenza. But regardless, this "decision" is not just about you and your family. Someone's decision put the life of a hard-working single mom in jeopardy. 7/
It's infuriating. Vaccinate your kids. 8/8
