In light of recent outbreaks of measles and other vaccine preventable illnesses, and the refusal of anti-vaccination advocates to acknowledge the problem, I thought it was past time for this post.

Dear parents,

You are being lied to. The people who claim to be acting in the best interests of your children are putting their health and even lives at risk.

They say that measles isn't a deadly disease.

But It is.

They say that chickenpox isn't that big of a deal.

But It can be.

They say that the flu isn't dangerous.

But It is.

They say that whooping cough isn't so bad for kids to get.

But It is.

They say that "natural infection" is better than vaccination.

But they're wrong.

They say that vaccines haven't been rigorously tested for safety.

But vaccines are subjected to a higher level of scrutiny than any other medicine. For example, this study tested the safety and effectiveness of the pneumococcal vaccine in more than 37,868 children.

They will say that doctors won't admit there are any side effects to vaccines.

But the side effects are well known, and except in very rare cases quite mild.

They say that the aluminum in vaccines (an adjuvant, or component of the vaccine designed to enhance the body's immune response) is harmful to children.

But children consume more aluminum in natural breast milk than they do in vaccines, and far higher levels of aluminum are needed to cause harm.

They say that the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (and/or the "vaccine court") proves that vaccines are harmful.

It doesn't.

They say that if other people's children are vaccinated, there's no need for their children to get vaccinated.

This is one of the most despicable arguments I've ever heard. First of all, vaccines aren't always 100 percent effective, so it is possible for a vaccinated child to still become infected if exposed to a disease. Worse, there are some people who can't receive vaccinations, because they are immune deficient, or because they are allergic to some component. Those people depend upon herd immunity to protect them. People who choose not to vaccinate their children against infectious diseases are putting not only their own children at risk, but also other people's children.

They say that 'natural', 'alternative' remedies are better than science-based medicine. They aren't.

The truth is that vaccines are one of our greatest public health achievements, and one of the most important things you can do to protect your child.

I can predict exactly the sort of response I will be getting from the anti-vaccine activists. Because they can't argue effectively against the overwhelming scientific evidence about vaccines, they will say that I work for Big Pharma. (I don't and never have). They will say that I'm not a scientist (I am), and that I'm an "Agent 666" (I don't know what that is, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not one).

None of these things are true, but they are the reflexive response by the anti-vaccine activists because they have no facts to back up their position. On some level, deep down, they must understand this, and are afraid of the implications, so they attack the messenger.

That may seem like a lot of work, and scientific papers can seem intimidating to read. But reading scientific articles is a skill that can be mastered. Here's a great resource for evaluating medical information on the internet, and I wrote a guide for non-scientists on how to read and understand the scientific literature. You owe it to your children, and to yourself, to thoroughly investigate the issue. Don't rely on what some stranger on the internet says (not even me!). Read the scientific studies that I linked to in this post for yourself, and talk to your pediatricians. Despite what the anti-vaccine community is telling you, you don't need to be afraid of the vaccines. You should instead be afraid of what happens without them.

This video is an outstanding summary of many of these issues. I encourage you to watch it.

Humans try to make sense of the world by seeing patterns. When they see a disease or condition that tends to appear around the time a child is a year or so old, as autism does, and that is also the age that kids get particular shots, they want to put those things together. Parents watch kids more carefully after they get shots. Sometimes they pick up on symptoms then. Just because two things happen at the same time doesn't mean that one caused the other. This is why we need careful scientific studies.

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