Nine Scientific Reasons Why Your Anti-Vaccination Ideologies are Actual Trash

Ok, I get it. You want your children to stay safe. You don't want them to get sick. The news machine told you vaccines will make them sick. But guess what? The news machine you're watching is completely wrong and not backed up by scientific evidence whatsoever, at all, in the slightest.
I love science and I like to learn about things that have factual evidence to back them up, so I collected a bunch of it. Maybe some of this actual empirical evidence will resonate with the anti-vaxxers out there. Get ready, because I'm gonna drop the cold, unforgiving hand of science on ya.

1.  Vaccination is the best way to keep your kids safe from disease. Because of advances in medical science, your child can be protected against more diseases than ever before. Some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children, have been eliminated completely and others are close to extinction– primarily due to safe and effective vaccines. Polio is one example of the great impact that vaccines had have in the United States. Polio was once America’s most-feared disease, causing death and paralysis across the country, but today, thanks to vaccination, there are no reports of polio in the United States.
2. Vaccination is safe. Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by scientists, doctors, and healthcare professionals. Vaccines will involve some discomfort and may cause pain, redness, or tenderness at the site of injection but this is minimal compared to the pain, discomfort, and trauma of the diseases these vaccines prevent. Serious side effects following vaccination, such as severe allergic reaction, are very rare. The disease-prevention benefits of getting vaccines are much greater than the possible side effects for almost all children.

3. Immunizations can save your family time and money. A child with a vaccine-preventable disease can be denied attendance at schools or child care facilities. Some vaccine-preventable diseases can result in prolonged disabilities and can take a financial toll because of lost time at work, medical bills or long-term disability care. In contrast, getting vaccinated against these diseases is a good investment and usually covered by insurance. The Vaccines for Children program is a federally funded program that provides vaccines at no cost to children from low-income families. To find out more about the VFC program, visit http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/ or ask your child’s health care professional. 

Now, let's talk about the "a word" - autism.

4. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with dozens of studies published in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals. The scientific consensus on vaccines and autism is thorough and solid: There is no evidence of a connection.

5. The debunked claim that there is a causal relationship between vaccines and autism largely stems from the late 1990s. At the time, autism diagnoses had been increasing, and doctors didn't know why.

6. In 1998, British researcher Andrew Wakefield published his infamous paper linking autism to the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). Prompted in part by Wakefield's research, U.S. agencies investigated a mercury-based vaccine additive called thimerosal, which was widely used as an antifungal and antiseptic agent. Because of new research on the dangers of mercury poisoning, the government wanted to ensure that thimerosal didn't pose a risk to children who were being vaccinated.

7. The Food and Drug Administration, along with the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, the AAP and several other agencies, concluded that there was no evidence that thimerosal caused any harm. But the additive was removed from most vaccines anyway, as a precautionary measure.

8. Meanwhile, research linking the MMR vaccine to autism was unraveling. Evidence emerged that Wakefield had been paid by attorneys for parents who were suing MMR manufacturers and that Wakefield's data were fraudulent. The Lancet retracted his study in February 2010. That year, Wakefield was found guilty of professional misconduct by Britain's General Medical Council and his license was revoked.

9. This didn't matter, though, because doubt and fear had been sown. The anti-vaccine movement grew and grew. In 2015, nearly 200 Americans were sickened with measles — a disease that was declared eradicated 15 years earlier — as a consequence of parents not vaccinating their kids, according to the CDC.

So basically, children are getting sick because their parents aren't vaccinating them because of an incorrect, inaccurate, pseudoscientific, outdated study that was completely falsified and not even conducted by a scientist!

Please, anti-vaxxers. For the sake of your kids, and my future kids, and everyone in the world - take a long and hard look at where you're getting your information. A lot of it is falsified and genuinely not accurate at all. It's scary to me that we still have so many people in this country who believe these 'alternative facts.' Keep your kids safe. Check your sources. Talk to actual doctors. Turn off Alex Jones' INFOWARS.