This poor mum has had a lot of kids… ‘but half the time they get sick and die’. It’s so frustrating!
Surely there must be some sort of product available that could help mums like the woman in our video to protect their children from potentially deadly diseases like polio, measles, whooping cough, rubella and tetnus?
But wait – what’s that? There already is one? Vaccinations? Excellent.
Silliness aside – this video has an important message.
Alarm bells were raised in Australia earlier this year, when a report was released from the National Health Performance Authority detailing just how low the rates of immunisation currently are in some parts of our country.
In fact, as many as one in five children in some communities are not fully vaccinated – putting not only them, but also other children they interact with, at risk of whopping cough, meningitis and measles.
The reason for these decreasing vaccination rates? The promotion of unscientific and bogus information by anti-vaccination groups, which scare parents into avoiding vaccinations for their kids. When the reality is – these vaccinations are life saving medicines.
Share this post to show that the anti-vaccination movement is totally bogus and that vaccinations are the only way we can truly keep our community safe from these kinds of diseases.
Top Comments
You know what the real problem is though?
It's not that people are misinformed.
It's not that they are making the wrong choices.
It's that western society is very WELL informed. Too well informed.
We can read scientific journals, have access to the internet, we are educated and well read. Mothers are CHOOSING not to vaccinate their children - and although the pro-vax movement chooses to believe it is because non-vaxers are selfish, ill-informed idiots, the stats would say otherwise.
Fact: The lowest rate of vaccination is in very poor communities ... followed by very well educated, wealthy communities. The middle masses continue to wander in like cattle and get their shots, no questions asked.
So.
You have a group of very well informed, well educated and wealthy women, reading scientific studies, who are choosing, after much contemplation and thought, NOT to vaccinate their children.
Why is that?
Why are smart, well educated women choosing NOT to vaccinate their children?
Understanding that dilemma is a more worthwhile pursuit than making a sarcastic, satirical video that makes non-vaxers out to be idiots. Pro-vaxers think non-vaxers are making choices based on 'dodgy' science. But maybe its not dodgy science, maybe, its just science. Maybe its a complex decision, based on multiple reasons. Maybe its part anecdotal, part experience, part well researched theory. Maybe its because not all vaxes are the same.
I don't know what the solution to low vax rates is, but I do know that if you think you are going to win over educated non vaxers (which is what we are told non-vaxers are) then videos like this aren't going to be the answer. Perhaps try approaching this from another base instead.
I agree that making fun of people won't change their mind, but it is funny.
As to the rest of your comment I think you are half right. Otherwise smart well educated women are choosing not to vaccinate their kids because they think their arts education transfers to the sciences. They think because they are well educated in one area they are smart enough to make judgements in another.
Below is where you are wrong.
Anti vaccers are misinformed, they are making the wrong choices, they can read but either choose not to or misunderstand scientific journals, they are ill informed idiots, they are making choices based on dodgy science, those choices are not based on well researched theory. I wouldn't call anti vaccers selfish for the same reason I wouldn't call stepping in front of a bus selfish, it harms everyone involved.
"Why are smart, well educated women choosing NOT to vaccinate their children?"
Smart people make dumb decisions all the time. The Global Financial Crisis resulted from smart people doing stupid things without considering the consequences. "She'll be right, mate", is an attitude not limited to the unwashed masses.
With anti-vaxxers, we have "well-educated" people who think any amount of formaldehyde is a toxic dose, despite the fact formaldehyde is an essential part of every one of us. And "well-educated" people who do not know the difference between elemental mercury and mercury compounds and assume, therefore, that the mere appearance of the word "mercury" should ring alarm bells.
Being "well-educated" does not make people instant experts in everything. Reading a few studies, similarly, doesn't make someone an expert. You need to be able to understand them - every word of them - and you need some grounding in the fundamentals before you even start reading them.
I excelled in high-school chemistry, physics and maths. I could read a dozen books on engineering but that would still not qualify me to design and construct a major traffic bridge across a capital-city river.
Vocal anti-vaxxers show themselves, time and time again, of having
little-to-no understanding of basic statistics, basic chemistry or basic
biology. That's not a great place to start from when trying to read
expert-level research.
So the question is why do these smart people think they are more qualified in the science of immunology than thousands of experts who've dedicated their adult lives to just that subject?
The Google-research topic for the day is: Dunning-Kruger.
Those 'scientific studies' that 'well-informed' women are reading when they make their choice not to vaccinate are not 'scientific' therefore these women are not 'well-informed'. They need to read REAL scientific studies, in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals, not the pseudo-alternative health stuff that masquerades as 'scientific'.
I agree, I am well educated - I have a veterinary degree and a higher qualification. I understand vaccines and I choose to vaccinate my kids and my pets.
However if I was looking to build a bridge that would need to carry cars, people and heavy trucks, I could do all the googling I want, read all the online textbooks and I couldn't build a safe bridge or make decisions about what to include in terms of materials without doing an engineering degree and probably 5 -10 years of post grad training.......
The thing that get's me is when people say that vaccines are a 'personal choice.' Your 'personal choice' weakens the herd immunity and could cause the death of another child who for some reason is not yet physically ready to be vaccinated. Gah.
I like this ad because it highlights the sheer ridiculousness of most anti-vaxxers' logic. But, as other commenters suggested, patronising them probably isn't the best way to win them over. Hopefully it will be successful for those parents who aren't die-hard 'anti-vax' but may have heard some of their pseudoscientific claims and are hesitant to vaccinate.
On a side note, I think many "wellness" bloggers are contributing to the rise of the anti-vax movement. When I say "wellness" I'm not referring to people like Mamamia's Nat(!) I'm referring to people like The Wellness Warrior (http://www.thewellnesswarri... who by "wellness" means the energising power of crystals and the ability to heal cancer through daily coffee enemas... (sarcasm intended- needles to say these claims are pseudoscience). They are also huge advocates of organic and toxin-free everything, which probably does have genuine, scientifically-proven health benefits- but unfortunately I think this means that people associate healthy, organic food with not vaccinating (i.e. that children can be immunised 'naturally,' and perceiving vaccinations as deadly toxins to be avoided).
Sorry for this long comment / rant but the concept of "wellness" and health in general being associated with anti-vaccination has been getting on my nerves lately! The anti-vax movement could not be more anti-health and anti-wellness.