To preface, I am a very progressive person and am a firm believer in the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and avoiding processed foods, and extra sugar. In addition, I would gladly go to a chiropractor or an acupuncture specialist to treat my illness if typical treatments would not show results. I bicycle daily and only eat whole wheat bread, my fridge is stocked with things like wheat germ, quinoa and bulgur.
Many people in our community claim that vaccines are just a major scam and that the doctors are out to make money and vaccines are not necessary etc. By this logic reason shouldn’t doctors have the same financial incentive to overdose or overprescribe stitches, antibiotics, soft casts or any other treatment for any other illness or condition? Of course not, you say It’s only the evil evil autism causing vaccines.
But I have engaged many of these antivax crowds and when you push them, the truth is many of these anti vaccine people are more than just anti-vaccine, they are anti western medicine because they believe that processed foods, pesticides and gluten and doctors with their newfangled medications and tactics are really the root of the problem. If you read carefully through the material they publish and the logic of their arguments, there is a serious thread of anti medical establishments.
Surely we can all agree that there is merit to living a healthy lifestyle – but they take this too far. They convince themselves that by ascribing to a healthy lifestyle they don’t really need medicine and certainly not vaccines which are known to cause autism and make doctors rich.
I spoke with a mother who told me that all medicine is fraudulent. I asked her what would she do if her child had strep “fluids and sleep”, she answered. What about Fever or a fever induced febrile seizure “it normally doesn’t happen.” Each time I pressed her on different illnesses she spun the same story of her kids leading a healthy lifestyle so basically they never get sick.
I am not going to get into the why vaccines are necessary and not evil. I want to just address the dangerously condescending and arrogant mindset of the anti-vax crowd. I think deep down there is this desire to be better than everyone that feeds this dangerous train of thought.
Sure -doctors and the health industry in general are not tzadikim, sure- doctors have made severe mistakes with treatments they thought were beneficial (see thalidomide), and yes – there may be cracks in the system such as the overprescription of drugs. But ultimately the healthcare system works and the overwhelmingly vast majority of people are helped rather than hurt by it. But vaccines have stood the test of time, and hashem has given us the ability to virtually eliminate brutal diseases such small pox, polio, mumps, rubella, and diphtheria have all basically been eliminated.
The premise that reading a few articles on the internet and that one proven fraudulently study in Britain makes one better equipped to make medical decision than a doctor, let alone a doctor of the caliber and experience of Doctor Shanik, who has treated and seen more illness, symptoms and children than any 100 pediatricians (guzma) is insane it just doesn’t make sense.
Ultimately this lack of common sense leads to tragedies like this one.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/toddler-dies-anti-vaxxer-parents-154300579.html
Please, please RBS”H don’t let your family go down this path. If you hear someone prattling on at a simcha or school gathering about the dangers of Vaccines or western medication don’t stand idly by – take a strong stance and and tell them to be quiet don’t be bullied by these foolish and dangerous people. L’maan Hashem!
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected])
Will you print a letter from the other side? by printing this letter i will lose my respect for your site. When you print a letter from the other side, i will regain my respect. There is knowledge out there. and just because this letter writer spoke to one person it does not stereotype the whole Klal.
Kudos for addressing this tough issue honestly without pointing fingers or people-bashing.
Dr. Palevsky MD a NY board certified pediatrician, rarely prescribes medication.
He has not vaccinated a child in 20 years
What is the point of this article? What new information have you introduced?
You make it sound like the anti-vaccine movement is a wave of epidemic proportions. The overwhelming majority of the public is pro-vaccine. I really don’t think there is much concern of being bullied. Your panicy call to take a strong stance and not stand idly by is somewhat amusing.
We all know that there will always exist people who are anti-vaccine. We’re are not going to change their collective minds. An article like this doesn’t serve any purpose and does not add anything to this already loaded and over argued topic. It is more inflammatory than beneficial and will just start a new wave of condemnations and blame. Will this article solve the issue? Will the anti-vaccine movement disappear? The best thing you can do is have a dialogue with your own family and friends (who are willing to listen). People will be people and this issue is not going away any time soon no matter how many stinging articles are written. Do we really think that Hashem wants us writing random articles that stingingly vilify a segment of the population, no matter how wrong we think they are? Do we somehow think that when it comes to vaccines Hashem has no power, that it is up to us humans to save ourselves? Random articles and the blame game are never going to solve the issue. Whether we are pro or anti vaccine the constant arguing and fighting will get us nowhere except more broken.
When someone is brainwashed to believe something you will not be able to change their mind. Arguing with an anti-vaccine person is like poking a diamond with a stick. No matter how hard you poke you will not make any mark. Why waste your breath arguing with a rock?
Finding a random dr who doesn’t vaccinate is not a proof that it’s a good thing to do!
I, like the writer, find it very frightening that people are so adamantly against vaccinations and “western medicine”. They base their positions on “vaccine injury”, or “autism caused by a vaccine” or single cases they know of, and then they think that by finding support through blogs and youtube videos that they know more than trained, certified medical professionals. They make drastic changes to their lives and diets all based on other people’s stories, put other children and families at risk by not vaccinating or treating their children’s illnesses, and they feel the need to explain themselves to the world, publicizing their “correctness”.
True, brainwashed individuals will not be swayed, but some people are on the fence or frankly are open to hear rational debate. I don’t think the “anti-vaxxers” are a majority at all, but they are much more vocal. There are many such examples of the minorities being so vocal that they are thought of as bigger, when in reality they are a really small number proportionally.
I actually have found that people who are against vaccinations are more hostile or accusatory than those who do vaccinate. Of course, this is limited to my experience and by no means is a general statement about everyone. But I have seen many examples of this, and such people feel they need to “stick it to” doctors and other people when their “solution” is “better”.
There is more fundamental issue at stake. These characters are generally anti-knowledge. They are claiming that they understand medicine without going to medical school’ This logic creates ‘poskim’ from scanning some likut seforim and political experts, ready to trash any dissent, from radio shows.
Knowledge takes time and effort. Cartoons in the mail are an insult to people’s intelligence
#6, why not?
Right on! The anti vaccination community is rife with zealous and overly passionate and argumentative individuals. Right, wrong or anything in between I found they are not open minded about the other side.
Incidentally, there are random doctors that don’t vaccinate. You will always find a yotzei min haklal. Chazal advise as written in the Torah go after the majority and Shomer Pisoyim HaShem.
Anti-vaccination is a decision made by emotion, not by reason. The reasoning only follows the emotion. That is why they will never listen to reason.
My great-grandparents came to the US with their two oldest sons after losing their 4 youngest children in an epidemic (probably smallpox) in one week. In Europe they had a cow, grew their own vegetables, and ate whole grains. They had no access to processed foods, their children should have been healthy. This did not help them withstand exposure to a dangerous disease. They came to the US because they heard that in the US children are vaccinated, and they wanted their family to survive. This was told to me by my grandfather when I gave my mother a hard time at the doctor’s office, and it’s what I tell my own children when they get immunized.
To #11. It is obvious that the pro-vaccine crowd is following thier emotions and peer pressure, definitely not reason. Not to vaccinate requires strong reason and understanding to go against the tide. How could you possibly say exactly the opposite of reality…..not reason only emotion. I hope that clarifies things. I hope you’ll get what they call common sense which you seem to be lacking based on you “pikchus”.
I just want to know if this letter writer ever read even one drug company insert for any vaccine afministered to him/ her or his/her child.
The drug companies’ own literature requires that the physician provide the patient with the drug insert and that the patient should read it prior to administering the vaccine… Is this protocol followed by your physician???
Maybe if the vaccines were administered more responsibly you would not have as many people declining vaccinations… You should communicate this to your physician if you are really so concerned with this phenomena
Unfortunately, I think the only way the anti vac crowd ever changes their mind on the issue is when they catch one of these terrible viruses. I’m not chas v’shalom wishing it on anyone but there was a case of pertussis in a child who was not vaccinated and it took that for the mother to start vaccinating her other children. If your child does contract one of these viruses due to the fact that you did not vaccinate your child, and said child then infects another child, it is on your cheshbon and that alone is a scary thought.
Thank you for publishing this article! Any smart and intelligent person knows that its going against halacha not to vaccinate, but when you get articles in the mail, its hard to read and not get a little scared. Propaganda is real problem! So we need to keep up these pro-vaccine articles so those naive and young mothers (like myself) don’t chas veshalem get swayed or even a little curious if there is any truth – which of course there’s not.