You used to be able to argue about vaccines in an almost hypothetical sense. Mandates, pharma, the government, and personal choice were all fair game to talk about. Not so much anymore when measles is popping up.
There have been 3,294 cases of Measles as of September 10th in the US this year. Across 47 different areas. This isn’t a philosophical discussion on health. It’s actual people falling ill with a disease we have vaccines for. All while our current HHS secretary, who leads our country’s health department, gives people more reasons to distrust said vaccines and authorities. Enough is enough.
This isn’t about whether or not we should be able to question vaccines. We should be able to. We should question all medical procedures performed on our bodies. Test them, ensure they’re safe and continue to discuss potential side effects. We should question public-health organizations when evidence supports our concerns.
Questioning should allow us to learn. Not be used as an ideology.
With measles happening right now, I think it’s important to make this distinction. Measles is very contagious and vaccines have helped control it. But we’re seeing thousands of cases happen in America. Deaths from unvaccinated individuals have been reported recently as well.
Another recent change is how our federal government views childhood vaccinations. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer supports the federal childhood vaccination schedule and has created its own for 2026. They still support vaccinating against 18 diseases and believe their schedule is backed by scientific data. This is crazy.
Before, you could go to your child’s doctor and look at the C.D.C schedule. It is backed by years of data. Now you have doctors and federal recommendations that differ. All while social media feeds you horror stories and false information. From individuals that claim to be knowledgeable on the subject. Which can also be harmful.
As stated before, vaccines help protect others. If a high percentage of the population is vaccinated against a disease like measles, it becomes more difficult for the virus to spread. But if not everyone is vaccinated, the disease can easily travel. You’re putting other people at risk when you decide not to vaccinate your children. Babies who aren’t old enough to be vaccinated and others who may be immunocompromised. So when the head of HHS states what he’s saying.
It’s concerning. He showed up to a Children’s Health Defense event (he used to be head of this organization) and assured those who were against vaccines that they have someone on their team. During an outbreak of measles and more people became hesitant to vaccinate.
It’s not only about Kennedy.
It’s about the people who don’t trust vaccines, and our government now has someone on their side. We can discuss if pharma companies have malicious intent. If there is bias in studies and research. We should bring these things up and keep questioning them. Our governments have failed us on these topics. Pretending it hasn’t happened won’t help.
But that doesn’t mean we should throw out all the evidence we’ve learned over the past decades. Or pretend we never knew anything about these topics.
A huge example would be vaccines causing autism. After many years of study, there has never been proof to back this statement. But politicians are once again mentioning this topic. Articles have been written about changing the schedule for children to receive vaccines. Autism is being mentioned as well.
Lives are at stake when we don’t get this right. Parents won’t know everything about vaccines. Most just want to keep their kids safe. If you feed them enough scary information and tell them not to trust doctors. They may not want to vaccinate their children.
But diseases don’t wait. Measles won’t know if your child is vaccinated because you are a democrat or republican. It won’t see you on TV. It won’t know you don’t trust pharma or the government.
It will only take advantage of those who aren’t protected. America needs to start looking at evidence when it comes to vaccines. Not what some politician thinks. Show us the facts. Share studies and information with us. Tell us about negative side effects. Research them and let us know if there is any truth to them. If you think we need more information, share that too.
If proven facts show a vaccine helps prevent disease, we should know that too. People will make their own decisions about their health. But we should have facts to back those decisions. Not more misinformation.
Our country is starting to see diseases that we thought we had under control. People are becoming more uninformed about vaccines and who to trust. We shouldn’t be adding to the confusion.
We don’t need to worship vaccines. We just need to use facts. Fact that they should be questioned when needed. And defended when there is proof they work. There are thousands of people who have contracted measles this year. So maybe it’s time we looked at facts instead of ideology.
