No More Fear

by Dawn Richardson

March 17, 2010

Those trying to discredit parents who have legitimate vaccine safety concerns mischaracterize parents as “being afraid” of vaccines. They use the term "fear" to try and mislead the public into thinking that these parental concerns are somehow irrational, trivial, or not based on credible information.

Vaccine evangelists have been hitting it hard falsely accusing educated and informed parents as being afraid of vaccines. You can do your own internet search for many examples, but you won’t want to miss where they pull out all of the stops in their Wired Magazine article An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All.

The good news is, as the study Parental Vaccine Safety Concerns in 2009 illustrates, it isn’t working and parents aren’t buying it.

Here is an example outside of vaccination for the benefit of those so enamored with vaccines that they can’t see their flaws and can’t comprehend what I am saying. I am not afraid of high fructose corn syrup or MSG. As an educated consumer, I choose not to feed these to myself or my family. Why? Because their performance for supporting health is not up to my standards. In other words, their benefits are not worth the risk.

The same applies to my view, and I firmly believe from experience, many other parents' views, on vaccines. Parents love their kids and want the best for them. If parents are losing confidence in vaccines, it is not because they are more afraid than they used to be. It is because they are becoming educated and informed, and the benefits claimed are not worth the risk of the harm the vaccines can cause.

Here’s the bottom line take home message to anyone who really wants to understand what is going on: the standards of the vaccine industry and the government regulatory bodies are not high enough for a growing number of educated parents. Thank GOD that we live in a country where parents who care about their children get to have higher safety standards than the government or vaccine industry.

Parents aren’t afraid – they just simply aren’t buying into the propaganda job by the “fear” slingers because no amount of “education” will undue the fact that just about everybody now knows somebody whose life has been irreparably harmed due to vaccine reactions. Bad vaccine reactions happen far too often.

That does not make parents afraid; it makes them know they want better for their children.

March 17, 2010