Why are they so worried?

[Veronika01]

I have a question about the vaccinating community. A little background, my son is fully vaccinated except for MMR, Prevnar and Rotavir. My oldest dd is fully vaccinated except for MMR. The Prevnar and Rotavir were new vaccines, only available after her birth and in my ignorace I gave them to my child blindly. I declined Prevnar boosters and never took her back to be vaccinated against Measles. My 10 month old dd hasn't received any vaccinations, except for TB right after her birth which they gave without my permission. Now for my question. Everywhere I see people who are pro-vaccination expressing their (sometimes ignorant) opinions and their greatest fear seems to be that my unvaccinated child is putting their children at risk. WHY? Shouldn't they feel a sense of security and relief knowing that their children are vaccinated? Why should they feel that my unvaccinated is a health danger to their kids? I mean, vaccination should make them feel more secure about their children not getting those diseases, not more afraid, right?

[lirpasirhc]

From what I have heard, this is the rational for the fear of unvaxed kids...

1) Vaccinations have side effects, and I took the risk.
2) Vaccinations aren't 100%, so in case my child is one of the "few" who doesn't develop immunity, I don't want her exposed to VPD.
3) It's not fair that you didn't take the risk of a vaccine reaction, and your child may catch a VPD and expose kids who got the shots and didn't develop immunity.

[peainthepod]

It's a bandwagon thing. You'll hear lots of chatter about herd immunity and "but your child could start another epidemic!" but what it really comes down to is the idea that you are a jerky jerkface for refusing to shut up and follow orders like a good little citizen of the world.

The defensiveness seems similar to what you see when you make any other non-mainstream mothering decision. People who are insecure in their choices will sometimes see your refusal to make the same choices as a condemnation of theirs. In other words, by not vaccinating because you deemed it unsafe and unnecessary, you are implying that they made an unsafe and unnecessary choice. Whether you're right or not doesn't matter. Truth is no defense when it comes to such an emotional topic.

[Gitti]

A little scenario -

I took a risk with vaccinating my own child without getting informed first. But, (I hate to admit it) there is this little bit of doubt that perhaps I should have researched the controversial issue first. I need to suppress that. Because, what's done is done!

So, why didn't you just follow doctors orders? What do you know that I should have known? Does that make you somehow better than me? There must be something that I missed?

I am going to make you out to be wrong. Your child is a danger to my child and you better get your child vaccinated so that I feel better about what I did to my child.

===============================================

Don't take any of this seriously I was just roll playing.
Do you see my point though?

[Deborah]

What amazes me is the longing among some pro-vaxers for an epidemic and some deaths. Not the ordinary, run of the mill, parents who just do the vaxes because they think they have to, but the strong hearted folks who turn up and post blog comments, add comments to news stories, and proclaim the virtues of vaccine science. Every now and again, one will sigh and say something like this: "Well, eventually there will be an outbreak, and some babies will die, and then all these silly non-vaxers will start vaccinating again."

Which leaves me wondering, why, if they have science on their side, AND all the best arguments, they don't feel as though they can persuade people to go along with their agenda and vaccinate their children. Feeling so helpless that they have to long for an epidemic...that is scary.

I've seen the same line coming from the U.K. government, talking about measles.