Pro-Vaxxers: PLEASE talk about the side effects that DO and CAN happen from vaccines. Normally the side effects are harmless and non-lethal, but a parent with no knowledge of the connection between febrile seizures and MMR*, for example, isn’t gonna know that. They don’t know that a febrile seizure is not deadly, all they know is that they gave their kid the MMR vaccine as their doctor suggested and now they are seizing up and possibly unconscious at their feet, terrified that they are going to die.
And you know what’s gonna happen? Anti-Vaxxers will use their scary, uninformed experience to scare them into hating all vaccines: all because the doctors never told them about the possibility of febrile seizures being a (non-lethal, if scary) side effect of the vaccine they were told was 100% unproblematic. Add onto the fact that plenty of people don’t know how to handle a person having a seizure, and you risk the infant/child choking.
I am especially saying this to care providers. EDUCATE. YOUR. PATIENTS. Make a one page print out if you have to. Tell them the side effects, what they look like, and how to safely handle them if they occur. It’s not just a fever and ache, and we need to stop telling people that it’s never going to be anything more than that.
Parents are a part of their child’s welfare, so EDUCATE THEM TO PREVENT INJURY OR EVEN DEATH. The last thing we should be doing is painting vaccines as all rainbows and roses, just so we can be called out as liars and manipulators by misguided fanatics when something DOES go wrong, thus pushing more parents to question their health care providers on something that should be routine and safe, if not transparent.
Thank you.
(*Safety of Vaccines Used for Routine Immunization of US CHildren: A Systemic Overview 2014. Online version: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/134/2/325 )
Published
Obscure Fandoms 