National Cancer Institute/Unsplash
When it comes to vaccines, here’s my advice: Listen to what your doctor tells you, and no one else.
Nothing makes me more upset than vaccine deniers and skeptics, especially the ones who believe with all their hearts that vaccines cause autism. Even if that was remotely true (and it isn’t), is having autism worse than having measles? Some people seem to think so. So they refuse to get their kids vaccinated to make sure that they never get autism, which means that their kids can become spreaders of all the things vaccinations prevent, from measles to whooping cough.
Anti-vaxxers don’t care who else gets hurt. If there is an outbreak of measles or some other ghastly disease, they see it as unfortunate collateral damage in the fight against government tyranny. Sometimes though, I think they are just being contrarian, which is something to which I can relate.
The difference is that, in their case, I think they have not given a lot of thought to what they are opposing and why. In my case, it’s that I have.
When I see a sign at a pharmacy urging me to come in and get my free vaccine against the flu or shingles or whatever, I refuse to do it. Why? It’s because I don’t think I should make judgments about my health based on a sign I see at a pharmacy.
I am opposing what I call the “Weather Channelization of America.” When there’s a storm, The Weather Channel acts like it’s the biggest news ever. The storm is given a name, such as Winter Storm Willie, and its every move is tracked. The Weather Channel’s goal, clearly, is to convince everyone that they need to be fully prepared, and that the only way to be fully prepared is to stay glued to The Weather Channel.
So the people in the identified danger areas hunker down and brace themselves, the glow of The Weather Channel 24/7 shining back from their eyes. And when the storm veers off in another direction and nothing happens, the people who have just spent the last umpteen hours cowering in fear feel like suckers.
Now I’m not saying it’s foolish to take precautions. But I do think it’s a good idea to be mindful of how the desire of media outlets to attract eyeballs and build ad revenue factors into the messaging.
The underlying and overriding goal of any company is to make as much money as possible. So somewhere along the line, the top brass at The Weather Channel must have decided that the best way to do that is to make a big deal out of storms that really aren’t.
So when I see one of those signs urging me to come on in and get my free vaccine against the flu or shingles or whatever, I suspect that the top brass of the store are making a big deal about it, not because they think it’s good for my health but because they think it’s good for their bottom line.
That’s why I turn to my doctor for advice in such matters. He knows more about it than I do, and a heck of a lot more than the anti-vaxxers.