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Vaccination is one of those medical topics in which people tend to lose their shit. As it happens, you can also risk losing your children if you decide to embrace the foolishness that is the anti-vax movement. Here is a story of a mother’s close encounter with easily preventable childhood diseases.
Learning the Hard Way: My Journey from #AntiVaxx to Science
“I’m writing this from quarantine, the irony of which isn’t lost on me. Emotionally I’m a bit raw. Mentally a bit taxed. Physically I’m fine. All seven of my unvaccinated children have whooping cough, and the kicker is that they may have given it to my five month old niece, too young to be fully vaccinated.
We’d had a games night at our house in March, my brother-in-law had a full-blown cold, so when the kids started with a dry cough a few days later I didn’t think much of it. But a week after the symptoms started the kids weren’t improving, in fact they were getting worse. And the cough. No one had a runny nose or sneezing but they all had the same unproductive cough. Between coughing fits they were fine.
Then a few days later at midnight I snapped. My youngest three children were coughing so hard they would gag or vomit. I’d never seen anything like this before. Watching our youngest struggle with this choking cough, bringing up clear, stringy mucus – I had heard of this before somewhere. My mom said I had it when I was a kid. I snapped into ‘something is WRONG’ mode.
I jumped on Google to type in “child cough.” My kids had all but one symptom of pertussis, none of them had the characteristic “whoop.” But they had everything else.
We had vaccinated our first three children on an alternative schedule and our youngest four weren’t vaccinated at all. We stopped because we were scared and didn’t know who to trust. Was the medical community just paid off puppets of a Big Pharma-Government-Media conspiracy? Were these vaccines even necessary in this day and age? Were we unwittingly doing greater harm than help to our beloved children? So much smoke must mean a fire so we defaulted to the ‘do nothing and hope nothing bad happens’ position.
For years relatives tried to persuade us to reconsider through emails and links, but this only irritated us and made us defensive. Secretly, I hoped I would find the proof I needed to hold the course, but deep down I was resigned to only find endless conflicting arguments that never resolved anything. No matter if we vaccinated or not, I thought, it would be nothing more than a coin toss with horrible risks either way.
When the Disneyland measles outbreak happened my husband and I agreed to take a new look and weigh the evidence on both sides. A friend suggested I write out my questions so we could tackle them one by one. Just getting it out on paper helped so much. I only ended up with a handful of questions. But more potent than my questions were my biases.
I just didn’t trust civic government, the medical community, the pharmaceutical industry, and people in general. By default, I had excluded all research available from any major, reputable organization. Could all the in-house, independent, peer-reviewed clinical trials, research papers and studies across the globe ALL be flawed, corrupt and untrustworthy?
The final shift came when I connected the dots between a small, but real measles outbreak in my personal circles this time last year. But for the grace of God, our family was one step from contracting measles in our mostly under-or-unvaccinated 7 kids. Maybe we could have weathered that storm unscathed in personal quarantine. But in the 4 highly contagious days before any symptoms show we easily could have passed on our infection to my sister’s toddlers or her 34-week-old son in the NICU.
When I connected the dates for everyone involved it chilled me to the bone. I looked again at the science and evidence for community immunity and found myself gripped with a very real sense of personal and social responsibility before God and man. The time had come to make a more fully informed decision than we did 6 years ago. I sat down with our family doctor and we put together a catch-up vaccination schedule for our children.
That schedule that was supposed to start the week after I found myself in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) with my 10-month-old son, waiting to confirm if he had whooping cough.
I said before that the irony isn’t lost on me that I’m writing this from quarantine. For six years we were frozen in fear from vaccines, and now we are frozen because of the disease. My oldest two are getting better, the youngest four are getting worse and fast. Ottawa Public Health has been so helpful and communicative, trying to get us the help we need while keeping the community safe. We are under quarantine and starting antibiotics. Tonight, the baby started ‘whooping’. I did the right thing going to the hospital when I did. I can only hope this painfully honest sharing will help others.
I am not looking forward to any gloating or shame as this ‘defection’ from the antivaxx camp goes public, but, this isn’t a popularity contest. Right now my family is living the consequences of misinformation and fear. I understand that families in our community may be mad at us for putting their kids at risk. I want them to know that we tried our best to protect our kids when we were afraid of vaccination and we are doing our best now, for everyone’s sake, by getting them up to date. We can’t take it back … but we can learn from this and help others the same way we have been helped.
Vaccination is a serious decision about our personal and public health that can’t be made out of fear, capitulation or following any crowd. No one was more surprised than us to find solid answers that actually laid our fears to rest. I am confident that anyone with questions can find answers. I would only advise them to check your biases, sources and calendar: Time waits for no parent.
– Edited by Leslie Waghorn
Rolling the dice with your children is irresponsible – making that choice for other children is reprehensible.
Not many a tear was shed as Fox News North closed up shop.
“Sun News Network went off the air at 5 a.m. ET Friday after failing to find a new owner. Programming on the channel was replaced with a Sun TV logo. Sun Media Corp. issued a statement saying it spent months unsuccessfully trying to find a buyer, but financial losses meant it could not continue to operate.”
On a brighter note the Sun Logo is much more interesting and informative than any of the content that was available previously on SNN.
“The network began broadcasting in April 2011, launching a right-of-centre programming schedule, but it has had a constant challenge attracting viewers.”
The market for right-wing, fear driven false-populist hogwash just isn’t that large in Canada – go figure.
“Its supporters blamed the CRTC for not giving it the same access enjoyed by news channels operated by CBC and CTV. The federal broadcast regulator denied Sun News a guaranteed spot on basic cable TV packages in August 2013. Data released as part of that application showed that while the network was available to 5.1 million households, it was only attracting, on average, 8,000 viewers at any given time.”
I am completely shocked that SNN supporters would blame the government for their failure.
Having one less source of absolute nonsense contaminating the public airwaves is a good thing and really quite the lovely Valentine’s Day gift. :)
When one turns to the word “propaganda” images of totalitarian states come to mind – Pravda, The North Korea Times. We envision an army of Winston Smith’s carefully scrubbing the news of improper thoughts and meanings, carefully crafting the government approved message of the day. Of course we don’t have that here in North America, we have freedom of speech, we have a free press, we have liberty! We also have institutionalized self-censorship,demarcated areas of approved debate, and a media establishment that tends to take the government’s word at face value. These factors contribute to a media system that appears to be free and without censure, but in reality, craft obsequious stories that pose no threat to power or the norms of society. Essentially, the (self)censorship we have in the West is on autopilot, it is subtle, unremarkable, but yet *very* effective (for more detail on our system, see my post on Manufacturing Consent).
All this being said, sometimes our subtle system of media control goes a little haywire, it loses its subtle sheen, and becomes a little more transparent in how it operates. Stories slip through the net and give the status-quo a good shake. The recent furor caused by Maclean’s naming “Winnipeg: Where Canada’s Racism Problem is at its Worst.” is a prime example of such a happening. The article pokes many holes in white Canada’s notion of a vibrant multicultural society. Some highlights:
“One in three Prairie residents believe that “many racial stereotypes are accurate,” for example, higher than anywhere else in Canada. In Alberta, just 23 per cent do, according to polling by the Canadian Institute for Identities and Migration (CIIM). And 52 per cent of Prairie residents agree that Aboriginals’ economic problems are “mainly their fault.” Nationally, the figure drops to 36 per cent.”
***
“Earlier this fall, Robert Falcon-Ouellette, director of the University of Manitoba’s Aboriginal focus programs, hit the Grant Park Shopping Centre in Winnipeg’s south end to hustle for signatures for his mayoral nomination form. The 37-year-old was a late entrant to the election. He’d cobbled together a campaign staff—idealistic political neophytes he knew from academia and activists he’d met at last year’s Idle No More rallies.
It was an ugly entry into politics. “I know you,” a shopper told Falcon-Ouellette, approaching him shortly after he arrived at the mall. “You’re that guy running for mayor. You’re an Indian,” he said, pointing a finger at Falcon-Ouellette. “I don’t want to shake your hand. You Indians are the problem with the city. You’re all lazy. You’re drunks. The social problems we have in the city are all related to you.”
***
“Tyler Henderson, a 28-year-old Ojibway nursing student at the University of Manitoba, says he feels racism every time he walks out his front door. Henderson says Winnipeg police stopped him 15 times last year. “You fit the description,” police tell him when he asks what he did wrong. Once, police claimed he’d pulled to a stop a few inches beyond the stop line. “It makes me mad,” he says. “But there’s nothing I can do.” Some young indigenous men are stopped twice per month in the inner city, according to University of Manitoba criminologist Elizabeth Comack. “
***
“Don Marks, a Winnipeg writer, recently visited an ER with an indigenous friend. They’d dropped a painting, and the broken glass had cut his friend. “Aw!” a nurse exclaimed in greeting them. “Have we been drinking and fighting again?” The nurse’s assumptions were harmless, says Marks, who edits Grassroots News, an Aboriginal newspaper. “But this was someone responsible for treating Native people in our hospitals. We all know racism exists in our health care system.”
I would go read the entire article at Maclean’s as it touches many important points and different facets of the racist experience going on in Winnipeg. But the lowlights sampled here are enough to show that punches were not pulled in writing this article.
Response from the Mayor of Winnipeg was predictable.
“We have come together to face this head-on as a community,” Bowman added, noting that Winnipeg exists on what is traditional Treaty One territory. We have to shine a light on it. Without the light, we can’t see what we’re fighting. We’re not going to end racism tomorrow, but we’re sure as hell going to try.”
Way to go Mr.Mayor. Ending workplace inefficiency with enhanced system synergies is also on his “to do” list. I find the reactions of Robert-Falcon Ouellette and Rosanna Deerchild to be much more interesting.
Ouellette ran for Mayor in the last Winnipeg Civil election and of course faced racist comments on him an his campaign. He is no stranger to the ugly tide of racism in Winnipeg, but when asked of the Maclean’s article he said this:
“The cover treatment Maclean’s gave the story is sensationalist, he said. The cover features a quote from a Winnipeg resident who says,”They call me a stupid squaw or tell me to go back to the rez.”
“They used the word ‘squaw,’ which is very, you know, derogatory type of comment,” Ouellette said. “But at the same time, I understand they need to be selling magazines and getting people interested to buy the magazine.” Ouellette has experienced racism, including during his campaign, but it’s not something he sees on a daily basis. He said he believes the majority of people in the city aren’t racist, but that there’s always the loudmouth that stands out.”
His restraint and decorum in the face of such ugliness is impeccable. At the same time, troublesome because he’s just being so darn nice about the entire situation. We see the same pattern with Rosanna Deerchild, here is what she says:
“They call me a stupid squaw, or tell me to go back to the rez,” the quote reads. But on Friday, Deerchild recorded a segment for Saturday’s Unreserved, saying she does not want to be racism’s cover girl.
“I am far from the angry Indian complaining about being hard done by,” she says.
“Let me be clear. I love my city, my community, my home: Winnipeg, North End, Canada. But neither will I quantify, qualify or pacify racism in this place, or any place it rears its ugly head.”
I’m scratching my head a little over what she said. I applaud her for being so diplomatic in the face of injustice, but I think that she has every right to be royally pissed off over the state of affairs regarding Winnipeg and racism.
Her choice of words speaks volumes to how the concerns of aboriginal woman have been treated in white Canada in the past. She makes it very clear that she is not an “angry Indian complaining about being hard done by”. Deerchild, even in her respected position in society (broadcaster for the CBC), is keenly aware of the stereotypes and negative tropes arrayed against her. She is aware of what I was alluding to earlier in this post – the system of self censorship/censorship that marginalizes dissident views such as hers, in favour of the comforting white feel-good multicultural narrative that is an acceptable “truth” in Canadian society.
I applaud all those quoted in the articles, they are speaking directly to the problem of racism in our society. The fact that this article is creating so much noise and buzz in Canada is a testament to how adept our media is at maintaining the status-quo most of the time and for generally not allowing articles of this calibre to be published within the mainstream news establishment.
[Source: Macleans.ca]
Orac brings the pain to the masters(?) of woo.
TV does such a wonderful job of promoting fairy tales and fiction. Just like how the protagonists after being shot recover within forty-five minutes, accurate depictions of prison life by certain shows do not match up with reality.
The writers over at Media Lens have really outdone themselves. This will be in the next edition of the textbooks about media analysis and what happens once you go against the status quo. Russel Brand has made the mistake of categorizing and identifying what is wrong with our economic systems and society. Watch as the liberal press rallies against what can only be a threat to the system they inhabit.
“Brand’s Newsnight performance, then, was an inspiring cri de coeur. But a 10-minute, impassioned, ill-formed demand for ‘Change!’ from a lone comedian is not a problem for the media’s gatekeepers. It makes for great television, enhances the illusion that the media is open and inclusive, and can be quickly forgotten – no harm done.”
Brand’s new book, ‘Revolution,’ is different – the focus is clear, specific and fiercely anti-corporate. As we will see in Part 2 of this alert, the media reaction is also different.
Brand begins by describing the grotesque levels of modern inequality:
‘Oxfam say a bus with the eighty-five richest people in the world on it would contain more wealth than the collective assets of half the earth’s population – that’s three-and-a-half billion people.’ (p.34)
And:
‘The richest 1 per cent of British people have as much as the poorest 55 per cent.’ (p.34)
But even these facts do not begin to describe the full scale of the current crisis:
‘The same interests that benefit from this… need, in order to maintain it, to deplete the earth’s resources so rapidly, violently and irresponsibly that our planet’s ability to support human life is being threatened.’ (p.36)
For example:
‘Global warming is totally real, it has been empirically proven, and the only people who tell you it’s not real are, yes, people who make money from creating the conditions that cause it. (pp.539-540)
We are therefore at a crossroads:
‘”Today humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save capitalism and ditch the planet.”
‘The reason the occupants of the [elite] fun bus are so draconian in their defence of the economy is that they have decided to ditch the planet.’ (p.345)
And so ‘we require radical action fast, and that radical action will not come from the very interests that created and benefit from things being the way they are. The one place we cannot look for change is to the occupants of the bejewelled bus.’ (p.42)
The problem, then, is that ‘we live under a tyranny’. (p.550) The US, in particular, ‘acts like an army that enforces the business interests of the corporations it is allied to’. (p.493)
But this is more than just a crude, Big Brother totalitarian state:
‘A small minority cannot control an uncooperative majority, so they must be distracted, divided, tyrannised or anaesthetised into compliance…’ which means ‘the colonisation of consciousness by corporations’. (p.165)
Brand notes that 70 per cent of the UK press is controlled by three companies, 90 per cent of the US press by six:
‘The people that own the means for conveying information, who decide what knowledge enters our minds, are on the fun bus.’ (p.592)
He even manages a swipe at the ‘quality’ liberal press:
‘Remember, the people who tell you this can’t work, in government, on Fox News or MSNBC, or in op-eds in the Guardian or the Spectator, or wherever, are people with a vested interest in things staying the same.’ (p.514)
Thus, the ‘political process’ is a nonsense: ‘voting is pointless, democracy a façade’ (p.45): ‘a bloke with a nice smile and an angle is swept into power after a more obviously despicable regime and then behaves more or less exactly like his predecessors’. (p.431)
The highly debatable merit of voting aside, anyone with an ounce of awareness will accept pretty much everything Brand has to say above. Put simply, he’s right – this is the current state of people, planet and politics. A catastrophic environmental collapse is very rapidly approaching with nothing substantive being done to make it better and everything being done to make it worse.
Even if we disagree with everything else he has to say, every sane person has an interest in supporting Brand’s call to action to stop this corporate genocide and biocide. A thought we might bear in mind when we subsequently turn to the corporate media reaction.
Ah, the joy of the free press down in the US. Let’s catch up with Noam as takes us through some possible solutions to the Palestine/Israel conflict.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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