Thanks A Lot, Anti-VX Moms

I've honestly had it with the vaccine argument. I'm baffled about the number of parents--largely from wealthy, well-educated communities, that are choosing to keep their kids "shot-free" in hopes of sparing the kid from really serious things, like autism. (Because coming down with measles, which can affect cognitive development, isn't serious or anything).

I worked in a lab for five years as a chemist. This lab was arguably the premier one in the country for the autism witch-hunt. You name it, we tested it. Dental bits, dirt, hair, blood, vaccines--we ran it and spit out the results. I've seen documentary footage where our lab results were on camera. That's power. This lab looked at trace elements, so your lead, mercury, lithium, etc. Sometimes, I think we did a lot of good. A house was built on an old chemical dump, and the kid living there was a bit behind. His mom had the soil tested he was playing in. Sure enough, it was full of lead. No doctor will deny the damaging effects of lead on children. But I know my lab contributed to the autism mess too. We didn't differentiate between ethyl and methyl mercury in the testing, so the results I saw were just, 'yes, this sample has mercury.' Vaccines contain the benign form of mercury, although thanks to the uproar, many vaccines don't even contain that anymore. (I'm sure the people in third world countries can thank the rich US moms for leading the war against the preservatives that kept these vaccines stable during the long, arduous travel to the remote villages).

Given my background in that lab field, you would think that, I, of all people, would be tentative about vaccines. But I'm not. I believe in the excess of good science telling us that thimersol is/was harmless to the human getting the vaccine and beneficial for the vaccine itself. 

Now here's the part where I get really angry. I have two beautiful children. My oldest has been vaccinated on time since she was born. She's NOT autistic. She has never had a single adverse sign to having had shots, aside from being a bit cranky, because, yes, it hurts. My youngest is not even 4 months old. He has not received his MMR vaccine because he is too young. There have been several outbreaks of measles around our area. With spring, and then summer approaching, what am I to do? Lock my baby in the house until he is able to have his vaccine or risk that when I take him into a public place, he could become incredibly sick? I think this is such a touchy subject for me because I am powerless to stop that virus--that was nearly wiped out in the US--from attacking my baby right now, despite being pro-vaccine. Why should I be afraid, why should my baby potentially suffer because of another mom's willful negligence of her own kids? Her choice in this matter negatively effects every other person her unvaccinated kid comes in contact with. My choice to vaccinate effects my kids directly only, and adds to herd immunity. 

Someone is being selfish and stupid here, and it isn't me.