12 Dangerous Things Anti-Vaxxers Believe That Are Actually Child Abuse

Anti-vaxxers believe that vaccines cause autism. Anti-vaxxers dislike autism. Anti-vaxxers dislike vaccines. This much is abundantly clear. They seem to hold onto this perception that autism automatically means a non-communicative person who doesn’t like to be touched and who needs round the clock care. This may be the case with some people who are on the autism spectrum but - it’s a spectrum, not all people who are autistic are non-functioning. Anti-vaxxers don’t seem to want to understand this fact, either that or they don’t care. The movement seems happy to use autism as a weapon to scare people away from preventative medicine and demonise people with autism (regardless of where on the spectrum they lay) as those who need to be “cured”, rather than – I don’t know – treating them like human beings who deserve love and respect.

In the world of mummies pretending to be scientists, autism is caused by: vaccines, leaky guts, an autoimmune disease, parasites, heavy metal toxicity, vitamin deficiencies, hearing problems and (for some reason) overgrown yeast (don’t ask me where the yeast is growing). These beliefs are promoted by cherry picked data, misinterpreted or poorly designed scientific studies and outright lies perpetuated by the alternative medicine to drive more consumers through their doors.

Anti-vaxxers are science deniers who promote the false idea that vaccines don’t prevent disease, diseases such as measles, polio, whooping cough and diphtheria are apparently harmless and the mechanism for how vaccines operate – herd immunity – doesn’t exist. Nothing says “going against the Man” than allowing your child to suffer and die from f*cking whooping cough. The result of this severe wilful ignorance around how vaccines work has meant that vaccine rates have dropped causing a return of preventative diseases infecting immunocompromised people and children too young to be vaccinated.