Do pharmaceutical companies, in league with power elites, create false pandemics (fake alarms), in order to sell vaccines, in the treatment of the easily panic-stricken members of society? What chemicals are actually in these shots that are given children of today? Might these be the cause -- as many anti-vaxxers suspect to be the case -- for why many kids end up with learning disabilities and other psychological or physical issues?
Whether or not these concerns of the anti-vaxxers are grounded, at least these ones ought to be commended for their taking a moment to step back and examine the real issue at stake here -- unlike some of these panic-stricken valetudinarians, who unthinkingly and unquestioningly allow themselves and their innocents to be injected with substances they know hardly nothing about. That strikes me as somewhat irresponsible behavior on their part.
Hypothetically speaking, under a totalitarian or tyrannical government, with these types of more-than-willing people around, a corrupt and sinister state would have no problem contaminating the bodies of its citizens with far more insidious things than perhaps mere innocuous vaccines.
That is, I think, what is at the very heart of the issue here, and what most pro-vaxxers seem to be missing the point of. This debate goes deeper than just a strictly medical one, and of regarding anti-vaxxers as eccentrics on the fringes, who don't know what it is they're talking about. As with the complex ethical dilemmas we sometimes read about involving freedom of religion cases, and who has the right to decide what's best for an individual, health-wise, so I think the vaccine issue is ultimately a complex and in the end spiritually related one. There are those who strongly feel that the state ought to stay not only out of one's bedroom, but even more so one's veins.
THE VACCINE WAR examines this debate in a rather objective manner and I personally wasn't left with the impression that it favored one side over the other.
It is of interest to note that the term "conscientious objector" has its origins in the anti-vaccination movement, which, in some respects, dates back to the mid-1800s. As with these opponents and resisters of yore, the legitimate concerns of the modern-day anti-vaxxers, I think, has little to do with their being supposedly misinformed on account of the internet age; this, an argument that a lot of (condescending) pro-vaxxers like to use. That is to say, the anti-vaccination movement requires no celebrity spokesperson to champion its cause. God and/or individual conscience will suffice.
Admittedly, as with the case of polio, in some extreme and isolated cases, vaccines are like godsends. Interestingly, however, it is written that at the turn of the 19th century, it was, of all things, advances in hygiene which led to the majority of people becoming stricken with the disease; people who, prior to this, had lived in cities with poor sanitation, but whose own bodies had developed a strong and natural immunity to their environment.
THE VACCINE WAR is, like I mentioned, commendably neutral in its coverage of its subject. On the one side, we get to hear, for example, from one interviewee tell of how herd immunity protects the unvaccinated members of a population, as well. It would seem from this that both sides could manage to live in close proximity with one another quite fine.
Both sides are heard from in this well-made documentary; from those who feel they are protecting their children from potential adverse side-effects and allergic reactions, to those parents who feel that unvaccinated schoolkids ought to be banned from attending their child's school.
THE VACCINE WAR also covers, in part, the Andrew Wakefield story, and includes welcomed appearances by J.B. Handley, Barbara Loe Fisher, and Jennifer Margulis, who for me were the voices of reason in this.
Whether or not these concerns of the anti-vaxxers are grounded, at least these ones ought to be commended for their taking a moment to step back and examine the real issue at stake here -- unlike some of these panic-stricken valetudinarians, who unthinkingly and unquestioningly allow themselves and their innocents to be injected with substances they know hardly nothing about. That strikes me as somewhat irresponsible behavior on their part.
Hypothetically speaking, under a totalitarian or tyrannical government, with these types of more-than-willing people around, a corrupt and sinister state would have no problem contaminating the bodies of its citizens with far more insidious things than perhaps mere innocuous vaccines.
That is, I think, what is at the very heart of the issue here, and what most pro-vaxxers seem to be missing the point of. This debate goes deeper than just a strictly medical one, and of regarding anti-vaxxers as eccentrics on the fringes, who don't know what it is they're talking about. As with the complex ethical dilemmas we sometimes read about involving freedom of religion cases, and who has the right to decide what's best for an individual, health-wise, so I think the vaccine issue is ultimately a complex and in the end spiritually related one. There are those who strongly feel that the state ought to stay not only out of one's bedroom, but even more so one's veins.
THE VACCINE WAR examines this debate in a rather objective manner and I personally wasn't left with the impression that it favored one side over the other.
It is of interest to note that the term "conscientious objector" has its origins in the anti-vaccination movement, which, in some respects, dates back to the mid-1800s. As with these opponents and resisters of yore, the legitimate concerns of the modern-day anti-vaxxers, I think, has little to do with their being supposedly misinformed on account of the internet age; this, an argument that a lot of (condescending) pro-vaxxers like to use. That is to say, the anti-vaccination movement requires no celebrity spokesperson to champion its cause. God and/or individual conscience will suffice.
Admittedly, as with the case of polio, in some extreme and isolated cases, vaccines are like godsends. Interestingly, however, it is written that at the turn of the 19th century, it was, of all things, advances in hygiene which led to the majority of people becoming stricken with the disease; people who, prior to this, had lived in cities with poor sanitation, but whose own bodies had developed a strong and natural immunity to their environment.
THE VACCINE WAR is, like I mentioned, commendably neutral in its coverage of its subject. On the one side, we get to hear, for example, from one interviewee tell of how herd immunity protects the unvaccinated members of a population, as well. It would seem from this that both sides could manage to live in close proximity with one another quite fine.
Both sides are heard from in this well-made documentary; from those who feel they are protecting their children from potential adverse side-effects and allergic reactions, to those parents who feel that unvaccinated schoolkids ought to be banned from attending their child's school.
THE VACCINE WAR also covers, in part, the Andrew Wakefield story, and includes welcomed appearances by J.B. Handley, Barbara Loe Fisher, and Jennifer Margulis, who for me were the voices of reason in this.
