Shot Down
Why so many parents won't vaccinate — and what it means for our kids.
by Liza Featherstone
March 26, 2007
As Susan Gregory Thomas documents in Buy Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds, this generation of parents is anxious not to be taken for dupes, yet our skepticism can be superficial and capriciously directed. We are often, as Arthur Allen points out in his new book Vaccine, more willing to believe a random article on the internet than scientists who have spent their lives studying vaccines. Many of us have been oddly credulous about the anti-vaccine activists, some of whom are charlatans who make Merck look like the Boys & Girls Club. In addition to serving the worthy purpose of reminding us that every medical intervention has risks, many of these characters have terrified parents with vaccine fears that are simply ridiculous, in one case evoking the possibility of "brain-eating bugs." Some anti-vaccinators have even made a career of providing expert-witness testimony to defend defendants in "shaken baby" cases, claiming that the children's injuries come not from abuse but from shots.
Several parents interviewed for this article were particularly disturbed by the number of vaccines given to today's newborns. Indeed, babies do get more shots now than we did when we were kids. Several new vaccines were added in the 1990s, and that's clearly part of the reason so many people are up in arms. Some parents, while committed to the concept of vaccination, are now worried enough about potential side effects — or bad interaction between vaccines — that they are asking to have the shots spaced out. Many follow some version of the schedule devised by Stephanie Cave, vaccine skeptic and author of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Vaccinations — often giving children just one shot at a time. Plenty of pediatricians are willing to accommodate patients who do this — though few willThe state of the health-care system may be contributing to the anti-vaccine revolt. present the option up front. Other parents staking out a middle ground on the issue have rejected only the chicken-pox vaccination (this, too, is a choice that many pediatricians accommodate). There are some reasonable justifications for opting out of the chicken-pox shots: for most children, chicken pox isn't a serious illness, and getting it as a kid may provide greater immunity in adulthood, when it's often more dangerous. The state of the health-care system, especially the fact that so many people receive care through impersonal HMOs, may also be contributing to the anti-vaccine revolt. Dr. Palevsky and Dr. Bernstein don't agree on much, but both think that people are much more likely to be skeptical of vaccines if they don't have a strong relationship with their doctor.
Unlike most parents who are not vaccinating, Kristen Monaghan does recognize that her choice could be seen as ethically questionable. After all, non-vaccinators don't expose their own children to the potential dangers of vaccines, yet because most parents in their community probably do, unvaccinated kids are often not in much danger of contracting serious diseases. "I feel sort of guilty — since most of our friends [vaccinate], our kids are safe," she acknowledges. "But, not guilty enough to get my kid vaccinated!" She does acknowledge the selfishness of her decision: "If the majority of us didn't do it, who knows what diseases would come back?" Then she dismisses her guilt: "We don't know what would happen — maybe it would be fine." Other parents interviewed for this article seemed not to have considered the possibility that they could be free-riding on the system. Brad sees in the very question a "difficulty with difference — why can't there be different strokes?" Like many vaccine skeptics, Brad and Jo believe that serious diseases were in retreat before vaccines, because of improved sanitation, and that the threat belongs to history.
©2007 Liza Featherstone and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Liza Featherstone is a contributing writer to The Nation. Her work has appeared in Nerve, Salon, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue and NYLON. She's the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart (Basic Books, 2004). She lives in New York City with her husband and son. |
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