Discussion
  • Read More
    BrightEyesAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:33pm

    I had a discussion right here on Jezebel years ago with someone who told me I was being close minded by not “exploring the option” that vaccinations do more harm than good. She really lost me when she went on to say that baby formula still hasn’t been deemed safe and when I told her it has she implored me to provide evidence of my claim. These people are fucking nuts. Sadly due to their beliefs a child has died and many more also will, either by neglect or distributing their diseases to others who already have a weakened immune system.

    Every one of these people who feel “mocked” deserve this and worse. Just because you don’t give a shit about your own child, plenty of other parents care about theirs. Take your holistic poultice treatment and shove it up your ass.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      HobbylobbyistBrightEyes
      6/21/16 12:40pm

      I’d love to know what she thinks has been “proven safe” if baby formula and vaccines aren’t on the list.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      benjaminalloverBrightEyes
      6/21/16 12:42pm

      The most disgusting thing is that the father sells “natural” supplements that he claims help mental illness. Not only are these people so narcissistic as to put their own pet beliefs above their child’s life, they are knowingly tricking others into doing so as well. As far as I’m concerned, their sentences should be on par with murder, and this film has absolutely no place being shown in a country with socialized medicine. It’s akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater, only with the possibility of many more dead children.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Angelica SchuylerAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:21pm
    Then everything just came to a crash on an evening, he ended up in an ambulance that didn’t have the right equipment and he subsequently ended up brain-dead

    Right, because that was the moment that sealed his fate. Not the gross neglect that made that ambulance ride so critical.

    Fucking murderers. Vaccinate your kids, people, for fuck’s sake.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      itscoldoutsideAngelica Schuyler
      6/21/16 12:35pm

      Albertan here, followed this trial closely...yes these parents...the one’s that before he died took him for some “naturopathic” meds, meanwhile the child was so stiff with meningitis that he had to lie in the backseat of the car for the trip to see the quack doc, he could not bend to sit!..But lets blame the ambulance equipment....

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Domesticated_AppliancesAngelica Schuyler
      6/21/16 12:36pm

      Robert DeNiro was not happy about people protesting the “film” at Tribeca earlier this year. His words were, “My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family.” I get it, dude, you have an Autistic kid, but there is a bid difference between falling for fraud and looking for “answers” of why your child was born that way.

      https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/...

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    accesscodeAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:29pm

    This is what I don’t understand. Okay, autism, SEVERE autism is a challenge, but it is surely better than death. And most autism seems to fall into a spectrum that makes it both workable and just another issue of being alive, really.

    Diseases, preventable diseases, cause death. It boggles the mind.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      wafflesfriendsworkaccesscode
      6/21/16 12:33pm

      That’s the thing I really can’t understand—isn’t the possibility of autism a small price to pay to have a child that is otherwise healthy and ALIVE?? (never mind that vaccines don’t even cause autism)

      It’s all so incredibly insulting to people with autism. They’re being told by a group of people that they’d rather risk the possibility of them being DEAD than the way they are.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      nadaforgretchenweinersaccesscode
      6/21/16 12:34pm

      My husband has a co-worker who is anti vaccine for the whole autism bullshit. I say “well, would you rather have a kid with autism, (with early intervention can really go far), or would you rather your kid die.”

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:23pm

    “Held reliable”.

    Huh?

    Wat?

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      wafflesfriendsworkJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      6/21/16 12:26pm

      I think they meant “liable?” As in, if their children drop dead of a particularly nasty strain of measles they don’t want to get in trouble, I guess.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      benjaminalloverJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
      6/21/16 12:26pm

      Pretty sure that was included so we know how stupid they are. Also, how their main concern is for how they’d be treated, not, you know, the possibility of their child dying.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    TremulousCadenceSlowAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:30pm

    They should have taken the baby to the goddamned doctor. But isn’t the meningitis vax typically given to older kids? Mine got it in middle school. Sticking to the vax schedule might not have kept this poor kid from becoming ill, although failing to get him to the doctor is 100% criminal neglect.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      GunkhurstTremulousCadenceSlow
      6/21/16 12:37pm

      In some countries babies can have it, not in the US yet, though.

      Stories like this always surprise me, not because antivaxxers are basically evil, but that so few people realise how little antivaxxers care for children or other adults. They really, really would prefer their kid die of measles than have autism. Which is ironic, because many of these parents are on the spectrum themselves (which explains the dogged obsession with one topic and refusing to listen to counter arguments).

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      I made a pigeonratTremulousCadenceSlow
      6/21/16 12:40pm

      There are lots of diseases that cause meningitis, but the child had bacterial meningitis which can be cured with antibiotics. I wouldn't be surprised if those stupid assholes are against everything produced by "big pharma", including antibiotics. And now their child is dead

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    ThirdAmendmentManAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:26pm

    Of course they support those murdering parents. There’s no other possible stance they can have. If you are an anti-vaxxer you have to be ok with children being incredibly sick and dying from preventable diseases. Same thing with pro-gun people, they have to be ok with high homicide and suicide rates. It’s literally part of their platform.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Flying SquidThirdAmendmentMan
      6/21/16 12:34pm

      Dying from preventable diseases to avoid autism. Not Down Syndrome or microcephaly or something like that, autism. Sure, there are some severely developmentally disabled people with autism, but plenty of others who live happy, relatively normal lives. These assholes act like autism is literally a fate worse than death.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      RedFoxgloveFlying Squid
      6/21/16 1:01pm

      I do have to pull you up on this comment, because you have made it sound like it would be more acceptable to let children die if the risk was Downs. While Downs is certainly challenging, and can be life limiting, I have known people live very happily and productively with it. To suggest a hierarchy of “acceptable vs unacceptable” developmental conditions, is profoundly problematic.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Joseph FinnAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:20pm

    They’re complaining about being portrayed as murderers after they murdered their child because they refuse to believe in science? My heart bleeds.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      accesscodeJoseph Finn
      6/21/16 12:31pm

      The tragic part is how, if they’d taken him to be treated right away, he’d be living now. But, they stupidly tried to treat him with roots and berries, basically. It’s interesting how self-involved in their own shit they are. I really hope their other children have been removed from the household.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      GhostofGMaMazuraccesscode
      6/21/16 1:14pm

      I had bacterial mengingitis as a teenager. It is so incredibly painful and debiliating - I can’t imagine how their poor child lived with it for days while his parents refused medical assistance. Jesus.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    CaliforlifeAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 1:05pm

    As a kid in way back in ancient history, thousands of black/Mexican/poor kids in my city lined up with our parents in a local park... to get vaccinated. The vaccinations were sponsored by.. the Black Panther party because many poor folk without health insurance were not vaccinated. We were in a local park. Thousands of kids and families and it was a joyous occasion. And now, here are these fuckers killing kids because they’re too stupid to understand science.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      OurDaisyCaliforlife
      6/21/16 1:22pm

      My first field trip when I was in kindergarten was to the local health department to get vaccinated. I grew up in a very poor area and a lot of people didn’t have health insurance other than Medical Assistance and minimal access to a pediatrician on a regular basis. The local health department had a vaccine day where the nearby schools brought in classes to get their shots. I remember being terrified of the needle and trying to run but my mom was the class chaperon. Guess who got hauled back and held in place to get my shots. One of the most fascinating things about the whole anti-vaxx movement is that it’s inevitably spearheaded by upper class, educated people who also have the time/money to invest in homeopaths, herbs, and all organic, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free diets. Most of us don’t have that particular luxury.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      I'd eat a spiderCaliforlife
      6/21/16 11:30pm

      Amandla! When I was doing soil contamination research in Guatemala, mamas woul hike their kids over a volcano to get them vaccinated. Over. A. Fucking. Volcano. And these assholes would rather have a dead child.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Kit the CatAnna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:59pm

    “And ultimately it comes down to whether we have the right to vaccinate or not vaccinate without being held reliable. Or whether or not we have to rush our children to the doctor every time they even just get the sniffles, in fear that something may just randomly happen and we’re held reliable.”

    YOU SHOULD BE HELD LIABLE. This makes me so fucking angry. If your child (or someone else’s child because HERD IMMUNITY) dies because you made a horrible, irresponsible decision then that is goddamn abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. It’s like saying parents shouldn’t be held responsible if they throw their infant in a pool and it drowns. Fucking monsters.

    As a side note, my friend once introduced me as “this is Kit, she likes talking about vaccines and uteruses” and it’s my favorite way anyone has ever described me.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      thiazin redKit the Cat
      6/21/16 1:05pm

      This is something I don’t understand, why is it even allowed at all for parents to ignore best practices? Its illegal to deny your kid food or water, why are parents allowed to treat their children with fraudulent “alternative medicine”? All children should receive agreed upon standard care, vaccination, proper real medications, and proper treatment for all conditions, or the parents can lose their kids and go directly to jail. No exceptions.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      QuanYinKit the Cat
      6/21/16 1:25pm

      There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between “the sniffles” and fucking bacterial meningitis! For example, the sniffles require treatment with Kleenex and maybe a little Robitussin. Bacterial meningitis requires treatment with antibiotics. If you fail to treat the sniffles, you leave a slime trail for a few days, but then are totally fine. If you fail to treat bacterial meningitis, you die a horribly painful death.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Akat101Anna Merlan
    6/21/16 12:35pm

    “unlike other diseases, people with autism don’t drop dead, and take up taxpayer dollars”

    Wait, who said this?? What despicable piece of shit actually said these words?

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      beep beep i'm a jeepAkat101
      6/21/16 12:58pm

      People who don’t realize 100% of people with autism pay taxes, most of them work and thus pay into social security, and several of them build the apps and web sites you like, etc.

      Like, there are plenty of role models for success with autism. There are no role models for being dead as an infant.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      accordingtoAkat101
      6/21/16 1:46pm

      Don’t know, but I bet they like to talk about how autistics don’t have any empathy.

      Reply
      <