So-Called Anti-Vaxxers Aren’t “Delusional”

A few hours ago, a newspaper in New Hampshire blamed the recent “outbreak” of measles on the “anti-vaccine delusion,” which is spreading like a plague.

In the past few months, dozens of press outlets, from the New York Times to National Public Radio, have spent a lot of ink and air time vilifying presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy is accused of promoting misinformation, misleading the public, and promulgating “completely unfounded” anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.

Reality check

In the meantime, there have been just 64 confirmed cases of the measles.

In a population of over 331 million people in America.

This “outbreak” of the measles becomes a perfect opportunity for the mainstream media to hammer home the idea that parents who choose to delay, space out, or forego vaccines are “crackpots.”

They are uneducated, selfish, misinformed, and—most importantly—putting other people and other people’s children at risk.

Baby gets all the shots

But these articles and opinion pieces overlook some basic facts about so-called “anti-vaxxers.”

For one thing, many parents who turn away from vaccines are the ones who willingly, even gratefully, at first gave their infants all the recommended vaccines.

Then their babies reacted badly, to the first or second or third round of vaccines.

Maybe it was high-pitched screaming. Or a fever of over 104 that lasted for hours. Or just lethargy and loss of appetite. Or a whole-body rash. Or seizures.

The parents were terrified.

But since no one wants to leave a tiny baby vulnerable to infectious disease, these families usually continued to vaccinate.

It wasn’t until later—after a diagnosis of regressive autism, unusually severe allergies, or Type 1 juvenile diabetes—that the parents finally step back to ask, “Why did this happen? What caused my healthy baby to get so sick?”

It’s only after years of following their doctors’ orders that these so-called anti-vaxxers start to wonder if maybe—just maybe—the vaccines they were told their children had to have were not as safe as the doctors had led them to believe.

Ex-vaxxers, not “anti-vaxxers”

Four times in four years my co-author watched children in his practice become severely health compromised after following his vaccination recommendations, which he took directly from the CDC.

A Dartmouth-educated pediatrician, my co-author, Paul Thomas, M.D., personally witnessed four babies—all born healthy—end up with brain and immune dysfunction by the time they were each three years old.

These were conventional families who did what they were told.

Confused and concerned, knowing these families had no genetic predisposition for autism, Dr. Paul started scouring the scientific literature to try to figure out what had gone wrong. He attended a conference on autism, sitting in the back of the room, tears running down his face.

This was many years ago.

The more he looked into it, the more Dr. Paul realized that the medical establishment’s recommendations—about vaccines, Tylenol, and antibiotics, to name just a few—seemed to be doing more harm than good.

Judicious changes to the vaccine schedule

He realized then that by making judicious changes to the vaccine schedule, the children in his practice could be protected against infectious diseases without the devastating side effects that the CDC’s bloated and aggressive vaccine schedule appeared to be causing.

These changes included delaying the birth and infant series of the hepatitis B vaccine, spacing out aluminum-containing shots so a child was only getting one at a time, and delaying the MMR (measles mumps and rubella) vaccine until on or after age three.

All of these changes were supported by science, to say nothing of common sense.

But according to the mainstream, anyone who deviates in any way from the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule is an anti-vaxxer, a crackpot, delusional, or fanatic.

Yet Dr. Paul’s clinical results were outstanding. He ran a busy pediatric practice in Portland, Oregon. The children that came to see him, especially those whose parents followed his vaccine-friendly plan and those whose parents decided to delay vaccines indefinitely, were the healthiest around.

Dr. Paul also helped his families understand the importance of healthy eating, exclusive breastfeeding, spending time outside, exercising, and avoiding stress.

He talked to them about reducing their children’s cumulative toxic load as much as possible.

Toxins to avoid, he explained, included aluminum, acetaminophen, glyphosate, plasticizers, non-edible food additives, and food dyes, among others.

Too many too soon

If you’d rather avoid antibiotics and only want to take them when absolutely necessary, you are not “anti-antibiotic.”

If you’d rather avoid vaccines and only want to use them if absolutely necessary, you’re not “anti-vaccine.”

The true anti-vaxxer, I suppose, believes that all vaccines are bad for all people at all times.

I don’t think that’s true.

I do think that vaccines, when used judiciously, can be an important tool in the medical toolbox. For the people who want or need them.

But for some babies, too many vaccines at once can overwhelm their developing immune and neurological systems.

We can’t keep pretending that the current vaccine schedule is safe and should be unquestioningly followed, especially now that the CDC has added mRNA vaccines into the pediatric mix.

Questioning the current CDC vaccine schedule isn’t delusional. It’s the right thing to do.

Related articles:
Parents Deserve to Have a Choice About Vaccines
50 Reasons Why You Don’t Need a COVID-19 Vaccine
More Parents Are Delaying Vaccines, Here’s Why