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It seems I have to say this in every article I write about the discussion over vaccine safety, consent and responsibility. So, here…
This isn’t about being against vaccines. This isn’t about being for vaccines. This isn’t about whether YOU decide to vaccinate YOUR child(ren).
This issue is about whether the government should have the power to force something into a child’s body against the wishes of his or her parents.
If it’s a struggle for you to comprehend that, then just stop reading the article. I’ve said it so many times — my own children have been vaccinated. We vaccinate them for the flu every year. But they are our kids. And as their parents, my wife and I make that decision every year. We are not compelled by the government to do it.
I say that in an effort to have a discussion about the Des Moines Register’s recent article giving Rep. Jeff Shipley (R-Fairfield) a “thistle” for “spreading his painful ignorance about vaccines.” The Register goes on to say Shipley should “either get educated or get off social media.”
Shipley criticized California legislator, Sen. Richard Pan, who has led the charge to tighten California’s immunization laws. Shipley responded to a tweet by Pan by saying Pan is threatening peaceful families with violence of the state. Shipley called Pan a “medical rapist” and told him he is the violent one.
“Basically Dr. Pan accepts gigantic contributions from industry, then writes laws guaranteeing massive profits,” Shipley said. “Perhaps ‘pharma fascist’ or ‘corporate vaccine whore’ would have been more precise. I’m deeply sorry Senator Pan for my previous description of you.”
Shipley has been one of the Iowa legislators leading to expand medical freedom in Iowa when it comes to vaccinations. He was one of a handful of state legislators at the Empowered to Action Conference hosted by Informed Choice Iowa.
The Register, though, took exception with “violence of the state.”
“As if we live in a science fiction novel where a guy in a white coat is holding down and inoculating children,” they wrote. “No one is administering injections without consent from parents or patients.”
Shipley, the Register said, is among a “fringe segment” in the country that “disregards the entire scientific and medical community on the safety and importance of vaccines to protect individual and public health. They contribute to a reduction in immunizations that put children and the rest of us at risk.”
The obvious rebuttal from those who support medical freedom and informed consent is, if you and your children are vaccinated by vaccines that you are so confident in, then what are you so worried about?
The Register then said Iowa should eliminate non-medical exemptions that leave children unprotected from communicable diseases. Religious exemptions are non-medical exemptions.
So, what the Des Moines Register is really saying here, is religious beliefs do not matter.
Shocker.
And then the granddaddy of them all:
“Parents who refuse for non-medical reasons to immunize their kids are irresponsible. Unfortunately, so is this member of the Iowa Legislature.”
Here is a fact (for reporters at the Register and in liberal mainstream media, a fact is a thing that is known or proved to be true), parents know best. We cannot, and we must not, legislate parents out of the lives and decisions of their kids.
As much as the Left in this country would like to see moms and dads replaced with government, it cannot happen.
Requiring vaccinations to attend public school seems unfair, unless parents who choose not to vaccinate also get to choose whether or not they pay taxes that go to the public school.
You might say it’s a quid-pro-quo — want to go to our government school (you know, the one you are paying for anyway), then inject this stuff into your kid or you can’t go to our (they really mean your, since you are the one paying your taxes) school.
Is it extortion?
In paragraph four of the Register’s article, it talks about a science fiction novel where a doctor is holding down children and injecting vaccines without consent. Nobody is doing that, the Register says.
Two paragraphs later the Register starts by saying states rightly require vaccines to attend school.
There were only 49 words separating those thoughts. Yet the Register still failed to connect the dots.
No, there are no men in white coats holding kids down and injecting them against the wishes of their moms and dads, which would be a “science fiction novel.”
Instead, we should just have the government do the forcing. Use the power of the law to make parents abandon their personal beliefs and what they believe to be best for their kids. Because, remember, the law also forces kids to attend school.
So, if you have laws that require vaccinations to follow the law (send your kid to school), then you sort of have a law that requires vaccinations. And if a law requires something, you’re forcing it. And while the guy in the white coat may not be the one holding the kids down for their shots, it is the guy in the suit and tie cashing campaign checks from the pharmaceutical lobby doing the dirty work.
Is Shipley ignorant? I don’t think so. I’ve seen him working to learn more about the issue. He listens to both sides. Then he reaches his own conclusion.
Ignorant? No. Independent thinker? Yes.
Here is an honest question for the Des Moines Register, how much of the $9.8 billion spent on marketing in the past 20 years by Big Pharma has gone to your newspaper? How much was spent advertising in publications owned by Gannett, the Register’s parent company?
Why is diversity of everything else celebrated by the Register and the Left but not allowed on this issue?
No discussion. No debate. No diversity.
You must vaccinate.
And remember, all this comes from a guy who vaccinates his kids for almost everything, including the flu.
But that doesn’t mean moms and dads who don’t are criminals. It doesn’t mean they don’t love their kids.
Quite the contrary.
There are people way, way, way, way, way (OK, there aren’t enough ways to quantify this) smarter than me when it comes to science. And they fall on both sides of the debate.
At the end of the day, there is one fact that will always (liberal journalists’ heads may explode at the idea of a fact being combined with an absolute in one sentence, but I’ll do it anyway) be the single-most relevant thing in this debate — more than $4.2 BILLION has been paid out by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
That money isn’t being paid out for no reason.
After all, government loves loves loves loves loves its money. It would never just give it away for nothing, unless of course favors are involved.
Folks, please, this issue is not as simple as “anti-vax” or “pro-vax.”
It is so much bigger than that. It is about whether or not parents should be able to have the final say over what drugs are injected into their child’s body.
As journalists, we’re supposed to be naturally curious and cautious when it comes to pretty much everything. I remember one of my professors preaching “if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.”
Moms and dads reluctant to inject something into the body of their sons or daughters aren’t “irresponsible.” They’re responsible.
They’re responsible for that child’s safety and well-being first and foremost. That’s how it always has been and how it always should be.
Regardless of how it might make the Des Moines Register feel.
FRUSTRATED WITH FAKE NEWS? THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
If you are someone who believes the media refuses to give a fair shake and just report the facts, then consider supporting The Iowa Standard.
The Iowa Standard is a free online news source so we can reach as many people as possible. But we need to raise money! We are asking our readers to help support us as a news alternative entering 2020. If you could, please consider showing a sign of support to The Iowa Standard by making a contribution here. Or, you can use Venmo and make a contribution to @Iowa-Standard-2018.
You could also send a check to:
PO Box 112
Sioux Center, IA 51250
