An Unvaccinated Woman's Perspective on the Vaccination Debate

This is my personal account of living as a wholly unvaccinated woman. Not meant to spark a huge debate about the possible links between vaccinations and horrible side effects or possible vaccination-tampering or what have you. Just thought I could provide an interesting point of view that presents a third position you may not have considered.

When I was born, my parents had to go through a lot of paperwork to be able to keep me from being vaccinated, and that was their choice. The government was very reluctant to allow this, and since then they have stopped allowing these special cases--from what I have heard. (Please feel free to verify this and left me know.) Growing up, I never thought much of it. People would get shots at school sometimes, and I didn't. It was never a big deal.

When I got older, people started to question why I didn't get my shots. I trusted that my parents had made the right decision and payed these people little mind. In high school there were kids who hadn't gotten certain shots updated, and were given notices that they would be unable to return to the school until they had received their shots. People would ask me why I wasn't also barred from attending. Because of the paperwork my parents had filed with the government, I was only to be sent home in the case of an outbreak. It seemed to me that people were becoming less understanding and accepting of my parents' alternative standpoint. People would ask me why I didn't get them later when I was no longer a baby, or ask me how on earth my parents could be so inconsiderate of my well-being. They didn't realize that insulting my parents was also an insult to me. Concerned, I approached my then-biology teacher and asked her about my chances of contracting one of these vaccinated diseases. She told me the many outweighed the few, and that getting sick was a remote possibility if I stayed in regions where the diseases were rare/eradicated and vaccines were prevalent, because so few people could be carrying it. This assuaged my concern.

Now I am caught in the middle of a war I do not fight. On one side, anti-vaxxers would have me be their hero. I am fully healthy and have never had a major health issue. In fact, I was often more healthy compared to others--I've never had pneumonia or bronchitis, both very common here. I did have what was probably H1N1 when the big scare happened a while back, and while I was out of commission for a week, being a near-zombie in bed, my vitals were never at alarming levels. It was like any other flu--something I haven't had since being a young child. To anti-vaxxers, I am a success story, proof that you don't need vaccines to survive.

On the other side, I am constantly attacked for being unvaccinated. People try to tell me I am somehow in the wrong, even though it was my parents' decision. They tell me it's sick that I want their children to die of horrible, preventable diseases (which is not true). They want me to feel shameful and dirty and unreasonable. That I am the reason we can't have nice things, as it were. I am seeing more and more almost-attack ads aimed at anti-vaxxers that do make me feel lowly.

It is unfair, on both sides, to force me into a position. I do not have strong feelings on vaccines. I resent the fact that people use me and my story to their own end, and I resent that people make me feel such unpleasant things. I do not plan on ever getting any vaccines, and I do not plan on having children, so the issue isn't really a concern to me--beyond how I am being used. This is my life, and I am living it as I see fit. Being vaccinated or unvaccinated does not define who we are.

Yes, I recognize that not everyone who has an opinion on the subject all think and act the same. My goal is not to make anyone on either side feel bad if they are not like those that I have described. I simply ask that you respect the people out there like me. Let us tell our own stories. Thank you.

a reply to: Alexithymia

Rock and roll I respect your right to self determination, though I do not have a chip in the matter as I do not have a lot of information I am unvaccinated in most things other than my childhood vaccinations and I to do not get sick generally.

Personally, I don't care about the uneducated and feel that not getting their vaccines will make the human race stronger. What I don't like is parents forcing their stone age beliefs on their kids. I wonder if you would feel the same way (or even able to put yourself in this situation) if this were to happen to you:
*warning, video is disturbing* Shows Pertussis in a four month old.
Link

PS- you are not a "success story" you are lucky....for now. Imagine getting pertussis at 60...at least you'll have a nice long life?

a reply to: Alexithymia

Same here, i get a runny nose once every 4 years or so, never had measles, mumps, chicken pox, mosquitos will not come anywhere near me. I once had a tetnus shot when i was 15 and was in bed for a month.
We take it as gospel what they tell us is in these shots.
Rather a shot of Jamison myself.

What part of the world are you from? I ask because I've never heard of non vaccinated being treated that way!
Here in the uk nobody bats an eyelid if you tell them you've not been vaccinated.

Who gives a crap even if they did! Stop worrying about what other people think!

More power to you.

Perhaps I should have my husband write the mirror to this thread: An Overvaccinated Man's Perspective on the Vaccination Debate since he gets more than the usual compliment of vaccinations as a function of his job.

I got all my childhood shots because we were a military family. If my parents were how they are now, I probably wouldn't have.

I don't care about the vaccines themselves one way or another. What bugs me as an adult is being told what I have to do.

Except the flu shot. That thing is a racket. All the strains of flu that exist and they just guess which ones may make themselves known. I'm not sure they've ever been right. My older family members get the shot AND the flu every year. My immune system has been untouched for 15 years or more and I just don't get sick.

I guess my advice to you is to not tell people you're unvaccinated. They'll never know. The pros won't be appalled at you and the antis won't make you a champion of their cause.

originally posted by: superman2012
Personally, I don't care about the uneducated and feel that not getting their vaccines will make the human race stronger. What I don't like is parents forcing their stone age beliefs on their kids. I wonder if you would feel the same way (or even able to put yourself in this situation) if this were to happen to you:
*warning, video is disturbing* Shows Pertussis in a four month old.
Link

PS- you are not a "success story" you are lucky....for now. Imagine getting pertussis at 60...at least you'll have a nice long life?

Good grief, you make it sound like it is the OP's fault she was not vaccinated and you sound very accusatory! The OP was very clear that the decision was made by the parents. I personally vaccinated my kids and hope other parents will vaccinate theirs. My Dad was hospitalized with polio as a child and others in the hospital with him died, but I am not about to accuse the OP of somehow condoning that sad fact by virtue of having never been vaccinated by her parents.

a reply to: superman2012

I am perfectly at home with the fact that life is ephemeral. Yes, being diagnosed with something like Pertussis would be awful. But the diseases that do have vaccines are not the only horrible ways to die. I could easily die a horrible death fully vaccinated. Either way I wouldn't stick around to watch things deteriorate, so, what specific disease kills me is of little importance to me.

As for your quip about parents: that's really everything they do when they raise a child, is it not? Be it the faith they raise their child in, the way they approach the issue of money or politics... When you rear a child, you instill your own way of thinking in them, be it conscious or not.

To your comment about making the human race stronger: I assume what you are implying is that the stupid unvaccinated people will die off, leaving behind more intelligent people. I counter with this: vaccinations allow the weak to appear healthy, so really, vaccines allow weaker genotypes to prevail.

And for the record, I don't consider myself a success story either. I'm just a person that happens to be alive and unvaccinated, big whoop.

a reply to: Alexithymia

I think on the pro-vax side, there is concern that if numbers of people choose not to vaccinate, the diseases vaccinated against still have a 'foothold' in the population, from which to propagate.

If everyone was vaccinated, the disease would have no hosts and would die out.

Also, vaccination itself is not a 100% proof against the specific diseases, but it is a game of numbers, populations and probabilities. It is increasingly ineffective if significant numbers do not vaccinate.

a reply to: gwynnhwyfar

Thank you

I did expect a fair amount of heat when I posted my thread, and as such am prepared to provide rebuttals. I too think he is rather harsh and not very understanding, but that is the way of the world, it seems. I am sorry to hear about your father's struggle, but glad to hear he survived.

a reply to: chr0naut

Yep, vaccines cannot be made 100% effective. The vaccine that was 100% effective would provoke a toxic immune response and the cure would be worse than the disease effectively.

How are you planning to deal with polio when that pops up?

a reply to: chr0naut

I am fully aware of that, which is a factor in why I am not anti-vax. However, with vaccines being so heavily pushed on people, I doubt a very large portion of the population will ever be unvaccinated. Not enough to be concerned, at least. But only the unfolding of time will reveal if this is accurate or not.

Thanks for your two cents.

originally posted by: chr0naut

It is increasingly ineffective if significant numbers do not vaccinate.

Hi chr0naut
Why? Lets assume you've been vaccinated and I haven't, and we're the only two people on this earth. If your vaccine works, then how does me being un-vaccinated degrade your protection?

a reply to: VoidHawk

Ontario, Canada. I know, seems rather... savage

I don't much care what people think about vaccines either way--that is their business--but I am tired of people involving me in the debate. So I suppose now I am involving myself.

originally posted by: Alexithymia
a reply to: chr0naut

I doubt a very large portion of the population will ever be unvaccinated. Not enough to be concerned, at least.

There are many threads on ats showing the data for the results of so-called Herd immunity, and it shows it makes no difference, other than the vaccinated get just as sick as those who don't vaccinate.

a reply to: ketsuko

I would be interested to hear his story!

I had my vaccinations as a child. As an adult working at a children's psychiatric hospital, I was bitten by a Pt. They sent me in for a tetanus shot. As I was getting in my truck to leave the clinic, I had an anaphylactic reaction. I was hospitalized for 15 days. Because of this, I was nervous about my first child getting his shots. I said no to the ones offered at birth. He had his first hep B shot at 6 weeks. Within hours his temp was over 106. He ped recommended we delay and further shots until after he turned 2. At that point, we did one at a time.....very spaced out. I think the amount of shots is staggering. It's so much for their little bodies. On the other hand, I want to feel like I'm doing all I can to protect them. I chose to delay shots and be very selective about which ones I allowed with all 3 of my kids.

I would never judge anyone for their choice to vax or not vax themselves or their children. It's so complicated and so personal.

a reply to: Alexithymia

I've got a kid on the way and it is highly recommended that anybody coming into close contact with the baby have the Pertussis vaccine. While I cannot control every person who will come into contact with the child, myself and my partner will insist that close family and anyone else spending reasonable time around the child are either up-to-date with, or prepared to receive a booster shot. Once the child is old enough to have received their own vaccinations that will be a different matter.

I will not attack you for being unvaccinated through no choice of your own. In turn I hope you understand the arguments of new parents who may not wish you to be around newborn children unless you are prepared to get certain shots.