In our online community, a new member asked a great question about how to answer the charge that her unvaccinated children are freeloading off of the vaccinated. All parents of unvaccinated or selectively-vaccinated children will hear this charge, so its good to be prepared.
If you want to dismiss the freeloading charge: American children are the most highly vaccinated on the planet and among the most unhealthy with chronic disease and obesity. So the issue of freeloading is an unhelpful distraction from more obvious and urgent problems.
If you’re feeling argumentative: I might ask them if there is anything the gov’t tells them that they question. Or do they just believe everything they are told? I might lean into this and insist on one thing they don’t believe. I might lean into it more and ask them for an example when they used their own critical thinking in medical decisions for their children - especially related to vaccines. And then ask them to justify HepB for infants (giving an infant all the risk and zero benefit while ignoring the people who really could benefit). Over the years, I’ve developed the ability to be comfortable making some people uncomfortable as the best way to protect my children.
Or, if you want to feign politeness with a bite: I would gently point out that it isn’t such a good idea for them to charge other people’s children with being freeloaders, because we could just as easily say that “you and your children” are freeloaders upon the vaccine-injured. See this article for vivid real-life pictures of a recent horrifying vaccine-injury.
Short and sweet: Healthy children – whether vaccinated, selectively vaccinated, or unvaccinated – all contribute to the public health.
Big picture: Diversity in how a population chooses to stay healthy creates resilience and strength. Relying on just one approach (like vaccination) creates huge vulnerabilities. Consider just the supply chain risks to a population without natural immunity to a growing number of diseases. Or the de-skilling and dumbing-down of pediatricians who do little else other than give vaccines and write scripts for medications.
If I’m feeling philosophical, I might say that I’m firmly in the “live free or die” camp by pointing out the inherent tension between freedom and relying upon a medical intervention that requires Soviet-election levels of compliance. (In those elections, voter turnout was often reported as being extremely high, close to 100%, with overwhelming support for the single party or leader in power.)
There is much more to the philosophical approach that we explain in the VaxCalc Manifesto.
