Melinda Gates was on The Daily Show to promote her new book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. I covered a print interview with her a couple of weeks ago, with some quotes she gave about her marriage to Bill Gates. They’ve been married 25 years and have three children together, daughters Jennifer and Phoebe and son Rory, all in their early 20s. Melinda and Bill have changed the world with the thoughtful, systematic distribution of their massive fortune through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They’re very much a team of equals. It’s nice to see Melinda stepping out on her own with her new book, which is now a NY Times bestseller. On The Daily Show she talked about how imperative vaccines are and how women in Africa make sacrifices to ensure that their children are fully vaccinated. She also talked about how life-changing birth control can be for women living in poverty.
You talk in the book about women telling you they need vaccines. Is it a form of privilege to deny vaccinations?
It is absolutely a privilege. First of all to live in this country is a privilege. To have basic vaccines and a decent healthcare system is a huge privilege. I think so often we forget about our past in the United States. We forget that people used to have polio in my mom’s generation or that people used to get smallpox we’ve eradicated that now or [that] measles kills children and people who are immune compromised. We need to remember our history and we need to learn from other people. I talk to women in so many countries in Africa and they walk 10 kilometers in the heat to get a vaccine for their children. They will tell you ‘this will save the life of my child.’How does birth control change a woman’s life?
This was something that completely surprised me. When I first started traveling to Africa I would be there to talk to women about vaccines and basic healthcare services for their children. They would [ask why they could no longer get birth control in their local clinic.] It turned out we just had stopped delivering [birth control] because of politics in our own country and religious beliefs. Women were asking us for them because it is a life and death crisis. ‘It’s not fair to me to have another child if I have five I can’t feed or educate.’ It is the greatest anti-poverty tool we have. I just didn’t realize that this is a life and death emergency for them.
[From The Daily Show]
We’ve seen the rise of measles in the US as parents refuse to vaccinate their children. It’s threat to people with compromised immune systems and it’s just dumb. Measles has reached the highest level it’s been in 25 years. Melinda is saying how privileged US parents are to have access to healthcare and vaccinations, and that it’s foolish to deny children immunity and put them and the populace at risk. I also found her comments on birth control so powerful. You don’t realize how these backwards policies affect women and families in places where they can’t afford to have more children. It’s life and death as she said. I was so impressed by her.
Here’s her interview. Her comments about vaccines start around 5 minutes in.
Couldn’t agree more. I had an Australian friend tell me years ago that she didn’t vaccinate her child, and at the same time I was raising money for a clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo to be able to provide basic vaccines to kids! The level of thoughtless, smug, privilege anti-vaxxers have just blows my mind.
I have a cousin who is a teacher and won’t vaccinate her child. Where I live you can’t go to school if you aren’t vaccinated. She’s planning on hiring a lawyer to get her child in to school. It’s ridiculous. I live in Canada, by the way, where vaccines for children are FREE. Why are people all of a sudden so afraid of vaccines? The stupid f*cking internet and “false stories” are to blame for this sh*t.
My cousins have lived in Florida and Georgia, and got away with refusing to vaccinate their children for “religious reasons”. They are generic Christians who never go to church, but sent their children to Christian schools. It was a lie and they were not required to provide proof. I’m a nurse and it disgusts me.
@ AryasMum
I have a feeling that’s the lie A LOT of anti-vaxxers are going to use to get their kids out of “mandatory vaccination” in schools. They will just simply say it’s against their religion and the school won’t question it. It is disgusting how brainwashed and uninformed so many parents are.
People are against vaccinations because of the chemical fillers that are in them- it’s pretty basic. A good example that maybe you can understand is the deodorant industry: large industrial companies sell “runoff” goods to other industries (left over from industrial processes). Deodorant companies buy aluminum from these companies and add it as a filler in their products because it’s cheap. Aluminum and other “filler” products have been shown to cause cancer. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE ARE ANTI VAX- because they have lots of filler chemicals in them. That’s what we should be fighting- the use of chemicals in vaccinations that don’t need to be there. So sick of hearing debates that don’t even cover the actual issue!
I think this whole “anti-vaxx” movement started because people believed vaccines caused Autism. I don’t think most parents are worried about vaccines causing cancer. I bet many anti-vaxx parents smoke and drink/eat things that are linked to cancer. It’s the fear of Autism that caused this mess and it’s ridiculous and unfounded.
The amount of “chemicals” in them, which are largely used to ensure they are shelf-stable, are negligible and unlike things like deodorant, soap, toothpaste, etc., are not ongoing exposure. The benefits so far outweigh the risks. The “chemicals in them are so bad” argument is just the BS anti-vaxxers locked onto once ten studies disproved the autism link theory (including a study funded BY the anti-vaxx movement).
Vaccinate your crotchfruit. The rest of us don’t care to see the return of polio.
@Chloe as a medical professional I hope vaccines are federally mandated by law for everyone who can tolerate then so stupidity like this doesn’t further cost lives from preventable diseases.
There is piles of research showing vaccines safe and effective for those not allergic to the ingredients or immune compromised. It seems like the only way to stop Facebook doctors from spreading ignorance is to mandate they be done. Your personal objection does not trump public safety. Please go sit silently in the corner before you kill someone running your uneducated mouth.
Dismissed.
@Chloe: Those additives are added to vaccines so they work. The vaccines themselve don’t have any pathological effects nowadays, that they wouldn’t create an immune-response at all. No immune-response = no immunity.
You need the aluminium so that the body has an immune response and learns to recognise the pathogen patterns of viri. But it isn’t more than an irritation, not a full-blown disease that you’d get when you aren’t vaccinated.
Like Izzy said, you only get very few vaccinations in your life, which is a stark contrast to spraying yourself every day with deodorant.
Vaccinations are only recommended when the risks by them are far lower than the risk of getting the illness. Please, take your conspiracy theories elsewhere and inform yourself.
Thank you, medical professionals, for combating nonsense like this.
Izzy, you’re so right – “chemicals” are the new autism.
Actually, aluminum is the active ingredient in antiperspirants, not a filler ingredient.
And thiomersal is the preservative added to vaccines that sort of spurred this anti-vax movement along. It’s a terrible bit of brain poison is high enough doses. However, it’s now rarely used in vaccinations geared towards children under a certain age. Also, you can request single-dose vials, which eliminate the need for preservatives.
We did not forget anything. 99.9999% of Americans get their vaccinations.
Unfortunately, that’s not true. I think the US is lower than that at approximately 92%. Being that low is what has caused the current spat of outbreaks in Western countries. You need a high number of people getting vaccines to protect those who cannot receive them and 92 is unfortunately too low. People have forgotten about these diseases.
Correct, 99% was too high of an estimate. People have not forgotten. The largest hindrance is that the number of vaccinations have tripled from 10 to over 30 in the last 35 years. There is no incentive for the medical industry to give combination vaccines, so the costs, which are already driving poor parents away, are too much for some families.
The easy solution is that all vaccines should be free of cost.
Mississippi leads the nation with a 99% compliance. State like Washington and Wyoming have the worst compliance. It’s a mix of privileged white parents who think their kids are too special for vaccines and poor kids can be counted on for herd immunity and evangelical conspiracy nuts who think vaccines are a conspiracy by communists and big pharma to take away freedom. The crazy Christians are now claiming that vaccines are made with aborted fetuses. And refusing vaccines is a “prolife” cause.
@Dota the only people i know who do not vaccinate their children do not do it for financial reasons. People in government healthcare get children’s vaccines covered. This is about Dr Google telling people it’s not needed, and tinhats saying it’s all pharma money scheme. I do agree it should be covered to get the group that falls between the cracks, but the majority who don’t vaccinate are not for the cost.
@aang the white privilege of not vaccinating is real. I recently donated my time to a free vaccine drive and the line was a 5 hour wait and it was 95% black and brown parents with their children so thrilled and relieved to get these vaccines for free. The drive was held in a predominantly white area also, some people drove from hours away.
White, rich and ignorant is the most dangerous thing in America on a lot of fronts.
not true.. cdc rates for 2016 were 91% for both measles and polio… and have only dropped lower since. but i’m sure dotard, inc has ordered the cdc to stop collecting that data, like they’ve done with other agencies.
you may be confusing the effectiveness rate of the actual vaccines with the percentage who get the vaccines.
Being several generations removed from the experience of these awful diseases is exactly the reason why we have anti-vaxxers. It confounds my grandmother, who is 90, why anyone would not vaccinate their child with what was experienced during her childhood and the worry of being a parent in the 50’s herself. She remembers how miserable she was with measles, how long it lasted, how these diseases affected children in her class. Measles wipes out your immunity, it takes a long time to recover, leaving you susceptible to a whole host of other illnesses that can be fatal. 1 out of 20 kids with measles will develop pneumonia, which is the #1 cause of measles related death, per the CDC.
I remember when I had chicken pox it was such a severe case that my pediatrician called in the other doctors to look. It was on the bottom of my feet, in my vagina, down my throat. Chicken pox stays dormant in your nervous system and can be reactivated as shingles, which can cause permanent pain and damage. My best friend had shingles last year and she’s still dealing with nerve damage. I am relieved my child won’t experience any of this due to the chicken pox vaccine.
I know everyone is only trying to do what’s right for their child. We are being fed so much misinformation and online conspiracy belief levels are high. Childhood morbidity rates are so low thanks to vaccines. All you have to do is visit an older cemetery or read up on history to see how many children died before we had them.
It’s been over a year and my mother is still suffering pain from shingles. She really, really wishes she could have vaccinated herself and her children against chicken pox.
I once took care of an old man who came to tears when I admitted him. He had been a child in the 40’s, and had contracted polio out of town. He was isolated and away from his friends and family. The hospital staff had limited interaction with him, but he remembered a candy striper who would stand in the doorway of his room and talk with him. He revered nurses.
The problem is that we don’t. At 99.999% vaccination, we’d have herd immunity. These breakouts show that we’ve fallen below the threshold for it. Isolated populations where vaccination is low are also excellent hotspots for viruses to spread and mutate.
MUTATION. Excellent point. What happens when these diseases continue to spread due to idiots refusing to vaccinate? They MUTATE. Next thing you know, everybody that’s been vaccinated will no longer have immunity. Then we’re all screwed. Thanks a lot anti-vaxxers. Selfish a-holes.
She’s right about the vaccines. I don’t have kids, but if I did I couldn’t imagine not spending the ten minutes it would take to discover that the leader of the anti-vax movement has had all his research completely disproven and been struck off the medical register in his home country for medical malpractice involving performing invasive, unnecessary tests on children without consent.
As for the birth control issue, let’s not pretend the Mammon-worshipping Trumpists using fake piety as a shield for their bigotry and greed are in any way “religious”. Hobby Lobby funded the slaughter of Middle Eastern Christians by terrorist groups via the smuggling of stolen antiquities whilst claiming that their “faith” gave them control over their employees’ sex lives!
Making the connection between birth control reducing poverty – just wow. Such an important message. It makes the political/religious attempts to control women’s bodies even more enraging.
I eye that notion warily. I’m fine with that approach if it’s aimed at industrialized nations with large resource consumption, and if it’s tempered by fights to improve medical access, wage increases, and general living conditions for the poor of society. If it’s purely “let’s just reduce their reproduction and do nothing else,” then it’s a very dangerous mindset because it often specifically targets minority groups and acts as a different sort of reproductive control for women.
It sounds to me like the BC they were providing was up to the women to choose whether they wanted it or not, it was made available to them if they wanted it. I didn’t get the impression it was forced on anyone.
Birth control allows women to be in charge of their reproductive health. They aren’t forcing it on women, but taking it away does force pregnancy on women.
The “birth control = abortion folks” in the extreme right of our government enact these stupid policies every time a republican becomes president.
Birth control gives women a choice.
Watching Call the Midwife makes it clear how little control women had over their own reproductive lives. A new baby every year, whether you could feed it or not.
I was shocked to hear Melinda Gates say that the links between birth control and poverty were a surprise to her. It was awful when the current administration changed its policy of making birth control available to woman in distressed foreign countries. I certainly was aware of what that would mean to these women. That the US government would impose these new rules based on their patriarchal Christian bs fills me with rage.
when I was a child, I was hospitalized for asthmatic bronchitis and shared a hospital room with another girl who was encased in an iron lung, and my absolute terror I was going to be put in one. that is the most vivid memory I have of my childhood.
I also had a childhood friend who’d contracted polio and lived her life with a withered left leg.
these ‘parents’ are exactly why this country is on a downward trajectory — the embrace of ignorance and rejection of science, education and the better good.
Our elementary school secretary was crippled from childhood polio. She was a nice, smiling lady who provided a daily, unspoken reminder of diseases that devastated families until the mid-century. We still had to endure mumps and chicken pox, because those vaccines were not yet widely available.
As I type this, the local radio personalities are talking about the importance of vaccines. We don’t want to take a huge step backwards!
I had chicken pox as a kid and will likely have shingles at some point because I have an autoimmune disease and am more susceptible to breakout – and my titer levels are less effective, meaning I’m having to look to revaccinate for certain diseases. And yeah, I survived it, but it was f*cking miserable. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. My sister still has minor scarring on her face twenty years later from the infection. My brother was a baby at the time and nearly wound up in the hospital. Had any of us been immune suppressed, we could have died or spent months healing. It’s not a joke.
I had the measles, mumps, and chicken pox. Mumps, by far, were the worst. I had them over Easter and had to watch my cousins hunt eggs outside my window, and the pain was significant. I had the chicken pox over Christmas. I remember being wrapped up in a blanket, delirious with fever, and being rushed to the ER. As a nurse, I had to comfort a woman who had deliberately exposed her daughter to chicken pox, to “get it over with”, and who was hospitalized for neurological effects.
Why any parent would deliberately expose their own children to these diseases is baffling to me. I am astounded by the ignorance and arrogance.
She’s right about vaccines. Over here (the UK) whooping cough and measles are on the rise, and it’s getting to the point where the health secretary is thinking of making vaccinations compulsory. The same thought is been floated in Germany, iirc.
When I grew up in a developing country, we’d have days when they’d have school days for the purpose of us getting all our shots (government or NGO paid for this, iirc). Or if you missed it on that day, you couldn’t attend school in the following September unless you got your vaccines and presented your vaccination card (which showed the shots/immunizations accquired).
So imagine my surprise living in a developed country and attending knitting circles in fashionably smart neighbourhoods and middle class white women (always white, in my experience) not vaccinating their child, because they didn’t believe in vaccines – or risk having an autistic kid.
Ms Gates is also right about birth control. In developing countries, women are the child providers (if the father refuses to support, there wasn’t the relatively sophiscated resources in terms of having the children provided for). So in a way, one or two children are easier for them to care for than say, three to five!
Our government brought this point forward in radio and TV messages. So yeah, we got the gist that two was better than two many, and never have more kids than we could afford. Also, a lot of women are for higher education in these countries, so controlling fertility is a way out of poverty.
Good on Ms Gates for doing good in a way that’s impactful for her fellow women and their wellbeing, truly.
Don’t get me started on the white middle class earth mother types, who are against vaccination because ‘little Molly is such a precious snowflake and it will make her sick’ and because you know, herd immunity. If they would rather their child either died or became disabled in a way that means they will need 24 hour care for the rest of their life then so be it, but don’t force your il-informed opinion on others (as they are wont to do). They also love to spout that clean healthy eating is the ONLY reason why their kids have never gotten sick ever, nowt to do with herd immunity – absolutely nothing at all to do with that. They also refuse to acknowledge that their unvaccinated child could make someone with a compromised immune system sick, they claim its impossible as their little darling is just soo healthy and again, herd immunity.
Sorry for the heavy sarcasm but its a subject that really makes my blood boil. And you are right in that its mostly white, allegedly tertiary educated women who do so love to lord it over everyone else.
I have this anecdotal theory about the far right and the far left in this country, in that there’s a Venn overlap on things like vaccines.
As a middle class white mom, I 100% agree with everything you said. My grandfather was horrendously disabled by polio, and an another uncle was rendered infertile by mumps. I think that there are a few factors at play.
First of all, too many people have never actually seen the effects of these diseases and bacteria (e.g., tetanus). It’s easy to dismiss or diminish the impact when it’s not been visible for a full generation.
Second, we’ve gone down the internet rabbit hole of being anti-science, at both poles of politics. The far left wants to believe Big Pharma is out to get them, and relies on holistic treatments (y’all, I got INTO it on Facebook with a woman who hosts measles parties for kids in her town) – which ironically, is also a big industry.
We act like pharmaceutical companies are making bank on vaccines. Yes, they’re profitable, but in many countries they’re covered by insurance or by NGO intervention. Frankly, the Dr. Ozes and Alex Jones of the world are making a tremendous amount off of people’s fear, from supplements to treatments. It’s disgusting that in the year of our Lord 2019 we’re still dealing with snake oil salepeople.
Meanwhile, the far right breathlessly hangs on Alex Jones’ every word about gay frogs and such.
Third, I think Andrew Wakefield has literal blood on his hands, and he’s continuing to profit off his status as a self-described martyr. He’s had a horrifying effect on public health, and I invite him to kindly go eff himself. Herd immunity ONLY works if X% of us are vaccinated – and that includes adults, so pretty please check on your MMR and Tdap, y’all. How many immunosuppressed or vaccine-allergic people is such hubris putting at risk?
Think of the kid in Oregon who got tetanus and subsequently spent three months in an isolated, dark, quiet room. His medical bills amounted to nearly $1 million, and his parents – despite seeing how he suffered – refused the final Tdap dose (and any other vaccinations). This is madness.
(A lot.)
Finally, I think a lot of folks have forgotten that in most societal constructs, individual freedom is checked by the public security. Vaccines aren’t an issue of liberty or choice, they’re an issue of public health. There’s a Waldorf school a block from my house, and I’m about 70% sure that’s where New Orleans will see our own measles outbreak begin.
^^^^very very good post
She is so right about the vaccines issue. I’m in my early 30’s and I have seen what polio can do to a person. When I was a child I saw many adults affected by polio back in my country. Believe me, no one back in my country would question the efficacy of vaccines, we have seen what viruses can do to a human body. Maybe people in privileged countries need a reminder of what diseases look like. I have seen it and I will never forget it.
I love the Gates. They do such good in this world and yes anti vaxers come from a place of tremendous privilege. I’m looking at you Kristen cavallari
Yes, Bravo to the Gates! Extremely privileged, yet also educated.
Cavallari absolutely makes my blood boil; why that ignorant woman was EVER given a platform is beyond me.
I don’t understand how she got her own reality show on E. I watched an episode and thought WHOOOO would like this show? Just a bunch of whiny White skinny women putting on some fake drama (the acting is horrible !).
I’m really impressed with them and what they’ve done with their wealth, and especially impressed that she’s really stepping up on her own too.
Let me fix this for her “rich and privileged white people have forgotten…..” please don’t lump all of us in with that group.
Vaccines are proven to be dangerous and I for one –
– just kidding, I’m not a fecking idiot, vaccinate your kids, losers!
I remember people in my town living with the after effects of polio, one leg 8″ shorter than the other & mismatched foot sizes as well. A boy had a withered arm & hand. One woman’s spine was so deformed that she had a huge hump on one shoulder which made it difficult to ride in a car, sit in chairs with backs, or find clothing to fit.
My chicken pox sores were everywhere – genitalia, between toes & fingers, inside my nostrils & lower eyelids. I got shingles, on my face, last year & still have post-herpetic nerve pain as well as a lost eyebrow. I got stretch marks below my ears from mumps. People died!
The arrogance of people who don’t vaccinate their kids is terrible & dangerous to others. These diseases are contagious to others before the distinguishing symptoms emerge. Their kids could infect as yet unvaccinated infants or the non-immune elderly.
The Salk polio vaccine came out when I was in elementary school. Our teachers lined up their kids & the school nurse vaccinated every one of us. I got a little sick afterwards only because I was showing off for my friends who were scared of needles & went through the line twice. Double protection?
Full stop, I think people who refuse vaccines for anything but established medical reasons should be banned from most public or community spots. People who spread disease through their unvaccinated children should also be legally liable for damages incurred to others. I live with a friend whose child is a heart transplant baby. If he catches measles, he doesn’t get sick – he f*cking DIES. After surviving his first year of life and multiple surgeries to survive a major heart defect. All of us in the family and friends circle have to get their measles titers checked because there’s no a breakout in our area, so she’s understandably terrified of her kid getting infected.
There seems to be this one-sided idea of what liberty means among the entitled classes that you can choose to forego certain things and not have to worry about the consequences of your actions. You can choose not to vaccinate. Fine. But you don’t get to act like that decision doesn’t have ramifications beyond yourself. You want to live in a society, you act in a way that acknowledges it. You want to do whatever you want without consequence, go live in the woods somewhere away from society.
I have been reading a lot of news stories lately stating any adult born before 1989 should get a booster for the MMR vaccine. Anyone have any legit experience with this? Does the MMR actually wear off over time? There is so much info out there you really don’t know who or what to believe.
Yes, you should talk to your primary care physician about both your MMR and your Tdap.
I’m always on top of my Tdap, due for one next year. I was always under the impression the MMR was good for life. I’m now seeing a lot of reports saying that adults should get a booster MMR shot. Thanks for replying.
Yes, recent studies have found the titer is less effective after a few decades. I believe it’s a two booster set to knock levels back up. I’m getting it done soon because we had an outbreak in our area, and I live with an immunosupressed child.
For the record, if you also suffer from autoimmune disease, it’s also wise to get your titers done after diagnosis to see which ones may need redosed. They’re generally less effective in immunocompromised populations.
There might be only one thing I hate more than our cartoon president. Parents who don’t vaccinate. It’s the most bizarre twist families are making, except maybe for those praying away ‘the gay.’ At least prayer doesn’t put our population in jeopardy. Not initially anyway.
And some of the reasons are just crazy. They range from half baked religious reasons, the gov and pharma companies are just conning us, my child is allergic to the ingredients they put in vaccinations, vaccinations contain animal by products (from hard core vegans), it will make my child sick, they don’t work, etc..
There are a lot of kids who are getting vaccinated as soon as they turn 18, against their parents’ wishes. It’s this generations idea of “rebellion”. I think it’s great ! However, I think a child should be allowed to be vaccinated without parents’ permission way before the age of 18.
My mother worked her whole life in a West African nation (not being specific here for sake of privacy) and was part of efforts that eradicated polio in that country, only for anti-vaxx (apparent fears by religious group afraid of vaccines being used as sterilization, which has been done in history to BIPOC–see examples especially Puerto Rico and disenfranchised communities in other parts of U.S.–but was not the case with the polio vaccines) to cause a resurgence of polio where it had been eliminated. I have seen people’s limbs twisted by this disease, people considered worthless, left for dead. And the fight of rural communities to get support and treatment. This is hardly even one generation eradicated. So everything she is saying is true, and I am so afraid now that one of the privileged anti-vaxx people and their spawn will cause a major catastrophic outbreak. We are due for this as a human species especially as we have brought almost a 1/3 of the life on this planet to extinction status. I guess it’s only right(?) or inevitable that some humans would cause our extinction. With this ass-backwards administration, the U.S. infrastructure is so trash that it wouldn’t take much for an epidemic to wipe us out. Maybe that’s what has to happen here. Delete and start over…
Delete and start over is what the bible recommended once. But it would include the deaths of several billion people, right? Terrible result. Can’t we do that smarter?
I don’t know if this is the same for all countries but those of us in late 70s and early 80s in Canada may not have received a second dose.
I called my public health office and received a copy of my immunization records last week. They have no record of me being vaccinated for MMR at all! Obviously, I’m going to get it and whatever other vaccines I’m missing.
I agree with her 100%. After a certain amount of time, people forget the hardship of the past because they don’t have 1st hand, or even 2nd hand, experience of it. However, that doesn’t make this right.
[*Vaccinations and herd immunity are a luxury and privilege that we should be damn grateful for.*]