In 2015, In Touch Weekly had an interesting little story about how Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake were refusing to vaccinate their son Silas, who was seven months old at the time. I yelled at them, as did other people, but weirdly, Jessica and Justin never confirmed or denied the In Touch story and it all kind of faded away. I actually forgot about that completely until this week. This week, Jessica Biel joined Robert Kennedy Jr. in lobbying the California State Assembly to reject a bill which would limit the medical exemptions from vaccinations. Basically, California legislators – who are seeing an increase in California in measles, mumps and all kinds of diseases for which there are vaccines – are trying to make it more difficult for parents to refuse to vaccinate their damn kids. Legislators want to ensure that parents have approval from a state officer if they want to get a medical exemption to vaccinate their kids. And Biel and Kennedy were there to argue against the bill.
Tuesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist whose recent work has focused increasingly on baseless allegations that vaccines are unsafe and can injure a statistically minuscule population of “medically fragile” children, appeared at the California State Assembly beside an unlikely scene partner: actress Jessica Biel. In a series of Instagram posts, first reported in Jezebel by Anna Merlan, the two posed with activists, legislators, and miscellaneous bureaucratic architecture. In the caption, Kennedy called Biel “courageous.”
The duo had come to lobby against SB 276, a California state bill that would limit medical exemptions from vaccinations without approval from a state public health officer. The bill has been decried by anti-vaxx advocates like Kennedy and vaguely critiqued by current Governor Gavin Newsom, over official estimations that it would reduce medical exemptions by nearly 40 percent.
Although reports circulated in 2015 that Biel and her husband, Justin Timberlake, did not plan to vaccinate their kids (“She feels that vaccination could cause complications,” a source told In Touch Weekly), Biel has never publicly commented on the vaccination debate. But on a phone call with The Daily Beast, Kennedy confirmed that the actress, whose past controversial opinions include insisting it is a “struggle” to get roles because she is too sexy, was “upset about this issue because of its particular cruelty.”
Kennedy, who takes issue with the label “anti-vaxx”—which he deems “pharmaceutical propaganda” and “a lie”—declined to align Biel with the controversial movement. “I would say that she was for safe vaccines and for medical freedom,” Kennedy said, before echoing an anti-vaxx rallying cry: “My body, my choice.”
“My body, my choice” doesn’t apply to leaving your unvaccinated children to get measles, mumps and polio and then those kids infect babies who are too young to get vaccinated and on and on. That’s not My Body, My Choice. No, the rule that applies here is “Salus populi suprema lex esto.” The health of the people should be the supreme law. Biel is an idiot, and I can’t believe Bobby Kennedy Jr. moved from environmental work to anti-Vaxx bulls–t. Can we just cancel Biel now?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
Fortunately, I don’t take medical advice from Jessica Biel
Exactly! Or any ill informed, uneducated celebrity for that matter. I’m not one of those “stay in your lane” people, but when it comes to supporting and spreading dangerous misinformation they really need to stfu and, yes, get back in their lane, until they actually know what the hell they’re talking about.
that’s good, but UNfortunately, too many people DO take medical advice from celebrities or some fringe websites filled with pseudoscience, rather than from ACTUAL scientists and doctors.
the more that people are shunned for this stupid anti-health stance, the better.
Doesn’t matter. The more noise there is around faux controversies – by which I mean to say that vaccines aren’t “something to think about;” they’re settled science and one of the best things to happen to humanity – the more low information ding bats think there’s fire under that smoke. Especially a celebrity who gets an outsize mouthpiece relative to the rest of us.
Dangerous morons, all of them. Interestingly, so many anti-vaxxers that I come across spout “my body my choice” yet are then incredibly anti-choice when it comes to women’s reproductive rights….idiocy and hypocrisy reign supreme with some people.
“Your freedom ends where my/my child’s body begins” and by that I mean that NOT vaccinating should not be an option because of the need for “herd inoculation” to protect those who are too medically fragile to receive vaccines. Shame on her. Shame.
Exactly. Parents who don’t vaccinate feel comfortable doing so because of the herd immunity, and it pisses me off. That should be protection for those too young to be vaccinated, or can’t due to medical restrictions, but look wtf happened, chicken pox and measles are making a comeback. Sure chicken pox may not be that bad but I remember being absolutely miserable when I had it, crying all week and unable to sleep, and I have multiple scars on my face, why the hell would you willingly do that to your child.
Yeah, I view not vaccinating a bit like choosing to smoke. Sure, it’s your right to do what you want with your body, but it’s NOT your right to expose a bunch of other people to secondhand smoke, which is why most buildings now have indoor smoking bans and smoking near entryways, etc. is also increasingly regulated. In the case of vaccinations, sure, skip them if you want, but only if you are also willing to keep your child completely isolated from the general population. What’s that? Complete isolation is not possible? Then vaccinate!
Yup. And the reason why I am terrified to travel with my infant, who’ll be 4 months old when we’re supposed to be flying to WA state. Exposure from someone who has chosen NOT to vaccinate their child, to the detriment of mine, really chaps my ass. Now, I’M being affected by their choice.
Celebrities are the very worst anti-vaxxers out there because they can use their fame to reach out and influence millions of people who will be swayed by whatever uninformed garbage comes out of their mouths. This is what happened when Jenny McCarthy started shooting her mouth off about vaccines. Single handedly, she negatively changed the minds of mothers everywhere to not vaccinate their children. I won’t eleborate on the fate of some of these children because it’s just too sad to relate.
That comment really got to me because its really NOT their body or their choice – they are making choices for other people and clearly jumping on the pro-choice bandwagon.
I can get the argument for spacing out vaccines (not having them all at once which for many parents is what the biggest concern is) but to completely deny people life saving vaccines it just plain ignorance and arrogance. I have read horror stories of parents even refusing to allow their children to be given treatment for measles even after they have been rushed into A&E cause they child is really sick. They’d rather let their child die to stick it to the pharma companies.
Unborn children are not your body too so using “My Body My Choice” for both issues is ridiculous.
Hopefully there is some backlash against Biel now, she seemed to avoid it prior.
@kendra – blow that smoke somewhere else. If it’s within your body, it’s your body. Either that or give me your kidney as evidently I have a right to it.
Honestly, as the parent of a young child who has had all his vaccinations on schedule, I think the argument for “spacing” vaccines out is ridiculous. Did my baby cry a lot when he got the shots? Yes, but he cries just as much from one shot as from three, and he stopped crying very quickly afterwards. I don’t see how “spacing” in any sort of reasonable manner (i.e. where the kid still has all the major vaccines by the time the enter kindergarten) spares the child any trauma or health risk. Also, I used to think “spacing” sounded reasonable until I met some parents who were really doing it, and they were putting vaccines off for YEARS. Like, their kids would be 5 or 6 and not have any vaccines. That’s just anti-vaxx by another name.
There is no argument for spacing out vaccines. There is more risk from dying in a car accident than there is in the antigens vaccines given on any given day.
And! Also interesting is how Anti-Vaxxers are unwilling to protect their (& others) children but have no problem with Botox & Fillers. Oh, the hypocracy…
@Kendra A developing fetus is absolutely part of the pregnant woman’s body. Scientifically, a fetus continues to exist only because it is sustained by its host’s body. A woman carrying a pregnancy is facing dangerous risks to her physical body with pregnancy and childbirth, many of which cause lifelong damage. So yes I’d say the phrase is rather fitting from a pro choice perspective.
TRASH
Exactly.
If you want your kids to be unvaccinated, they need to lock them down. Home school. No public sports, clubs, nothing. It’s still not enough, but I wish that would be a first step. Cut out all of the extracurricular and make the parents be responsible for education (that’s actually MONITORED).
I’m all for mandating vaccination – especially in times like this with the measles outbreaks. The ONLY exceptions should be for those who rely on herd immunity because of illness.
YES this! Friends with newborns were told by their doctors they can’t leave the house because there was a measles outbreak at a nearby airport. FFS!
People like Biel make me so angry!! I was pretty sick when I got Leukemeia 5 years ago (complicated by also having ALL with positive Philadelphia Chromosome). I was extremely lucky, after my first round of chemo put me in remission, to be able to get a stem cell transplant (my sister was an unusual 10 pt. match!). I had to be VERY careful when I went out anywhere (wearing masks or just staying home), as I had basically NO immune system for a long time, and then a compromised one for the next 4 years. I was allowed to get *some* vaccines about 6 mos. ago. Even now, I have to be wary.
I’d like to tell these idiots (who, by the way WERE vaccinated by THEIR parents, you can be sure!): “You don’t want your kid vaccinated? Fine. Then isolate YOURSELVES. MOVE to an island somewhere, and stay there! Leave the rest of us in health!” THEN ENFORCE THAT! Let them get each other sick.
I just feel so bad for those poor kids that have to deal with the misery and pain of illness for their parents’ stupidity.
Yep. I have a three month old, and it’s been so incredibly hard to enjoy his babyhood when I’m basically counting down the days until he can get his MMR and I can breathe easier. There’s no current outbreak in my state, but every bordering state has had one, so it’s only a matter of time.
@Erinn: Absolutely agree and I would go a step further and require the names of all non-vaxxers (parents AND children) to be on a publicly available list so the rest of us can choose to avoid (or, frankly, shun) them.
I’m a healthcare worker that relies on herd immunity. My body doesn’t hold the measles vaccine. Previously it was never a problem but now i get calls from infection control every couple of months to check on me. This INFURIATES me. We have cancer patients, children, newborns, and compromised immune systems in our communities. These are vulnerable people, and these science backed vaccines that are FREE at your local health department are being sh!t on by idiots like Jessica Biel and Kennedy. I’m just baffled by the continued stupidity. As a side note, adults, get your titers checked. You might need adult boosters.
I wish she had a real job of any kind so I could boycott anything she was actually doing to make money. But I don’t think she makes money anymore.
If she’s not working she could at least take some time to get informed, to read and get her facts straight rather than “feeling” that something “causes complications”.
You guys, her mother is a “spiritual healer” so she’s totes equipped to give out medical advice.
That was my thing. My boycott would seem a lot more meaningful if she was doing something I gave a damn about.
At least now she won’t have to worry that she’s losing out on roles because “she’s too sexy”. No dear, it’s because you’re a minimally talented hack who spends her time and rich white lady privilege trying to start an epidemic to wipe out innocent children. Basically…you’re trash unworthy of our notice.
I never understood the “Jessica Biel is too sexy” thing. But it’s the same with Timberlake – I find them both so devoid of anything I value that I just don’t get it. I don’t find her ugly or anything, but she’s almost like a Barbie in a way. I think it’s the same way people find Taylor Swift kind of asexual – there’s just nothing about her that has a ‘spark’ – or at least not one that I ever understood.
Also – remember that whole wedding video thing? Where their best buds went and mocked bunch of homeless people for their wedding? That was so f-cked up, and since that I’ve always just considered them both to be absolute trash. If your friends think that’s the kind of video you’d find funny – you’re a garbage human.
“I never understood the “Jessica Biel is too sexy” thing.”
That’s OK because the only person who ever claimed that was Jessica Biel. That was her excuse to herself as to why she missed out on roles. As opposed to the clear reality that she is mediocre and generally unable to compete with her peers. 🤷♀️
‘I never understood the “Jessica Biel is too sexy” thing.”
That’s OK because the only person who ever claimed that was Jessica Biel.
LMAO
I was just thinking that – she doesn’t have a career anymore, so nothing to lose. But her husband does, and he’s obviously complicit in this, so you have something to boycott after all.
Yep boycott Timberlake! If he doesn’t work, they’re cooked.
I have first hand experience with Biel. She IS a talentless hack who thinks she’s better than everyone else. She was canceled long ago.
But let’s not put this all on Biel – we need to loop Timberlake into this, too. He’s canceled.
Oh, don’t worry, Timberlake’s been cancelled for ages. #Justice4Janet
Yes, please let’s cancel her. She’s monumentally stupid, vapid and takes navel-gazing to another level (which, owing to her Hollywood peers, may be her greatest feat).
Let’s just have her “phased-out”! LOL! LOL!
@BayTampaBay – Jessica who?
She is literally putting her kids life on the line because she is too stupid or lazy to read decades of research on why vaccines are necessary.
She’s putting the lives of EVERYBODY around her on the line is the problem. If it was just “my body, my choice,” this wouldn’t be an issue. But diseases are contagious. People die from them, particularly if they’re immunosupressed. Choices come with responsibility for their outcomes, and in this case, nobody in the anti-vax movement wants to make the responsibility of removing themselves from public venues to avoid contaminating others. They can’t have it both ways.
lord, those people who are like “I’ve DONE the research, have YOU?!” and are referring to reading extreme fringe quack sites and NOT (as you said) the DECADES of research done by actual doctors and scientists….I just want to punch them.
no, dummy, THE DOCTORS have done research, you’ve read a bunch of anecdotal BS.
Don’t forget about Justin. He needs to be canceled, too. If their kid isn’t vaccinated, that is something he must have agreed to.
Absolutely.
I unfollowed her from Instagram yesterday when I got wind of it. May not do anything to affect her career, but I am not here to suffer fools and tolerate ignorant morons.
well, she never struck me as being particularly bright. and she’s willing to deal with Justin Timberlake so that’s a strike against her too. I really don’t understand how people can be this stupid.
At this point, I just assume all anti-vaxxers want to outlive their own children for some reason.
Its not their children who are most at risk. It is other people’s children, children who are too young to be vaccinated, or children who are ill, or have compromised immune systems.
Anti-vaxxers take no responsibility for their part in the deaths of other people’s children.
As someone who works in public health, I’m aghast.
I’ve been in the Health care profession for over 20 years. My first job was in public health. I just cannot with this anti vaccine crap. It’s dangerous and is causing a health care crisis. Even though I don’t have children if you are a parent and you have kids that are not vaccinated, you will never come to my house.
My background is nursing and I must say the worst mess I’ve seen was a very large family of 5-7 children who were never vaccinated due to parents wishes for ? Reasons.One day the mother calls understandably worried as they had awoke the night before with some bats(shudder)in their home and were worried about having contracted anything from them,you are considered exposed (to rabies and many other diseases)if even in the same room,because they can leave tiny undetected bites -and they are considered to potentially carry as many as 60 viruses/diseases .We tried to help,but eventually had to direct the family to the health department.I am happy for people to have their freedoms and chose what they please for themselves and their children on many levels,but the mess of having a huge family of young kids varying in ages from infant to young adolescents and nobody was vaccinated for any thing ever,and then an emergency comes up and they don’t know where to start.They would have had so very much to do to get their kids vaccinated and caught up to each child’s current vaccination need.Nightmare situation,and sadly ironic that they didn’t vaccinate,but when truly threatened with exposure to disease they were ready and willing .As far as I know fortunately they were all fine.Could have been disastrous.
You have to take the rough with the smooth. Jon Stewart’s speech was impassioned and important, but unfortunately we now have to listen to other celebrity opinions too. I don’t really agree with giving celebs an elevated platform to discuss non-entertainment based issues, but it happens.
The difference being that Stewart is educated and knowledgeable about what he’s speaks and Biel isn’t.
another difference is that championing a fund for victims of 9/11 doesn’t really require knowledge of science and research, just compassion for people who helped out ordinary Americans and are now dying because of it. a celebrity with compassion for “the little people” is WAY different from a celebrity who thinks she knows more than doctors who have studies something for decades.
To be fair to Jon Stewart, he earned the credibility through years of hosting the Daily Show, where he demonstrated his commitment to thoroughly researching and understanding the issues he spoke about. His national platform feels justified; Biel’s does not.
There’s a difference between entertainers who take the effort to educate themselves on the issues they’re speaking about, and those who spout misinformation like Jessica Biel and other Hollywood anti-vaxxers.
Vaccinate for the love of god. If there were not so many frauds practicing medicine that will hand out medical exemptions if you can pay $$$ they wouldn’t need to have it approved by a state official. I’m just so over rich people who think the law doesn’t apply to them. Vaccines are for peasants . **there is a population that can not vaccinate and they are the ones harmed by the fake medical exemptions**
Done. She’s a pretty, talentless fool. I’m on board with canceling her *and* her husband. I cannot respect anti-vaxxers, full stop.
Agreed on all counts!!
That’s exactly where I am; I have zero respect for anti-vaxxers. They are people who choose to get their medical advise from Facebook and minor celebrities. Enough said.
“Complications?”
Not getting vaccinated can lead to serious, life altering illnesses, and even DEATH. I hope her poor kid never gets exposed to anything too terrible.
Humanity is its own worst enemy.
She is married to Justin Timberlake after all….
Yes, about to say exactly that. She loves, is married and had a child with Justin Timberlake!!
yep. i suspected she was an idiot for putting up with his antics…now i know she is.
he is the ultimate douchebro
It’s a fairly sick society we live in when someone completely uneducated on the topic is given such a platform to promote dangerous and inaccurate views about it just because they’ve done some movies.
+1
I’ve seen some VERY untrue statements from anti-vaxxers that basically go against all known science. it’s like – so what? ALL science is a conspiracy now?
We already knew she’s not very bright…She married Justin Timberlake.
Courageous!? Are you kidding me!? Why are so many humans so awful!?
Shun Biel, and shun her husband Justin Timberlake. Stop buying anything they produce. As for Kennedy, he started down this road years ago and is hopeless. They are attacking our public health.
The National Center for Biotechnology (part of our U.S. National Library of Medicine) has an excellent article showing the dangers of these lies about vaccines.
Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/
This is the only way Beige Becky can get press these days and she’s trying to reject smart legislation and hold on to her liberal street cred at the same time by teaming up with a Kennedy (granted, a foolishly blind Kennedy). Consign her to the dust heap with her idiot cohort Jenny McCarthy.
Cancelled.
My father contracted polio when he was a small child (before the vaccine was developed). 70 years later he still struggles with the effects of it, which get worse as you get older (Post Polio Syndrome). There is no treatment, just some alleviation of symptoms. Some.
Do we really want to go back to the days where women had 7, 8, 10 children in the hopes that a few will actually make it to adulthood?
This is celebrity at its worst, where someone who is known for acting and marrying someone famous gives health advice that affect everyone and people listen! She’s not recommending people exercise more or eat more kale. She seems to honestly believe the pseudo science she’s been spoon fed and is more than willing to be a lackey for them.
Luckily she doesn’t seem to work much anymore so there’s less I have to cancel. I was never a fan of Timberlake (not my preferred genre of music) so that won’t hurt my playlist at all.
HMC
Sorry to hear that your father still suffers like that but this is absolutely the point. The generation of anti-vaxxers are people that have NEVER witnessed firsthand what these diseases did and could still do. They’re comfortable with taking the chance. I’m sure if vaccinations were around when your father was a child not a single person would have rejected it.
These people are crazy. I guess it will take a few horrible deaths before people wake up.
The vaccine for polio came out a few years later. My grandmother gathered up the rest of the family, including my grandfather, and they stood in line to receive the polio vaccine. Family story is that the line went out the building and around the block, from pictures I’ve seen I believe it.
The funniest part of the whole “anti vaxxer” movement to me is that of course they’ve never seen any of these diseases they don’t mind if others get. Because they were vaccinated themselves for the most part!
My dad’s oldest brother got polio at 6 just before the vaccine came out. He’s lived his life on crutches. I’m canceling Biel too. Shameful
She’ll never have to deal with the fall out of having her child contract an infectious disease. She has money, adequate healthcare, and the appropriate resources to look after her child if that ever came about. Her stance comes out of the knowledge that she is fully inured because of a society that has always prioritized public health, because everyone chipping in is what keeps everyone else safe. She’s willing to reap the benefits of living in a society where everyone has pulled their weight, but doesn’t want to do the same for anyone else because “personal autonomy.” She’s selfish, and so is every other anti-vaxxer. If you don’t want to vaccinate your kids, you don’t get the benefits of a society where everyone else does. Why do I have to do things that keep YOUR child safe, when you clearly don’t give enough of a f-ck to reciprocate??
Why would anyone listen to medical opinions from a celebrity? I don’t want her legal opinions, her thoughts on plumbing… hell, I wouldn’t even take acting advice from her.
Exactly! The only “advice” I would take from a celebrity is enjoying a cute new outfit or a makeup product. Maybe trying a new hairstyle. I’m not going to make medical decisions for my child based on a celebrity, especially not her.
You won.
The distrust in education and science is really at an all time high huh?
She has the right to not vaccinate I guess… but then society has the right to refuse the voluntarily unvaccinated from entering public areas where they could infect others and cause public health hazards.
There are risks related to any medical treatment or procedure, but science proves that her concerns about these risks should be minimal in comparison to the risks of not being vaccinated.
There are risks for everything! If you get in a car accident, you may be injured by your seat belt. Does that mean we shouldn’t wear seat belts? If anything they should be more willing to NOT wear a seat belt. It only affects them if they go through the windshield, not the kid sitting next to their daughter in school who is undergoing chemotherapy.
The saddest part is that Anti-Vaxxers have already had vaccinations themselves and aren’t at risk like their children will be. My colleague recently came out as an anti-vaxxer and every time i see her now i feel a surge of dislike (i really liked her previously). I know this is dramatic but my island’s population is 280k and our health care system literally cannot afford for this anti-vaxxer movement to catch on. Thankfully children are not allowed to attend school without an updated green card (tracks child’s progress from birth).
Family friend is the same. Husband is conspiracy guy so vaccines have too much metal or something (nvm you get more eating of aluminum)… they’re line is they’re not ‘not’ giving vaccines to their kids they’re just delaying until school. We live in a state with only health/ religious exceptions, but their religion isn’t exempt. Although i bet they try to fake being Christian scientists or amish.
For decades our government went as far as sending nurses to the school every year to administer vaccines and ensure that every child was up to date. Each child (that was at the age for a particular vaccine) would be given a letter to take home informing the school that the nurses were coming on a particular day and parents would simply sign the permission slip and send it back with the green card. I think they still do this (i left school a while ago) but it was effective as it wasn’t really left up to the parent.
The nurses would come back a second time for any children that were missed the first time. If for some reason the child missed both times, then the parent was instructed which clinic to go to and what documents to take. There wasn’t a debate.
It was fun for the children to see who would cry. lol
Can we cancel Biel and JT? Parents make these idiot choices together. Both canceled for me.
I said this on another site and I will say it here: I always suspected she was a moron and this confirms it.
I KNEW IT! By God, I have #always#had this weird aversion to that woman- she has always annoyed me SO HARD to the point that I cant watch anything with her in it except for Blade: Trinity*. I knew there was something repellant about her. I just didnt know what it was. Bland and kind of dumb and boring usually doesnt make me actively dislike someone, as long as their boring, bland dumb-ness is also benign.
Her boring, bland, dumb-ness is malignant in that shes Pro-plague, so basically Biel can go fuck herself. I wish she could get pertussis but she cant because SHE has been VACCINATED.
* (which also has Patton Oswald, Natasha Lyonne, and Ryan Reynolds and is super underrated, I feel, since Reynolds as Hannibal King is awesome and you can TOTALLY see a hint of what will eventually become Deadpool in his performance of that much earlier role- I’m just saying).
Truth about Reynolds and that movie
+1 I loved Blade Trinity and especially Parker Posey, she killed it!
It’s not “her body, her choice”. It’s her child’s body. She’s not giving her child any choice on being susceptible to preventable disease. She’s also choosing to expose immune compromised people to disease if her child becomes ill. It’s unfortunate that poorly informed idiots are speaking publicly about subjects they have no knowledge of. Why would the California legislators want to hear from a person with no educated knowledge on this subject?
I just got back from a trip to Canada and almost every commercial break there was a “please vaccinate your kids”. It’s sad to me that celebs like Biel are so stupid they refuse to do actual research and just believe mommy blogs as proof.
I have a 16 year old. He went to preschool with a Mom who didn’t vaccinate her child. She didn’t because her first child was vaccinated, shortly afterwards vomited and then went to bed in the early afternoon and didn’t wake up the next day until 11am. (Anyone who has a two year old knows this prolonged sleep is nuts!!) Her child then slowly started to change, her behaviour regressed and she was diagnosed with autism. They lost their two year old.
This Mom was one of the loveliest, most sensible people. Always pitching in, always positive. Just kind. She said she can’t decide for anyone else but she just didn’t feel comfortable vaccinating her other children. She only mentioned it when asked, never, ever crusaded.
Honestly, it scared the crap out of me. I do think something happened to a small number of families. I honestly do. Perhaps it can’t be explained, perhaps it’s not statistically significant but … that woman was really well liked in our community.
Wtf? She “lost her child to autism “? What does that even mean? Enough with equating autism to death. F off with this ludicrous story pineapple! There is NO CONNECTION BETWEEN VACCINES AND AUTISM! Your little anecdote proves nothing except anti vaxxers are horrible storytellers
The moral of the story seems to be they’d (anti vaxxers) rather have an actual dead child rather than an autistic child. SMH.
There are literally dozens of studies out there stating conclusively at this point disproving Wakefield’s original study, which has been shown to be improperly conducted in the first place. Vaccines do not cause autism.* Autism is a complex neurological disorder with genetic and environmental factors.
But also, to hell with this noise that autism is a reason not to vaccinate your child. You don’t “lose” a child to autism. They’re human beings whose neurological function is just different from the norm. I don’t know where people get this idea that we’re inherently privileged to children free of health issues. Nobody has that privilege. Your kid may develop autism, he or she may fall down the stairs and break their spine, maybe they’ll have a chromosome disorder you didn’t you know had, maybe they’ll suffer depression or schizophrenia, or God knows what else. These are all inherent risks of having your own children. If people aren’t prepared for those risks, if they think having anything less than a “normal” child is a matter of losing that child, they shouldn’t have children. Period, end of story. The kid deserves better than parents who mourn the loss of something that never existed in the first place.
*Some children may have allergic responses to vaccines, but a one-time correlation between a single vaccination, vomiting, and a long sleep is not conclusive of anything. For all we know, the kid picked up a virus and it’s symptoms just happened to fall on the same day. Unbelievable.
Perhaps then the argument for pro-vaccine should be that there is a very small chance that it has risks? Because in order to combat the anti-vaccine argument the medical community went on a warpath making it seem like there were zero risk. I expressed concerns about the flu vaccine to my doctor after taking it the first time and getting sicker that year and he was just dismissive about it. It actually was a turn off. Acknowledging that there are risk but it is very small I think would work better. Just like brith control, which has 10x’s more risk but many women still choose to take it because of its benefits. I believe that would work in an era where people have become increasingly and rightfully worried about the chemicals we choose to put in our bodies.
Well I’m sure your doctor was dismissive of your report that getting the flu vaccine made you “sicker” because the flu shot vaccine is not a live vaccine. I’m sorry it was a turn off as you say, I guess sometimes science is a turn off when it doesn’t confirm our speculations.
I got really sick after I got my flu shot last year. However it wasn’t the flu I got, but some other awful upper respiratory infection. Not just a cold either, I wasn’t congested in my sinuses, it was all concentrated in my throat. I was miserable coughing for weeks with the worst sore throat I’ve ever had, to the point that I was crying because of the pain and could barely swallow. I’m pretty sure I got it from a family member who was also sick for about 6 weeks with whatever she had which turned into pneumonia (I didn’t get pneumonia thankfully). The sickness lasted 5 weeks and the sore throat only finally stopped after I begged urgent care for antibiotics (several weeks after my initial visit).
However it wasn’t the flu shot that caused it (even if it was the sickest I’d been in a really long time). What I had wasn’t even the flu, just a horrible coincidence that I got really sick just days after getting it. Flu vaccines don’t cause you to get sick. I wish people would stop saying it does. Because once you have the flu, trust me, you will never once forget it.
The thing with autism is that first decisive simptoms become visible at the same development stages when it’s time for certain vaccines. There was never correlation or causation.
I wonder, do the parents who are so sure vaccines are at fault ever check how many pesticides and which ones were used on their food. Our country’s most famous pediatrician pointed out that one inspection found 147 more times higher concentration of dangerous pesticide on fruit sold as organic in our town.. curiously, none of the parents of the kids he had as patients ever called to askfor advice in this kind od situations, but at least 30 % of them express doubt about vaccines-although they don’t know anything about them
There is no connection between autism and vaccines.
An autistic child is not a “lost” child.
The kid likely was sick from a virus or something. About half my office had babies at the same time, and EVERY.DAY. one of the kids was barfing or sick from something. As soon as they go to play groups or nursery school, forget it, it’s germ city.
Vaccines do not cause autism. This has been conclusively proven.
Because this conjured fear of vaccines has been put into society, it makes parents make correlations that are not there. It is a boogeyman that people can assign to their heartbreak.
We could also say stubbing toes causes autism. “Most kids who have autism have stubbed a toe before!!!!” the headlines would shout. That might be true, but that doesn’t mean the toe stub caused the autism. Same with vaccines. Because most children get vaccines, most kids with autism had vaccines, but that doesn’t mean there is a relationship between the two things.
Here’s a link to a site that has compiled a list with links to over 50 studies showing there is no link between autism and vaccines.
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/immunizations/Pages/Vaccine-Studies-Examine-the-Evidence.aspx
What in the world does “being well-liked in the community” have to do with believing in bullsh-t things? Why bring that up as a qualifier in this situation for any reason? I have a relative who was well-liked by everyone, smart, funny, well-educated and empathetic, who still told her daughter that any type of vaginal discharge (aside from menstrual blood) were the bones in her body liquefying because of too much physical exertion. I know multiple well-liked people who still voted for Trump. If personality and likeability were enough to protect us from our own worst impulses, we wouldn’t be where we are as a society today.
“She lost her two year old.” Smfh. What a disgusting, horrible thing to say about someone. Your neighbour has a daughter who is very much alive. You know what the alternative to not vaccinating your child is? Death. *That’s* how you lose a two year old.
Wow, what your relative told her daughter is horrifying! How traumatic for her daughter!
@Tiffany :), thankfully, when her daughter relayed it to me, it was more in a humorous light, as in “Oh haha, can you believe some of the things our parents say?? LOL.” But she also told me that when she first heard it, she truly believed it and went to her gym teacher to ask her if she could be excused from class, because she was worried that it was this physical exertion that caused it. It was a good thing that that gym teacher also taught health class, and we grew up in a place where we had a fairly reasonable sex ed curriculum, because the teacher was able to sit her down and gently explain that no, that’s not a thing.
It’s good that in hindsight we can think about it and laugh, but it’s also like, imagine if we lived in an environment where this type of information wasn’t easily accessible? So it’s mind boggling to me that, in an age where people CAN access the facts, they willfully choose to go for the lies.
This chic is officially CANCELLED! From doormat to damn fool.
I should probably add that I still vaccinated my three children. They were all fine. But honestly, I frigging prayed and was worried about it. You can’t hear this story, in person and not be affected. You just can’t. Please, please don’t yell at me. XO
But you do harm by spreading stories like that! Do you know if any of that story is even true? Do you really believe an autistic child is a lost cause? Even though you vaccinated your own children, go watch some videos of babies with pertussis. Heartbreaking. You seem to be a sensitive person. What if some gullible person hears the story you tell (which isn’t your story to tell b/c it’s not your kid) and doesn’t vaccinate and their kid DIES? I’m not being mean to you, but this is a battle for public health right now. My mother was majorly immunocompromised a few years ago due to chemotherapy. She would have been incredibly vulnerable to measles at that time. This isn’t time for whataboutism. This is life or death.
You’re spreading a likely fake story about how vaccines affected a child. You’re saying that autism is like a child dying as you put it “they lost their 2 year old”. Autism isn’t some sort of death sentence and it’s dramatic and irresponsible and fear-mongering to put it that way. Autism can be diagnosed around that 2-3 year mark, because it’s easy to see when kids aren’t meeting milestones and growing socially. It just happens to be the same age as when vaccines are given and people are making a fake correlation between those things. CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION!!!!!!
I’m happy that you vaccinated your children, but spreading this story, implying that there was a connection between a vaccine and autism is irresponsible. And the way you’re talking about autism is frankly, abhorrent. Autistic people didn’t “die”, they’re still humans who can and are functional, just in a different way.
“You can’t hear this story, in person and not be affected.”
I’ve “heard” plenty of stories in person that made me cry. Charlotte’s Web was one. Old Yeller was another. both fiction.
a story is just that…a STORY. it’s not research, it’s not a scientific study, it’s not MEDICINE. don’t let anecdotal “evidence” cloud the ACTUAL science.
ETA: “And the way you’re talking about autism is frankly, abhorrent. Autistic people didn’t “die”, they’re still humans who can and are functional, just in a different way.”
THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS.
I cry for the people who have suffered the devastating effects of polio. I cry for the immuno-compromised kids who can’t rely on herd immunity anymore. I cry for the kids who are suffering through measles or whooping cough or other preventable things because their parents were foolish.
“You prayed,” LOL. Let me guess, you also offer “thought and prayers” to mass shooting victims, right?
Are you also affected and cry about children who are suffering life long health issues do to not being vaccinated? How about whooping cough? Does the sound of a child choking while trying to breathe affect you? No one is yelling at you. You are hearing the truth about vaccines.
I understand. I think more research needs to be done into how a child with autism that is not showing many symptoms could possibly have their symptoms worsen through vaccines. If its true. But I agree that I would also find it hard to dismiss a first hand story. But that would also not stop me from immunising my children.
People HAVE done research into that. They have conducted multiple studies into that exact thing that you’re talking about, and they have found no link between children having their symptoms of autism worsened through vaccinations. There are multiple links in the comments section here that explain that exact thing. The whole fiasco was based on a pack of lies by one physician. The results of his study have NEVER been replicated in all the times it has been tried, and his original study was riddle with errors and conducted poorly. People have wasted so much time and effort debunking this and putting the correct information out there, and yet some folks will ignore ALL of that…because of a first hand story that they heard from a friend of a friend who “has a good reputation.” I guess that’s the state of education in this sad world.
I have a kid on the spectrum as well. He showed symptoms of autism WELL BEFORE the MMR vaccine. He is high-functioning, meaning, he does quite well and will be able to take care of himself and even have a career, get married, etc. Just like anyone else. I know people who have kids that are low-functioning, which means they won’t have those chances. They will depend on family or private institutions to care for them for the rest of their life. So I know of actual people who told me that their kid was functioning at a neurotypical level before they had a vaccine. Then, their kid DID CHANGE after that. They suddenly couldn’t talk. Couldn’t communicate. Couldn’t function at the level they were functioning at previously. (That’s probably what people mean by ‘Lost’) Coincidence? Possibly. Maybe the child already had something going on before the shot and it was a case of bad timing? Yeah, could be. But the point is, we need to see why these people are blaming the vaccines. Pushing them aside, saying they don’t exist because of scientific evidence isn’t going to help. That’s why people are still anti-vaxxers. These people who are reporting their kid going downhill in development are being told to ‘shut up’ and that they are imagining what happened to their child.
@Lady Tremaine: nobody is saying “shut up, your kid doesn’t have autism.” We’re saying it’s irresponsible to imply (or outright state) that a child’s autism was caused by vaccination as we know that to be scientifically inaccurate.
There are likely numerous reasons why autism diagnoses are on the rise, but multiple double blind studies have shown that it is not due to vaccines, and the original study which “discovered” that link was shown to be flawed and conducted by a man who had a lot to gain by proving that the MMR was unsafe.
Science is science, and it cares not for your (or my) opinion or feelings or anecdotal evidence.
Thanks LADY TREMAINE ….. you said what I was “trying “ to say but much more eloquently. I only used the phrase “lost” regarding the autism because this is how it was explained to me. The child had had “normal” development, hitting all the milestones, up until then. At least that is how it was described to me. And as I said, I still vaccinated. It was a first hand account heard from a Mom I respected and liked. She DIDN’T EVER say the vacccine caused the illness. She said that for her family …. they just couldn’t do it again after that.
No one is being told to shut up and that they are imagining what happened to their child. They’re being told that vaccinations are NOT the cause of the changes in their child, that there has been no proven link between the two, that your personal anecdotes are not the equivalent of scientific research that has been conducted into this matter, and that insisting otherwise is spreading harmful misinformation. There is no proven reason that has been established for why children are autistic, not yet anyway, but we do know enough to eliminate vaccinations as a reason.
Refusing to vaccinate your child because of your perceived, incorrect fear that it *could* cause autism is ableist as all hell. You’re basically saying you’d rather have a child that died of a preventable infectious disease than a child that is differently abled. That is disgusting, and refusing to entertain such a line of thought isn’t invalidating anyone’s feelings. It’s called going through a process of logical thinking.
“Coincidence? Possibly.”
Coincidence? DEFINITELY.
“Maybe the child already had something going on before the shot and it was a case of bad timing? Yeah, could be.”
Maybe the child already had something going on before the shot and it was a case of bad timing? YES, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.
“we need to see why these people are blaming the vaccines”
They’re blaming the vaccines because they need a reason or explanation as to WHY their child “changed”. something, anything concrete.
and you know what IS concrete and definite? THAT VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE OR CONTRIBUTE TO AUTISM. IT HAS BEEN PROVEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN. as noted, no one is saying that “nothing happened to your child”…just that vaccines DID NOT CAUSE what happened to your child. if actual scientific evidence, multiple studies and doctors aren’t enough, what exactly would YOU say would be enough? you cannot debate with people who want to use debunked theories to support their side.
Fortunately, I can identify bs when I read/hear it.
These people should have to live in quarantine areas. The public deserves to know. Schools deserve to know. The elderly deserve to know. Food service establishments deserve to know. Anywhere people gather, these idiots should be distinguishable like required to wear lanyards depicting syringes which have been crossed out.
What a dumbass….done with her and have been done with him for awhile now. This stance is dangerous to all mankind.
Caught this yesterday and am disgusted. There has been a case of diphtheria reported in my region. DIPHTHERIA!! What’s next? Smallpox?
This is beyond scary. Just had my daughter get her boosters and one was for chicken pox. I remember being terribly ill And covered in pox. I still have scars from it. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
My son got chicken pox, literally 3 days before his vaccines were scheduled. Turns out my father had a shingles outbreak and apparently a person with shingles can transmit the chicken pox virus. Please everyone be aware of this, if you know anyone who has shingles please make sure they know.
We were lucky and there were no complications, but it was still rough. Needless to say my parents have now both gotten their shingles vaccines.
That’s so frightening to have a little one be so ill! We had a scare with that too. My father also had shingles when my son was a newborn, and my parents were staying with us. My dad’s symptoms were atypical, so it took a couple of weeks to diagnose. I never thought it was fortunate that my dad was terrified of babies, but it was lucky that he only held my son once.
Diptheria is terrifying! I read that even now, our treatments for it are not effective, and a lot of people still die.
People should be freaked out by the rise of measles and pertussis, but there are even worse diseases we vaccinate against, and they’re bound to pop up more with the current trends.
People are going after Biel and Kennedy here because of their position. This is not what the argument is about. The fact of the matter is that this law would allow the government to make choices about what chemicals you put into your body. Imagine if the government forced STD testing with a new partner every time, even if that would be a good thing!, we would still react badly because it is our choices. This is not about whether you are pro or anti vaccine but rather that it is a slippery slope about what the government can tell to do about our bodies. I believe in vaccines (except the flu-and if I die from it, I accept my responsibility in it) and still believe that this would be a terrible precedent about government oversight into our bodies. Do not ever trust the government. You give one step, they will take a mile.
Forced STD testing with a new partner? Like….blood tests before marriage which some states still require?
Didn’t know that was a thing. I was using an analogy. But that’s horrible if they do thats
It’s really not if you ever bothered to look up the horrors of what syphilis does to a body. That’s why those tests were put into place – to protect marriage partners, particularly women, from contracting a deadly disease they didn’t consent to knowingly and which would be passed on to children during pregnancy and childbirth.
This isn’t really a difficult concept. A person can refuse medical care when it only affects *their* person. Our society doesn’t stop them from not filling their prescriptions, not going to the hospital, or not getting routine checkups. What a society *can’t* allow and remain relatively healthy is for its citizens to make medical choices that impact others. Because your decision not to vaccinate limits the rights and access of immunocompromised people, and why should they pay the price for YOUR choice?
@Jane it’s mostly gone now, just a few states I think. But as recent as the 70s you had to get a blood test to test for things like syphilis before getting married. I read somewhere that some states also tested for sickle cell anemia and Tay-Sachs. Their reasoning was to protect any offspring an applying couple may have. Congenital syphilis is a horribly disabling if not life threatening thing. Apparently syphilis infection is on an upswing again so this test may come back (though most pregnant women get a full battery of tests during prenatal care).
*edited for typos 🙂
The government already decides what chemicals go into our bodies. They decide of the fluoride in our water, acceptable levels of particulates in the air, pesticides in food. This isn’t about chemicals. That slippery slope passed with the creation of the various food and drug regulatory bodies of government. It’s about public health. We live in communities and we must be accountable to the community. I’m sure you know that lots of people die from the flu every year, and that getting the flu can mean hospitalization and a week off work, but you do you.
No, this is a government doing what it should do: putting precautions in place to make a society safe for the greater percentage of the whole. Living in a society is compromise. There is no unconditional freedom in a shared community where actions affect other people. That’s the trade off you make for the benefits of living in a society where people pay taxes and live and breathe the same air as you. You want to be a disease risk? You can go live in the woods somewhere in an isolated cabin. Freedom isn’t just about choice. It’s about the responsibility that comes with those choices, too, something a lot of Americans can’t seem to grasp.
And for that matter, if you want to talk government control of human health, I’ve got a whole list of other issues I’d like to take up with the legal system with far worse ramifications for human autonomy, like women’s reproductive rights, access to health care, environmental pollution, and abject poverty. For some reason, upper middle class white people don’t seem to care half as much about how those issues strip away the rights of the lower economic and minority classes, funny that.
Well I’m not white or upper class so there’s that. I can see the benefits of vaccines (especially as an immigrant where I had access to limited vaccines until I moved to America) and still be concerned that the government is overarching by making it mandatory. Public pressure not mandatory legalization. Besides, I shouldn’t have to make decisions about my body based on other people’s life. That argument works both ways
The movement is founded in white middle upper class thinking, that’s why I referenced it. I won’t get into the socioeconomic implications of that, but it certainly has its roots in a certain kind of privileged thinking that I’ll spare everybody from expounding upon. (But don’t think I didn’t miss you completely glossing over my point about how socioeconomic stratification inherently undermines the rights and autonomy of the lower classes.)
Your argument is circular and nonsense because the decision to not vaccinate is the only one that can lead to people dying. An immunocompromised person’s right to EXIST and NOT DIE is of substantially more significance than your right to refuse a vaccine based on incorrect data and pseudoscientific nonsense. Unless the individual in question has documented medical reasons now to receive vaccinations – allergy, immune disease, cancer, etc. – there is not legitimate reason to argue against receiving it. And if there’s no legitimate argument against it, and the consequence of not getting it is PEOPLE GETTING SICK AND DYING, I am fine with the government requiring them. Public pressure is not an effective deterrent against something with ramifications of this magnitude when the public has been infiltrated and misled by false medical data.
Nobody is taking away your choice to not get vaccinated. They’re just saying you can’t be unvaccinated and engage in public forums in America. You can go wherever the hell you want and be unvaccinated where allowed, you just can’t do it here. THAT is a choice. It may not be a choice you want to hear, but it’s not holding you down and forcing a shot into your body. You want to live in the American public space and benefit from American tax dollars, you have to behave like somebody aware that their choices affect other Americans.
(By the way, you’re worried about opening the door to government control of people’s lives? Here’s a side you aren’t thinking about: if I’m an unvaccinated individual, and I go around an immunocompromised child without alerting the parents of my status, leading to that child getting ill or even dying, what’s to stop them from filing charges against me for child endangerment and/or manslaughter? There’s no legal precedent – YET – but I assure you it’s coming down the line. And I can tell you right now, all it’s going to take is one person with the money and resources to test those legal waters, and then we’ll see a lot of fun legal ramifications from *that,* now won’t we?)
Thank you, Veronica. I wish I had written your eloquently worded response. I couldn’t agree more.
I disagree. Vaccines should be mandatory period. We are on the precipice of a public health disaster as it is.
I agree. Especially with the influx of undocumented immigrants. For the most part, these people are risking everything to come to America, escaping violence and poverty in their homeland, this includes inadequate or no health care. So these children have not been vaccinated when they arrive (through no fault of their own, or their parents, I’m willing to bet it just wasn’t available or accessible) and unfortunately may be carrying or infected with the diseases we in the US have been lucky enough to almost eradicate: measles, rubella, mumps, etc. So not only are they dependent on our herd immunity until they can catch up, but we’re dependent on it also as it is challenged.
Some of those countries people are fleeing have better vaccine rates than the US.
The CDC traced this measles outbreak to people visiting Israel, Ukraine, and the Philippines.
@HMC, ooooh, don’t even get me STARTED on the rules for vaccinations for incoming immigrants! The list is LONG, it is thorough, and every documented immigrant who goes through the process is vetted (literally!) in this regard. And yet you’ll still get SO MANY people who say that immigrants are “dirty” and “bringing diseases” even though the standards for us are so strict. Often these people who bang on about hygiene are the same people who don’t vaccinate their kids, which I guess is okay because being white = automatically being more hygienic according to them. -eyeroll-
There are so many countries around the world who have gone to hell and back to make sure that their population is vaccinated, that basic public health is accessible to everyone, who are desperately fighting the good fight against child mortality. The public health workers in these countries are some of the most heroic people in my eyes, and they’re the reason why so many diseases like small pox and polio have been eradicated. I would not be surprised if a sizeable percentage of even undocumented immigrants have their immunizations. This is what I mean when I say that anti-vaxxers are selfish. They want the benefits of a world that other people have gone out of their way to make safe, but they won’t do their own part in the matter.
Jane, if you don’t get the flu vaccine, being a healthy person, you are unlikely to die. The ones who would die are the immune compromised people you expose to the flu. You receive vaccines not just for your own health but also to protect the community you live in.
How do you feel about the government intrusion into forced birth laws? Are you fighting against the government ordered forced births?
One law about vaccines is to protect society’s weakest members and to keep children healthy. The other is to regulate women’s bodies and remove their right to autonomy.
Your body, your choice. Your pregnancy. I’m consistent in my beliefs. Please don’t bring up other women’s right issues assuming I don’t care about them because I have different beliefs when it comes to mandated vaccinations. You can care about both. It doesn’t have to be one or the either. Also I have a chronic illness so the assumption that I’m healthy is incorrect
Pregnancy is an individual experience whose effects are limited to the woman impregnated. Whether she aborts or not is restricted in medical impact to herself. It is not at all consistent with the belief that people should have a right to be walking Typhoid Marys with the ability to contaminate, infect, and endanger large swaths of the population with preventable disease.
Jane, is your chronic illness severe enough to endanger your life if you are exposed to a disease that someone chose not to be vaccinated against? There are many people for whom it is a death sentence. If you want to remain unvaccinated, you should not be around other people who could be infected by your negligence. My husband is waiting for a lung transplant. We rarely go out in public because we are afraid of people who refuse vaccines because it would kill him. I don’t think your rights are important enough to risk lives. Stay unvaccinated but stay isolated if you insist.
Jessica is the first A-lister anti vaxxer but I think there are many of them. Anyone who practices new agey, all-natural stuff, only eat nothing but organic, msg and soy are the devil, etc. are likely to be secretly anti-vaxx.
Biel is A list? Since when? JT isn’t even A List.
Nope. MSG triggers my migraines, and I try to be pesticide free when possible. But no way would I not vaccinate.
MSG isn’t actually bad for your health. It’s relatively harmless, and it’s been unfairly demonized by the media.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-msg-got-a-bad-rap-flawed-science-and-xenophobia/
I eat organic whenever possible, avoid MSG when I can (headaches), understand that soy in too large quantities can cause issues. And my spawn are vaccinated. And I love cheese. Just for the record.
Yeah enough. Her and her Jackass husband.
#NeverForget
Robert Kennedy has always been a p.o.s, even more so since his ex-wife commited suicide. Jessica Biel has always seemed like a self-centered idiot.
I always thought it was classy that after his second wife (they weren’t divorced yet)/mother of four of his kids died of suicide by hanging, in part because of her distress over his flaunting his new girlfriend Cheryl Hines, when he married Cheryl soon after their wedding “logo” was a rope knot.
Justin Timberlake, can you come get your wife?
There is no way, no freaking way, that he would have been okay with her doing this unless he himself is Anti-Vaxx, which would honestly kill his career. This is just like that awful restaurant. Either this guy just lets his wife spin her wheels and spend his money and do whatever while he works and he truly doesn’t know or care what she gets up to, or he himself is TOTALLY FINE OR IN AGREEMENT WITH HER STANCE AGAINST VACCINATIONS.
Also, “coming out” anti-vaxx is NOT the same as “coming out”, everybody, it’s not brave, and using the terminology “coming out” with a stance like anti vaccination is so offensive to people who actually struggled to come out with their sexuality.
Side note: I don’t think marriage makes anyone anybody’s property but I would be totally furious if my husband was making himself publicly anti-bad. This is like the Kimye thing-Kanye goes all MAGA and Kim publicly shakes her head and is like “yeah, it’s not my politics and idk how to control him, it’s his brain.” Are we going to get that from JT? Also RFK Jr. is anti-vaxx, are the rest of the Kennedys? Is Katherine Schwarzenegger anti-vaxx, and then by extension, Chris Pratt, who belongs to that homophobic church out in CA?
Luckily, not ALL the Kennedys support their dip****cousin:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798
Unfortunately, in big families, we all have that one dumb*ss in the bunch. D:
Antivax celebs, like Scientologists, should be just canceled. Celebrities have power to influence the uneducated citizens and spewing dangerous bullsh*t like this is just irresponsible.
I’ve always thought that she wasn’t particularly sharp or smart, so… this is just another confirmation, but in this case a harmful one
Wait, she actually said she’s too sexy to get certain roles?!? Lol. Has nothing to do with her shitty acting abilities I’m sure.
IKR? She has the personality and sex appeal of a wet mop.
Because she could not come to terms that she really could not act. Never thought much of her until she married Justin Timberlake but now no these 2 are just plain stupid.
She actually DID say that she doesn’t get certain roles because she’s “too beautiful”. *vomit*
Biel’s stupidity should not be surprising. After all, she did marry and procreate with Justin Timberlake.
“Jessica Biel really was dangerously stupid all this time.” There. Fixed.
Idiots. All of them. I have never thought there was anything remotely special about her but now I just think moron.
Just Fudge off Jessica, hope at least the people who worked at your failed restaurant were vaccinated.
Yeah I’m glad her crappy kids/family restaurant concept failed, she’s probably bummed because it would have been a great incubator for infectious disease with a bunch of unvaccinated kids gathered together.
I had all my vaccines as a kid. My mom still has my vaccine record somewhere to prove it. When I was pregnant with my first my blood work came back showing I had inadequate immunity against rubella (a disease which can cause severe birth defects or miscarriage). I was advised to get a booster after my son was born, which I did. He and I were both vaccinated at the same time. When I was pregnant the second time a few years later my blood work came back and said – I don’t have adequate immunity against rubella. I wasnt given much explanation for how or why but I was told to stay away from unvaccinated children, really children in general which is hard when you have a toddler, and to be extra vigilant about hygiene.
As someone who is now relying on herd immunity people like this piss me off no end. One idiot parent like this taking their kid to the library or the playground and I could have lost my baby or spent the rest of my life caring for a severely disabled child. If you dont want to vaccinate your child then keep them away from the rest of us.
EXACTLY. We don’t only vaccinate our kids for them, we do it for OTHERS. I have 2 friends whose kids are immunocompromised because of health issues. My kids are vaccinated to help them. People are so short sighted.
Whenever I hear stories about anti-vaxxers I always think: “But you still go to the doctor if something is wrong with you or your child? You most likely still take prescribed medications if you have an illness of some sort? So why do you draw the line with vaccines? Why is not every other medical tratment viewed as medical propaganda?” I guess it has something to do with not seeing or feeling the diseases that vaccines protect you against, but the mental acrobatics of these people just puzzels the mind.
along with that, they don’t trust “the science” behind it, but they DO trust the science behind today’s technology?
sorry, no more cell phones, computers, cars, GSP, air travel, microwaving or movies for you. because science is BAD!
This! I have lost track of how many stories I have read where some parent with an unvaccinated kid boo hoos over their kid getting whooping cough and it’s so hard to watch them lying in a hospital struggling for breath. Suddenly you are relying on doctors and pharmaceuticals and gee, I guess maybe I should have vaccinated my kid after all.
Here in Canada there was a case a while back with a family that took their unvaccinated kids overseas and they came back with measles. Where do you think they went when their kids got sick? To the local hospital of course. Except now every single person who has come into that hospital for any reason at all has potentially been exposed. Everyone who travelled through that airport has potentially been exposed. The father released a statement about how there were concerns about vaccine safety which is why they didnt vaccinate their kids. No apology to all the people he could have hurt, but thanks to the hospital for treating his kids. The same doctors and nurses you didnt trust to vaccinate your kids who are now caring for them after they became ill with a perfectly preventable disease.
My guess is Jessica and Justin were both vaccinated as kids? They didn’t get Autism (because let’s get real that’s what all these stupid parents are worried about). I hope one day their child asks them why he isn’t vaccinated but they are !
I only remember her as the chick who said that she was too pretty to be taken seriously in Hollywood LOL. She’s one of the most generic looking women in showbiz with no acting talent but I’m sure that had nothing to do with her failure. She is a joke and her opinion should NEVER be taken seriously. Both her and JT have always been trash.
I knew a married couple who became anti-vaxxers after their two year old son died in his sleep 17 days after receiving his DTaP vaccine. Two autopsies were performed and the results pointed to no medical reason; citing “natural causes”. Despite having no evidence, both parents are adamant the vaccine was the culprit. I can only imagine the anguish parents who lose a child like that must feel. However, that doesn’t excuse how irrational they’ve become and they now crusade against vaccinations. If anyone counters their argument or inquires about proof, both (especially the husband) become vulgar and threatening. The wife is an RN to boot.
They’ve since encased themselves in an echo chamber of like-minded fools who all pat themselves on the back over “knowing the truth “.
I understand they want a concrete reason for why their son passed away but they’re chasing a boogeyman while spreading lies that will affect others. I had to cut them out of my life. In my most cynical thinking, I sometimes wonder if the segment of the population that is increasingly accepting lies over truth is some type of Darwinism at work.
I had a relative who died of complications after receiving a flu shot. She we allergic to it, and her autopsy stated that fact. I also have had all my shots, and so did she. I know what it’s like to put your loved one in a box because of something that’s not supposed to happen. The parents you speak of trusted the advice that we all get and they feel like they paid a high price for doing so. I think vaccines are necessary and help people. But as someone who’s had to walk in the shadow of the small percentage that have seen adverse effects I have compassion for them.
I’m not knowledgeable about vaccines. I got mine as a kid. I also found out that a documentary I saw on the subject was basically nonsense, but I’m not sure that anyone knows that either. It’s still out there being shown as “fact”. It did get me to start reading about it though.
My point is this. The medical establishment & big pharma need to do something to counteract the amount of misinformation regarding vaccines. Big pharma needs to realize that every court case over them rushing medication to market & covering up problems keeps anti-vaxxers suspicions alive. I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but it has to be done. The little that I know of public health policy (and it’s minuscule) what these diseases will do to people if they catch them is downright scary. I’m Canadian, and the CBC did a story on the treatments for some of these diseases before there was a vaccine. Those treatments are horrible. A woman was interviewed about having to go through some of those treatments as a child because she caught a disease (sorry I don’t remember which) shortly before there was a vaccine and I can’t imagine going through that as an adult, much less a child.
We have the luxury of time and distance from a reality that our elders had to deal with. These diseases maime and kill people. We forgotten that because we don’t have them at the same rate any more.
If you are allergic to the Flu Vaccine, you are probably allergic to many things. If a person has allergies that causes anaphylactic shock, you would be prescribed medicines to avoid death from anaphylactic shock.
This post is from an anti-vaxxer. It is part of a conspiracy, lies and misinformation.
@please. I’m not an anti-vaxxer. Read what I wrote. My aunt who had all her previous shots without incident, had the flu shot, and died. So, I sympathize with the parents. They buried their child. I also know that if that if kids start catching diseases that are coming around again because people aren’t vaccinated, the treatment for said diseases are horrible and they can still kill people.
The medical establishment has to realize they’re losing the battle of information when it comes to vaccines and they have to deal with it. There are several “documentaries” about vaccines that are full of misinformation and no one is doing anything about it. I had to google the movie I watched to know that what they presented was full of misinformation. How many people are going to do that??
That’s not how Darwinism works, tbh. But I agree, there’s a deep tragedy here with no answers, and the parents are chasing the only thing they can think of that makes sense to them, and they’re being encouraged by a pack of liars and fools. It’s like the quack psychics and clairvoyants from the 19th century who used to swindle people who had lost loved ones and were still grieving by promising them that they could speak to them from beyond the grave. There are psychological reasons for why people seek out this type of stuff, but that doesn’t make it okay.
You’re right, that’s not how Darwinism works. That was my poor attempt at saying perhaps the segment of the population that is increasingly embracing ignorance and rejecting the truth is some form of natural selection to thin the herd. Now that I’ve typed it out, I realize how insensitive that sounds but I really do wonder what’s going to happen to those who accept lies over “fake news”
Nope. Just nope. I will boycott anything Biel or Timberlake are in moving forward.
Haven’t most people cancelled Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel already by default? Both their careers are pretty much dead, yes?
Trump has strong anti vax tendencies.. and has met with Jerk press -hungry Bobby Kennedy on it. …continuing the theme that I disagree with pretty much everything Trump is for, with the exception of infrastructure investment.
She wears THAT to visit legislators?? Kim Kardashian was dressed more appropriately while at the White House…
Wearing this dress in a government meeting demonstrates how totally clueless and stupid she is. Her idiotic stance on vaxinnes and her non-career should not be a surprise.
She and JT are total imbeciles. A baby can’t vocalize a choice but I am pretty sure if they could they would choose not to get the effing measles! I canceled JT long ago and why bother canceling his stupid wife when she has no career to cancel. Poor Silas though.
This will stop being an issue when vaccines stop hurting kids.
Seat belts help improve survival of auto accidents. However they can hurt the person wearing them. Stop using seat belts?
People can develop unexpected reactions to antibiotics, including allergies, hurting them. Stop using antibiotics?
People can have adverse reactions to anesthesia. Stop using it for surgery?
This is not a straw man argument. It makes as much sense as your statement.
You are a troll if you come to this site and leave this comment. 🧹 shoo, Typhoid Mary!
Mothers who do not immunise their kids are selfish. Point blank. Those mothers would have been inoculated and benifted from an inoculated society. Yest they would deny their child the protections they were afforded. Pure c#nts. Jessicaim-too-pretty-for-roles is a wicked woman.
I feel strongly that these women are sociopaths. Some of them are at my daughter’s school. They terrorise the poor teachers on a daily basis. One of those mothers have twin girls… They are always sick! Always. She refuses to allow them to eat the school food because she says it is not ecological and organic, doesn’t allow her kids to sit close to other children and constantly polices school policies which are set by the government and school admin. Meanwhile her ‘eco-twins’ were not immunised. She asked the school to raise the school fee to keep out the riff-raff. I marched right to the school with my riff-raff ass and asked for them to be expelled since they put my child and others at risk. School did exactly that. They told them to find another school for the children. More schools should adhere to public health principles and expel children who are not immunised. Simple as. No room for argument when you reject ordinary rules intended to protect society, the herd.
At one point, about six years ago, some of the pre-schools in my bubble of an LA town had a higher unvaxx. rate than South Sudan.
Thank God the state tightened the rules. And what really pissed me off was that the pediatricians were extremely lenient with the parents, mine proactively asked me if I wanted to space out our vaccinations. I asked her why and got some garbage response that basically boiled down cause the other parents want to.
@fredsmother I’m glad you were able to defend your ‘riff-raff’ haha. I have a 5 year old niece I’m ‘not allowed to see’ because her mother is one of the types you just described. The 5 year old is homeschooled, unvaccinated, vegan (the one time i ran into them at the grocery store and convinced them to come over my house and hang out is when I learned the vegan thing. They had to ‘leave early’ because even though I am pescatarian and vegan most days I couldn’t find anything in my house to feed her that was ‘acceptable’ to the mom except blueberries still on the bush, and some corn I had, which, frankly, is the most gmo thing out there except soy if you really want to go there). She was doing an attachment parenting thing and the niece was running the show. I also wasn’t allowed to tell her I was her aunt ‘because she doesn’t care and doesn’t know what that is anyway.’ My god just writing this out my heart hurts all over again. Anyway, yeah I don’t know what the mom’s mental issues are but they are pretty apparent and the whole situation is so sad!
Wow that woman sounds unbearable. I feel sorry for her children having to suffer the consequences of her “specialness”
She stated that she wasn’t against vaccines but was concerned about losing medical exemptions. IE: egg allergies.
No one is going to lose medical exemptions. As an FYI, people with egg allergies can get the flu shot. My daughter has a life threatening allergy to eggs and safely gets the flu shot every year. She can’t use the inhaled kind of vaccine only the injected one. I’m there are allergic folks that can’t due to their level of sensitivity but most can.
As someone who works with infectious disease. This is so misguided
Let’s not bring deadly childhood disease back, just because some has-been musician’s wife tells you too.
The Child Survival program, especially vaccinations, is the greatest PUBLIC HEALTH achievement in Human History.. It has saved millions of Children from Death and severe Injury. Yes in this case, we need to listen to the actually scientists/medical specialist who are implementing and evaluating the program rigorously.
Furthermore, Biel and Kennedy are deeply disturbed people. Who the F wants to attack the Child Survival Public Health Program? They are truly vile people.
This!
I don’t believe they will ever believe anything except the failed Science. They are firm on their anti vaccine theories and will allow the kid to suffer needlessly
This shit is just insane. People in third world must think we’re nuts. They walk for miles to get to where they can vaccines and we turn them down. Vaccines are the reason we didn’t have major diseases. I feel like ignorance is so prevalent now. It’s as if people are proud of ignoring science and education. Wtf?!
“It’s my sincere belief that I should drive on the other side of the road. I don’t care if it causes accidents and what traffic studies have shown, because it’s my life and I live it how I want and I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS!”
That’s how stupid they sound.
I won’t deny that there’s a time and a place to ask questions. I think that patients and consumers should be well informed about their care, about their symptoms, and about any medication that their doctor chooses to prescribe to them and any treatment options they’re presented.
But a HUGE part of that is figuring out ways to improve science literacy, teach people critical thinking, and empower patients and provide them with access to information in ways that they can understand. Which is something you’ll never, ever see this anti-vaxx morons campaign for, because it simply doesn’t serve their best interests. Their “”movement”” isn’t about freedom, it isn’t about helping patients make informed decisions, it’s about fear-mongering, misinformation, and plain old science illiteracy.
There really should be a mandatory quarantine area to which we could send people like Biel and her family/followers. I hear there’s a large lot available in the Pripyat vicinity. 🤷🏼♀️
Are these people threatened by medical professionals so they read a few articles And deem themselves know it all’s who know the truth of vaccines? Honestly I think that’s what people are doing here, ‘oh u went to med school? Ugh how exhausting I just read a few articles and jumped to some conclusions so now I know more than u.’ idiots
I’m canceling both of them. Honestly, as someone working with medical science and doing research, these morons really scare me. If they knew the hours and years that go into doing real proper research… vaccinations have been one of the best things ever to be made.
It’s really really something when a fairly wealthy actress like Jessica Biel, who can afford healthcare, who lives in a country with the requisite amenities like access to clean water and food, can stand around lecturing people on the evils of vaccinations. A lot of people have rightfully pointed out the numerous f-cked up angles with the anti-vaxxer movement, including the fact that they are ableist bigots who’d rather have a dead child than an autistic child etc, but I feel like this is one that doesn’t get pointed out as much. The sorts of parents who can afford to be anti-vaxxers are often upper middle-class, often white, the type of people who can afford to send their kids to schools that are willing to overlook flimsy reasons for granting vaccine exceptions. Meanwhile, the rest of us POC have to contend with these same people sneering at us and looking down their noses about “hygiene” even though we’re not the ones desperately bringing back polio, or trying to anyway.
So f-ck Jessica Biel. F-ck anyone who jumps on her dangerous train of bullsh-t. And vaccinate your f-cking kids.
can’t we just make anti vaxxy people wear day glo hats so we know where to throw the rocks at? obviously sarcasm. . . I do feel like we live in a “the world is flat” society that blindly follows the dumbest things that celebrities do/say.
Here in the U.K. most don’t vaccinate for chicken pox I had to get the GP to ring around as they told me oh there isn’t one for that😳 found a travel clinic that did probably is different now but in 2003. My son got measles before he could be vaccinated but it was the height of that crazy Dr. When he was better he got the vaccine. That thinking is crazy.
I am a historian of ancient cultures. All the cultures I study had death rates up to 50% for children because of infectious disease, which was still the case in even Sweden until the 1900’s. The invention of vaccines wiped out the diseases that robbed us of half our children. These anti-science monsters are causing death. My son is a non-verbal autistic. I don’t believe his vaccines caused it, but even if they did having some severely disabled children is still better than the past where half the children were in coffins before the age of 3. Vaccinate your kids. It’s literallly the greatest medical breakthrough in human history.
I am NOT anti vax but seriously, everyone needs to calm the hell down. The legislation isn’t about vax vs. non vax. California already essentially has mandatory vaccinations (not to mention exemptions are down from 2.73% (.2% of those were medical exemptions by the way) in 2015 to .9% now)
THIS issue is about MEDICAL EXEMPTIONS ONLY. It’s extremely hard to get a medical exemption for vaccinations. The issue many people (even people who are pro vax) have is that medical exemptions are no longer up to the doctors who treat the children in question and thus know their patients BEST. It isn’t even about parents thinking they know more than doctors. Even the California Medical Board DOES NOT support the Public Health Department taking over vaccine medical exemptions (they do support MEDICAL board oversight however).
Children who HAVE suffered from vaccine injuries (like seizures, nerve damage, autoimmune reactions and digestive system disorders) would no longer qualify for a medical exemption EVEN if their doctors supported one for them. As the parent of a vaccine-injured child I do find this bill awful. And I am NOT anti vax. But I do NOT think the Public Health Department should override physicians.
Imagine if you were the parent of a child who was injured by a vaccine- say brain swelling. Their doctors verified this and they did happen get an approved medical exemption by the health department? The damage is already done in that case but it is good that they will not have to suffer again with further vaccines that could harm them. What about if you have another child? Would you feel comfortable taking a risk that your second child will react ok to vaccines when your first child was injured? This bill would
Make it so your second child would not qualify for an exemption and therefore would not be able to attend school if not vaccinated.
One of the most prevalent arguments against anti vaxxers revolves around them not being doctors or having medical degrees etc. So why does this bill have to take the power away from doctors who know their patients best and put it in the hands of the Health Department?
Stop focusing on vaxxing vs non vaxxing. That’s NOT what this particular bill is about is about.
In the Bay area I’m in a mothers group that has over 100k members in it. There are dr’s in San francisco and surrounding areas SELLING exemptions for 2000-5000$
I make fake profiles and infiltrate the sub groups and report the Dr’s and offices.
I also inform the schools that little jaydein has a fake bought exemption
So I’m doing my part
People who lie about the medical conditions that their children have are deeply disturbed. This is a sociopath. Lying about what medical conditions your children have does, in fact, put your children serious at risk.
If your child really has a serious medical condition(s) that causes immune-suppresion, should not the California Board of Pediatrics know about this, and who the pediatric specialists are, and monitor this. All doctors in California have to be regulated any ways.
I would think if you really have a child with a serious medical condition/immune-suppressed, you would want all the help from medical doctors you can get. Of course, if you are a lying sociopath, not so much.
Vaccinations Save Lives of Children!
Please vaccinate your Child ASAP!!
Effing idiot. Her and her husband. I also think with the pressure on ppl to take on social/political issues and openly condemn abuse, harassment, sexism and racism in Hollywood, the people in the industry also need to start taking sides in vaccination and global warming issues. The lives are at stake and I am not interested in being entertained and to support people who are putting the lives of others in danger.
Bit if a rant…
Mother of a (formally) medically fragile child here. After my daughter was released from NICU, we were advised not to leave the house for discretionary activities for at least 6mo or invite more than one new person each week to visit due to the disease risk exposure (this included exposure to things like the cold too; 100% vaccination rates would not have necessarily changed the advice but I can deal with the cold better than polio). No park, no zoo, no brunch with friends, no new baby celebration, no religious traditions or celebrations…nothing. It was isolating for the whole family, especially myself as the primary caregiver. We did what we had to do to keep her safe.
Just vaccinate your kids per their drs advice. My child has an equal right to life – your poorly informed choices can’t be allowed to devestate my family.
If an otherwise healthy unvaccinated child were to contact, say, measles, there is a reasonable chance they will survive it. My child had a reasonable chance of dying from the flu or RSV. There is no chance she would have survived measles.
Today, she is a healthy, happy, fully vaccinated three year old. She is sick more often then other children, but all expectations are that her immune system will catch up before elementary school.
When I need someone to troubleshoot my car & fix it, I go to my mechanic, not JB or BK. When I need a wall built I rely on the expertise of a mason, not JB or BK. And when I need advise on vaccines, I’ll trust the doctors on that one.
The development of vaccines represents one of the greatest achievements of Western science in the fight against diseases that have devastated entire populations. The millions upon millions dead, scarred, disfigured, physically disabled . . . did Biel ever take a little walk through a history book?! Did she count up the ravages of smallpox, diphtheria, polio?! As an actress, maybe she could look up the tragedy of Gene Tierney? Her baby daughter was born severely mentally retarded (yes, I’m using the word) because some devoted “fan” couldn’t bear to pass up a chance to meet her idol so got up out of a German Measles sickbed to meet the star and went to her dressing room to get an autograph – and transmitted the virus in Tierney’s first trimester?! Did Biel ever take a look at the photos of children in leg braces from the 1940s?!
I’m sorry – this makes my blood boil. The anti-vaxx science is b.s. and being part of a civilization requires citizens to observe a few broad rules to maintain the good of all.
Last time I pay to see a film of Biel’s.
Jessica Biel proved to the world that she was an ignorant fool years ago. She’s married to Justin Timberlake, so that’s the final nail in the coffin as far as I’m concerned.
I wish that Americans traveled more. Most of the Americans I knew didn’t have a passport and these were educated, relatively sophisticated people. Maybe if they had a better knowledge of the world, Americans would understand the suffering poor countries endured BEFORE they were able to vaccinate their children. Poor women will walk miles and go hungry to get their children vaccinated because they’ve seen what happens to the children who aren’t.
Biel and the women like her will never see the effects of a measles outbreak. Their children will be safely at home or in a private hospital with the best medical attention money can buy. That’s why these people disgust me so much. If they’re wrong, they can afford to fix it.
For all of the people who want to lay this at the feet of ‘liberal Hollywood’, I’d be willing to bet that most anti-vaxxers are dyed in the wool deplorables. You can’t be that selfish and ignorant and call yourself a ‘liberal’. Liberals care about their fellow human beings and want to make the world a better place. These people only care about themselves. They don’t even care about their children because if they did, they’d never risk their children’s lives this way.
You’re right about the fact that a lot of Americans tend to be incurious about the world. But the solution to this isn’t travel. People aren’t poverty porn that can be used to engender sympathy by having crowds of people gawk at them. Americans can barely look at each other and realize the ways their healthcare system is killing their own people, so I highly doubt travelling outside of the country will make them feel any different.
Where did I say that people should be used as ‘poverty porn’? Thinking that the world exists purely for your own entertainment is part of the problem.
I haven’t had a chance to ask any anti-vaxxers yet, but I would like to ask them: “if there was an ebola outbreak in your town, maybe even people as close as your own neighbors affected, would you take the vaccine if it was offered?”
The answers would be interesting. Actually I think both a yes or a no answer would make me equally SMDH!
This story comes just as the the CDC warns that the US is on the cusp of no longer being considered a “measles-eradicated country.” Just uggh. If anyone is interested National Geographic did a great article on the impact of vaccines in society circa Nov/Dec 2017. They interviewed parents in countries still being ravaged by preventable diseases and asked them about the ‘anti-vaccine’ movement currently going on in the UK and US. One of the best articles I’ve seen on the subject and it has a bunch of charts that look at the impact of vaccines in decreasing the incidence of these diseases. There is also a book “Pseudoscience: The conspiracy against science” which has a great chapter on this. Personally, my aunt had measles as a child and almost died from measles induced encephalitis. Not a lot of people who get this complication live. She did but she had permanent neurologic damage as a result. My mother had to be sent away to live with relatives because back then physically escaping was the only way to prevent transmission. That’s what we want to go back to? Seriously? And I’ve yet to see someone argue they want to ban vaccines in general. They all seem to want everyone else to get them. Everyone wants the benefits of herd immunity, they just don’t want their kid to get it. (not talking about the select few with medical conditions who cannot get certain vaccines and depend on herd immunity for survival) WTF kind of logic is that…
F— her. Was that her evil plan behind the crappy restaurant for kids? A breeding ground for unvaccinated LA kids giving each other measles?