Dean
What is it with people refusing to vaccinate their children in this modern day and age? People have concerns, yes, but it seems like a lot of them refuse to listen to doctors and scientists and instead trust weird stuff they read on the internet, much of it not even related to any actual studies. Not vaccinating your children is dangerous, period. The diseases they or other kids who can’t get vaccines (like those with immune system deficiencies) can contract are serious and sometimes fatal. And all of this could be avoided if parents would just listen to the experts and vaccinate their children.
Recent high school graduate and Twitter user Taylor Sharp recently wrote a whole thread on Twitter, laying out the facts about vaccines and illustrating the problems with main anti-vaxxer arguments (like autism). And to keep it interesting to those who might otherwise be bored, she added cute gifs to emphasize her points.
A THREAD: i actually did my senior paper on vaccinations so let me hit you with the facts real quick
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
She starts by listing the diseases that are completely preventable through the use of vaccines.
there are 12 childhood diseases preventable by vaccination: varicella (chicken pox), mumps, tetanus, polio, diphtheria, pneumococcal disease, rubella, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, hepatitis A & B, and haemophilus influenza Type B pic.twitter.com/O8lnCTTR9I
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
although these diseases are rare, and some are even erased from the U.S. completely, they are still present all around the world and can be brought back into the country, leaving unvaccinated children at risk pic.twitter.com/5l0NsUkMOS
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
It’s the opposite of progress — it’s like we’re actually moving backward.
in 2012, there were 48,277 cases of whooping cough reported in the U.S, the highest number of cases since 1955 pic.twitter.com/6HjB4tLuzj
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
another dangerous disease that is making a return, is measles. measles is a virus that causes a rash, inflamed eyes, very high fever, and it is extremely contagious. if someone comes in contact with measles and they are unvaccinated, there is a 90% chance they will become sick pic.twitter.com/es9JTa2iXK
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
measles was considered wiped out in the early 2000s, but bc parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children, there have been numerous outbreaks pic.twitter.com/fmzM0KoreA
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
herd immunity, is the idea that if one is surrounded by people who are vaccinated and cannot get the disease, they will not contract it as well pic.twitter.com/mKUUsZU1VL
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
however since there are clusters of vaccine refusals this is creating “hot spots” in communities where herd immunity against vaccine preventable disease is compromised, and outbreaks occur pic.twitter.com/DhMPgtAPUH
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
There are kids who actually can’t get vaccinated, and it’s important for the rest of the population to be vaccinated so they can’t pass diseases to the ones who are unprotected.
if kids are not vaccinated, infectious diseases can be spread to other children who are too young to be vaccinated, or others with weakened immune systems pic.twitter.com/gpXaeEzcSh
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
say a boy has leukemia, so he cant get any vaccines. theres also a girl whose parents dont vaccinate her, then the girl contracts measles. her body can fight off the infection, but when the boy contracts it, he has a very high chance of dying bc of his weakened immune system pic.twitter.com/4bTkWWa9zT
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
She succinctly explains the concept of “herd immunity.”
just like a herd of animals will form a protective circle around its most vulnerable members, it is important for people to form a healthy ring around those whose immune systems prevent them from getting their shots pic.twitter.com/SF6OuvHSSi
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
vaccines dont cause autism dont even come at me with that dumb shit. there is no “cause” of autism. you cant give someone autism, it is a mental disability that they are born with pic.twitter.com/PYJxgwECle
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
an odds ratio of 1 means that there is no difference in risk. numbers that are below 1.00 indicate that the risk is decreased…
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
the possibility of a decreased risk was strongest for the MMR vaccine, with an odds ratio of 0.84. that is a 16% risk reduction. so, if anything, vaccine ingredients may in fact decrease the risk pic.twitter.com/haxXwbwKIS
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
many say that the ingredients that go into a vaccine are harmful and do more harm than good. this is not true pic.twitter.com/hr9orIQS4c
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
She addresses people’s worry over what they consider to be harmful ingredients in vaccines.
there are ingredients that stir up controversy such as mercury, thimerosal, aluminum, formaldehyde, etc. the type of mercury found in thimerosal, ethylmercury, is different from methylmercury, the type commonly found in fish and is known to be harmful in large amounts pic.twitter.com/MjYdGt6NXF
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
today no vaccines contain thimerosal except the influenza vaccine but there are thimerosal-free alternatives in replacement. these chemicals are added to the vaccines to inactivate a virus or bacteria and stabilize the vaccine to preserve and prevent it from losing its strength pic.twitter.com/cNyZ3VEj9l
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
the chemical formaldehyde is always present in the human body as part of the natural metabolic process. as a matter of fact, there is 50 to 70 times more formaldehyde in an average newborn’s body, than in a single dose of vaccine pic.twitter.com/s67XkzZAgX
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
aluminum is a common fear that people share. but many of them do not know that a breast fed infant will naturally ingest around 7 milligrams of aluminum in their diet throughout the first six months of their life pic.twitter.com/92sjFiNudP
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
the United States has the safest vaccine supply in its history. choosing not to vaccinate kids, could have the potential to be more dangerous than just receiving the vaccine in the first place pic.twitter.com/JBE6V13J9Z
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 6, 2018
since 1.43% of you are still arguing with me heres my works cited. & before you say anything abt some of the websites like https://t.co/f79dC0gaNi, i used them to create my intro & conclusion ? pic.twitter.com/NviwLSZvCH
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 9, 2018
Even after all her facts, statistics, and citations, anti-vaxxers still wanted to argue with her.
At least one Twitter user remained skeptical about the claim that vaccines aren’t linked to autism in children.
— Jacki Eden (@EdenJacki) July 25, 2018
Another person claimed that Sharp couldn’t possibly be an expert on the safety of vaccines since she had only just graduated high school.
Writing a paper in college by no means makes you an expert…. I wrote my senior paper on artificial intelligence, and yet Google hasn’t called me once for advice on their AI systems…. Maybe I’ll add “wrote an essay” on my resume and then I’ll be considered for a position.
— Richard Castro (@kingcastro305) July 25, 2018
Yet another disputed the findings Sharp incorporated into her tweets.
Congrats on your HS diploma! Maybe you can help CHOP do the math on childhood exposures to aluminum from vaccines and diet. They have that backwards, per bodyweight and absorption rate (0.03% ingested, 100% injected). C Fig 1 #alum). Also, dietary aluminum <> vaccine aluminum.
— James Lyons-Weiler (@lifebiomedguru) July 26, 2018
Someone else posted a tweet saying that vaccines don’t actually work. Hmm.
And if you look at the outbreaks, they usually happen in VACCINATED people – why? Because vaccines don’t work. It’s a synthetic virus (body doesn’t respond the same) and it’s injected BYPASSING the immune system. Lots of case reports on this page: https://t.co/7x2q24fhig
— ♡ (@tamtoons) July 25, 2018
And still more people doubted the veracity of research, claiming that vaccines actually kill children and chastising a student for thinking she knows more than “the experts.”
You showed only one side; that is only half the job. There are thousands of children who die each year bec of vaccinations. Many are Black and Brown. Let the drug companies invent cures for malaria and leprosy: measles we can handle. @JohnsHopkinsSPH Health
— Rhea Mandulo (@RMandulo) July 25, 2018
So, are you going to take full responsibility for those who die or are harmed by vaccines? Vaccines that never eradicated these diseases in the first place because you’re promoting something that’s harming and killing. you going on record quoting that vaccines don’t killorharm?
— ♡ (@tamtoons) July 25, 2018
Oh so you wrote a paper about it. You must actually know better than the experts
— Raza Longknife (@supe_fake) July 30, 2018
sis thinks she’s a scientist bc she used gifs and words that aren’t cited by someone who actually has the qualifications to be talking bout the shit
— ✰ Я ✰ (@rrudago) July 30, 2018
— Jacki Eden (@EdenJacki) July 25, 2018
One person even called Sharp “brainwashed.”
Every brainwashed american sounds exactly like you lol
— lepetitjimmy (@JimmyZen8) July 26, 2018
But for every anti-vaxxer who responded to the thread negatively, a bunch more praised Sharp for putting this crucial information out there.
Excellent thread!!!! Well done! ??????????????????????????
— CParks (@rainrainrain77) July 24, 2018
Well said, Taylor. Kudos from Italy. We need more people like you over here!
— Simone Rizzoli (@Simoriz) July 25, 2018
Saw this on fb today. Harsh, but brings real potential hazards to light. #VaccinesWork pic.twitter.com/1onmbXpfMd
— Ashley Myers (@ashleyMyers130) July 24, 2018
My uncle , who is 84, had mumps when he was a kid and became sterile. Non vaxxers have never lived in an era when infectious diseases were common.
— KariHat (@KariJHat) July 24, 2018
As a sibling of an immune compromised child, thankyou for sharing that information. Wonderfully stated x
— Chloe Dockerty (@Chloe74972036) July 24, 2018
I love you, you are amazing. Add in rotavirus and flu and you have all the preventable baby stuff, then Neisseria meningitides, Men B, HPV for teens. And some others that aren’t common in the US. Wanna be a doc? Pretty please?
— Dr. Lovlie (@DrLovlie) July 24, 2018
I did a minor amount of work delivering polio vaccinations to rural parts of India. Vitally important information on vaccinations. Great thread!
— Tom Campbell (@afjlife) July 23, 2018
This thread is everything! Well done – I hope you got an A+++ on that paper. #Vaccineswork #sciencenotfear
— Stephanie Steeves (@stephsteeves7) July 25, 2018
Love love love this. My son would talk with you for hours; reading your work was like listening to him on the phone when he gets going. Oh, the Places you’ll go!
— Kimberly Ortiz (@kimmers2270) July 24, 2018
I wish more people did their research! Continue to educate them!
— Era C (@BlacBella_) July 24, 2018
