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An anti-vaxxer is anyone who uses pseudoscience as a source of “information” and makes decisions based on it. The most malignant of anti-vaxxers refuse to give their children vaccines at all, putting them and other people’s children in danger. Others who are less misinformed still believe the trope that so many vaccines at once “overload” the child’s immune system, so want the vaccines spread out over a longer period of time than the vaccine schedule allows. This unnecessarily prolongs the period during which children remain susceptible to life-threatening diseases.

I have no respect for those who fear-monger about vaccines causing autism. They display malignant ignorance, in that they know the vaccine-autism myth has been debunked and that its inventor has been outed as a self-serving fraud, yet cling to that myth. It’s as bad as the climate change fraud in the level of misinformation involved.

If you want to be truly educated about vaccines, there are many good sources. The database I use, www.pubmed.gov, is mostly for scientists, but they do have sections for laypeople. WebMD is good. So is Mayo clinic. And you can always ask me, because I do take the time to verify that my info is scientifically sound before posting. Knowing vaccines and other countermeasures against infectious disease is one of my professional concentrations as a scientist. My other is toxicology.

Stay away from whale.to, natural news, Barbara Lee Fisher, and the many other anti-vax sites. They do not provide legitimate scientific information, but do have an agenda to bring back disease. People who fervently believe that the earth is overpopulated by humans and who believe that vaccines and other modern medical interventions are to blame are not going to tell you, “Don’t vaccinate your children sl that more of them will die!” Instead, they will try to persuade you to believe that your children are better off not being protected.