I can't say I wasn't ever scared of the stories surrounding vaccines when faced with sticking needles in my first baby. I spoke to a lot of people who worked with Autistic children who were convinced that vaccines were NOT the cause, and I'm there too now. I also consulted my guru Andrew Weil who recommended it, and felt gratified and awed when I watched what vaccines used to be like in the John Adams series. UGH!
In an attempt to put my chidren less at risk, I spaced out their vaccines and asked about Mercury (most of which was removed by 2003, I believe). It did show up last year in the flu vaccine! But I couldn't help but wonder the game of deadly roulette the people who I knew who didn't vaccine were playing. How would or could they insulate their children from the diseases of our global world? Especially in a major city like L.A.? Their sheltered kids would go to school with protected kids who could bring germs from anywhere. I would bet a lot of home school parents didn't vaccinate their kids...and perhaps they will get vaccinated now.
For me, the anti-vaccine movement was the left extremist belief in risks we could not prove, but we knew the greater risks--grounded in history. So the left believed in an unproven risk (a major disease caused by vaccines), and the right denies a proven one (global warming). They don't seem to have the same deadly weight, but sometimes they can.
