Concerned mothers name and shame their anti-vax neighbour in viral letter

The anti-vax movement is extremely dangerous.

Just three months into 2019, there have already been confirmed measles outbreaks in 15 states and New York has been forced to ban unvaccinated children from public spaces, nurseries and schools.

The anti-vax movement is built on conspiracy theories, with science overwhelmingly advocating for vaccination. While most healthy pro-science adults are shielded from the dangers of anti-vaxxers, the presence of just one non-vaxinated child can harm entire communities.

Currently, it is legal in 17 states to opt out of vaccinations. So it’s highly possible that, in any given neighbourhood, there could be anti-vax families hiding in plain sight.

As a response, a group of Wisconsin parents penned a thorough letter outing their anti-vax neighbour for making them unsafe. They explained the exact risks that this presents and listed the many states dealing with outbreaks due to anti-vaxxers.

It reads:

Dear Resident,

Your neighbor, ______

does not believe in vaccinating herself or her family. This puts anyone at risk if they are medically fragile, immunocompromised, or out of date in their vaccinations. Please use caution when sharing work or personal space with this individual, eating foods prepared by this individual, or attending gatherings at this individual’s house if you or the people who are important to you fall into medically at-risk categories. The unvaccinated pose a unique threat to infants, who often don’t yet have a full course of vaccinations completed, and can quickly become deathly ill or die.

People who are unvaccinated have caused outbreaks in Arkansas, Oregon Washintong, California, New York, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Florida, Minnesota, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, with more outbreaks expected. Nearly all outbreaks of disease were started by unvaccinated individuals, who pass along vaccine-preventable diseases to those without adequate protection.

People who don’t believe in vaccines often hold other views that are at odds with widely accepted facts related to science and medicine. Protect yourself, your family, and your community by using caution when interacting with these people. They have caused hundreds of thousands of vaccine-preventable disease in recent years, costing several hundred million dollars around the globe, not including the costs associated with preventable deaths and disabilities. The outbreaks and subsequent deaths they cause are tracked here:

https://www.vaccineswork.org/vaccine-preventable-disease-outbreaks/

Thank you, and be safe.

Hopefully, the letter will bring much-needed awareness to the scientific case for vaccination and save lives.

H/T: Someecards

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