I… I can’t even believe I’m writing this.
That image up there showed up in my Facebook feed, posted by a smug JAQer who—I assume—hates the idea of health and not dying of horrible diseases. And who possibly hates children as well. Thankfully, I saw it because a friend of mine who does not pine for the glory days of 16th-century medicine had laid into the JAQer with a will and a vengeance.
Distressingly, this is a trope. It’s a common tactic used by people who hate health and children and science and reason (also known as “antivaxxers,” the term I used is longer but probably more accurate) to sow confusion and spread misinformation about the benefits of vaccines by “just asking questions.” Questions that have answers, mind, but JAQers are often too intellectually dishonest to bother acknowledging those answers. It gets in the way of the soundbite.
If vaccines work?
If vaccines work?
This… this will require more than one article. Because there’s a couple of questions to address here: “Do they work?” and “How are unvaccinated children a threat?”. And answering a JAQoff’s questions takes time and effort. So, let’s just jump into the first question.
“Do vaccines work?”
Yes they work, you primitive screwhead.
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