Previous to the availability of chickenpox vaccines, it was not unusual for people to deliberately expose their children to chickenpox—for a good reason. Statistically, children exposed before adolescence were less likely to develop serious symptoms or to be left with lasting scars from the exposure. Parents carrying out this action before the availability of the vaccine were often acting on the advice of medical professionals and following sound science. But with the availability of the vaccine, deliberately exposing any child to chickenpox is simply opening them up to serious illness, both immediately and later in life, and creating the possibility that the child will spread the disease to someone who is pregnant, where it can result in the death of a fetus.
Deliberately exposing a child to chickenpox with the availability of the vaccine is an act of child endangerment—and abuse. Bevins has a lot to answer for, both for the suffering and needless risk he intentionally inflicted on his own children, and for the way his story is likely to bring that suffering to others.
Likewise, Kennedy’s statement is no more admirable than firing a gun through a crowded room or driving drunk through city streets—it may not bring death. But it absolutely could, and with a period of 15-20 years between exposure to papillomavirus and the average onset of cervical or anal cancers, the death toll from his action won’t soon be tallied.
Earlier this week, CNN reported on a woman whose son died from the flu. Rather than receiving messages to console her in her grief, her Facebook page was overrun by messages of hate, blaming her for the death of her child. The source of those attacks was anti-vaxxers.
The child did not die because of exposure to a vaccine. In fact, the child had not been vaccinated against the flu. Which is why the anti-vaxxers swooped in. Anti-vax groups have developed attacking grieving parents whose children have died from disease as a tactic. News that a child has died from flu or some other disease for which a vaccine does or might exist brings a swarm of anti-vax hate “telling the parents they’re lying and their child never existed, or that the parent murdered them, or that vaccines killed the child, or some combination of all of those.” As the report showed, “nothing is considered too cruel” if it protects the anti-vax position.
There are people who are genuinely unable to accept vaccines because of medical conditions that leave them immunologically compromised. These people represent a very small percentage of the population, but the threat to them created by people not using vaccines when possible is great.
Results of the largest study of any possible link between vaccines and autism, published earlier in March, found that children who received vaccines were actually slightly less likely to develop autism than those who did not. Kennedy’s tweet suggesting a link between vaccine and mental illness, like all other unsupported claims intended to prevent the use of life-saving vaccinations, should be treated as a call to violence and result in banning from the service.