Blogs are a good place to rant. I LOVE that one of my regular visitors, Noelle, thought of Biodork and the First World Problems Poll (which ended months ago!) when she needed a place to express her frustrations over parents who chose not to vaccinate their children.

I know this contest is long over but I think that first world problems keep coming up and I want to vent! Refusing to vaccinate your children is a first world problem!

Third world problem: “I can’t get my kid vaccinated so there’s a good chance they will contract, and perhaps die from a preventable disease.”

First world problem: “there is a minute chance that my child may have an adverse reaction so I wont vaccinate and I’ll rely on herd immunity to keep my child safe. Plus I heard they cause autism and that stresses me out.”

Sing it, girl! Wanting and not having access to vaccines (or not having knowledge of vaccines) is a travesty that causes death and suffering around the world. Choosing not to vaccinate is an unfortunate by-product of some people having easy access to bits and pieces of information about vaccination – some of it supported by science, some of it not – and then drawing incorrect (or unsupported) conclusions about the risks of vaccination.

And some people fail to understand the consequences of falling vaccination rates. Vaccines have removed or significantly minimized the damage caused by so many vaccine-preventable illnesses, so much so that we are beginning to think that they have disappeared or are are no longer a risk.  And then we get punched in the face with something like California’s whooping cough resurgence, which has been linked to a drop in vaccination against whooping cough. I don’t like getting punched in the face. We should do everything in our power to not get punched in the face again.

Hey…

And that’s why I don’t do graphic design.

Thanks for putting thoughts to “paper”, Noelle.