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by robocat 293 days ago
I am not talking about empathy with friends (I'm not sure why you assumed that). I am certainly not saying "don't immunise". I suspect you're making assumptions about me, but to be clear I am strongly pro vaccination and pro-science.

Each vaccination has costs and benefits. The science is amazing at reducing the physical risks.

I am just asking you to understand that some people are seriously psychologically harmed by requiring vaccinations (for themselves or for their children). It may be irrational, unscientific or selfish but I have seen how real the harm is for some people. That harm is a complex grey area. It should rarely trump the needs of children or society.

Society has a variety of ways to balance that harm against the expected benefits.

The second half of your comment is just a strawman story. And introducing religion as a topic is usually a poor idea.
1 comments
_DeadFred_ 293 days ago
I apologize if you feel attacked/judged. Conversations shouldn't go like that. I believe people have the right to their opinions, and in a democracy we WILL go down different avenues than I would like and that is part of democracy. And I appreciate you raising views not your own but not represented in the conversation. But I am going to point out the outcomes. I'm going to point out that the 'body autonomy' people harassed my mother for wearing a mask while dying of cancer and didn't care about her autonomy to wear a mask out of chemo need.

The original anti-vax exemptions were given on religious grounds. All justifications after that have built on that initial allowance. It is very much not a straw man when it comes to vaccine allowances. It is the OG justification that opened the conversation.

After watching my santa cruz woo woo ex-wife's friends all literally talk themselves into believing in the damage of vaccines (while being fine taking MEGA/unhealthy doses of western science discovered vitamins), I consider vaccine hesitancy a form of Munchausen syndrome. One that should only be tolerated to a certain point, and this is well past that point.

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