It's one thing to put your own life in danger due to your willful ignorance, but it's another thing entirely to put a bunch of strangers at risk for the same reason. If I were to decide to make sure the electrical outlets in my house were working by sticking a fork in them, I'd only be shocking myself, right?
Imgur | SpicyGuacamole, Reddit
Concerned Mom's Viral Letter Perfectly Sums Up The Danger Of Anti-Vaxxers
But if I were to try to get the spiders out of my house by setting it on fire, there's no guarantee that it wouldn't take my neighbor's house with it.
Unsplash | Marlon Lara
That's pretty much what anti-vaxxers are doing. However, one mother out there is trying something different to make sure her neighborhood doesn't suffer because of that one anti-vaxxer's ignorance.
Among all the strategies that have been tried to help with public health during the rise of anti-vaccination misinformation, singling out specific people for their adoption of an anti-vaccination stance seems to be a rarity.
But when a "Concerned Mom of Wisconsin" discovered she was living near someone with unvaccinated kids, she wrote and sent around a letter warning of the dangers of anti-vaxxers for other parents — and it's going viral after being posted on Imgur.
The Concerned Mom of Wisconsin didn't hold back, and she clearly did her homework.
"Your neighbor does not believe in vaccinating herself or her family," the letter began.
"This puts anyone at risk if they are medically fragile, immunocompromised, or out of date in their vaccinations."
Instagram | @jewminatti
This can include cancer patients, whose immune systems can be weakened by chemotherapy drugs, people with Type 1 diabetes, and many autoimmune diseases.
So she's hoping that her letter will alert folks to the risks of interacting with this particular neighbor.
Reddit | TartofDarkness
"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," her letter continued.
She then explained just how serious the risk was for infants in particular.
Unsplash | Tim Bish
"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."
Just to further draw attention to the problem, she listed off all the states that have had outbreaks caused by anti-vaxxers.
"People who are unvaccinated have caused outbreaks in Arkansas, Oregon, Washington, California, New York, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Florida, Minnesota, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, with more outbreaks expected," she wrote.
The reason for these outbreaks? Well...
"Nearly all outbreaks of disease were started by unvaccinated individuals, who pass along vaccine-preventable diseases to those without adequate protection," she explained.
In a controversial statement, Concerned Mom also suggested that there might be more to worry about than just a lack of understanding about vaccines.
Reddit | countthemiles08
"People who don't believe in vaccines often hold other views that are at odds with widely accepted facts related to science and medicine," she wrote.
The Concerned Mom of Wisconsin then warned her neighbors to be cautious if socializing with unvaccinated peers.
"Protect yourself, your family, and your community by using caution when interacting with these people."
And she noted that the fallout from anti-vaxxers refusing to get vaccinated extends far and wide.
"They have caused hundreds of thousands of cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in recent years, costing several hundred million dollars around the globe, not including the costs associated with preventable deaths and disabilities."
We've seen evidence of it in the U.S., and it's only getting worse.
Imgur | SpicyGuacamole
As the CDC has pointed out, the U.S. has seen 387 cases of measles in 15 states through the first three months of 2019, which is more than in all of 2018, and the second most since measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
That's just measles.
Some folks online are suggesting that maybe this letter is an extreme measure.
Imgur | NeedingVsGetting
But when it comes to saving children's lives and not spreading disease or causing outbreaks, isn't it worth possibly hurting some feelings?
People have been sharing their own experiences with anti-vaccination as the letter has gone viral.
In most cases, we are reminded that vaccinations are not about the individual, but about our collective health.
What do you think?
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