When anti-vaxxers argue their case online, it doesn’t take long before the references to “Big Pharma” start flying. Oftentimes, they involve some widespread conspiracy that involve the pharmaceutical industry duping the entire medical profession into pushing vaccines on children.
It doesn’t help that our most recent image of pharmaceutical CEOs was shaped by people like Martin Shkreli, who symbolizes the excesses and shady business practices that can legitimately take root in the industry.
However, as one ER nurse sought to remind us, there are serious consequences to writing off everything that comes from that industry.
A quick look at ER nurse Meggy Doodle’s Facebook page makes it clear that she’s definitely had her run-ins with the anti-vaxxer community.
So at first glance, her big post addressing their concerns about “Big Pharma” directly might seem a little surprising.
She begins her post by saying that she had a major epiphany that some people may not like.
“I think that people who don’t want to vaccinate should have the freedom to do so, ” she went on to say. “If they think that “Big pharma” is just trying to turn a profit or poison us all… they should be allowed to believe that.”
But before anybody gets too excited, there’s a caveat to this.
Namely, that this logic would also prevent them from going to the doctor or the hospital when they need treatment.
As she said, “Big pharma makes those antibiotics we are going to pump you full of when you are about to die from sepsis. The steroids and epi we might give you to save your life from your anaphylaxis? Yep, big pharma is behind that too. That inhaler you need to treat your kids asthma? Better pass on that as well, because… you guessed it… brought to you by Big P.”
She also said, “Better break out your essential oils and get your affairs in order” when a heart attack looms.
After all, she said, all they would otherwise receive are medicine and procedures by the same people responsible for those dreaded vaccines.
And when it comes to transactions that Big Pharma can profit from, she let us know that a stroke treatment called TPA could potentially reverse symptoms in minutes…and nets the industry $25,000 per treatment.
She capped off these examples by rhetorically asking who stocks those hospital crash carts with heart-starting medicines.
She leads any potential anti-vaxxers reading her post through all of these examples to say this, “I think you get the picture. Stop being so naive.”
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Since she’s no fan of naïveté, she also acknowledges that yes, medical treatments often have some risks or side effects.
As she said, “Medicine is not perfect. We advocate for vaccinating your children and yourself because science has PROVEN its the most effective method of controlling the spread of disease and giving you and everyone around you the best chance of NOT DYING from something preventable.”
She calls the decision not to vaccinate based on beliefs that big pharma has duped the entire scientific medical community “100% insanity.”
However, she takes a more personal issue with this line of thinking, saying, “I personally take offense to anyone who implies that medical professionals, like myself, would ever administer anything to anyone, especially a child, that would intentionally harm them. I take even more offense to anyone that would imply that a college educated professional, like myself, is incapable of ‘doing the research.'”
She also had an answer for anyone saying that she shouldn’t worry if they don’t get vaccinated because she can’t catch what they potentially contract anyway.
To this, she replies that it isn’t quite that simple.
As she wrote, “You are 100% right. I will probably be just fine. It’s my newborn baby who is too young to be vaccinated that I’m worried about, it’s my friend who is going through chemo, it’s a neighbor that is immune compromised, it’s my cousin who is allergic and can’t receive the vaccine. Yes, we tell you to get vaccinated to protect yourself, but it’s so much bigger than that. Vaccinate. Because it’s not just about YOU.”
h/t: Facebook | Meggy Doodle
