Step 1: Paint yourself as a former member of the group you wish to attack (“them”), starting with the title, and continuing with every possible “crunchy” alternative to Western medicine.
Title: “Growing Up Unvaccinated.”
First paragraph: “I wasn’t vaccinated. I was brought up on an incredibly healthy diet: no sugar till I was 1, breastfed for over a year, organic homegrown vegetables, raw milk, no MSG, no additives, no aspartame. My mother used homeopathy, aromatherapy, osteopathy; we took daily supplements of vitamin C, echinacea, cod liver oil.”
Take it even further.
“I wasn’t even allowed pop; even my fresh juice was watered down to protect my teeth, and I would’ve killed for white, shop-bought bread in my lunchbox once in a while and biscuits instead of fruit, like all the other kids.”
Step 2: Show how dangerous it is to be one of “them.”
“As healthy as my lifestyle seemed, I contracted measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox.”
Take it even further.
“In my 20s I got precancerous HPV and spent six months of my life wondering how I was going to tell my two children under the age of 7 that Mummy might have cancer before it was safely removed.)”
Step 3: Introduce a red herring, using the polarizing term “anti-vaccine advocates” instead of the more truthful “vaccine critics” or “vaccine questioners” or “vaccine safety advocates.”
“So the anti-vaccine advocates’ fears of having the “natural immunity sterilized out of us” just doesn’t cut it for me.” (Note: this is a red herring, because the concerns about vaccine safety are not that “the natural immunity is sterilized out of us.” This is actually a very clever double entendre. There is some concern in the Philippines that vaccinating young women for tetanus (probably a DTP) resulted in a high rate of sterility amongst those young women. Some have questioned whether this was deliberate. But very few in the US are aware of this debate, and it’s not a concern with US vaccines. What IS a concern is autoimmune reactions to vaccines.)
Step 4: Use personal anecdotes to imply that vaccination results in better health for all, and that lack of vaccination results in poor health for all.
“My two vaccinated children, on the other hand, have rarely been ill, have had antibiotics maybe twice in their lives, if that.”
Step 5: Add denial of existence of any other side of the issue.
“I struggle to understand why I know far more people who have experienced complications from preventable childhood illnesses than I have ever met with complications from vaccines.” (And she knows the personal medical histories of people, HOW?)
Take it even further.
“I have friends who became deaf from measles. I have a partially sighted friend who contracted rubella in the womb. My ex got pneumonia from chickenpox. A friend’s brother died from meningitis.” (Note: the author, age 37, was born around 1977, and would have grown up amongst the most vaccinated children in history. Since the occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases was so low, and the rate of complications from such diseases even lower, [except for meningitis], it is highly unlikely that she is even telling the truth here.)
Step 6: Discredit “them” by painting your former self (as one of “them”) as a vacuous, gullible cult devotee, with extreme beliefs and bizarre behavior.
“I was studying homeopathy, herbalism, and aromatherapy; I believed in angels, witchcraft, clairvoyants, crop circles, aliens at Nazca, giant ginger mariners spreading their knowledge to the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Egyptians, and that I was somehow personally blessed by the Holy Spirit with healing abilities. I was having my aura read at a hefty price and filtering the fluoride out of my water.”
Take it even further.
“I was choosing to have past life regressions instead of taking antidepressants. I was taking my daily advice from tarot cards. I grew all my own veg and made my own herbal remedies.”
Step 7: Imply that “they” are paranoid and delusional, and that “their” sort of thinking made you sick.
“It was only when I took control of those paranoid thoughts and fears about the world around me and became an objective critical thinker that I got well.”
Take it even further.
“It was when I stopped taking sugar pills for everything and started seeing medical professionals that I began to thrive physically and mentally.”
Step 8: Introduce another red herring, based on a false assumption.
“If you think your child’s immune system is strong enough to fight off vaccine-preventable diseases, then it’s strong enough to fight off the tiny amounts of dead or weakened pathogens present in any of the vaccines.” (Note: one’s ability to fight off a virus acquired in the community has nothing to do with one’s predisposition to autoimmune and allergic reactions. So that’s both a false assumption, AND a red herring, since most people criticizing vaccine safety are not worried about fighting off dead or weakened pathogens. They are concerned about autoimmune reactions, and the lack of understanding of those mechanisms in the medical community.)
Step 9: Imply that vaccine critics lack compassion and a sense of responsibility. Imply that they teach their children to be self-serving and unreasonably frightened. Imply that they disdain people with disabilities. But be very careful not to SAY so. Extra points if you can sound like you are earnestly begging.
“I would ask the anti-vaxxers to treat their children with compassion and a sense of responsibility for those around them. I would ask them not to teach their children to be self-serving and scared of the world in which they live and the people around them. (And teach them to love people with autism spectrum disorder or any other disability supposedly associated with vaccines—not to label them as damaged.)” (I have to admit, that was brilliantly done.)
Take it even further.
“Most importantly, I want the anti-vaxxers to see that knowingly exposing your child to illness is cruel…I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy watching children suffer.” (Also brilliant; she has just implied that vaccine critics are cruel, and enjoy watching children suffer.)
Step 10: End by implying that all vaccine critics are leeching off of those who vaccinate.
“Those of you who have avoided childhood illnesses without vaccines are lucky. You couldn’t do it without us pro-vaxxers.”
Take it even further, and add a threat.
“Once the vaccination rates begin dropping, the drop in herd immunity will leave your children unprotected. The more people you convert to your anti-vax stance, the quicker that luck will run out.”
**************************************************************
And there you have it. A formula to write a hit piece, disguising yourself as a former member of the group you wish to attack.
ETA: There are several inconsistencies and errors in Ms. Parker’s little piece which also deserve mention.
1) UK residents in her age group were not given mumps vaccine. It wasn’t available in the UK until 1998:http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/mmr-vaccine.aspx, so it was actually the norm for British children her age to get mumps.
2) The varicella vaccine, for chicken pox, has still not been added to the NHS pediatric vaccination schedule in the UK. Virtually all children in her age group, as well as the age group of her own children, would have had chicken pox.
3) How does she know she had rubella? Rubella is considered a very mild disease, with many people having few or no symptoms. If the characteristic rash occurs, it can look like many other viruses. Doctors did not and do not test for it routinely. The only real risk is to unborn babies exposed to rubella. http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/german_measles.html
3) There is no vaccine for scarlatina, which is a common form of strep infection.
4) There is no vaccine for tonsillitis.
5) There is no vaccine for viral meningitis.
6) I can find no reports that Queen Elizabeth I died of quinsy, as Ms. Parker claims. All historians suggest that she died of either arsenic poisoning from the white arsenic in her makeup or of old age (she was nearly 70 years old, which is about twice the expected life span for a woman in 1605 when she died). There are a few speculation of cancer. No mention of quinsy. http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/death-of-queen-elizabeth-i.htm
7) Ms. Parker reports that, in her 20’s (she’s now around 37), she “got precancerous HPV and spent 6 months of my life wondering how I was going to tell my two children under the age of 7 that mummy might have cancer before it was safely removed.” Well, first of all, HPV testing was not incorporated in the NHS’s cervical screening program until 2012. Second of all, it seems unlikely that her doctor would wait 6 months to deal with that.
8) Aspartame was not even approved in the UK until 1982. Even at that time, it was not commonly added to anything but diet sodas, which were not recommended for children anyway. She writes that her mother didn’t allow her “pop” anyway.
8) Finally, I’m left wondering, how, if her mother was “the biggest health freak around” who “lived alternative health,” how on earth did Ms. Parker receive so many antibiotics that she became resistant to them? In her own words, she “got so many illnesses which needed treatment with antibiotics that I developed a resistance to them.”
~Taximom
“This article first appeared as a post on the “I’m Not Vaccinating” forum on January 6, 2014. http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1395352/amy-parkers-hit-piece-growing-up-unvaccinated-deconstructed . It appears here with the author’s consent.
I’m sorry, but HPV certainly is and was screened for when your Pap came back irregular in the early 2000’s. I know because I had it. Before you try to discredit someone, why don’t you make sure you have the facts right yourself.
Do you live in the U.K.? If not, your experience does not apply to her statement. This article from 2007 makes it clear that HPV testing for cervical cancer was not yet routine in the U.K.:
“At present, most cervical screening is conducted using the Papanicolaou (Pap) smear test, in which cells scraped from the transformation zone . . . are examined cytologically for dyskaryosis.” The article presents the evidence for and against adding HPV testing. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tre.34/pdf
This article makes it clear that they didn’t add it routinely until April of 2011 (not quite 2012, but very close): https://www.bsccp.org.uk/healthcare-professionals/professional-news/hpv-testing-introduced-to-the-nhscsp-1
Thank you so much for taking the time in writing this well thought out article! I patiently waded through 5 google pages before coming across it. I am losing my mind with all the posts people are putting on my facebook. Photos of children who look as if their faces are falling off with “diseases from the un-vaccinated ” ! Just seeing people spreading all of these articles is totally disturbing- Most of them don’t even have children! they just love jumping on the bandwagon. I don’t have children myself and certainly would not feel comfortable vaccinating them if I did. Of course if you google anything to do with it this article you have researched comes up first. Such a shame that so many people find it difficult to think for themselves any longer- they find it easier just to hit the “share” button regardless of what the article they are sharing really means. Anyhow- Thanks for the intelligent read!
There was another article, published in April 2013 by The Guardian, that is suspiciously similar to Amy Parker’s piece.
Take a look: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/wish-my-daughter-vaccinated?view=mobile
Very similar formula, very similar writing style:
The author, Sophie Heawood, used to be “one of those who refused vaccinations,” and she now “flinches with shame.”
Ms. Heawood wants to be identified as “one of them.” She had a fridge full of organic vegetables! And a washing machine!
Oops, time to take it up a notch: she also breastfed, and read alternative health forums!
Diseases are dangerous! People move in from other countries, bringing dangerous diseases with them!
Aaand, take it up a notch: author’s friends, when she was growing up, died of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Talk about pertussis. Her daughter caught pertussis!
Take it up a notch: Talk about how “disgusting it is to watch your child needlessly suffer.” (Sound familiar?)
Take it up another notch: talk about how the whole family came down with pertussis. (But wait? The whole family? She never says that SHE grew up unvaccinated, or that her husband was unvaccinated, or that anybody else in the family was unvaccinated. How did they ALL come down with pertussis? Could it be that…the vaccine didn’t work?)
Talk about diphtheria. Dangerous. Kills one in five.
Take it up a notch: talk about picture of infant with neck swollen and ready to burst. (Note: diphtheria is indeed a dangerous disease. However, from 1986-1995, there were only 38 cases reported in the UK. ONE case was reported in 2008.)
Talk about polio.
Take it up a notch: her parents have friends who still limp from polio. (But we don’t know whether they got polio from the oral polio vaccine or from wild polio..)
Talk about meningitis.
Take it up a notch: she had friends who died from meningitis! (But don’t talk about which strain, how they might have gotten infected, what underlying medical conditions they might have had, whether they were treated properly by the doctors, etc.
Remind us that she’s “one of us.”
She has a “hunch” that vaccines aren’t good.
Take it up a notch: she’s so scared of vaccines, her MOTHER has to take her child in for jabs. (Oh, yeah, that’s REALLY convincing.)
End with a threat.
She feels “funny about her child or anyone else’s child dying of measles.” In 2013.
Take it up a notch: quote Roald Dahl’s journal. “”Got to hospital,” he wrote in his diary. “Walked in. Two doctors advanced on me from waiting room. How is she? I’m afraid it’s too late.”
Same formula, isn’t it? It’s just stirred up a bit.
Interesting how both articles are from the UK. The Lake District is, what, about 100 miles from Hackney (the suburb where Sophie Heawood is from)? Oddly enough, Sophie Heawood’s article did NOT appear on “Voices For Vaccines.” I wonder if she helped Amy Parker write her piece….
Touché, Taximom; well done. Lately I’ve wondered whether the 2 vaccines I received jump-started my early childhood allergies. Back then I endured every “vaccine-preventable” disease the author mentioned, without complications, and with far less post-childhood whining.
Brave of the author, though, to mention her HPV status… from which some of a conservative bent might conclude that she has not always been circumspect about her sexual contacts, or respectful of her body.
You’d think after all the vaccination research studies and adverse event reports and, yes, vaccine injury personal anecdotes, people would finally get biodiversity through their pumpkin heads. To claim that vaccines affect everyone the same — positively, as planned — is not supported by an abundant variety of clear and reasonable evidence.
What horrifies me is how many people are willing to use such harsh words inciting a mob mentality of repression and hate against people who simply state that their vaccine experience ran counter to the status quo.
A more appropriate and humane response by people lucky enough to not suffer adverse events would be to ask why the vaccine injuries occurred, and lobby for research into their treatment and prevention.
nhokkanen, may I quote this part of your comment?
“What horrifies me is how many people are willing to use such harsh words inciting a mob mentality of repression and hate against people who simply state that their vaccine experience ran counter to the status quo.
A more appropriate and humane response by people lucky enough to not suffer adverse events would be to ask why the vaccine injuries occurred, and lobby for research into their treatment and prevention.”
I think that is very important, and it gets lost in the argument of whether “science” has proven vaccines safe and effective.
Ahhhh, following up that mothering article, someone found the author’s YouTube clip about being Bipolar. I have a friend who has psychotic episodes with bipolar, and I wonder if some of the issues she thinks she’s had are products of psychosis. Now I am not trying to belittle her, but maybe this plays a lot into what she put in that article. Someone else made a pont (you can see the comments in link) that maybe she feels indebted to docs because of the meds. Anyway, here she is:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B20Xr5cwEJI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DB20Xr5cwEJI
Another inconsistency I noticed in the original piece: Amy Parker’s link to support her assertion that her natural pertussis immunity isn’t enough to protect her child (only lasts 20 years) is thoroughly outdated. A minimum of 30 years immunity and up to 70, according to more current data. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091029211528.htm
Brilliant. Thanks for making this available. I’m sooooo thankful for all thinking moms!
Thank you for posting this! I hope this rebuttal makes the rounds. I highly doubt the original author will come out asI believe she is made up. There is an Amy Parker who works for the CDC, and she looks a lot like the author and works in epidemiology. Also, I looked up the author per the information given about her, but when I find the several Google links to her name and “piano teacher”, all that comes up is the teaching organization but not her. Try it. I say Well Done! I had my suspicions when all of the tarot reading and nasca line stuff came up.
That article was laughable yet many of my friends kept circulating it around FB with the comments of, she is 100% correct, vaccines work, they are very safe and if you don’t vaccinate you have issues. I guess they completely forgot about my child who had a vaccine reaction.