Anti-Vaxxers Think One Baby Having A Seizure Means No Baby Should Be Safe From Measles

Oh, California. You’re so beautiful and fun and also trying to kill us all with your concentration of crazy anti-vaxxers.

According to ABC News 10, California legislators are debating a bill this week that would eliminate personal belief exemptions and prevent unvaccinated children from attending public schools. The bill was authored by a pediatrician and seems to align with a pro-vaccine agenda, but as expected, it’s been hotly contested in the golden state.

The most controversial of the opposition came from a Minnesota-based ‘health’ group called Health Choice, who began running a shocking ad featuring a crying six-week-old having a seizure, which they claim was the result of receiving vaccines.

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The 30-second spot is basically just a disturbing close-up of the baby seizing with a narrator spitting fear at the masses, persuading them that this one child’s seizures are definitely caused by vaccines and that means vaccines are bad for all people.

The narrator said, “Lorrin Kain’s seizures began two hours after her shot.”

The ad went on to say that the damage was so severe, that it claimed Kain’s life. Kain actually died at the age of 15.

The ad aired the day before the California Senate began discussing the vaccination bill, stirring up added trouble around an already controversial piece of legislation. Anti-vaxxers have never shied away from fear-mongering, but the ad is a gross reminder of just how out of control this vaccine situation has gotten.

As you can imagine, plenty of people support the move to do away with personal belief exemptions, but a disturbing number of people are standing up against the measure and they aren’t exactly being discouraged. The California State Grange, a statewide grassroots organization focused on bringing communities together, is even sponsoring a sold-out screening of the documentary Trace Amounts, which is critical of vaccines and makes dubious claims about the use of mercury. The Grange claim they haven’t taken a stance on vaccines, but that isn’t stopping them from confusing people.

Ads and films, even ones based on exaggerations and misinformation, lend an air of credibility to the anti-vaccine movement and it’s dangerous to present them to people as valid sources of information. Vaccines are not a paltry disagreement between parents. They’re an important piece of public health and shouldn’t be treated otherwise.

Jessica Denning, a representative for the California State Grange said she’s seen the ‘impact of vaccines firsthand’ and wouldn’t vaccinate if she had the chance to do it again. The impact she’s talking about?

“My children were fully vaccinated, however my son had a reaction to the DPT, which in 1977 was common, high fever and screaming all night long,” she explained.

The ad run by Health Choice might seem extreme, but it’s not when you consider there are people in the world who think crying and a fever are good reasons to opt out of vaccines entirely. Dennings also went on to say the California measles outbreak was ‘not that bad’ because ‘nobody died.’ Perhaps we should start airing ads depicting victims of the measles and polio so these people can remember exactly what we’re dealing with here.

(Photo: Shutterstock)