MOST PEOPLE GET vaccinated
against diseases like measles,
mumps, pertussis, and influenza
because they fear contracting a
serious illness and they trust the
wisdom and competence of the
medical community. But some
believe the real threats are the
vaccines themselves—and on this
point, they don’t trust the experts
at all. We talked to three women
who were once opposed to getting
immunizations for themselves and
their children but eventually changed
their minds. They shared their
stories in an effort to create a more
fruitful national dialogue about the
importance of immunizations.“STUDYING TO
BECOME A HEALTH
PROFESSIONAL
OPENED MY EYES.”
KATIE GLISSON, 28 | JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Exposure scientist and new motherWhile earning my bachelor’s degree in
environmental and public health, I worked at
a wellness center where some practitioners
would say negative things about “modern
medicine” and that vaccines were
unnecessary if you ate well, exercised, and
took great care of yourself. One of them
referred me to a website with a lot of anti-
vaccine information. After reading it and
articles it linked to, I, too, began to believe
the conspiracy theories that said the shots
could make you sick, drugmakers were
getting rich off “worthless” protection from
“minor diseases,” and pro-vaccine research
was rigged by Big Pharma.
In graduate school, I took classes in topics
like toxicology and risk assessment, and it
became clear to me that I’d been looking at
vaccinations from a purely emotional point
of view, not a critical one. The clincher was
working on my thesis. The process showed
me what it takes to do a rigorous study and
get it published in a peer-reviewed journal:
Experts in the field carefully evaluate every
aspect of your research and methodology
and ensure that the information is valid and
useful. It made me realize how wrong I was
to have thought the peer-reviewed scholarlyarticles showing that vaccines
are effective and safe were all
“rigged.” It also taught me how
flawed the anti-vaccination
“research” was—unsupported
facts, unfounded conclusions,
stats without objective
sources, biased anecdotes.
Today I’m fully up-to-date
on all my vaccinations, and
I’m following the CDC
recommendations for
vaccinating my 6-month-old
daughter. When I think about
how I used to go around
saying that vaccines don’t
matter, I feel like I let my
friends and family down. But
I remind myself that at the
time, I believed I was saving
them from danger.
I keep that in mind when
talking to people who are anti-
vaccine. I try to calmly share
peer-reviewed, unbiased
studies, and I point out when
antiscientific websites have
conflicts of interest. (Many of
the people behind these sites are making
a profit from selling products such as
supplements or “natural remedies” like oils
or salves.) Just the other day a friend sent
me a long article about why vaccines are
dangerous. While being respectful toward
her, I refuted the article line by line, providing
solid scientific sources—like data from the
World Health Organization—for each point.
Even if my email doesn’t convince her,
I hope I planted a seed of doubt.“I SAW A SICK
BABY, AND IT
BROKE MY HEART.”
JERI YOUNG, 38 | CIRCLEVILLE, OHIO
Stay-at-home mother and aquatics instructorAfter giving birth to my first child, I joined
a natural parenting group online—
something I felt an affinity for, since I
planned to breastfeed exclusively, use cloth
diapers, and not circumcise. I read all the
stories members posted about how bad
vaccines were—that they could potentially
cause brain damage or even death. But
I also knew that vaccines could prevent
dangerous illness. I was scared andconfused. I really didn’t know what
to believe.
So with my son, I just tried to avoid
the shots altogether—by skipping doctor
appointments and lying about his
immunization history, even though this ate
me up with guilt. But then my daughter was
born, and she had trouble gaining weight.
I knew that in order to get a doctor’s help,
we’d need to vaccinate her. So we did. But
once she started gaining weight, at around
3 months, I stopped taking her in.
My daughter was entering kindergarten
when my friend’s 2-month-old baby came
down with pertussis. He struggled to
breathe; he’d literally start to turn blue. It
broke my heart to see how sick he was.
That’s when it hit me: Unvaccinated
children like mine could have passed the
illness to that sweet baby. My kids could
also get the disease—and it would be all my
fault. Not long afterward, another friend’s
6-month-old needed a liver transplant,
and I learned that he couldn’t be around
anyone who wasn’t vaccinated. I started
thinking about how dependent we all are
on one another, and I realized it was my
responsibility—not just to my family but to
everyone around me—to get my children
vaccinated. I reached out to vaccinating
parents in person and in online forums,
and I read some medical studies they
recommended. To my surprise, I couldn’tf
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66 SEPTEMBER^2019 OPRAHMAG.COM