Proponents of the autism/vaccination connection

Aren't there some non-autism-scare reasons why some people don't get certain vaccines? I seem to remember the last time I got a flu-shot there being literature warning about certain allergies (egg-allergy I think), which I don't have, so I can get my shots just fine. I can imagine a child with a weird, specific immunity disorder or some such thing having to be held back from the normal shots... If vaccinations were mandatory, there would have to be some case-specific consideration, I think.

That said, I remember, very unhappily, having to get my shots for school, in my elementary school. I was a kid then, back in the 80s, so my memory isn't exact, but I seem to remember them being utterly MANDATORY for attending school.

When I joined the Air Force, too... 1999 on the cusp of 2000 - I... was a basic training washout, didn't make it due to health problems that emerged and worsened due to the stress, and one of the things that was mandatory in the training was walking down a line and getting a shot in the arm for some of the basic inoculations. No grunts, no butts, no coconuts. If you were there, you got this.

So, I see no problem with schools making sure the kids have all their shots as mandatory. Most of us adults had to deal with that and most of us are, well, healthy because of it.

Even if there is some vague link to autism, as someone said, autism can be worked around. Death can't. And there are a lot of things that we have diagnoses for now that we didn't in the past. In fact, I suffer from a condition that people even today have a hard time as seeing as "real." - My brother and I both know we have bipolar disorder. Looking back at our family history, I really think that more people in my family had it, but never knew it because it wasn't something commonly diagnosed (much less able to be helped) in my grandfather's day. Back then, if you were "crazy" and sought help for it, you got locked up like a criminal, so the other option for many was the much more socially-accepted "drink yourself to death" option, which those in my family I suspect of being ill took. From what I hear of autism, those people existed back in the old timey days, too - they were just dismissed as "slow."

In other words, a lot of brain-disorders were treated as moral failings, and they still are to some degree today, which makes it little wonder that they are feared as bogeymen.

in my experience, flu shots are bullshit. My family tends to either A- get the shot and then catch the flu anyway or B- not bother and usually not even catch the flu.

Depends on what sort of "flu" it is.

@eggs, my uncle has a rather severe egg allergy, and he's just been advised to stick around for an hour or so after the injection o keep an eye out for a reaction, and if he does have one he's been advised to just seek an extra allergy shot or a big dose of antihistamines. Don't think he's ever had a major reaction besides local redness/some swelling. The amount of egg protein remaining in the final prepared vaccine should be very little.

Not sure why though, but I've always had a severe reaction to pertussis vaccines since I was a child. After the first one doctors told me to avoid getting any all-in-one vaccines containing it.

Yes, there are children who can't vaccinate thanks to medical conditions and autoimmune issues and allergies. In those cases children can be given a medical waver, but it's doubly important for their peers to be vaccinated because of them.