That's a sad story, but it's not actually nearly so simple. People also die and have lifelong debilitating syndromes after getting a vaccine. There's even a special Federal court to handle these cases and pay out settlements - all funded by the taxpayer. Yes, vaccines are largely safe and often effective, but that's not a universal. Acting like there aren't also risks to vaccination is irresponsible. Sure, they are small, but if it's your family member who died, you're going to care about that.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) reports that 11,448 people in the EU have died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have public health initiatives that include vaccination, but it does mean that acting as though anyone who would like to see greater vaccine safety is crazy and anti-scientific is irresponsible..

We desperately need a less condescending and dogmatic approach to public health, which includes no longer writing off vaccine death and injury as just the cost of doing business. Many lives have been saved due to vaccines. Some lives have been ruined or lost by them. Pretending those aren't meaningful is callous.

TV ads for pharmaceuticals all include lists of possible harmful side effects, but we're not allowed to talk about that with vaccines, and anyone who does is treated like a pariah. I'm not anti-vaccine at all - but I am anti that kind of shit. There's no pressure on Big Pharma to improve safety or develop tests for who might be most likely to have a bad reaction - because then they'd have to admit that they aren't completely safe and they aren't entirely effective in many cases. There have been several documented measles outbreaks in schools with a high rate of vaccination, for example.

Public health is an important but complex topic. I'd like to see it treated as such.