I love that they saw what the vaccine (supposedly) did to their friends' kids and judge them. But they don't judge themselves for what their decision not to vaccinate did to their kid. I bet their vaccinated friends' kids are also paralyzed. /s
I suspect she'd say the same thing if it was actually her that was sick here. The problem is, if she admits to herself that she should have vaccinated, it means that it's her fault this happened, which is a really psychologically painful thing to accept. For a lot of people, the main test of whether something is true is whether it feels true, and how can something so painful feel true? On the other hand, "it's just God's will" feels so much more comfortable, so it's a no-brainer (pun intended) to go with that explanation.
I had encephalitis due to meningitis two decades ago, and the pain was so incredibly terrible, that I still have flashbacks from it, and PTSD. Every headache that starts in my neck starts the bullet train of terrified thoughts and the physiology that goes with it.
Pain medication doesn't work very well on the pain that comes from your brain swelling. They'd give me a shot of Demerol every six hours, and I'd be pain free for about five minutes, and then the pain would come right back.
The pain was worse than all three of my kids' births, and it lasted for over a month. I cannot explain in words just how awful it was. I would literally BEG the nurses to end me, every time they came in the room.
Then, there are the CHANGES in your brain from the swelling damage. Changes that can be anything from memory issues (like I have) to being paralyzed in areas of your body, or going deaf or blind, or losing the ability to speak.
I can't imagine doing that to a child through purposeful neglect.
You see god chose to give Ethan measles, but somehow didn't choose to create the scientists that developed the vaccine. It all makes perfect sense if you are a moron.
I hope Ethan makes a full recovery, and stops listening to his parent's medical advice as soon as possible.
Man, Christians are frickin weird (I'm from a non-Christian country, not here to be an edgy atheist, I swear). If that were my God, and if I really believed that my God were real and choose to give my kid a deadly disease, I'd be going full Japanese MC and starting on a quest to kill God.
But then again, I'd also vaccinate my kids, so I guess I don't really know what goes on in that brain
Agreed. You think you'd be pretty pissed off at a god who allows for children to experience horrible, debilitating, and potentially life-ending illnesses while at the same time allowing vaccines not only be developed but effective in their human fodder. All to teach the adults a lesson about suffering so they go to a special place later to meet up with the kid that they allowed to die horribly?
Or, you view it from the hands-off entity approach and things still don't add up why you'd worship a being that set it and forget it that allows for such horrible things in the world.
In a microcosm, the mom is now acting like this malevolent god saying this child deserves to suffer because of her beliefs while blaming a different entity as "the way it has to be." I don't get how people can reconcile "gods will" while vaccines exist and are effective but refuse those while also allowing for very invasive medical intervention. I know some sects do refuse all modern medicine but that's clearly not the case here. Some medical intervention is OK, just not the preventative kind.
And the whole COVID vaccine paranoia stems from a single arrogant world leader who was unable to accept he had any culpability to act faster, AND because a scientist made him feel dumb. That’s it. Now ignoring science is a mainstream crusade and a lifestyle.
I knew what this was before I even clicked it. I’ve watched west wing all seven seasons endlessly but can’t watch this one as a man of faith he doesn’t listen to the other man of faith he trusts and lets the man be killed.
Having grown up in a Christian nation, it never made sense to me either. Even as a little kid with my mom shoving the rhetoric that left us utterly ostracized in our tiny town down my throat, I always thought God was an abusive parent and decided it was just better to go no contact when I got older with both of them.
So many people want to watch other people suffer over perceived wrongs so badly that they'd risk themselves in the belief that this tyranny is correct. They don't care so much about winning so long as their enemies definitely lose more.
Six weeks ago, Ethan Moran Lopez was like most 7-year-olds — spending the weekend riding his new bike or playing Minecraft on his iPad on a rainy day.
“He just learned how to ride, he got the hang of it right away,” Ethan’s dad, Luis Moran Lopez, said proudly. “He wanted to go outside because he wanted to jump on his bike…it was an amazing thing for him.”
Ethan’s parents decided not to immunize him against measles as they did with his three brothers. Three out of four of them contracted measles. Still, despite Ethan’s ordeal, his mom stands by their decision. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina Moran Lopez. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we're gonna glorify his name regardless.
“And we wouldn't change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.”
It's not necessarily stupidity, it's indoctrination which trains people to circumvent reason.
You can be the most intelligent man in the world, but if you're trained not to trust the value of your reasoning, then it's completely wasted in favour of Faith.
Disagree. Vaccination is not new technology and the measles vaccine in particular is quite ubiquitous. These parents absolutely grew up exposed to the overwhelming confidence of the country that this vaccine works.
This is willful ignorance at best and plain stupidity otherwise. We are well past the stage of giving people like this the benefit of the doubt.
It's also worth noting that most antivaxxers of this era were themselves vaccinated when they were kids!
And yet they wilfully choose to deny their kids the same safety and peace of mind.. That's some Grade A hypocrisy, amirite?
What's really dangerous about such ppl is that they're not only helping to perpetuate all sorts of diseases that are otherwise easily preventable, they're also helping to further spread their deranged beliefs.
When you really boil it down, antivaxxers are essentially working against our entire species' best interests just to satisfy their own vanity.
They're happily condemning people to die, just for a few fake Internet points, and the hollow praise from other gibbering idiots like them..
Personally, after witnessing the sheer amount of unbridled stupidity on display during covid (including from people I used to trust and respect), I think we should make vaccines mandatory, with certain obvious caveats ofc.
Covid made me realise craptons of people simply can't be trusted to think for themselves anymore - to an extent it's not entirely their fault either. Decades of rw politicians gutting social and education programs for adults, and of hysterical anti-intellectual TV, radio and Internet content has led to this.
There's so much misinformation about, and to be blunt, most people lack the media literacy and critical thinking skills to make the best decisions when being bombarded by constant waves of bullshit from every charlatan and sociopath with a webcam.
All we can do to stem the tide is make vaccines mandatory in as many countries as possible -
everything else requires a lot more patience, funding, planning and time (in other words, politicians won't commit to it, because it won't win them brownie points straight away).
I'm talking about religious indoctrination and the type of thinking that made the religious more prone to anti science rhetoric including being anti-vax
I see where you're coming from and I appreciate the article link. I did read through it. The article though is focused, in large part, on international underserved communities. I'm many of those cases it is reasonable to view anti vaccination see with a more forgiving lens. I.e. that people just need to be better informed and trust better built.
For the U.S., the article says:
"Objection to vaccination was also related to: faith in divine protection and healing for Protestants, Catholics, Jewish and Muslims (10); the use of aborted fetal cells for vaccines' production among Amish and Catholic communities (including during the COVID-19 outbreak when Senior Catholic leaders from the US and Canada raised ethical objections to vaccines produced using cells derived from aborted fetuses) (11, 12); the connection between the use of HPV vaccination and sexual promiscuity among Christian parents who consider this vaccine useless for their child as it was considered as a consequence of a certain sexual lifestyle (13, 14)."
This kind of logic, in the context of the U.S. where vaccination has been the norm and very widespread for decades is frankly absurd. I find no reason to provide people like this gentle forgiving excuses for what is simply aggressive stupidity (willing or otherwise).
Intelligence and the ability to parse the potential motivations someone might have to manipulate you are the best bulwarks against indoctrination that you can have. If you're good at reasoning and trust your ability to reason, it makes it more difficult for someone to convince you to ignore your bullshit sensor.
Indoctrination by having the vaccine themselves along with probably all of their friends? What indoctrinated them into not giving it to their children?
Normally this would be a reason for Child Protective Services to step in. But somehow refusing to vaccinate your child, leaving them to become paralyzed or die doesn't count as abuse.
It's aggravating to know these sheeps would happily leap off a cliff if their invisible leader in the sky puppeteered by hands of men asked them to. It's infuriating to see that they have already experienced what that leap would do to them and still wouldn't change their decision. I get that the one physically suffering aren't them but at a certain level they must be mentally in anguish right? I mean, I would hope that's at least how any parents should feel when they see their children suffering?
The whole world would be so much better if we religion stopped at spiritual guidance and is barred from infringing the domain of scientific facts.
Immunisation doesn't make you impervious to the disease it's meant to prevent, but it does give your body the best chance to fight against that specific pathogen.
Think of individual pathogens (viruses, bacterii, etc.) as a highly secure vault, each one requiring a special code or key to unlock it and remove its defences so the immune system can destroy it before it makes you ill. Vaccines give the body a significantly weakened form of a pathogen so that it can learn how to identify it and start making a kind of skeleton key to unlock that particular type of vault.
As pathogens evolve, the immune system also has to adapt to remain effective. Viruses especially are very quick to evolve and work out ways to bypass the immune system - which is why there is an annual flu vaccination programme, for example.
In some cases, vaccines don't necessarily "take" with patients, and immunisation requires multiple vaccines for the immune system to work out what to do with an alien pathogen. My own immune system is, apparently, not the brightest at solving puzzles, and before I started working in the NHS I had to have the full MMR vaccination course a further 3 times (despite having had the whole shebang when I was a toddler) before I showed immunity and was given clearance by occupational health to work in the hospital.
This is a very "layman's terms" explanation, and I am certain that someone much brighter than me can give a far better example, but seeing as no one else had answered, I thought I'd give it a go.
"The vaccine could possibly hurt you, or your kid, decades from now and it's not known how much" (also, hasn't shown up in millions of samples but that's a digression). ~ ABSOLUTELY NOT
"Without the vaccine there's an extremely higher chance that your kid get sick NOW, and it will be VERY bad for him Now" - NO I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE MAYBE.
Worried about unproven and unseen "maybes" in the future versus near certain issues that can also lead to long term health in the present, and you've failed that.
The thing is it’s even worse than “near certain issue”; 3 out of 4 of their boys contracted measles. It’s essentially a guaranteed measles vs a future maybe.
Offloading personal responsibilities to acts of God is fundamental for these people to survive, otherwise they'd have to live with the fact that they are and always have been responsible for their own actions, and I don't think they can survive that transition.
It's an easy answer and seemingly a way to avoid responsibility.
Imagine your check engine light is on, you ignore it because you're against mechanics (or some other dumb fucking reason) then all of a "sudden" your car doesnt start. Is it god's will or your own incompetence and inaction at play here?
One of the many reasons religion shouldnt just be a get out of jail free card to do whatever you want.
Its one thing to not do something because of your religion because you are an adult and it only affects you. But your child is another story and not old enough to make the decision. But thus is a problem with pushing kids into religion so early as well.
Parents who don't vaccinate their kids without some kind of bona fide medical reason should be hit with child abuse charges.
These idiots shouldn’t have the same health insurance as people who vaccinate. We are subsidizing their stupidity when we protect ourselves and they don’t. Give them the full medical bill and make them insure each other
I wonder how Ethan is going to react to his parent's decision not to immunize him when he is old enough to understand their decision... these memories will certainly haunt him for the rest of his life. I'm sure he will have a long road to recovery, and even if he ever recovers to 100% physical capacity, he will always be immunocompromised. Personally I would have serious problems with my parents if they made such arrogant medical decisions about my life with 0 training and education, especially if it resulted in such a horrible outcome. Boy's gonna need therapy that's for sure
I feel she will work extra hard to indoctrinate him so he won’t blame her. He will grow up to feel that God chose him to test his faith…etc.
It’s crazy that there was a story about Child services stepping in when a couple let their 6-7 year old kid play on his own near their house but this is not considered child abuse.
Saying this out loud surely means she's an unfit parent, right? The state will step in? (I know they probably won't but going public with this opinion is just mad! I'd rather my child suffer, possibly die, than offend my invisible sky daddy.)
These South Carolina parents would rather kill their son than admit to being wrong. If he doesn’t make it, they better be charged with murder. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina Moran Lopez. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we're gonna glorify his name regardless.
“And we wouldn't change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.” Those poor kids.
Science won't convince them; their own sick kids won't convince them. I wonder if the kid gets a permanent disfunction because of it, how would he and mother will deal with each other.
I'm just going to say it: parental rights über alles is killing kids. Idgaf about your deeply held religious or moral belief; every child gets vaccinated and every child goes to school outside of the home. Because laws are meant to protect our most vulnerable and abuse frequently comes from the home. It will be a cold day in Hell before the US does this, bc "muh freedom," but I'm still going to point at that particular freedom as doing more harm than good -- even with our abyssmal public education curriculum.
Very easy decision for a narcissist - admit i was wrong and that I caused my child great harm, disability, and/or death, or double down and pretend I am still right.
Not to defend this woman (who seems like a lunatic) but I think it's a strong tendency for people to stick to their decisions even when they lead to disaster. Especially when you can't undo it.
This woman can choose to view her previous decision as wrong in which case she not only has a sick kid but she would have to feel guilty that she has seriously harmed (and maybe killed) her son. Or she can choose to view her decision as the right one in which case she still has a sick child but at least she doesn't have to feel terrible about it. If going back in time and vaccinating her son was a realistic option maybe she would feel differently.
So you're right but sadly I think it's fairly common.
They were worried about all the 'other stuff" in the vaccine. Whatever that means. Oh, but all the medications and tests and interventions he is receiving now are totally fine with them. This is child abuse. Pure and simple.
Anti-vaxxers make me mad. I'm certain that most don't really believe that vaccines are toxic. They just want to be special, to be part of a "pure" minority. They become mad when their kids grow up and get vaccinated because then they're not part of that pure group anymore. People who endanger their children's health so they can feel good about themselves shouldn't have kids at all.
I remember reading this somewhere during Covid: "your stance on vaccines shouldn’t inform me about your stance on gun control or abortion" and I thought this was spot on.
Many of them are obsessed with autism. They view the risk of having a non-neurotypical child as worse than a dead one.
Andrew Wakefield’s original, faked study had autism as the harm. Then other hucksters and mommy influencers spread the message, especially famous junkie and roadkill-eater, RFK, Jr.
I would not take that bet. A person doesn't get persuaded away from their doctor's advice and towards some influencer's plan if they already have good education and critical reasoning skills.
The laws that mandate vaccinations for education, travel, etc., are a backstop against these type of people, who are everywhere. Read the history of the Spanish Flu epidemic or even just Typhoid Mary. You'll see all the echos of people who cannot be inconvenienced by the needs of public health.
The wildest thing is that these people actually have no fucking idea what autism actually is. That it's a spectrum and that a lot of people are on it. That it isn't some death sentence or crippling disability.
Preach. I know people on the autism spectrum in my personal life, among my friends, and at work. It can be extraordinarily hard and it can be quirky.
The anti-vax hysteria comes, in part, from the actual robust healthiness of modern life. Our children do not die from illnesses that killed a third of kids in their first year at the start of the 1900s. I'm unfortunate to know one family who lost an infant (to SIDS). But through friends and family, I am connected to 500+ kids who are all alive. Soap, clean water, vaccines. Together they are more important than anything else in medicine.
As one example, polio has no symptoms for about 75% of people who get it. But 10-30% of people can die in a big outbreak (from respiratory paralysis). I had to look that up. But parents in the 1950s saw all the stories, and would sometimes personally know people who were affected. They rushed to get their kids vaccinated.
In the modern day, the loving, caring mother who vacuums up a social media feed talking about pureeing organic carrots and singing songs to her lovely infant is not herself "vaccinated" against anti-science hysteria because she doesn't know any dead kids. Then some influencer shows up with some snappy patter about how Big Pharma makes so much money, how the shots endanger their family, etc., and that false meme just spreads and spreads.
With a fascist administration in the white house, and a fascist-friendly government in power over this particular state, the chances of this happening are less than zero. If anyone is going to get charged here, it will more likely be the doctors, or journalists, or private citizens publicly criticizing these parents.
That will still affect him negatively, no money for rehabilitation services, his food quality takes a hit because they have to supplement their groceries with trips to the food pantry, which can only provide non-perishable items.
If things get bad enough, he could be facing homelessness, probably spending the next year or so couch surfing with relatives, and that's if he's lucky. Without a stable home, his education will suffer, even more so if he has residual brain damage that requires him to be in SPED.
This poor kid will be paying for his parents "faith over reason" philosophy for the rest of his life.
SIL refused COVID vaccine so when she inevitably got very sick and hospitalized with COVID, she got the monoclonal antibody treatment and it helped her recover. She did a few more mental gymnastics and voila, she has concluded that an intravenous treatment she knows nothing about is far safer than the intramuscular vaccine because the Internet told her so.
As Carlin said, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
I don't believe these people love their children the same way I love mine. It's a radically different kind of love. An authoritarian love, conditional and subject to a lengthy list of qualifications and reservations. It can be taken away at a moment's notice because it isn't real love.
It used to be that a parent's love for their children was unquestionable, sacrosanct. I no longer believe this to be the case, and I don't know what to do with this information other than give all the more love to my own family as the world falls apart around us.
For everyone who says that vaccines cause side effects on the behavior (attitude, lethargy, looks whatever and etc) of children, can we have some studies where those people have to pick the vaccinated/unvaccinated ones out of a group of say, 200 children? They can have a full week of observation, but they can't talk to each other or to the parents. I will 100% bet that the results of who they claim is vaccinated will be uncorrelated with vaccination.
I bet the parents are fucking vaccinated. Because their parents weren't complete idiots. They should lose custody to the kids immediately. WTF is she on about God chose Ethan!? These people are insane.
Remember, if they are so dumb and cruel that they will kill their own child, they will not think twice about killing you and your whole family. They will have no regrets.
Measles is a deadly, hyper-contagious illness. Vaccines are the best solution for it.
Are those glasses on the mom's face? WTF does she need glasses for? Didn't god give her bad eyeseight? So, she's not even willing to deal with blurry vision without looking to medical science for help.... but her son can go through hell and quite possibly die for her stupid "virtue"?
Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out a way to keep my daughter out of daycare until she can get the MMR vaccine because of parents like this. Get a clue, lady.
People like this (the mother) infuriate me. Not only do they endanger their own children and others (measles is so very transmissible) but they refuse to do ANYTHING preventative (like fucking vaccinate) because "they don't trust science/doctors" and then RUN to the nearest hospital when they suffer the inevitable consequences of their actions and THEN have the fucking nerve to throw massive tantrums when we cannot immediately solve their problems.
Dumb people gotta dumb. this reminds me of the story of the woman on the roof during the flood. People keep coming to try to save her but she claims God is going to save her instead. When she finally drowns she asks God "why didn't you save me?"..... "I sent you a ladder a boat, and a helicopter!!!!" TAKE THE VACCINE!!
If course that would be her reaction. Antivax ideology is at its core based on selfishness and egocentrism. It is based on the belief that they can abuse the system and depend on the rest of the population to assume the (very small) risk of vaccination in order to provide your children with herd immunity. Once they face the reality that herd immunity has been compromised and their children are vulnerable, that same egocentrism leads them to go into denial. Any belief she now has MUST adhere to the denial of responsibility for her son's condition. Therefore she cannot even consider as a possibility that the vaccine would have prevented his illness. To think otherwise would mean that it is her fault.
the problem with how the anti vax movement works is that they use cult like tactics, and cause adherents to believe that vaccines are a mortal threat to them and their loved ones. it is extremely hard to break people from that, especially if they have their social media feeds bombarding them with anti vax propaganda
I consider myself a libertarian, but this shit is morally corrosive. It's making us all worse in ways we don't always talk about. The state has an interest in protecting kids, and sometimes they need protection from their parents.
I’m literally crying rn after reading what that poor child went through. Close to death over and over again. Regaining his ability to speak and move. Those parents should be charged with child neglect
What a couple of fucking retarded motherfuckers. This poor kid has to suffer because his parents are complete imbeciles putting their kids life in the hands of their "god". If they beleive so much in their all powerful god why dont they believe that god created the scientists that pioneered the research and discovery of the vaccine? Aren't they going against God's will not getting the kid vaccinated? Sounds like eternal damnation to me. Fuck these people.
Impossible-Joke-1775 | 7 hours ago
Easy to say when you're not the one sick and suffering.
breadwhore | 6 hours ago
I love that they saw what the vaccine (supposedly) did to their friends' kids and judge them. But they don't judge themselves for what their decision not to vaccinate did to their kid. I bet their vaccinated friends' kids are also paralyzed. /s
sofahkingsick | 6 hours ago
I saw someone say recently that people are self conscious about their looks and not their character. This tracks.
hi_im_haley | 2 hours ago
These people vaccinated their their other 3 kids (unless I'm reading that wrong..)Why they didn't do this one ...?
sepia_undertones | an hour ago
Gonna go out on a limb and say it’s because they’re idiots and didn’t have a problem with vaccines prior to, oh, somewhere between 2016 and 2021.
hologram137 | 49 minutes ago
They didn’t. The other 3 also got measles but they “pulled through” so they thought he’d be okay. Nvr mind, they suffered. Apparently that’s fine
CharleyLH | 32 minutes ago
They are just getting an abortion with extra steps.
CornerSolution | 3 hours ago
I suspect she'd say the same thing if it was actually her that was sick here. The problem is, if she admits to herself that she should have vaccinated, it means that it's her fault this happened, which is a really psychologically painful thing to accept. For a lot of people, the main test of whether something is true is whether it feels true, and how can something so painful feel true? On the other hand, "it's just God's will" feels so much more comfortable, so it's a no-brainer (pun intended) to go with that explanation.
Beer_Is_So_Awesome | 6 minutes ago
What a special gift, that God chose her son to be braindead, instead of all the kids whose parents gave them the vaccine.
Her brain is broken.
AgateHuntress | 42 minutes ago
I had encephalitis due to meningitis two decades ago, and the pain was so incredibly terrible, that I still have flashbacks from it, and PTSD. Every headache that starts in my neck starts the bullet train of terrified thoughts and the physiology that goes with it.
Pain medication doesn't work very well on the pain that comes from your brain swelling. They'd give me a shot of Demerol every six hours, and I'd be pain free for about five minutes, and then the pain would come right back.
The pain was worse than all three of my kids' births, and it lasted for over a month. I cannot explain in words just how awful it was. I would literally BEG the nurses to end me, every time they came in the room.
Then, there are the CHANGES in your brain from the swelling damage. Changes that can be anything from memory issues (like I have) to being paralyzed in areas of your body, or going deaf or blind, or losing the ability to speak.
I can't imagine doing that to a child through purposeful neglect.
Beer_Is_So_Awesome | 13 minutes ago
She said “we’re not blaming God for this” and “he was chosen for a reason”.
So she’s totally absolved herself of responsibility by blaming God, but also just kidding not blaming god because everything he does is good.
In the event someone tries to tell you that religious belief in and of itself doesn’t harm anyone, I want you to remember this.
I wouldn’t be able to go on living if I knew I had done this to my beautiful boy.
But she washed her hands of the whole thing with a shrug. Not her problem! God sure is mysterious!
This poor boy.
Her brain is broken.
busybody124 | 3 hours ago
Poorly written headline doesn't even make it clear who was hospitalized. Had to read further to understand
BuzzerWhirr | 7 hours ago
"But God has chosen Ethan for a reason"
God's message: Vaccinate your children!
KopOut | 6 hours ago
You see god chose to give Ethan measles, but somehow didn't choose to create the scientists that developed the vaccine. It all makes perfect sense if you are a moron.
I hope Ethan makes a full recovery, and stops listening to his parent's medical advice as soon as possible.
Rhueless | 6 hours ago
God helps those who help them selves.
BuzzerWhirr | 6 hours ago
Prayer and a single vaccination make a child 95% less likely to contract measles.
Rhueless | 6 hours ago
Yes helping themselves to a measles vacine
veryveryredundant | 6 hours ago
I sent you two boats and a helecopter.
turkeycurry | 5 hours ago
I think this every time.
Cognoggin | 6 hours ago
God is a vaccine /nod
Esplodie | 6 hours ago
When ever I see this, I think of this story/joke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man
iwannalynch | 5 hours ago
> "But God has chosen Ethan for a reason"
Man, Christians are frickin weird (I'm from a non-Christian country, not here to be an edgy atheist, I swear). If that were my God, and if I really believed that my God were real and choose to give my kid a deadly disease, I'd be going full Japanese MC and starting on a quest to kill God.
But then again, I'd also vaccinate my kids, so I guess I don't really know what goes on in that brain
donkeyrocket | 4 hours ago
Agreed. You think you'd be pretty pissed off at a god who allows for children to experience horrible, debilitating, and potentially life-ending illnesses while at the same time allowing vaccines not only be developed but effective in their human fodder. All to teach the adults a lesson about suffering so they go to a special place later to meet up with the kid that they allowed to die horribly?
Or, you view it from the hands-off entity approach and things still don't add up why you'd worship a being that set it and forget it that allows for such horrible things in the world.
In a microcosm, the mom is now acting like this malevolent god saying this child deserves to suffer because of her beliefs while blaming a different entity as "the way it has to be." I don't get how people can reconcile "gods will" while vaccines exist and are effective but refuse those while also allowing for very invasive medical intervention. I know some sects do refuse all modern medicine but that's clearly not the case here. Some medical intervention is OK, just not the preventative kind.
gracecee | 5 hours ago
She will blame the hospital. Somehow her son got the brain swelling disease from The hospital. I kid you not.
turkeycurry | 5 hours ago
I know someone whose unvaccinated husband died in the hospital from Covid. She tells everyone that Remdesevir killed him.
malthar76 | 2 hours ago
And the whole COVID vaccine paranoia stems from a single arrogant world leader who was unable to accept he had any culpability to act faster, AND because a scientist made him feel dumb. That’s it. Now ignoring science is a mainstream crusade and a lifestyle.
probablynotaskrull | 5 hours ago
West Wing clip that feels appropriate.
https://youtu.be/hZ4ziFtY4KE?si=y0pBZlIcwRaXlccb
hebejebez | an hour ago
I knew what this was before I even clicked it. I’ve watched west wing all seven seasons endlessly but can’t watch this one as a man of faith he doesn’t listen to the other man of faith he trusts and lets the man be killed.
donkeyrocket | 4 hours ago
No apparently they'd rather worship a god that would inflict horrible suffering upon children to... teach adults a lesson about suffering?
Of course that doesn't explain how their god also allowed vaccines to not only exist but be effective as thwarting their goal of suffering children.
CraftasaurusWrecks | an hour ago
Having grown up in a Christian nation, it never made sense to me either. Even as a little kid with my mom shoving the rhetoric that left us utterly ostracized in our tiny town down my throat, I always thought God was an abusive parent and decided it was just better to go no contact when I got older with both of them.
So many people want to watch other people suffer over perceived wrongs so badly that they'd risk themselves in the belief that this tyranny is correct. They don't care so much about winning so long as their enemies definitely lose more.
[OP] theindependentonline | 7 hours ago
Six weeks ago, Ethan Moran Lopez was like most 7-year-olds — spending the weekend riding his new bike or playing Minecraft on his iPad on a rainy day.
“He just learned how to ride, he got the hang of it right away,” Ethan’s dad, Luis Moran Lopez, said proudly. “He wanted to go outside because he wanted to jump on his bike…it was an amazing thing for him.”
Instead, since late January, the schoolboy has been confined to a hospital bed with measles encephalitis, a complication that causes swelling and inflammation in the brain. “He's pretty much as if he was paralyzed,” his devastated father, 41, told The Independent in a phone interview from his son’s hospital bedside.
Ethan’s parents decided not to immunize him against measles as they did with his three brothers. Three out of four of them contracted measles. Still, despite Ethan’s ordeal, his mom stands by their decision. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina Moran Lopez. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we're gonna glorify his name regardless.
“And we wouldn't change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.”
TheAskewOne | 6 hours ago
Once again parents who don't see their children as people. That kid had a right to stay healthy. His parents never took that into account.
tigermelon | 7 hours ago
Fuck the parents for being such poor uninformed advocates for their children's health, but also Andrew Wakefield profited from this kid's suffering.
swiftb3 | 6 hours ago
> But God has chosen Ethan for a reason.
Chosen him for... brain swelling... to "do something".
No, dear. that's called coping. If anything, God is saddened by your idiocy hurting your kid.
Shin-kak-nish | 6 hours ago
Maybe God chose this child so that others can learn from his parent’s mistakes?
aceshighsays | 4 hours ago
no one learned anything, including the parents who have the child in the hospital.
christo222222 | 6 hours ago
Some people just shouldn't have kids
TFlarz | an hour ago
At this rate she won't have him much longer and will never accept why.
yashen14 | 5 hours ago
>“If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.”
In a sane legal system, this would be grounds for child abuse charges, imo.
czhunc | 6 hours ago
Can't fix stupid
j0kerclash | 6 hours ago
It's not necessarily stupidity, it's indoctrination which trains people to circumvent reason.
You can be the most intelligent man in the world, but if you're trained not to trust the value of your reasoning, then it's completely wasted in favour of Faith.
BrutePhysics | 6 hours ago
Disagree. Vaccination is not new technology and the measles vaccine in particular is quite ubiquitous. These parents absolutely grew up exposed to the overwhelming confidence of the country that this vaccine works.
This is willful ignorance at best and plain stupidity otherwise. We are well past the stage of giving people like this the benefit of the doubt.
ImpulsiveApe07 | 2 hours ago
Aye, well said. Couldn't agree more, mate.
It's also worth noting that most antivaxxers of this era were themselves vaccinated when they were kids!
And yet they wilfully choose to deny their kids the same safety and peace of mind.. That's some Grade A hypocrisy, amirite?
What's really dangerous about such ppl is that they're not only helping to perpetuate all sorts of diseases that are otherwise easily preventable, they're also helping to further spread their deranged beliefs.
When you really boil it down, antivaxxers are essentially working against our entire species' best interests just to satisfy their own vanity.
They're happily condemning people to die, just for a few fake Internet points, and the hollow praise from other gibbering idiots like them..
Personally, after witnessing the sheer amount of unbridled stupidity on display during covid (including from people I used to trust and respect), I think we should make vaccines mandatory, with certain obvious caveats ofc.
Covid made me realise craptons of people simply can't be trusted to think for themselves anymore - to an extent it's not entirely their fault either. Decades of rw politicians gutting social and education programs for adults, and of hysterical anti-intellectual TV, radio and Internet content has led to this.
There's so much misinformation about, and to be blunt, most people lack the media literacy and critical thinking skills to make the best decisions when being bombarded by constant waves of bullshit from every charlatan and sociopath with a webcam.
All we can do to stem the tide is make vaccines mandatory in as many countries as possible -
everything else requires a lot more patience, funding, planning and time (in other words, politicians won't commit to it, because it won't win them brownie points straight away).
j0kerclash | 2 hours ago
I'm talking about religious indoctrination and the type of thinking that made the religious more prone to anti science rhetoric including being anti-vax
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8858841/
BrutePhysics | an hour ago
I see where you're coming from and I appreciate the article link. I did read through it. The article though is focused, in large part, on international underserved communities. I'm many of those cases it is reasonable to view anti vaccination see with a more forgiving lens. I.e. that people just need to be better informed and trust better built.
For the U.S., the article says:
"Objection to vaccination was also related to: faith in divine protection and healing for Protestants, Catholics, Jewish and Muslims (10); the use of aborted fetal cells for vaccines' production among Amish and Catholic communities (including during the COVID-19 outbreak when Senior Catholic leaders from the US and Canada raised ethical objections to vaccines produced using cells derived from aborted fetuses) (11, 12); the connection between the use of HPV vaccination and sexual promiscuity among Christian parents who consider this vaccine useless for their child as it was considered as a consequence of a certain sexual lifestyle (13, 14)."
This kind of logic, in the context of the U.S. where vaccination has been the norm and very widespread for decades is frankly absurd. I find no reason to provide people like this gentle forgiving excuses for what is simply aggressive stupidity (willing or otherwise).
ivo004 | 5 hours ago
Intelligence and the ability to parse the potential motivations someone might have to manipulate you are the best bulwarks against indoctrination that you can have. If you're good at reasoning and trust your ability to reason, it makes it more difficult for someone to convince you to ignore your bullshit sensor.
poco | 5 hours ago
Indoctrination by having the vaccine themselves along with probably all of their friends? What indoctrinated them into not giving it to their children?
psmgx | 5 hours ago
nature is trying to do so.
iamthe0ther0ne | 5 hours ago
Normally this would be a reason for Child Protective Services to step in. But somehow refusing to vaccinate your child, leaving them to become paralyzed or die doesn't count as abuse.
Shin-kak-nish | 6 hours ago
I would also not blame God. I will blame the parents though.
Historical_Ask3445 | 6 hours ago
What God is doing is using Ethan to encourage parents not to be idiots like you, ma'am.
barberst152 | 6 hours ago
I can't believe killing your kid doesn't cause even a little bit of self reflection
Etheo | 6 hours ago
It's aggravating to know these sheeps would happily leap off a cliff if their invisible leader in the sky puppeteered by hands of men asked them to. It's infuriating to see that they have already experienced what that leap would do to them and still wouldn't change their decision. I get that the one physically suffering aren't them but at a certain level they must be mentally in anguish right? I mean, I would hope that's at least how any parents should feel when they see their children suffering?
The whole world would be so much better if we religion stopped at spiritual guidance and is barred from infringing the domain of scientific facts.
SmoothWD40 | 4 hours ago
Fuck these people. They don’t deserve to be parents. If you are going to make your children suffer for your own selfishness, fuck you.
slowro | 6 hours ago
So if they don't blame God.... Who do they blame?
kdawgud | 6 hours ago
they should blame themselves 100%
PreetHarHarah | 4 hours ago
> “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina Moran Lopez.
You're THIS close to figuring out who to blame. You're almost there.
starfleetdropout6 | 3 hours ago
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but how did the immunized brothers get measles?
TheGreenFaery | an hour ago
Immunisation doesn't make you impervious to the disease it's meant to prevent, but it does give your body the best chance to fight against that specific pathogen.
Think of individual pathogens (viruses, bacterii, etc.) as a highly secure vault, each one requiring a special code or key to unlock it and remove its defences so the immune system can destroy it before it makes you ill. Vaccines give the body a significantly weakened form of a pathogen so that it can learn how to identify it and start making a kind of skeleton key to unlock that particular type of vault.
As pathogens evolve, the immune system also has to adapt to remain effective. Viruses especially are very quick to evolve and work out ways to bypass the immune system - which is why there is an annual flu vaccination programme, for example.
In some cases, vaccines don't necessarily "take" with patients, and immunisation requires multiple vaccines for the immune system to work out what to do with an alien pathogen. My own immune system is, apparently, not the brightest at solving puzzles, and before I started working in the NHS I had to have the full MMR vaccination course a further 3 times (despite having had the whole shebang when I was a toddler) before I showed immunity and was given clearance by occupational health to work in the hospital.
This is a very "layman's terms" explanation, and I am certain that someone much brighter than me can give a far better example, but seeing as no one else had answered, I thought I'd give it a go.
TheCannonMan | 29 minutes ago
> “We’re not blaming God for this,"
Well yeah, it's clearly entirely your fault (not that they actually intended that statement to be a mea culpa unfortunately 🤢)
Poor kid
wilkinsk | 6 hours ago
These people don't know how to compare shit.
"The vaccine could possibly hurt you, or your kid, decades from now and it's not known how much" (also, hasn't shown up in millions of samples but that's a digression). ~ ABSOLUTELY NOT
"Without the vaccine there's an extremely higher chance that your kid get sick NOW, and it will be VERY bad for him Now" - NO I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE MAYBE.
Worried about unproven and unseen "maybes" in the future versus near certain issues that can also lead to long term health in the present, and you've failed that.
efuipa | 5 hours ago
The thing is it’s even worse than “near certain issue”; 3 out of 4 of their boys contracted measles. It’s essentially a guaranteed measles vs a future maybe.
nomad2284 | 6 hours ago
Cults are like that. You can say bad is good, black is white and stupid is smart. All the people say, “Amen”.
How could a parent ever admit they did this deliberately, it’s God’s choice not my fault. This thinking is a cancer on humanity.
Etheo | 6 hours ago
Offloading personal responsibilities to acts of God is fundamental for these people to survive, otherwise they'd have to live with the fact that they are and always have been responsible for their own actions, and I don't think they can survive that transition.
nomad2284 | 5 hours ago
To say they use religion as a crutch is too generous. They use it as an anesthetic.
toorigged2fail | 4 hours ago
This is my favorite example of that...
https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/s/bugsTLHHB7
FesteringNeonDistrac | 4 hours ago
Inshallah
BellumOMNI | 4 hours ago
It's an easy answer and seemingly a way to avoid responsibility.
Imagine your check engine light is on, you ignore it because you're against mechanics (or some other dumb fucking reason) then all of a "sudden" your car doesnt start. Is it god's will or your own incompetence and inaction at play here?
No, this cannot be..
fcocyclone | an hour ago
One of the many reasons religion shouldnt just be a get out of jail free card to do whatever you want.
Its one thing to not do something because of your religion because you are an adult and it only affects you. But your child is another story and not old enough to make the decision. But thus is a problem with pushing kids into religion so early as well.
Parents who don't vaccinate their kids without some kind of bona fide medical reason should be hit with child abuse charges.
Mission_Sir_4494 | 6 hours ago
These idiots shouldn’t have the same health insurance as people who vaccinate. We are subsidizing their stupidity when we protect ourselves and they don’t. Give them the full medical bill and make them insure each other
slfnflctd | 6 hours ago
You might be on to something here.
Everyone knows statistics can be manipulated. But money talks. Assuming no one's putting their finger on the scale, anyway.
Cianistarle | an hour ago
You are paying for the possibly life saving treatment of an innocent child. What you are subsidizing is the people making big money from health care.
Blackbeard1918 | 6 hours ago
Weird way to frame child abuse and parental neglect resulting in bodily harm.
Lethargic_Unicorn | 6 hours ago
I wonder how Ethan is going to react to his parent's decision not to immunize him when he is old enough to understand their decision... these memories will certainly haunt him for the rest of his life. I'm sure he will have a long road to recovery, and even if he ever recovers to 100% physical capacity, he will always be immunocompromised. Personally I would have serious problems with my parents if they made such arrogant medical decisions about my life with 0 training and education, especially if it resulted in such a horrible outcome. Boy's gonna need therapy that's for sure
USSMarauder | 6 hours ago
if he is old enough to understand their decision
Because if there's significant brain damage.....
NickInTheMud | 6 hours ago
I feel she will work extra hard to indoctrinate him so he won’t blame her. He will grow up to feel that God chose him to test his faith…etc.
It’s crazy that there was a story about Child services stepping in when a couple let their 6-7 year old kid play on his own near their house but this is not considered child abuse.
Chalupa-Supreme | 6 hours ago
If he survives, he'll unfortunately have to wait until he's out of the house for therapy. These types hate therapy as much as they do vaccines.
Western_Command_385 | 4 hours ago
They don't even know of he will ever be able to walk or talk again. Its devastating. As a mom, I'm heartbroken for this kid. He didn't deserve this.
wholetyouinhere | 5 hours ago
All of this is moot, as he's quite possibly going to die, or end up severely brain damaged and unable to wrestle with any of these questions.
aethelberga | 6 hours ago
Saying this out loud surely means she's an unfit parent, right? The state will step in? (I know they probably won't but going public with this opinion is just mad! I'd rather my child suffer, possibly die, than offend my invisible sky daddy.)
Slackjawed_Horror | 6 hours ago
A sane state would.
A Carolina isn't in that category.
Etheo | 6 hours ago
Well first you must ask yourself if there's separation between church and state.
Webgardener | 6 hours ago
These South Carolina parents would rather kill their son than admit to being wrong. If he doesn’t make it, they better be charged with murder. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina Moran Lopez. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we're gonna glorify his name regardless.
“And we wouldn't change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.” Those poor kids.
AdSevere1274 | 6 hours ago
Science won't convince them; their own sick kids won't convince them. I wonder if the kid gets a permanent disfunction because of it, how would he and mother will deal with each other.
It has become a self destructive religion...
pantstoaknifefight2 | 3 hours ago
Self destructive religion = death cult.
That_Anxiety438 | 3 hours ago
She’ll start a GoFundMe and parade her disabled child around on a YouTube channel, encouraging other idiots not to vaccinate.
RoxyLA95 | 6 hours ago
Her children should be taken away. What an abusive narcissistic nit wit.
areweriotingyet | 6 hours ago
I'm just going to say it: parental rights über alles is killing kids. Idgaf about your deeply held religious or moral belief; every child gets vaccinated and every child goes to school outside of the home. Because laws are meant to protect our most vulnerable and abuse frequently comes from the home. It will be a cold day in Hell before the US does this, bc "muh freedom," but I'm still going to point at that particular freedom as doing more harm than good -- even with our abyssmal public education curriculum.
gluedtothefloor | 6 hours ago
Very easy decision for a narcissist - admit i was wrong and that I caused my child great harm, disability, and/or death, or double down and pretend I am still right.
DharmaPolice | 3 hours ago
Not to defend this woman (who seems like a lunatic) but I think it's a strong tendency for people to stick to their decisions even when they lead to disaster. Especially when you can't undo it.
This woman can choose to view her previous decision as wrong in which case she not only has a sick kid but she would have to feel guilty that she has seriously harmed (and maybe killed) her son. Or she can choose to view her decision as the right one in which case she still has a sick child but at least she doesn't have to feel terrible about it. If going back in time and vaccinating her son was a realistic option maybe she would feel differently.
So you're right but sadly I think it's fairly common.
paf0 | 6 hours ago
Child abuse. Her children should be taken and put with a family who will take care of them.
MisterBolaBola | 6 hours ago
Both the mother and father deserve to be slapped by a large man with hands the size of their heads.
Just one good smack that makes the entire side of their head swell up, give them a headache but, doesn't cause brain damage.
Their brains are already damaged enough by their inculcation of false religion.
Monster_Voice | 6 hours ago
Now she'll have a little tater tot she can exploit for the rest of his life...
People forget about the side effect of going full potato...
breadwhore | 6 hours ago
Good point. She'll get to be a PoorSufferingMartyrMother for the rest of her life. Best Christian Ever.
TheFoxsWeddingTarot | 2 hours ago
Not to worry… she’ll start a antivax grift on GoFundMe and other poor saps will keep her flush.
drfsrich | 6 hours ago
Why is it God's "mysterious ways" so often including injuring and killing innocent children? Just what the fuck is "God's plan" anyway?
TheAskewOne | 6 hours ago
What's their excuse for not giving the vaccine? That it could be dangerous? More dangerous than brain swelling?
woodsbookswater | 6 hours ago
They were worried about all the 'other stuff" in the vaccine. Whatever that means. Oh, but all the medications and tests and interventions he is receiving now are totally fine with them. This is child abuse. Pure and simple.
TheAskewOne | 6 hours ago
Anti-vaxxers make me mad. I'm certain that most don't really believe that vaccines are toxic. They just want to be special, to be part of a "pure" minority. They become mad when their kids grow up and get vaccinated because then they're not part of that pure group anymore. People who endanger their children's health so they can feel good about themselves shouldn't have kids at all.
woodsbookswater | 6 hours ago
Yeah, me too. It's just so sad that science and medicine have become a political issue. And that children are suffering because of it.
TheAskewOne | 5 hours ago
I remember reading this somewhere during Covid: "your stance on vaccines shouldn’t inform me about your stance on gun control or abortion" and I thought this was spot on.
MoulanRougeFae | 6 hours ago
Which is ridiculous because they themselves are vaccinated.
warm_kitchenette | 5 hours ago
Many of them are obsessed with autism. They view the risk of having a non-neurotypical child as worse than a dead one.
Andrew Wakefield’s original, faked study had autism as the harm. Then other hucksters and mommy influencers spread the message, especially famous junkie and roadkill-eater, RFK, Jr.
TheAskewOne | 5 hours ago
That’s what they say but it’s hard to believe them. They have to know that a 7 yo isn’t "catching autism".
warm_kitchenette | 3 hours ago
I would not take that bet. A person doesn't get persuaded away from their doctor's advice and towards some influencer's plan if they already have good education and critical reasoning skills.
The laws that mandate vaccinations for education, travel, etc., are a backstop against these type of people, who are everywhere. Read the history of the Spanish Flu epidemic or even just Typhoid Mary. You'll see all the echos of people who cannot be inconvenienced by the needs of public health.
FesteringNeonDistrac | 3 hours ago
The wildest thing is that these people actually have no fucking idea what autism actually is. That it's a spectrum and that a lot of people are on it. That it isn't some death sentence or crippling disability.
warm_kitchenette | 3 hours ago
Preach. I know people on the autism spectrum in my personal life, among my friends, and at work. It can be extraordinarily hard and it can be quirky.
The anti-vax hysteria comes, in part, from the actual robust healthiness of modern life. Our children do not die from illnesses that killed a third of kids in their first year at the start of the 1900s. I'm unfortunate to know one family who lost an infant (to SIDS). But through friends and family, I am connected to 500+ kids who are all alive. Soap, clean water, vaccines. Together they are more important than anything else in medicine.
As one example, polio has no symptoms for about 75% of people who get it. But 10-30% of people can die in a big outbreak (from respiratory paralysis). I had to look that up. But parents in the 1950s saw all the stories, and would sometimes personally know people who were affected. They rushed to get their kids vaccinated.
In the modern day, the loving, caring mother who vacuums up a social media feed talking about pureeing organic carrots and singing songs to her lovely infant is not herself "vaccinated" against anti-science hysteria because she doesn't know any dead kids. Then some influencer shows up with some snappy patter about how Big Pharma makes so much money, how the shots endanger their family, etc., and that false meme just spreads and spreads.
1HappyIsland | 6 hours ago
They should be criminally charged.
wholetyouinhere | 5 hours ago
With a fascist administration in the white house, and a fascist-friendly government in power over this particular state, the chances of this happening are less than zero. If anyone is going to get charged here, it will more likely be the doctors, or journalists, or private citizens publicly criticizing these parents.
letdogsvote | 6 hours ago
Sometimes stupid goes to the bone.
greenalias | 6 hours ago
These are sociopathic parents. Shouldn't have children. Probably got pregnant on accident.
sdhopunk | 6 hours ago
Child Abuse
oddiseeus | 6 hours ago
She made her choice.
Special_Watch8725 | 6 hours ago
I only wish it was her who had to suffer instead of the kid.
No-Machine-8013 | 6 hours ago
With any luck the kid will be alright but the hospitalization will bankrupt the adults.
atimez3 | 5 hours ago
That will still affect him negatively, no money for rehabilitation services, his food quality takes a hit because they have to supplement their groceries with trips to the food pantry, which can only provide non-perishable items.
If things get bad enough, he could be facing homelessness, probably spending the next year or so couch surfing with relatives, and that's if he's lucky. Without a stable home, his education will suffer, even more so if he has residual brain damage that requires him to be in SPED.
This poor kid will be paying for his parents "faith over reason" philosophy for the rest of his life.
That_Anxiety438 | 3 hours ago
I’m sure there’s already a GoFundMe up and running. If this poor child survives, mom will exploit him to make bank. Guaranteed.
VirginiaLuthier | 6 hours ago
These people will sacrifice their offspring in allegiance to their cult. Scary as heck
Affectionate-Roof285 | 6 hours ago
SIL refused COVID vaccine so when she inevitably got very sick and hospitalized with COVID, she got the monoclonal antibody treatment and it helped her recover. She did a few more mental gymnastics and voila, she has concluded that an intravenous treatment she knows nothing about is far safer than the intramuscular vaccine because the Internet told her so.
As Carlin said, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
likamd | 3 hours ago
Why is he in a hospital if the medical community are the villains.
AdCommon6529 | 6 hours ago
These people should be arrested for child endangerment and upgrade to manslaughter if the child dies. There should be consequences.
wholetyouinhere | 5 hours ago
I don't believe these people love their children the same way I love mine. It's a radically different kind of love. An authoritarian love, conditional and subject to a lengthy list of qualifications and reservations. It can be taken away at a moment's notice because it isn't real love.
It used to be that a parent's love for their children was unquestionable, sacrosanct. I no longer believe this to be the case, and I don't know what to do with this information other than give all the more love to my own family as the world falls apart around us.
breadwhore | 6 hours ago
For everyone who says that vaccines cause side effects on the behavior (attitude, lethargy, looks whatever and etc) of children, can we have some studies where those people have to pick the vaccinated/unvaccinated ones out of a group of say, 200 children? They can have a full week of observation, but they can't talk to each other or to the parents. I will 100% bet that the results of who they claim is vaccinated will be uncorrelated with vaccination.
Euro_African | 6 hours ago
Darwin and his theory are hard at work.
MoulanRougeFae | 6 hours ago
I bet the parents are fucking vaccinated. Because their parents weren't complete idiots. They should lose custody to the kids immediately. WTF is she on about God chose Ethan!? These people are insane.
el_sandino | 6 hours ago
As a dad I cannot comprehend the language this mother uses. What in the actual fuck. This poor boy…
Hayes4prez | 6 hours ago
The story here is the mother’s ignorance. She still doesn’t understand the risk/reward value of vaccines.
crapendicular | 5 hours ago
You have to double down when you realize you put your son in the hospital over your ignorant beliefs.
warm_kitchenette | 5 hours ago
Remember, if they are so dumb and cruel that they will kill their own child, they will not think twice about killing you and your whole family. They will have no regrets.
Measles is a deadly, hyper-contagious illness. Vaccines are the best solution for it.
amertune | 5 hours ago
Anti-vax is pro-death.
jongleur | 5 hours ago
When your child's health matters less to you than your convictions.
Speaking of convictions, shouldn't we get around to convicting her for this?
annamdue | 5 hours ago
It's insane how many people will trade their dead children for the stupid things they believe.
Striking-Access-236 | 4 hours ago
Poor kid, that's just child abuse
kafka_lite | 4 hours ago
"Some people you just can't reach." - Cool Hand Luke.
dryfire | 4 hours ago
This is what happens when you turn stupidity into a virtue.
dryfire | 4 hours ago
Are those glasses on the mom's face? WTF does she need glasses for? Didn't god give her bad eyeseight? So, she's not even willing to deal with blurry vision without looking to medical science for help.... but her son can go through hell and quite possibly die for her stupid "virtue"?
Due_Sherbet9623 | 4 hours ago
Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out a way to keep my daughter out of daycare until she can get the MMR vaccine because of parents like this. Get a clue, lady.
Muted_Perception_192 | 4 hours ago
Pretty sure if an omnipotent god wanted to take your kid out, a vaccine isn’t going stop them so why not get it?
Own_Pickle9149 | 3 hours ago
Some people shouldn’t have kids. Fucking horrible
Butthole_Surfer_GI | 3 hours ago
People like this (the mother) infuriate me. Not only do they endanger their own children and others (measles is so very transmissible) but they refuse to do ANYTHING preventative (like fucking vaccinate) because "they don't trust science/doctors" and then RUN to the nearest hospital when they suffer the inevitable consequences of their actions and THEN have the fucking nerve to throw massive tantrums when we cannot immediately solve their problems.
gameyhobbit | 3 hours ago
She should be jailed for negligence.
Jimbo415650 | 2 hours ago
It’s easier to fool a anti vaxer then convince them that they have been fooled
leatherpantsgod | 6 hours ago
Dumb people gotta dumb. this reminds me of the story of the woman on the roof during the flood. People keep coming to try to save her but she claims God is going to save her instead. When she finally drowns she asks God "why didn't you save me?"..... "I sent you a ladder a boat, and a helicopter!!!!" TAKE THE VACCINE!!
sailorpaul | 6 hours ago
Stupid is as stupid does.
SpleenBender | 6 hours ago
>Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.
Electrical-Iron-768 | 5 hours ago
imo yikes, that's brutal. it's crazy how some people still risk it with vaccines when the odds are so bad
SophonParticle | 5 hours ago
Why would we expect the brain that decided to not get vaccinated to realize it made a mistake?
terradaktul | 3 hours ago
And the Double-Downer Of The Year Award goes to…
Deep-Thought | 3 hours ago
If course that would be her reaction. Antivax ideology is at its core based on selfishness and egocentrism. It is based on the belief that they can abuse the system and depend on the rest of the population to assume the (very small) risk of vaccination in order to provide your children with herd immunity. Once they face the reality that herd immunity has been compromised and their children are vulnerable, that same egocentrism leads them to go into denial. Any belief she now has MUST adhere to the denial of responsibility for her son's condition. Therefore she cannot even consider as a possibility that the vaccine would have prevented his illness. To think otherwise would mean that it is her fault.
Iyellkhan | 3 hours ago
the problem with how the anti vax movement works is that they use cult like tactics, and cause adherents to believe that vaccines are a mortal threat to them and their loved ones. it is extremely hard to break people from that, especially if they have their social media feeds bombarding them with anti vax propaganda
Zd3434x | 2 hours ago
Deluded moron
Ted183672 | 2 hours ago
Mom needs to be sterilized.
Horsesrgreat | 2 hours ago
What an idiot she seems to be.
bettesue | 2 hours ago
I wonder if kids who weren’t vaccinated will have legal recourse someday.
SteveBob316 | 2 hours ago
I consider myself a libertarian, but this shit is morally corrosive. It's making us all worse in ways we don't always talk about. The state has an interest in protecting kids, and sometimes they need protection from their parents.
Alarmed-Jeweler-7815 | an hour ago
They should be charged with child abuse and neglect. If they pass away premeditated murder .this is absolutely ridiculous.
hologram137 | 51 minutes ago
I’m literally crying rn after reading what that poor child went through. Close to death over and over again. Regaining his ability to speak and move. Those parents should be charged with child neglect
Logintheroad | 50 minutes ago
Should be charged with malicious intent to murder.
Ab-Aeterno | 30 minutes ago
What a couple of fucking retarded motherfuckers. This poor kid has to suffer because his parents are complete imbeciles putting their kids life in the hands of their "god". If they beleive so much in their all powerful god why dont they believe that god created the scientists that pioneered the research and discovery of the vaccine? Aren't they going against God's will not getting the kid vaccinated? Sounds like eternal damnation to me. Fuck these people.
Every-Requirement-13 | 7 minutes ago
“You’re going to be an engineer when you grow up”….maybe not anymore thanks to your brilliant decision making mom and dad😑
Cammyw01 | 6 hours ago
Natural selection at work
Hot_Atmosphere_296 | 6 hours ago
damn, got real spicy in here. maybe she's just trying her best but some people need a wake-up call fr yk
Special_Watch8725 | 6 hours ago
Her kid suffering from encephalitis complications is the wake up call. And mom is sleeping through the alarm.
redyellowblue5031 | 50 minutes ago
Don't give dad a pass. Both are making monumentally stupid choices.
Chalupa-Supreme | 6 hours ago
She said if she could go back, she still wouldn't vaccinate.