During the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, an old high school friend was arguing with me over vaccines. She insisted that vaccines killed more kids than the actual diseases themselves and I only had to do the research like she did.
Exasperated by the conversation, I asked whether she had ever heard what a child with whooping cough sounds like. Surely, anyone who hears a child with pertussis would understand the horrors of the disease that a successful vaccine played in its mitigation here in the U.S.
She responded: “Wait, what is whooping cough?”
Like many MAHA/MAGA moms, she is about to find out the hard way. From Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s disastrous reign as secretary of Health and Human Services to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) foolish plan to end all vaccine mandates for school kids, we are closer to regressing to a period with much higher child mortality.
At some point, we have to stop being nice about this and call out the people behind the public health disaster we are about to go through for what they are — terrible mothers.
Moms who have embraced anti-vaxx rhetoric seem hell-bent on allowing their kids (and yours too) to suffer from diseases that have basically been eradicated just because they feel the need to be right.
When you have enough of an echo chamber and a lack of experience that contradicts you, you become fanatical about feeling right, even if you are factually dead wrong.
These moms have never experienced the measles, tuberculosis, whooping cough, and all the other diseases we were lucky not to have because of vaccines.
If all you see in your sphere is that “vaccines are bad” but never had to take your children to the doctor because of said diseases, then you have lived a very lucky life. But we as a country need to stop playing nice because people who never had it hard think they are smarter than doctors and scientists.
Democrats (and many Republicans) see this trainwreck coming but are refusing to call it out for what it is. Every single Democrat needs to stop worrying about offending people and go on the offensive. They need to proclaim that MAHA/MAGA moms are the worst mothers ever.
Is it harsh? Yes. Will it make people upset? I hope so. But we are at a point where it needs to be said, not just by frustrated parents on social media but by the politicians who are supposed to be fighting to keep kids healthy.
What is even more frustrating is the MAHA moms have looped their anti-vaxx crusade in with more popular campaigns against food dyes, processed food and soda. This has increased their numbers substantially and given them a bigger voice in this country. But just because you don’t like the color of Skittles doesn’t mean you are absolved for supporting people that want your kids to get a 100-day cough that is so violent that it might fracture their ribs.
This need to “feel” right is often made worse by politicians not wanting to hurt the feelings of some very dumb people. Democrats know how the vast majority of Americans feel about anti-vaxxers. We think they are crazy. Only 22 percent of Americans oppose vaccination. Although that number is much higher than it should be, it is still an overwhelming minority. And yet we are in a place where Republican politicians in Florida, Texas and Idaho are falling head over heels to endanger children just because some moms want to “feel” right.
While many of these anti-vaxxers are eager to go down a rabbit hole of pseudo-science and conspiracies to confirm their feelings, they run away from the reality of these diseases. Even a Texas mother of an unvaccinated child who died from measles this year still felt she made the right decision.
Look, there are plenty of great mothers, both Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, from all backgrounds, who have harsh views about these MAHA/MAGA moms. It isn’t just vaccines. The No. 1 killer of children isn’t vaccines, its guns but MAGA moms vote to allow more access to guns. MAHA moms talk about food dyes and vote for the politicians that are hellbent on polluting the air and poisoning the water.
MAGA moms voted for an administration that reduced the educational standards that will allow their kids to compete in a competitive country, drastically reducing their kids chance of upward mobility. These are the first mothers in history to want more disease, more gun deaths, more pollution and less education for their kids.
Democrats should stop acting nice with moms that push for their own kids to suffer. How crazy are their beliefs? Even Trump himself has waffled on supporting the removal of vaccine mandates for kids. But we know he won’t actually stop these moms from risking the health of their own kids. Democratic and Republican moms who have been watching in horror need politicians to step up and take the gloves off. MAHA or MAGA moms who embrace this ideology are bad mothers. Their kids’ lives depend on them hearing the truth.
Jos Joseph is a published writer and is a graduate of the Harvard Extension School and Ohio State University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, California.
