Sunni Mariah doesn't have any children yet but if she decides to, there's one parenting decision that this 26-year-old has already made: They will be vaccinated. The issue is incredibly important to this pathology student, which is why when she walked into her general practitioner's office, a sign hanging on the wall didn't just make her think, it had her applauding. So she decided to take a snapshot of it to encourage her friends to make sure their kids are all vaccinated.
Sunni shared the epic vaccine sign from her Colorado clinic on Facebook and it quickly went viral.
"New sign at my Dr’s office is throwing some serious shade," Sunni captioned the photo. "[Vaccinate Your Kids.]"
The poster, which Sunni later learned was written by the Northern Rivers Vaccination Association, tries to get parents to think about what could happen when unvaccinated babies grow into unvaccinated adults. "When your daughter gets rubella when pregnant, how are you going to explain that you chose to leave her at risk?" the poster reads. "What will you say when she calls you and tells you she has cervical cancer, because you decided that she wouldn't need the HPV vaccine?"
People are getting heated over her post, and Sunni hopes that it will make people think. "Even though I don’t have children, I want to keep everyone’s children as safe as possible. I worry for kids and adults who cannot get vaccinated because of immune issues, and I don’t think they should have to suffer because of misinformation, so I’m always going to use my voice to speak up for them," she tells CafeMom. "What comes to mind for me is a quote by Harlan Ellison: 'You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.'"
Sunni says that despite not being a parent, this topic hits close to home and her experience deserves to be heard. "With my research, I’ve seen a lot of skeletons or mummified remains of people who have died horrible deaths from diseases that are now preventable because of vaccination, and I think because of vaccination we as a society are beginning to forget how awful these diseases are," she says. "I hope people learn to trust history and science and not rely on fake websites with falsified information. Many of them have ulterior motives for creating those websites and don’t have any academic background in the subject."
Many agree and completely love everything about the sign.
"I’m hanging this in the house," one user wrote.
"The benefits of vaccinations far outweigh the risks. The more individuals do not vaccinate the less overall immunity we have as a community," another user commented. "Your choice to not vaccinate your child negatively impacts not only your child but every single person that comes in contact with your child throughout his/her lifetime. VACCINATE!"
Others support vaccines -- but not this method of getting people to consider it.
"Talk about patronizing. I'm shocked that a GP Surgery would promote such scare tactics ! How dare people preach about such an emotive and personal subject? I believe in vaccination and both of my children had everything they could get, but I would never ever try such awful guilt tactics to change someone's mind if they didn't agree with vaccination!" one person added.
"Trying to guilt people into vaccinations only makes the need for them seem more contrived," another person wrote.
Then there are those who are totally against everything this sign stands for.
"I call bs. The women in my family and I never got vaccinated once while pregnant, nor my children and none of this shit happened lol. Instilling fear to mandate vaccines," one person wrote.
"If you seriously think just shooting shit into your kids because you read some words that make you scared that you're a shitty parent, then you are a shit parent," one person added. "How about you read the damn warning labels on those shots before you give them to your kids.The CDC tell you to your face that vaccines are UNAVOIDABLY DANGEROUS. But if they are so god damn necessary THEN ALL YOU ILLITERATES SHOULD BE GETTING THE 72 RECOMMENDED VACCINES FOR ADULT!"
But the debate didn't just get heated... Some also got personal in an attempt to get people to consider new perspectives.
And then there are those who see both sides of the debate but are still looking out for other parents and their children.
These adults are considering both sides of the debate and realize how a decision for their family has the power to impact so many others. It's important for parents to make educated and informed decisions before putting their child — or someone else's — at risk.
