This article– in the format of a letter– expands on an actual text I sent my neighbor. 

Dear Neighbor Karen,

I need to be direct with you. Your frostiness toward me does not go unnoticed.

You frequently bring up vaccines in our exchanges when it’s completely irrelevant—like the issue of a cat in your yard. I’ve never initiated the vaccine topic with you. I’ve also never been anything but friendly and kind to you and your family.

Thirty years ago, I was disabled by vaccines because I once agreed with you and didn’t know the dangers of vaccination. Now, we disagree on vaccines. Your constant hostility and personal attacks over my medical injury are unacceptable and need to stop immediately.

Cats & Vaccines: Our Text Exchange

Our recent exchange was initiated by my cat wandering into your yard. You texted me and said that if I could not identify the cat, next time you see it, you would take it to a shelter. I’m sure you know that if I’m not aware my cat is at a shelter, my cat could be destroyed.

When you finally texted me saying what the cat looked like, I suspected it was my cat, and you could have easily determined that I own the cat since it has a collar with its name, address, and phone number. You could not possibly conclude a cat with an identifying collar was actually a stray in need of a shelter.

You indicated the cats have pooped in your yard and chase birds, but I’m not going to focus on that in this article. I’m just establishing context for the readers of this article.

Your threat to remove my cat feels retaliatory due to your open hostility toward me. Under local County Penal Code (petty theft of a companion animal) taking a cat to a shelter when you know it belongs to someone else can be judged as theft, with misdemeanor charges.

The Pièce de Résistance Text

Then you added the pièce de résistance: “please do not come to my house to discuss this. We cannot risk measles at our house with all my very young grandchildren here.”

Cue record scratch.

What????

OK, now you did step into cat poop.

On Herd Immunity, Sunblock, War and The Greater Good

Like most who stand firmly on the “safe and effective” slogan, you are conflating herd immunity goals with your fear of person-to-person transmission.

Demands on an individual to directly protect another individual presumes person-to-person vaccine inter-dependency. That does not exist. It’s unscientific.

In other words, your vaccine’s effectiveness and protection does not depend on me having the same vaccine you received.

Here’s an absurd example to help put this concept into perspective:  the public health goal of sunblock is to reduce skin cancers in the population, but it is absurd for you to ask me to use sunblock so your sunblock will work as well.

You are very fixated on the concept of herd immunity which requires everyone to be vaccinated for every infection where a vaccine has been developed. Due to this fixation, I know you understand the concept of The Greater Good, and perhaps know that some, like me, will be sacrificed for that “Greater Good.” Death or disabilities like mine are acceptable externalities of this type of utilitarian thinking.

Let’s make another comparison.

We send men to war. Similar to vaccine thinking, war is another greater good scenario that allows for some to die and some to return from battle injured, in the name of freedom or U.S. safety.

Would you shame veterans for being injured in the line of duty since their medical issues are now a burden to society? Maybe they have night terrors due to PTSD. Maybe they can’t work. Maybe they were maimed and need extraordinary medical care.

You may see my vaccine injury as a burden to society, but when you single-mindedly espouse herd immunity goals, aren’t the vaccine-injured the same as veterans?

Are you threatening injured vets with taking their pet to a shelter?

Maybe the vaccine-injured need a special holiday to increase empathy for our losses and for the injured survivors? What do you think?

On Person-to-Person Transmission

Regarding your measles comment: I am neither sick nor contagious.

Due to waning immunity from my college dose of MMR, I had natural measles in 2006 which gave me lifelong immunity.

If you believe your family’s measles vaccines are effective and you are all up-to-date through re-vaccination– since 38% of adults have immunity that has waned (Poland, 2022)– you and your grandchildren have nothing to fear from me or frankly anyone.

If you think I’m wrong, send me a link to the published meta-analysis or review papers of all the person-to-person transmission studies where an unvaccinated and healthy person gave an infection to a vaccinated person.

Let’s Be Neighborly

I haven’t seen my cat for a few days. Please let me know if you took it to a shelter or not.

I think we can handle this civilly without turning it into another conflict.

Moving forward, wouldn’t it be a lot easier and more fun to be kind and courteous neighbors? Let’s be civil and supportive of each other. There is a lot more to life than vaccines.