My Mother is an Anti-Vaccination idiot.

[MJ the Skeptical]

You know I have a big problem with people who take extremes on the issue of vaccination, either for, or against.

A binary question has a correct answer. Does it not depend where the evidences lies. If the evidence lies with vaccines being a mostly good thing, then it's good to take a positive position on it. End of story.

Yes vaccines have saved countless lives, but..

There is no but, that is all you need to know.

they have also caused harm

Let's just pretend I conceded the harm aspect. What's the ratio of good vs. harm in vaccines then? if you're seriously going to bring up such rare occasions.

in recent years there have even been ones that were recalled.

Again, how often do recalls happen compared to how often the vaccines work?...

And that's because no vaccine has the time before coming to the market to be properly tested to the same level that we expect of all other pharmaceuticals - they just don't. If they aren't released fast enough, they become ineffective.

You and my mom would definitely get along. However, vaccines have never been better and continue to get better.

I remain, therefore, ambivalent on the issue since I would be hesitant to use something that hasn't been proven to be safe.

Go ahead and not vaccinate your kids and you'll have to explain to them what a horrible father you are when they get mumps or measles etc.

Just because the last say 90 vaccines that were released were safe doesn't make the next one released safe.

There's no guarantees in life, friendo.

So speaking personally, I would vaccinate my children only with the vaccines that I believed to have been proven safe

I'm glad you at least would vaccinate. But, could you really name a vaccine you would refuse your child, this should be good...

if there was one just released to the market for something new I'd refuse it - I'd wait at least a year to see if anyone gets sick or dies from it before accepting it.

You better hold off on having kids based on your level of trust in medical science then...