I dressed as the measles for Halloween and was a viral anti-vaxxer

I am beside myself, almost in tears right now reading this. I have never been antivax, but when my cousin invited me to an antivax page, I joined it out of morbid curiosity. Most of the time, I see a post from there and giggle because it’s so outlandish. But I have seen the posts you’re talking about. The vaccine injury posts where someone has a video of their kid mid seizure or they say their kid is non verbal a week after having the vaccine. Those ones weren’t as simple to brush off. Even though I suspected I didn’t have the whole story, it still shook me a bit.

My cousin is antivax. She has a 5 year old and she had her second baby when I had my first, so I always sorta looked to her to see how she did things. I’m very open with her that I’m not antivax, but I’ve had to hear her talk about it with her mom and brother (both of whom she’s shown that movie, is it called vaxxed or something?) and they all feed off each other and I do start to second guess myself.

Then our insurance got fucked up and my daughter couldn’t get her 9mo vaccines. I rescheduled but I forgot about the appointment and missed it. Then covid happened and I was scared to even leave my house. That was the case at first, but then I kept using it as an excuse cause I was admittedly a little scared.. Here we are, I have an 18mo who hasn’t even had her 9mo shots. I need to call her pediatrician to make an appointment and start getting her caught up. But then my cousin is in my ear telling me that my daughter will be more at risk since she’s gonna get more vaccines at once and all this stuff. So I’d really been petrified. Never fully antivaxx but definitely slightly skeptical and the fear for sure crept in.

I know exactly how someone begins to be antivaxx because I say, give it two more years and I probably would’ve been there. I was just hesitant at this point but it’s a slippery slope.

Thank you for making this post. I saw the title and scoffed because I remember you distinctly. I remember your post being shared on vaxxhappened and I remember leaving snarky comments. I figured this was gonna be a defensive post but I’m so pleased at how wrong I was. This post sorta slapped me back into reality. I really, truly appreciate it.

/r/ShitMomGroupsSay Thread