Summary

A father whose unvaccinated six-year-old daughter became the first U.S. measles death in 10 years remains steadfast in his anti-vaccine beliefs.

The Mennonite man from Seminole, Texas told The Atlantic, “The vaccination has stuff we don’t trust,” maintaining that measles is normal despite its near-eradication through vaccination.

His stance echoes claims by HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who initially downplayed the current North American outbreak before changing his position under scrutiny.

Despite his daughter’s death, the father stated, “Everybody has to die.”

  • Subtracty@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    “Stuff in it that we don’t trust.”

    Better to be dead than injected with chemicals that might make you autistic? Gay? A liberal? What could possibly be in the vaccines that would be worse than your child no longer existing?

    As a parent, I am so angry. How can you look at your child and be more afraid of the lesser outcomes (not that they even exist, but still) and choose death? What a failure of the parents. And shame on every single person in the media that let this bullshit spiral out of control. That poor girl.

    • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      What could possibly be in the vaccines that would be worse than your child no longer existing?

      The article says the man is a Mennonite, which means he probably believes in an afterlife. In his mind his child still exists and he’ll get to see her again when he passes and spends eternity there.

      I pretty firmly believe that afterlife beliefs account for a pretty significant distortion of values in people and helps explain a large number of frankly insane behaviours. Preventing deaths becomes much less important when there’s an eternal paradise waiting for you and the “real” risk is doing something that bars you from going there.

  • wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    I suppose doubling down on being an utter useless fool is still easier on the ego than owning up to having negligently murdered your own daughter.

    So he’s a coward too. Lovely.

  • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Guy’s almost happy his kid died. That should be a crime. Even worse, he’s happy to have been at the helm of her death. Disgusting.

  • Etterra
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    7 hours ago

    Translation: my beliefs mean more to me than my dead child ever could.

    • Jimius@lemmy.ml
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      3 hours ago

      It’s a common theme among religious and conservatives. Love towards their children is always conditional.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    7 hours ago

    Sadly now that she’s dead he has no choice but to defend his stance, because admitting the truth would mean being left with the knowledge that he killed his own daughter.

  • npcknapsack@lemmy.ca
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    8 hours ago

    This shit ought to be considered negligence and reason to at least remove any other kids from the home. Poor six year old was failed by her family and the state.

  • Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    “The vaccination has stuff we don’t trust”

    I would bet money this man could not name a single ingredient in a measles vaccine.