Dude, I'm a pharmacist. It is literally my job to be skeptical about what comes out of the pharmaceutical industries. The first thing they taught us in pharmacy school was how to read medical literature, and read between the lines to see what they weren't saying.

This being said, my kids have been immunized with the required vaccines (DTaP, MMR, Hep A/B, meningococcus, et bloody cetera) but none of the optional ones. They haven't had any flu shots (neither have I, I'm licensed to give them but haven't taken one in my life), they're not getting Gardasil until they're 18 and old enough to make that decision for themselves, and they're especially not getting Bill Gates' vaccine, if he ever comes up with one. (As someone around here said, he can't keep viruses out of his own damn OS, how are we supposed to trust him with our bodies?) They were quarantined with my wife when she was home sick with COVID, and with me once I got home from the hospital (and the week before I went). If they didn't catch it from either of us, they're never going to.

(Pet peeve: the term "vaccine" specifically refers to smallpox; it's derived from the Latin name of the cowpox virus, which is what they made that from. Everything else is an immunization, but that's a linguistic battle I've long since lost.)

Dude, I'm a pharmacist. It is literally my job to be skeptical about what comes out of the pharmaceutical industries. The first thing they taught us in pharmacy school was how to read medical literature, and read between the lines to see what they weren't saying.

This being said, my kids have been immunized with the required vaccines (DTaP, MMR, Hep A/B, meningococcus, et bloody cetera) but none of the optional ones. They haven't had any flu shots (neither have I, I'm licensed to give them but haven't taken one in my life), they're not getting Gardasil until they're 18 and old enough to make that decision for themselves, and they're especially not getting Bill Gates' vaccine, if he ever comes up with one. (As someone around here said, he can't keep viruses out of his own damn OS, how are we supposed to trust him with our bodies?) They were quarantined with my wife when she was home sick with COVID, and with me once I got home from the hospital. If they didn't catch it from either of us, they're never going to.

(Pet peeve: the term "vaccine" specifically refers to smallpox; it's derived from the Latin name of the cowpox virus, which is what they made that from. Everything else is an immunization, but that's a linguistic battle I've long since lost.)