Anti-Vaxxer Dresses Up As A Measles Patient For Halloween And Gets A Verbal Lashing For It

Shots fired, pun intended.

Elana

• Published in Interesting
• November 1, 2019

It's 2019 and modern science has not prevented people from debating vaccinations. While it has led to a sincere source of frustration for many, especially those in the medical community, it's also led to a metric-butt-ton of memes that take jabs at all the anti-vaxxers out there. In the meantime, people continue to find new and creative ways to argue about modern medicine, scientific advancement, and whether or not we should be trying to eradicate diseases, apparently!

Recently, Autumn Dayss posted a photo of her "last-minute" Halloween costume and it was at least a little bit crude. Her costume was completed with a tiny skeleton in a baby carrier, with a caption that read “Going to a costume party tonight as Karen and her non-vaccinated child.” As one might expect, the post exploded and went viral with over 36K reactions and 124K shares! In response, anti-vaxxers were not happy.

Among those who were exceptionally fired up was Heather Simpson, a proud anti-vaxxer mother who decided she couldn't stop herself from responding.

According to Simpson, the least scary thing anyone could be for Halloween was someone with the measles.

While Dayss got mixed responses, there was a dominating approval.

“Still laughing at this, best costume of the year. Thank you!” one person said.

“Omg I absolutely LOVE this costume idea,” another wrote.

Heather's post, on the other hand, was not nearly so well recieved.

Specifically, Heather attracted the attention of a medical professional whose commentary weighing in was unparalleled.

In case you're unfamiliar with the measles, it is a highly contagious viral infection that frequently causes a severe flu-like illness accompanied by a distinct rash.

This doctor's comments came with a heavy, heavy weight.

According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), serious complications occur at a startling rate of 3 in 10 of patients who contract measles. Even worse, it is young children who are especially vulnerable. “Ear infections and diarrhea are most common, but 1 in 20 will get pneumonia,” the organization wrote. “1 in 1,000 will have brain swelling that can cause deafness and intellectual disability, and 1 or 2 in 1,000 will die."

Before the vaccine was available in 1963, nearly every child got measles by the time they were 15 years old. “The disease sickened 3 to 4 million people and led to about 500 deaths and 48,000 hospitalizations every year.”

Across the internet, as Heather's costume spread, people had a lot to say and for the most part absolutely none of them found her clever, humorous, or to be worthy of any attention that didn't involve slamming her poor decision making skills.

While some people raised concerns about Dayss' seemingly "heartless" approach at humor, jabbed in the direction of anti-vaxxers:

“This is disgusting and vile. Way to go putting your complete lack of class on display for the world. Your mama must be so proud,” one person said.

“So many children have DIED from vaccines, so this is why it hurts people. Comments like this are classless and disgusting. Mocking dead children in any scenario is appalling,” another said.

...Heather simply got comments mocking her.

Maybe mocking infant death isn't cool, but thinking diseases are funny is definitely less cool.

Of course, Heather attempted to issue an apology.

A really, really bad one.

"Sorry, not sorry." - Basically Heather

Heather came to "educate."

Hmm, interesting.

Heather is proud to be anti-vaccine.

She captioned this photo: "When your outfit and make up are on point, but you're also anti-v a x so your life is on point as well."

Um, okay Heather.

People on Facebook love discussing vaccines, whether we're sharing educational material or controversy erupting. What do you think about the vaccine costume war that was ignited between Heather and Autumn? Let us know your thoughts, good and bad!

Elana