Hands off my family

And my choice, Lance O’Sullivan. On 4th June, 2017, you appeared on Maori TV .

You said words to the effect of, “If a person chooses not to vaccinate and gets that disease and it results in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of treatment, as a member of society, I don’t want to have to pay for that.”

So Lance, please answer these questions:

If some of your whanau up there are smoking, and needing hospital treatment for a lifestyle choice of lung cancer as a result, why should my tax dollars pay for that?

If you have not taught your whanau essentials of nutrition, which seriously impact the severity of infectious disease, and are a driver for hospitalisation of more severe infection, and higher rates of pathogen shedding, why should my tax dollar pay for that?

If you have not got rid of nutritionally-related obesity and needless type 2 diabetes from your community, why should my tax dollar pay for treatment resulting from a lifestyle choice which you have done nothing to educate them about?

If some of your whanau are dealing drugs, smoking pot, and beating each other up causing injuries to one another, why should my tax dollar pay for rehabilitation or treatment for that?

Before you try to mandate vaccines on anyone else, because of the tax dollar, why don’t you educate your whanau about their right and responsibility to promote their own good heath which does not come at the point of a needle?

Or would your people rebel and say, “But mate, it’s our choice to smoke, to do drugs, to not eat right, to let our kids and ourselves get sick. It’s our choice to buy infant formula.... It’s our choice to get cancer. Hands off our choice!”

When asked what advice you would give to people who are concerned about vaccines, you also said words to the effect that "parents should trust the science, trust the experts, have faith in me, and trust me."

When it comes to vaccines, trust is earned, Lance, by always giving parents information which is not cherry picked, along with the vaccine datasheets, long before any needle comes anywhere near them. Trust is earned by never emotionally blackmailing parents.

You said, “We should put a lid on information which is factually incorrect”. Well, here is a fact Lance. All the information you give out about vaccines, is factually incorrect because it leaves out key concepts which are crucial to decision making. That is called lying by omission. Or… do you just assume that what you think you know is all there is to know? AND since you admit that you won't watch VAXXED, why do you think you are giving out factual information on its content?  I've seen it, and your comments about it have been balderdash.

You spouted more poppycock when you dismissed the term "vaccine injury" by saying it was made up by anti-vaxxers.  Seemingly it escaped your brain that the term was legalised by the American Government 31 years ago, for their 1986  "National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program". 

Talking about taking personal responsibility, my husband and I stopped taking vaccines, antibiotics and the other nonsense you say is “best practice” nearly 40 years ago.  As a result of that smart choice, we are NO LONGER a burden on the taxpayer. My husband is 85, and on NO prescription drugs. I have had a diagnosis of a primary immunodeficiency for over 30 years, which would flip your lid, because you would be all over me like a rash saying that I needed to do this, that and the other according to your science. You would say, "Trust me".  Sorry Lance.  Hands off my decision making. 

Yes, I refused the "best practice" treatment - which ironically has contradicted itself dramatically over the decades. Why did I refuse "best practice"? Because instead I chose to be responsible for excellent nutrition, good sleep, no smoking, no alcohol, no junk food, weight control, and as a result the "immunodeficiency" has minimal impact compared to the old bad days. Doing those things - and having no television in the house, has enabled our family to function optimally with MINIMAL need for tax-payer funded medical intervention.

If . . .  at any point, our family needed, or would need medical care, I would have no feelings of guilt because I have done everything within my responsibility, and within my ability, by putting the RIGHT things into our family, to ensure that the TAXPAYER doesn’t have to needlessly pay anything, because I have a COMPULSORY lifestyle which reduces so many risks down to almost nothing. We have “fixed” what is possible to fix, and anything else is outside of our ability to control. But even then, we often fix that too, without reference to a doctor.

Now when you have enabled every person in your community to have the good health that they have a right to, by compelling them to do the non-medical things they can do, THEN you will have a non-hypocritical basis with which to suggest compulsion in the matter of vaccination.

But even if you did suggest mandatory vaccination, to enforce it would be morally, scientifically and ethically wrong. Firstly, because what I put into my body is my CHOICE. What I eat, and drink is my CHOICE, which enables me to NOT USE the medical system. By having a compulsory lifestyle, our family has enabled MORE tax dollars to be spent on those people who shirk that personal choice or responsibility, and as a result, may be fully vaccinated, yet STILL line the walls of hospitals today.

You have to admit, Lance, that a large percentage of your people who sit in Kaitaia hospital, needn’t be there. They are there . . .  because of life style choices they have made, which you didn’t pass a law to stop them making.

Just because something CAN be done, doesn’t mean it SHOULD be done. Given that choice applies to lifestyle, then it should also apply to vaccination.

You talk about vaccination being necessary to protect your vulnerable. What are you doing to protect your “vulnerable”, (in the same way I have done with a primary immunodeficiency),  without the use of vaccines, antibiotics or your truck load of very expensive tax-payer funded drugs? It can be done. I am living proof.

Think on that, before you start forcing needles on those of us who have covered bases that many in your whanau choose to ignore, and you don’t “go there” do you,  because you don’t want whanau to explode in your face, do a haka, and tell you to go and boil your head. So taking your example, I say, Hands off my family, and I return your friendly greeting to me, back to you:  Pokokohua ratou.