An Ottawa, Ontario, couple have held anti-vaccination views for the last six years and are currently quarantined to their home watching their seven children -- ages 10 months to 10 years -- suffer with whooping cough.
The kicker for Gavin and Tara Hills? Their first child's symptoms started a week after they had reversed their beliefs and scheduled a vaccination visit with their family doctor.
Tara Hills detailed their experience in a blog post for TheScientificParent.org:
I’m writing this from quarantine, the irony of which isn’t lost on me. Emotionally I’m a bit raw. Mentally a bit taxed. Physically I’m fine. All seven of my unvaccinated children have whooping cough.
The Hills weren't always against the health practice. They were both vaccinated as children and had even allowed the shots for their first three kids -- but they became unsure of vaccinations for their youngest four.
"We stopped because we were scared and didn’t know who to trust," Hills wrote.
The family's distrust centered around fears of "Big Pharma-Government-Media" conspiracies. "So much smoke must mean a fire so we defaulted to the ‘do nothing and hope nothing bad happens’ position," she explained.
Despite relatives trying to persuade them to reconsider their stance, Hills stated that with her "potent" biases, she "secretly" hoped to find proof against their persistent requests.
But then there was the Disneyland measles outbreak. That's when the Hills decided to "take a new look" at the evidence from both sides of the argument. Coupled with a more immediate measles outbreak in their own circle of friends soon after, the Hills realized they could no longer straddle the fence:
But for the grace of God, our family was one step from contracting measles in our mostly under-or-unvaccinated 7 kids. Maybe we could have weathered that storm unscathed in personal quarantine. But in the 4 highly contagious days before any symptoms show we easily could have passed on our infection to my sister’s toddlers or her 34-week-old son in the NICU.
Connecting these dots, as Hills explained, lead them to sit down with their family doctor for what she called a "catch-up vaccination schedule." But the appointment was a week late. Her 10-month-old son was rushed to the ER and diagnosed with whooping cough.
From Hills's blog:
I said before that the irony isn’t lost on me that I’m writing this from quarantine. For six years we were frozen in fear from vaccines, and now we are frozen because of the disease. My oldest two are getting better, the youngest four are getting worse and fast. Ottawa Public Health has been so helpful and communicative, trying to get us the help we need while keeping the community safe. We are under quarantine and starting antibiotics. Tonight, the baby started ‘whooping’. I did the right thing going to the hospital when I did. I can only hope this painfully honest sharing will help others.
I am not looking forward to any gloating or shame as this ‘defection’ from the antivaxx camp goes public, but, this isn’t a popularity contest. Right now my family is living the consequences of misinformation and fear. I understand that families in our community may be mad at us for putting their kids at risk. I want them to know that we tried our best to protect our kids when we were afraid of vaccination and we are doing our best now, for everyone’s sake, by getting them up to date. We can’t take it back … but we can learn from this and help others the same way we have been helped.
Vaccination is a serious decision about our personal and public health that can’t be made out of fear, capitulation or following any crowd. No one was more surprised than us to find solid answers that actually laid our fears to rest. I am confident that anyone with questions can find answers. I would only advise them to check your biases, sources and calendar: Time waits for no parent.
Tara Hills was interviewed on the news:
