Nurse Mom's Epic 'Big Pharma' Rant Goes Viral

This nurse totally debunks anti-vaxxers’ “Big Pharma” theory

A nurse (who is also a mom) has some strong words of advice for the healthcare needs of people who think vaccines are bad. Namely, that they probably shouldn’t bother since most cures come from the dreaded “Big Pharma” that many anti-vaxxers cite in their reasoning for skipping out on immunizations.

Megan Doodle, a nurse from Monterey, California, has had about enough of people who shun vaccines because they’re convinced the life-saving (and epidemic-preventing) shots are all part of some vast conspiracy by “Big Pharma.”

“Some of you aren’t going to like this, but it’s flu season so here we go…” she writes.

The nurse doesn’t really mince words when it comes to her (highly educated) view on the importance of vaccines — and the ignorance and hypocrisy of those who eschew them for the wrong reasons. She says people who don’t want to vaccinate should “have the freedom” to decide not to, but that also means “they should NOT go to the doctor or the hospital when they get sick, looking for treatment.”

Yup. She went there.

Doodle reasons that the dreaded Big Pharma is also the force behind any antibiotics a sick person would take to stop, say, the spread of sepsis. Or the steroids and EpiPen that could save a person dying from anaphylaxis. “Yep, big pharma is behind that too,” she quips.

She lists a number of other serious health issues including asthma, heart attacks, stroke, and cancer — all of which are treated or cured with, you guessed it, drugs sold by Big Pharma.

After listing out her examples, Doodle says, “I think you get the picture. Stop being so naive.”

“Everything has risks,” she writes. “Everything has side effects. Medicine is not perfect. We advocate for vaccinating your children and yourself because science has PROVEN it’s the most effective method of controlling the spread of disease and giving you and everyone around you the best chance of NOT DYING from something preventable.”

“Believe me when I say that not vaccinating yourself or your children because you believe that big pharma only cares about profit or that the scientific medical community has been duped, is 100% insanity,” she says.

Because for a healthcare professional who has gone to school and then spent their career learning how to help people, it’s beyond insulting for someone to think that those professionals would do something to purposely hurt a patient in their care.

“I personally take offense to anyone who implies that medical professionals, like myself, would ever administer anything to anyone, especially a child, that would intentionally harm them,” she says. “I take even more offense to anyone that would imply that a college educated professional, like myself, is incapable of ‘doing the research,'” she says, alluding to the folks who think their Google University degree is anything close to actually becoming a doctor or nurse.

Doodle tells Scary Mommy that her message has been widely misunderstood. “Many people seem to think that I would care for a patient differently based on their vaccination status. Or that I would even go as far as withhold care, which is just crazy,” she says. “In the medical field we are in the business of saving lives, not passing judgement.”

“I can rant and rave about how passionate I am about vaccines all day, I’ll even argue and debate with you about why you should vaccinate yourself and your children on Facebook. But that’s in my personal life,” she adds. “At work, my job is to use my education and skills to care for every patient to the best of my ability. To insinuate that I would provide better care to a patient because their views on vaccination align with mine is just bananas.”

Bottom line, she believes in vaccines because they save lives. “I believe that vaccination is a social responsibility we have to our friends, family, and the public. The more people that are vaccinated, the better we protect those who cannot be vaccinated,” she says.

She concludes her amazing takedown of the anti-vax movement by giving a pretty debate-proof answer on why people who are physically able to should all be fully immunized. When people try to argue that she shouldn’t care whether someone else is vaccinated as long as she is, she has a rather scientific reply. Because science is real and Big Pharma conspiracy theories are not.

“It’s my newborn baby who is too young to be vaccinated that I’m worried about, it’s my friend who is going through chemo, it’s a neighbor that is immune compromised, it’s my cousin who is allergic and can’t receive the vaccine,” she writes. “Yes, we tell you to get vaccinated to protect yourself, but it’s so much bigger than that.”

“Vaccinate,” she concludes. “Because it’s not just about YOU.”