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How Medical Doctors Change Their Minds
Commentary from Jennifer Margulis
'Cammy Benton, M.D., owner of Benton Integrative Medicine, started her career as a conventional M.D. A mom of three, she watched her children’s health deteriorate every time she took them to the doctor. But it still took her years to realize that some mainstream medical practices, including unnecessary C-sections, reducing fever with acetaminophen, and vaccinating babies against a sexually transmitted disease at birth and during infancy were not in the best interests of children’s health and well-being. (This post is not about Dr. Benton, however.
I had an amazing talk with a medical doctor who began her career adamantly believing in the safety and necessity of all the CDC-recommended vaccines. In medical school, like all aspiring doctors, she was taught to trust medical authority.
Since then she’s changed her mind about a lot of her beliefs. She’s now well versed in alternative health, a champion for non-pharmaceutical health solutions, and a vaccine safety advocate.

How Did This Doctor Change Her Mind?
Dr. M told me that her change of heart started years ago when she “got into it” with an acquaintance on Facebook.

Let’s call the acquaintance Gina. In a thread on a Facebook post, Gina asked Dr. M questions about vaccines and vaccine safety. She didn’t walk away when the conversation got heated (which it did). She stayed calm, kind, respectful, and engaged the whole time.
Gina also praised Dr. M for being willing to have a conversation and to exchange information. And she asked her all the right questions.

To wit: “I haven’t been able to find large-scale safety studies comparing statistically significant numbers of completely unvaccinated children with fully vaccinated children. I’m eager for you to send me that science, so I can read it. That will go a long way to reassuring me that the brain, immune, and heart damage parents are seeing in their children after vaccinating aren’t actually due to vaccines.”

At first Dr. M got angry. She answered belligerently and almost blocked Gina. But she liked to be right (what doctor doesn’t?) and was eager to prove Gina wrong. So she checked in with a subscription-only group of other Mama MDs.

“This crazy anti-vaccine crackpot is asking me for vaccine safety studies. I can’t believe people think this way! Everyone knows that vaccines are safe. Send me your best URLs to large peer-reviewed studies so I can prove her wrong!”
Gina also praised Dr. M for being willing to have a conversation and to exchange information. And she asked her all the right questions.

Guess what happened?
The Mama MD doctor group got furious at Dr. M! Instead of sending her safety data, they sent her newspaper articles from places like CNN and NBC (media outlets that take enormous amounts of advertising money from pharmaceutical companies.) The Mama docs also jumped all over her, and actually accused Dr. M of being a troll.

“I wanted science and they freaked out,” Dr. M laughs about it now. “I was being canceled just for asking questions. That was my first red flag.”

Instead of shutting down due to cognitive dissonance, she kept digging. But the more research she did, the more she saw that the calm and gracious woman who she believed to be a “crazy anti-vaccine crackpot” was actually not a crackpot at all. In fact, she was right about her vaccine safety concerns.
Another Doctor Opens Her Mind
Something similar happened with another doctor friend of mine. A breastfeeding advocate who unquestioningly believed in the current vaccine program, despite understanding how the formula industry pays off doctors in order to undermine women’s ability to breastfeed, this medical doc was also willing to engage in the conversation.

Some brave moms in my social media network kept it respectful, shared credible information with her, and told her about their personal experiences. They stayed engaged. And kept asking follow-up questions.

This doctor, too, now has a much more nuanced point of view about vaccines, supports parents who choose to follow a modified schedule, and has told me she wants to write about vaccine safety, though she’s afraid to go public for fear of losing her job and her social standing.
The Take-Away
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Anger doesn’t help get your point across. Neither does name-calling.

Advocates and activists of all stars and stripes—please remember to keep your cool. On-line and in real life. Talk to people where they’re at, not where you want them to be. Remember that you were once where they are now: adamant that you were right and the “other side” was simply crazy.

Keep sharing your stories, sharing the science, and asking them questions. But do so politely. Listen with genuine interest to other people’s points of view.

And maybe—just maybe—you’ll change your mind as well.'

BDair 8 May 23
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6 comments

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1

Maybe we should go back to the middle ages - no vaccines and life expectancy was 30? ...oh and don't forget penicillin and antiseptics... instead of a mustard-mugwart polstice?? ...naturopathy is not necessarily better.

It is possible to live a long and healthy life without vaccines and allopathic medicines. Most of the improvement in longevity and disease remediation is due to sanitation, refrigeration, and a readily available food supply full of diverse and nutritious foods that were not available to early humans.

@BDair - I'm afraid you are simply wrong and a few hundred years ago you would be dead wrong from a simple infection.

You have an opinion, that is fine. I will continue to live my life and maintain my health through a healthy diet and natural means.

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IMHO, confirmation bias affects most of us in the vaccine discussion. Whatever you are looking for, you will find it, especially in the Internet age. I had a fellow RN who became vehemently anti vaccine after a mother and daughter he took care of developed Guillain-Barre from taking the flu vaccine and both died from it while in his care. He developed PTSD about the situation, and it consumed most of his conversations. Yet the math of vaccine effectiveness vs. vaccine complications or death historically heavily favors vaccine efficacy since vaccines were discovered.
Also, IMHO, science is never absolute. It is about varying degrees of probability, i.e., risk vs. benefit. And also how the results of our decisions effect the safety of others.
I am thankful for those who have contributed to this. In a polite and thoughtful way. Thank you.

Everyone has been told their entire lives that vaccines are safe and effective and are essential for modern society to succeed. What they do not take in to consideration is that the narrative they believe has been controlled and manipulated for the last century by a trillion dollar industry that has a profit motive and the ability to stifle all competition and any alternative narrative. There is credible information available on both sides of the issue.

The most common form of depression is neurotic depression, which manifests in depression, fatigue, and sadness. It is caused by stressful situations, conflicts, and conflicting desires. Everyone experiences negative emotions; we cannot always be cheerful and carefree. In some cases, the help of a doctor is needed. This is perfectly normal, just like visiting a beautician. When I was under a lot of stress after my divorce, I decided to go to a professional beauty school, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time.

1

Wow, seems like there are always people who need a scapegoat.

2

Unvaccinated people might be better accepted if they isolated themselves from others.
Special tents outside of normal hospitals and all that.
If you make a life choice to be a toxic skin sac to others it should have consequences.

And unknown what the realities of this new monkey pox might be.
Or if the pox vaccine some of us of still got will have effectiveness at all. I know at mid 60's birth I was on the outside edge of that.

You better rush out and get your Monkey Pox vaccine, and since the efficacy of the Covid vaccine wanes almost immediately, you may as well get yourself 'up to date' with a booster while you are at it.

@BDair No one really cares what happens to the unvaxed anymore.
Ever seen the movie Plague Dogs?

Yeah

@BDair Why are you on this site? Why don’t you go hang out on Metabook with the rest of the flat earthers?! 🤔

@creative51 You need to read the last paragraph in the above post, and perhaps consider that it may be your mind that is in need of some expansion. The small pox vaccine is not considered safe.
"The United States stopped giving mandatory smallpox vaccinations 30 years ago. Soon after that, doctors eradicated the disease from the planet. But now, the government has decided to bring back the vaccine because of fear that terrorists, or Iraq, could use the virus as a weapon." - [cbsnews.com]

3

As someone who has absolutely no influence on the medical care of any child, I will not take a side.
Although, as a child, I was given all the recommended inoculations. Didn't suffer any side-effects from any of them. At least, that I'm aware of.

However, as an older adult, I have only my personal experience and increased knowledge to go on.

I have had a number of illnesses which now have vaccines to prevent them, or lessen their severity.
I have gotten the vaccines. I haven't had a recurrence of any of them since.

I am not saying it won't ever happen, but I'm far more confident based on my own experience, that it's less likely to.

Must more study be done on the efficacy and risks of ALL vaccines
Hell, yes!

Most people here likely had only a handful inoculations, from infancy through middle school. Nothing close to the schedule administered to children today. Most human interventions have unintended consequences, and medical treatments have a poor record in regard to adverse side effects. In my opinion.

@BDair - actually medical treatments over time have a pretty good record of improving health and longevity...?

@FrostyJim We have medical treatments that can keep a person alive as long as someone is able to keep writing checks. We also have higher levels of all chronic diseases than we had in previous generations, and our 'healthcare' system is a leading cause of mortality.

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Try a fresh perspective.

BDair Level 8 May 23, 2022

You accidentally placed the word “fresh” in place of “ignorant”?!🤨

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