I was an antivaxer, nineteen years ago.

[Aristus]

19. Of course it does. It's science. The best knowledge we have available.

Anti-vaxxer 'concerns' run from being misguided to being seriously, dangerously idiotic. Everyone who can get an immunization (and the only ones who can't are the ones with an allergy to the vaccine or its component parts; everyone who comes to me with a 'religious' objection gets sent away again to somebody who suffers fools gladly...) should. The more people who get vaccinated, the greater the 'herd immunity', the zone with which we try to shield and protect those who can't be immunized.

If it's offered, that means it's safe. To hell with such great medical thinkers as Jenny McCarthy and Aidan Quinn. If it's available, that means it's safe. A number of years ago, a vaccine was developed against Yersinia pestis, or Black Plague. It was poorly-effective and came with intolerable side effects. So it was withdrawn. So to reiterate: if it's offered, it's safe.

Your friend's child didn't get autism from his vaccines; he got it because sometimes kids get autism. Correlation does not equal causation. And even if it did, it wouldn't apply in this case because vaccines do not cause autism. The doctor who said it did had his medical license yanked and his (falsified) report discredited.

And finally, since so many people hit me with a 'religous' objection, here's a little religion: there's a passage in the Bible: "He that spareth the rod hateth his son. (Usually misquoted as "Spare the rod and spoil the child".) An accurate paraphrase would be "He that spareth the vaccines hateth his son."

Get your child vaccinated.