I don't usually read any of the dozens of press releases that flood my inbox each day, but this one from the New York City Coalition for Vaccine Safety and Autism Advocacy Organizations had a long headline in BOLD CAPS, so of course, it caught my attention:

OUTRAGED AUTISM GROUPS AND LEADERS TO ANNOUNCE 50,000-PARENT PROTEST IN NYC AGAINST BILLIONAIRE AND MICROSOFT CHAIRMAN BILL GATES AFTER BEING CALLED "CHILD KILLERS"

Bill Gates called autism advocacy groups "child killers"? Wow. That's outrageous. Except, in Gates' defense, A) he didn't call autism groups who advocate against childhood vaccines "child killers," he said that they "kill children," and B) autism groups who advocate against childhood vaccines are child killers.

I mean, setting aside the fact that no credible scientific study has ever proven a causal link between childhood vaccines and autism, and the fact that the original study that sparked all this anti-vaccine hysteria was recently retracted as an "elaborate fraud," objectively, autism doesn't kill children, but childhood diseases do. Some of these unvaccinated children will needlessly get sick and die, as will other children too young or immune-compromised to be vaccinated, who subsequently catch illness due to the lack of herd immunity. So yes, I think it fair to say that these anti-vaccine advocates are "killing children," if indirectly.

And you know what else these vaccine deniers are? Fucking idiots who cannot accept that the "scientific" evidence on which their entire crusade is based simply no longer exists. You know what else doesn't exist? The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and God. Believe in any or all of them if you please, but don't claim your faith is based on science, because it's not.

Now, I don't mean to be insensitive to the parents of autistic children. I'm a parent myself, and I can imagine how devastated I would have been had my daughter been diagnosed with autism. But you know what? Just because something awful afflicts your child and your family, doesn't mean it is somebody else's fault. Bad things happen, sometimes with no explanation, so if you have a God, and it makes you feel better, blame Him. But don't blame Bill Gates for trying to save millions of people through childhood vaccination; he's already got enough blood on his hands for Windows Vista.

And for goodness sake, get your kids vaccinated already!