As healthcare consumers and parents, we need to risk being “rude” and ask our care providers hard questions, like:

o Do you receive gifts from the company whose medicine you just prescribed for my child?

o How much time, roughly, have you spent independently researching the safety of the procedure you are recommending? (And are you aware that your medical education may not be as impartial as you’d thought? One review found that “Of Harvard’s 8,900 professors and lecturers, 1,600 admit that either they or a family member have had some kind of business link to drug companies — sometimes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — that could bias their teaching or research.”

o What will happen if my child is injured by this vaccine? (You fill out a report, and hope the government agrees with your assessment and helps you care for your child. This process can take years.)

o Can I sue if my child is injured or killed by vaccines? (No, pharmaceutical companies have immunity. You can fill out the report mentioned above, but the maximum payout is only $250,000 per child in the case of death. Pharmaceutical companies don’t pay that, the American public does. Every vaccine comes with a special tax that pays into a fund. Payments in excess of $250,000 are sometimes paid to families whose children need intensive or lifelong care, but many families are denied compensation. You will not have an opportunity to have the case tried before a jury of your peers.)

o How many people have died from measles in the U.S. this year? (None)

o Has the U.S. ever conducted a study that compares the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children? (No.)

o How are vaccines tested for safety? (Because the position of pharmaceutical companies is that it is unethical to withhold a vaccine for the purpose of a trial, the safety of new vaccines is often tested by giving one group the new vaccine and one group an older version it is meant to replace. As a result, you don’t get a comparison of how many adverse effects occur when compared to a neutral placebo such as saline, but rather whether or not the new vaccine causes more reactions than the last one.)