Vaccines, Daycare, and the Double Standard of Concern

by, Renee Wood

JFK Jr. may not be liked, but he’s not totally off the mark. The U.S. has the best medical care in the world, yet we’re the sickest people in the world. We’re the most medicated, and we rank 48th globally in longevity – lower than countries that spend far less per capita on healthcare. Some in the medical community would have you believe it’s our fault. It’s the American lifestyle. While lifestyle might play a role, it’s not the whole story. Blaming it all on us is a scapegoat. It’s not that Americans don’t believe in science when it comes to vaccines – they don’t believe the messenger. And with those statistics, why would we?

We’ve been lied to before. Cigarettes were “safe”. Talcum powder was “harmless”. Opioids were “non-addictive”. And then there’s the Tuskegee experiment. So, what exactly has fostered trust in the American healthcare system? With information so readily available through the internet and AI, Americans have started researching on their own – looking for direct answers they can’t get from the medical profession. That’s not a bad thing, as long as the sources are reputable. But even reputable sources leave gaps in logic.

Coincidence can occur in science, but when there are too many coincidences, it leaves you scratching your head. Singapore is the most vaccinated country in the world – and it also has the highest rate of autism. Other highly vaccinated countries show similar trends. That’s not speculation; it’s documented. Meanwhile, the Amish community – who vaccinate far less – have significantly lower autism rates. Sure, there are cultural and diagnostic differences, but they don’t fully explain the gap.

In mainstream America, 1 in every 36 kids is diagnosed with autism. In the Amish community, it was 1 in 271. A more recent study suggests it’s closer to 1 in 75. Science is still trying to account for that discrepancy. And let’s be honest: in the Amish community, mild neurodivergence is tolerated. A child with sensory issues or who’s less socially engaged isn’t immediately labeled. Diagnosis only happens when it’s truly necessary. If only mainstream society could be that tolerant.

So are vaccines themselves safe? Yes. Vaccines for polio, mumps, measles, chickenpox, and others have been studied extensively and proven effective. Even combination vaccines like MMR have shown minimal side effects. But, what hasn’t been studied in depth, is the long-term effect of clustering those clusters. When a two-month-old baby goes in for their first round, they might receive three to four shots and an oral dose – adding up to eight to twelve vaccines in one visit. Just the thought of that makes me physically ill. The baby, of course, can’t tell you how they feel – except maybe by being unusually cranky.

In 2024, studies from St. Jude and Weill Cornell showed that two-month-olds had adaptive immune responses to clustered vaccines. That’s reassuring – at least in the short term. But what hasn’t been done are longitudinal studies comparing clustered versus spaced-out schedules in terms of emotional resilience, autoimmune development, and subtle neurological outcomes.

Why doesn’t the CDC recommend spacing them out? Not because it’s ineffective. It’s because they don’t trust parents to follow through. The assumption is that parents won’t come back on schedule. That’s not science – that’s paternalism. That’s Big Brother saying parents can’t be trusted to care for their own children. And yes, herd immunity matters. But immunity can also come from acquiring the disease itself.

Since there are no long-term studies on the effects of clustering the clusters – meaning giving multiple combination vaccines at once – doesn’t that deserve a closer look? Not because we’ve proven harm, but because we haven’t ruled out subtle, long-term consequences. While I understand the frustration with JFK Jr. for touting debunked claims and misrepresenting existing data, I still don’t see the harm in simply asking the question. Maybe we’re afraid that if we dig too deep, we’ll find out our trust has been violated again. And if clustering the clusters does turn out to have any link to autism – or anything else we haven’t thought to measure – what then?

Which brings me to another point. When we were young, everyone got childhood diseases – mumps, measles, chickenpox – and most recovered fully. Even I, with cerebral palsy and a tendency to get the sickest, got the mumps in all six glands and made a full recovery. I believe those illnesses helped build my resilience. Studies show that children with chronic illnesses often develop more empathy, maturity, and coping skills. I’m not saying we should wish illness on children – but I am saying that ordinary childhood diseases may have benefits we’ve stopped considering.

Extensive studies haven’t been done comparing emotional and behavioral outcomes between vaccinated children and those who went through the actual diseases. We’ve studied chronic illness, but not the ordinary ones. And in today’s world, both parents usually work – if it’s even a two-parent household. About 71% of children live in two-parent homes today, up slightly from 67% in 2005, but still far below the 87% in the 1960s. Back then, one parent – usually the mother – was home.

We’re not going back to those days, and I’m not saying we should. But there was something about a homemade bowl of chicken soup that made you feel better. Whether it had medical benefits or not, it worked.

Today, having a sick kid at home is a major disruption. Two weeks off work for chickenpox could mean financial hardship – or even job loss. So yes, vaccines offer convenience. But let’s not pretend that’s the only reason they’re pushed.

Diseases like polio are not typical childhood illnesses. Measles is more dangerous than its reputation suggests, but still far less dangerous than polio. Chickenpox and mumps rarely have lifelong consequences in healthy children. Polio, on the other hand, causes paralysis in about 1 in 100 cases—and 5 to 10% of those die. That’s a high enough risk to justify vaccination. Measles causes lifelong complications in about 1 in 1,000 cases – less than 0.01%.

I remember a classmate whose cerebral palsy was linked to measles. But the real issue may have been that her mother left her in the sun with a high fever. Would she have developed cerebral palsy otherwise? I don’t know. She lived a full life – raised three kids and enjoys many grandkids. She seems happy. I don’t know if a vaccine would’ve prevented her condition, but I do wonder whether studies account for parental judgment. If her case was counted as a vaccine-preventable complication, that feels misleading. It’s unclear whether the disease or the circumstances caused the harm. What’s included or excluded in data matters – it can skew the truth.

And now, let’s talk about daycare. Because if we’re going to worry about long-term effects, we should be looking at more than just vaccines. The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development followed over 1,000 children and found that while daycare can offer modest short-term cognitive and language gains before age 5, it also correlates with increased aggression, defiance, and behavioral problems. The Quebec Universal Daycare Study found even more troubling results: increased anxiety, hyperactivity, and aggression in children, with lower life satisfaction and higher crime rates in adolescence.

Children in daycare get sick more often – especially before age 3. After that, they tend to get sick less often, thanks to early immune exposure. That’s often spun as a benefit. But if early exposure builds immunity, why is that logic rejected when parents choose to forgo vaccines for mild diseases like chickenpox?

You can’t have it both ways. Either early immune challenges are good – or they’re not.

And let’s talk equity. Fewer than 10% of U.S. child care centers are nationally accredited. High-quality centers cost upwards of $15,000 per year and have long waitlists. Poor and working-class families rarely access these programs, even with subsidies. Most rely on underfunded, overcrowded, or unregulated centers. So when studies say high-quality daycare can buffer negative effects, we should ask: who actually benefits?

Data on deaths in daycare is limited, but fatalities do occur – usually from unsafe sleep practices, neglect, or undiagnosed illness. These aren’t vaccine-preventable deaths. But unlike vaccines, there’s no national campaign to monitor or mitigate these risks. So what should worry us more – skipping a vaccine, or putting a child in daycare?

Let’s recap:

If you wish to vaccinate your child – it’s safe – so go ahead and do that. I would talk with the Doctor about spacing out the vaccines for extra caution. If you choose to space out vaccinations – make sure you keep that schedule. However, keep in mind that there are other things that have become “necessities” in the American lifestyle that can cause harm to your child that we rarely talk about.

Vaccines carry rare but serious risks. Daycare carries documented long-term emotional and behavioral consequences. Immune system development through daycare is praised, while natural immunity from mild disease is dismissed. Vaccine access is universal. High-quality daycare access is not. And public scrutiny? Vaccines get it. Daycare doesn’t.

If we’re going to vaccinate children against anything, maybe it should be chronic institutional stress, overexposure to chaos, and emotional neglect disguised as early education. Because the data suggests that’s where the real long-term damage lies.

And if you’re still worried about chickenpox, just remember: your child might get a rash. But they probably won’t grow up thinking the world is a noisy, unpredictable place where their needs don’t matter.

Now that’s worth protecting them from.

References

Cleveland Clinic on daycare illness:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-kids-in-daycare-get-sick-so-often/

NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development:
https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/documents/seccyd_06.pdf

Quebec Universal Daycare Study (Baker, Gruber, Milligan):
https://www.nber.org/papers/w11832

CDC Polio Overview:
https://www.cdc.gov/pinkbook/polio.html

CDC Measles FAQ:
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html

Autism prevalence data:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

Amish autism study (Olmsted et al.):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3364648/