Tomorrow, I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and getting a flu shot as I do each and every year. (And rolling my eyes at colleagues who complain about the needle. Spoon; cement; toughen up!)

Being immunised from contagious diseases is medicine at its best. So why it generates much discussion – half of it rational; the other half madness – is beyond me.

The Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network (recently forced to change their name from the Australian Vaccination Network) is a group that lives and breathes dangerous rhetoric, ridiculous propaganda and paranoia. And not a shred of evidence. Their tag line is ‘because every issue has two sides’. Sure – let’s go with that. On one side there is science and evidence. On the other there is lunacy. They are the two sides.

This is not an issue for debate.

I am all for people making their own decisions about their health and the health of their children. I really am. If you want to breastfeed your child, go ahead. If you don’t, don’t. Want to give your kids a multi-vitamin with their breakfast? Knock yourself out. Think that seeing a chiropractor eases your back pain? Off you go. Align away.

And when it comes to how you choose to manage your diabetes, you won’t hear any judgement from me. Treat how you want, using the tools you want. Your diabetes; your rules.

Because all of these decisions affect you (or your kids) – not others around you. If you choose to not vaccinate your child against vaccine-preventable diseases, you are putting other people at risk. You are putting me at risk, my family, my friends. It is irresponsible and it is stupid. Because your actions do affect me, I get to make a judgement call here.

Every single myth about how vaccines cause medical conditions has been debunked. There is no evidence – no scientific evidence – that suggests that vaccines cause autism, type 1 diabetes or anything else for that matter. The fruit loops (and I make absolutely no apology for using that term) who claim that vaccines are the root of all evil are dangerous and lying. That’s it. That’s the truth.

There are many aspects to living with a chronic health condition and one of them is the fear I carry each and every day that I have passed on my deficient genetic matter to my daughter. I am terrified that the autoimmune mess that is my, my mother’s and many other family members’ MO has been filtered down to her beautiful DNA.

One day, there will be a vaccine to protect against type 1 diabetes. I wonder if anyone who lives with diabetes (themselves or in their family) would hesitate for a moment to have their loved ones vaccinated.

Vaccines exist for one reason and one reason only. To protect us. There is no agenda by Big Pharma. Health care professionals are not in the pockets of Big Pharma or governments or anyone else for that matter.

If only there was a vaccine for stupid. Then this debate would be over once and for all.

Just in case you need this explained to you in very plain, eloquent and simple terms, click here to understand how vaccines cause autism.