Ruminations

Anti-Vaccination Wretchedness

"To say this has upset our family is an understatement. Nevaeh loved social media, interviews and talking about her lemonade stand. She was so proud when someone stopped her and told her how her journey through treatment with cancer inspired them or helped them in their own battle with the disease."
"[For someone to] steal her image and use it in such a cruel way is heartbreaking to say the least. I don't know how some people can be so heartless as to do something like this."
"I always feared it [her daughter's photograph] would be used for GoFundMe or something like that. So this really took me off guard."
"Children who go into treatment [for cancer or any other serious illness] are easy targets for people with their own agendas. And this happens far more often that people realize."
Holly Denine, St. John's, Newfoundland

Nevaeh Denine wanted to start a lemonade stand to help other families struggling with pediatric cancer. CBC

Diagnosed with neuroblastoma at a very young age, Nevaeh Denine was a familiar figure to people living in Newfoundland and Labrador for her determination and her willingness to share with the public her struggles in undergoing cancer treatment. She began a lemonade stand for the express purpose of using it to raise funds in support of children with cancer. Newspapers across Canada picked up the story of the courageous little girl and her concern for others despite a life filled with health turmoil and invasive treatment.

Nevaeh lived with her cancer and the treatments from age three to nine years of age. Treatment had given her a respite, but at age six the cancer returned. She died of its effects on August 6, 2018, devastating her family and bringing sorrow to the people around her. She was a lively, happy little girl who nourished her consideration for the welfare of others by thinking of other pediatric cancer patients, children like herself, and attempting to do something that would benefit them and give them practical support.

A year following her death, her mother was made aware of Nevaeh's image appearing on a site devoted to an anti-vaccination mission. The image of her child was being used to promote the idea that the little girl's life was lost as a result of having been vaccinated. This, when in actual fact children like Nevaeh whose immune systems have been compromised are in deadly danger for contracting disease when others around them fail to be vaccinated.

Nevaeh with her grandfather, John Denine, Facebook

Celebrity figures have mounted their campaigns casting doubt and aspersion in the minds of the easily-led which has resulted in an anti-vaccination movement that has impacted on the number of children being vaccinated against diseases once thought to have been eradicated as a result of inoculations against their onset; decreased to the point where the diseases have once again become socially communicable, and vulnerable children like Nevaeh are often the victims of this ignorance.

People of the political and social stature of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avid environmentalist, influencer, scion of a famous American family, have become notorious anti-vaccination activists. Film stars with no more knowledge of medical science than the average person have taken it upon themselves to initiate their own uninformed and dangerous campaigns against vaccinations, warning parents that the ingredients in the vaccinating fluids are dangerous and the cause of autism, a claim that has been soundly disproved by science.

Religious authorities have gone out of their way to study the matter and to issue clearance for their religion's faithful to have their children inoculated against any number of potentially dangerous childhood diseases, which adults themselves are not immune to. In undeveloped countries of the world, World Health Organization campaigns are underway to vaccinate as many children as possible to achieve the 'herd effect' of maximizing inoculations to defend the population against infection.

And in wealthy developed countries of the world, Europe, the United States and Canada, there has been a renaissance of diseases like measles which can in worst-case scenarios lead to blindness and sometimes death, because of parental confusion and uncertainty brought about by these anti-vaccination campaigns.

That young Nevaeh, who before her death had managed to raise thousands of dollars for sick children could have been exploited in this way through her photograph being used, to give credence and to support the anti-vaccination movement is beyond despicable. Nevaeh's mother has asked her friends to assist her in searching to identify anyone using her daughter's image in this way and should anyone come across the image, to refuse to share it.