Life

Kid Shuts Down Anti-Vaxxers In His Clever Video

by Lara Rutherford-Morrison

Scientists have thoroughly debunked the myth that autism is linked to vaccines, but, if research won’t get through to anti-vaxxer parents, young Marco Arturo hopes that some straight-up sass will. In a fantastic video, the 12-year-old shuts down anti-vaxxers by highlighting how ridiculous it is to fear vaccines, and just how much science does not support anti-vaccination arguments. The Facebook video has struck a chord with viewers, and has gone truly viral, with 6.4 million views and more than 81,000 shares.

Marco Arturo, who lives in Mexico and describes himself on Facebook as a scientist, posted his video with the caption, “Vaccines DO cause autism.” You might assume that he’s going to say something supporting the anti-vaxxer stance, but he soon reveals that he’s just being a massive, hilarious troll. “We’ve all been lied to by doctors and pharmaceutical companies about vaccines,” he warns. Holding up a folder labeled “Evidence That Vaccines Cause Autism,” he continues,

Actually, I gathered every single document I found and put it in this folder right here. Every single bit of evidence there is in the observable universe that vaccines do cause autism is inside of this folder, and I will go page by page, reading and explaining everything I've got in here because it's a lot of information.

And then he reveals the hard truth:

It’s all just blank pages. HA.

Looking confused, Marco Arturo says, “I think it might be because there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that vaccines are linked to autism in any way whatsoever.”

He goes on to emphasize the fact that, rather than causing health problems, vaccines have saved millions of children from serious illnesses like polio, the measles, meningitis, hepatitis, and smallpox. And vaccinations affect everyone. “You might think, ‘It’s my child, it's my choice,’” he says. “Okay, I agree. It’s your choice if you want to expose your child to deadly diseases, but, you know, it’s not just your child. It's basically everyone else's child. It's also everyone else's child you're putting in danger because you read some forwarded email.” Ouch. Sick burn, kid.

At the end, he points out that all of the papers in the “Evidence That Vaccines Cause Autism” folder are blank. Except one:

I cannot handle the epic levels of sass. Keep being awesome, young scientist!

Images: Marco Arturo/Facebook (3); Giphy