Richard Stallman resigns from the FSF

I'll just give the example I know of. A friend of mine took his son to the doctor for a normal childhood vaccine. He pretty quickly had a reaction to the vaccine, unusual swelling iirc.

A few days later the parents noticed something more serious. This lad is now nearly 30, and without medication he would need to drink some 20 or 30 litres of water a day to avoid dying of dehydration.

The medical opinion was that "vaccines are safe. This can't have been the vaccine". Circumstantial evidence says "it has to be the vaccine - he had a reaction and was taken ill about that time".

And there are PLENTY of cases (my list is pretty old, I would expect there are plenty of newer ones) where severe adverse reactions have been swept under the carpet - the girl who walked in for a rubella vaccination, was wheeled out in a wheelchair and never walked again - "it can't have been the vaccine's fault!"

Such reactions ARE rare. Without vaccines life would be far worse. But assuming that vaccines are safe causes real harm to real people, and believing the issue away makes that harm much worse than it need be.

Cheers,
Wp;