Facebook chief executive's profile page contains a record of baby milestones, since his daughter, Max, was born in December. The latest post shows a trip to the doctor's office to get a vaccine for Max.
Many of around 47 million followers are angry after seeing the Zuckerberg's post, considering that this expresses billionaire father's opinion in a heated vaccine debate. They take this as a not-so-subtle show of support for vaccinations.
The vaccination ongoing debate is a public health matter that stays at the center of civil liberties and modern science. Those on the side of vaccine advocacy are based on so called "herd immunity" protecting entire communities when critical portions of the population are immunized. Others think that vaccines are poisons for human kind that kill more individuals rather than help.
Zuckerberg's post has received almost 70,000 comments filled with anti-vaccine and pro-vaccine arguments. Users have pointed out, on the one hand, that scientists consider vaccines as a way to eliminate widespread diseases and that it's rare to experience severe allergic reactions to vaccinations, according to data published online on the site CDC.
On the other hand, many Americans are pointing out the potential dangers and doubt vaccines' medical efficacy. Among them is being included Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate. A number of other celebrities have joined the movement against vaccines, including Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy.
In 2008, parents of an autistic child won a federal claims case against the Department of Health after their daughter developed autism from vaccines. After the case, many studies have been done but none of them found any link between autism and childhood vaccinations.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published their conclusion stating that a serious allergic reaction to the MMRS vaccine is very rare, occurring in less than one out of a million doses. However, despite the official statement, many people remain dubious, as we can easily see from some of the commentaries on Zuckerberg's Facebook page.
