baryochai: I can make ridiculous claims too and use that to make something sound illegitimate. I would call your grandmother thing a straw man, but it’s not even that. It’s just silly. If I claim that going to the bathroom cures cancer, will you stop going to the bathroom because breathing obviously doesn’t help anything?
I have read Humphries. She is an absolute nut. Seriously. She argues that the existence of polio as the cause of all of those child deaths and paralyzed kids until the first half of the 20th century is a myth. Like, she actually claims polio didn’t kill people. She claims that vaccines did nothing to eradicate smallpox. Seriously. If she had it her way, we’d still have millions dying of smallpox every single year because the vaccine doesn’t really do anything. She does not belong in polite (or even impolite) discussion except for the possible Shailah of whether her promoting her views makes her a Rodef.
Do you have any idea at all how much the infant mortality rate has dropped in the past few decades, let alone the last century? It’s not because we have better medicines and doctors. No, of course not.
Also, your presumption of anecdotal evidence (you don’t even cite any, you just say that parents can do it) isn’t proof of anything. You claimed that unvaccinated kids develop faster. Prove it. Show me one study or one reliable something that backs up your claim.