"The Greater Good"

Through November 5, the producers of the film, "The Greater Good", are allowing a free preview of their film online.  This film is about the childhood vaccination debate.  This is quite a polarizing issue, and most people seem to assume there is no middle ground, that people are either pro-vaccination or anti-vaccination.  I personally see both sides, because my mother has told me many times of the fear caused by Polio, one of vaccination's great success stories, or the time her brother, then an infant, nearly died from whooping cough.  There is good science behind the concept of a vaccine, and there are some truly scary diseases for which vaccinations exist.  On the other hand, my grandmother passed away from a stroke, and she had been taking a medicine for arthritis which was later found to cause strokes. The bottom line is that the drug was hugely profitable and there is no question that it wasn't properly tested for safety.   By the time this news broke, it was too late for my grandmother. My grandmother never had a chance to weigh risks against benefits,  and not much has changed since then in terms of safety testing requirements.  So while I'm not ready to dismiss western medicine out of hand, I am ready to question authority.  Especially when it comes to trusting that same pharmaceutical company that sold my grandmother her medicine with the health of my child, or trusting the government to make my health decisions.  This film treats the viewer like an intelligent person who does not need to be preached to one way or another.  I learned a lot from "The Greater Good", and you might too.  I would say that if they make one definite argument with the film, it is not whether or not to get vaccinations, but simply for much greater transparency.