Do you know how most parents describe their children’s health?
If you are listening to anti-vaccine influencers, I bet that you don’t…
How Do Most Parents Describe Their Children’s Health?
And of course, that is because anti-vaccine influencers would have you believe that “we have the sickest generation of children this country has ever produced.”
Have you heard that one before?
I’m sure you have.
If not from Del Bigtree, then you have likely heard it from RFK, Jr, as it is one of his favorite talking points.
“This country pays two to three times what every developing nation in the world pays, and yet we have the sickest children in the history of the world.”
RFK, Jr
And not surprisingly, it is not true.
In fact, over 98% of parents describe their children as having good, very good, or excellent health!
And only 1.5% describe their children’s health as being fair or poor.
Does that sound like a sick nation?
What else?
Earlier surveys, although they used a different methodology, had consistently lower ratings, with about 84% of parents saying their children had excellent or very good health since about 2003.
Lastly, Del Bigtree’s 54% estimate of chronic disease in kids is based on his misrepresenting a survey from 2007!
It comes from a 2007 survey that counted everything from environmental allergies and overweight to children merely at risk for developmental delays.
And he is comparing that to a 12.4% figure from the 1980s that doesn’t even use the same definitions, conditions, or methods to these later surveys.
So not only is it propaganda, it is lazy propaganda, as he didn’t even take the time to create new fake numbers for 2026!
If he had, he would have found that:
deaths among infants younger than 1 year old and deaths among 1- to 19-year-old individuals declined since 2007
kids with at least one of 15 chronic conditions (with anxiety having the biggest increase), ages 3–17 increased from 25.8% (2011-12) to 31% (2023)
kids with special health care needs, traditional definition increased from 19.2% (2007) to 20.8% (2022-23)
childhood obesity rates for 2- to 19-year-old individuals significantly increased from 17.0% (2007-2008) to 20.9% (2021-2023)
Numbers that are also up (except deaths, which are down), in comparable, high-income countries in the world.
But numbers that are not rising as dramatically as anti-vaccine influencers would have you believe.
And why is that important to them?
Because it is harder to believe that vaccines are injuring everyone if you don’t also believe that everyone is sick with some kind of chronic disease!
That’s why they are always talking about how our kids are so sick…
It is one of the main pillars in their propaganda.
Without it, most of the rest of their talking points fall apart.
And, of course, you won’t understand any of this until you learn to be more skeptical and you escape from the anti-vaccine echo chambers that trap you into believing their propaganda.
More on Children’s Health
America’s New Normal: Propaganda About the Unhealthiest Generation
Are Vaccines the Number One Cause of Chronic Disease in America?
RFK Jr. says Americans have the ‘sickest children in history.’ History says otherwise
Trends in US Children’s Mortality, Chronic Conditions, Obesity, Functional Status, and Symptoms