Almost two weeks ago, NBC published a piece about the death of a young boy in Colorado due to complications from the flu. The piece wasn’t written highlighting the importance of flu prevention or about the suffering of the family after the death of a child, but instead, as an attack on the parents’ decision to consult other parents in a natural Facebook group about how to improve his symptoms.

I intended to write on it at the time, but as fate would have it, I was too ill with the flu myself.

NBC reported,

One recent post came from the mother of a 4-year-old Colorado boy who died from the flu this week. In it, she consulted group members while noting that she had declined to fill a prescription written by a doctor.

The child had not been diagnosed yet, but he was running a fever and had a seizure, the mother wrote. She added that two of her four children had been diagnosed with the flu and that the doctor had prescribed the antiviral Tamiflu for everyone in the household.

“The doc prescribed tamiflu I did not pick it up,” she wrote.

Tamiflu is the most common antiviral medication prescribed to treat the flu. The drug can ease symptoms and shorten the length of illness, but concerns about side effects are common even outside anti-vaccination echo chambers. The flu has hit children particularly hard this season. Pediatric hospitalization rates are higher than normal, and 68 children have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NBC News verified the posts by cross-referencing them with a fundraising page set up by the family, along with published news reports quoting the family.

The posts highlight how Facebook groups dedicated to health misinformation such as vaccinations can also be used to solicit and share potentially dangerous medical advice. A study by the American Academy of Family Physicians found that 59 percent of parents said their child had missed the flu shot at least once due to “misinformation or misunderstanding.”

None of the 45 comments on the mother’s Facebook post suggested medical attention. The child was eventually hospitalized and died four days later, according to a GoFundMe started on his behalf by his family.

Despite NBC’s reporting, the local news reported that the mother did in fact fill the Tamiflu prescription.

Did you interview the mother? She told local news that she gave her child all of the doctor's prescribed medicines.https://t.co/81RF3luqLI

— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) February 7, 2020

There are serious issues with anti-vaccine activists and their activities put all of our lives at risk. But this case, the fact that a grieving family was thrust in the spotlight by a misleading media report at the darkest moment of their lives, sets pro-vaccine advocacy back ten paces.

Declining to use Tamiflu, especially as a prophylactic, is hardly a controversial opinion. When my family all came down with the flu two weeks ago, my pediatrician and a close pediatrician friend told me they don’t prescribe the drug for children; the inevitable severe stomach upset it causes puts them into danger of dehydration, and those risks outweigh the benefits (if there are any, which studies put into doubt).  Most of the recommendations made by parents in the Facebook group in the NBC report were made to me by medical professionals; there is no medical treatment for the virus outside of monitoring and medicating fevers as needed.

NBC’s decision to unleash a mob against this family perfectly illustrates exactly what vaccine-hesitant parents believe about the power of the media and government regarding vaccines. They don’t trust these institutions, and these institutions aren’t doing themselves any favors regaining that trust. As a parent with sick kids, it was positively terrifying seeing NBC yield its power against a grieving family. As a vaccine advocate, it was disheartening seeing the media play into the stereotypes that lead parents to eschew life-saving medicine.