Comment Re:Bad Risk Assessment (Score 1) 1025
Whooping Cough, Measles. I don't live worldwide, I live in the UK. If you live in the third world then the balance is different.
At its core, the anti-vax movement is bad risk assessment for a few reasons. First of all, the horrors of the diseases that most vaccinations prevent against haven't been seen in a few generations. People my age (30's) with kids have never lived in a world where you could get polio or mumps at any moment and wind up dead, on an iron lung, deaf, scarred for life, etc..
That's right, people of your age never lived in a world where you could get polio or mumps at any moment. People of my age (55) have, so my experience might be a bit better than yours. I've had measles, I've had mumps, I've had chickenpox. So did all my friends. My wife (48) had all those and she had whooping cough, and so did several of her classmates. No big deal. Neither she nor I know anyone who were scarred for life, etc. Maybe we are both statistical anomolies, or maybe it just wasn't as bad as you seem to believe. I'm not suggesting it was perfect; but it just wasn't that way.
Because of the effectiveness of widespread childhood vaccination, we've had at least a generation of people with minimal firsthand exposure to all the wacky pathogenic fun that used to be quite common.
Indeed. BTW, how old are you. I'm 55, I've had measles, I've had chicken pox, I've had mumps, I've very likely had rubella. My wife is 48. She's had all those, she's had whooping cough. No big deal, and neither of us can remember "all the wacky pathogenic fun". In 1988, when MMR was introduced in the UK (measles vaccine had been around a while but take up was patchy) there were 16 deaths (http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1195733811885): since measles was endemic and virtually all kids would get it, that would be 16 deaths in around 600000. Not nice, but absolutely awful either. So vaccines may be good (broadly, I agree); vaccine *policy* may be good (broadly, I disagree); but most of the things vaccinated against were not the mass killers/mass complications that the pro-vaccine people would have others believe.
IANA M.D., but it seems to me that when people around your are actually DYING from serious illnesses like cholera, scarlet fever, small pox and many, many more, the medical professionals (who were not in any way gathering statistical information in the 1800s) would tend to disregard all instances of allergies as imagined illnesses. Actual life threatening epidemics sweeping the country EVERY YEAR have a way of sharpening the focus of those who deal human suffering. Are allergy rates rising? Sure, why not. I'd like to see your stats but I'm flexible on this. Are allergy rates higher than in the 1800s? Who knows. There aren't any stats.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2222.1988.tb02872.x/abstract "It was only in the early 19th century that the disease was carefully described and at that time was regarded as most unusual"
Please don't state your OPINIONS as facts. That's what started this mess in the first place.
I am also old enough to remember chicken pox 'parties' where stupid parents would force their perfectly healthy children to 'go play' with fever-ridden children in horrible itchy agony. I bet you never actually contracted measles or chicken pox from one of those 'parties'
Pre-vaccination, chicken pox and measles are far better as a child than later in life. I don't know whether I got them at a party or elsewhere, but neither chicken pox nor measles were "horrible itchy agony". Maybe they were for some, but don't misrepresent on groups experience for everybodies.
Again, please bring me the stats on the number of people per year who don't 'survive' multiple vaccine injections. I'm curious as to what that would be. Do you think it would be higher or lower than the number of people killed in car accidents each year, or killed by lightning, or killed in trout-fishing accidents, or suffocated by eating too many marshmallows. My lord, lets outlaw Campfire Marshmallows in that case.
No idea, and I have no need of those figures. My question - for what its worth, since you don't seem to be able to read my posts - is what are the negative effects; and I don't mean autism, I mean auto-immune problems in general, such as allergies (which also kill).
Talk about your knee-jerk reactions.
Oh, and by the way, I have this for you about Rubella from Wikipedia: "During the epidemic in the US between 1962–1965, Rubella virus infections during pregnancy were estimated to have caused 30,000 still births and 20,000 children to be born impaired or disabled as a result of CRS (congenital rubella syndrome)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubella Thank you but I for one respect life and want everyone to have a fair chance of being born WITHOUT PREVENTABLE BIRTH DEFECTS. Obviously you feel differently and that's your right.
No, I don't feel differently. Test girls for rubella antibodies pre-puberty and then vaccinate as needed; there is no need for this blanket forced medication.
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to work.
