This Vaccine Truther bullshit is becoming real scary...

[busterbrown]

When high profile sports and hollywood celebrities start throwing gas on the fire, things can unravel very quickly...

But what really scares me is if the End of Timers and Millenialists begin jumping on this train to disaster because they feel the time is now..

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/13/3404341/jay-cutler-and-wife-are-vaccine-truthers/

[bluestateguy]

1. Don't let your kids befriend another kid whose parents are anti-vaxers

and generally eliminate or minimize your daily contact with such people.

[2naSalit]

2. ???

So, if you or your kid have been vaccinated and you come into contact with someone who hasn't... what's the problem? If you have been vaccinated, aren't you protected from those who aren't and that which they may carry? Logic indicates that only those who aren't vaccinated are at risk... no?

Just asking.

[busterbrown]

3. Perhaps this will help..

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/31/3232971/map-vaccine-denial/

[2naSalit]

4. doesn't answer the question, though.

[AnalystInParadise]

9. Looks to me

like people in Texas are getting their kids vaccinated 0 cases.......That should piss out all the Texas haters out there, at least until they claim that Texas doesn't keep track of disease or some other bullshit to justify their hatred.

[Mariana]

5. Vaccines aren't 100% effective.

Some vaccinated people will not get immunity. That's why. I was one of them - I got measles in 1972, a couple of years after I received the vaccine. So did one of my classmates, also vaccinated. We were the only two that got sick, because the vaccine did work for everyone else. It was an unvaccinated person visiting from another state that brought it. One or both of us caught it from him.

[2naSalit]

6. Interesting...

I had both kinds of measles when I was a kid, twice each... and the mumps twice and chicken pox twice. I don't recall that there was a vaccine for any of those back then. We had one for polio and a relative squashed my vaccine blister so I had to have that done twice. Had lots of siblings and we passed all of those diseases around until everyone in the family had been through each ordeal, we all survived them. I don't know of any cases of adults getting any of them after having endured them in childhood. As far as flu shots, they make me deathly ill so i was told to never get them, so I don't. But I have only had the flu a couple times in the past fifteen years so i guess I am doing a good job of keeping away from those who have it.

I don't get the hysteria of the vaccine promoters, so it makes me wonder. I am certain that there is no 100% successful vaccine or drug of any kind and I think it folly to expect that there ever would be such a thing. Seems some of us have become accustomed to too many absolutes that don't really exist in the real world. Just MHO.

People will get diseases and some will try to get medicines to avoid those diseases, but they're not gonna work for everyone. Condemning everyone who doesn't get them is inappropriate.

[Mariana]

10. It's valid to point out to them

that they're endangering other people besides themselves and their children.

Besides people like me, for whom one or more of the vaccines just didn't work, there are people who can't take the vaccines for real medical reasons (like you with flu shots). Very young babies aren't vaccinated either, and are susceptible.

In 2012, 122,000 people died from measles, according to the WHO. I survived it, obviously, but I was very sick. It took months to fully recover from it.

[fujiyama]

7. Herd immunity

Any scientist or doctor will tell you that no immunization or vaccine is 100% effective. Not only that, there are some that are allergic to some vaccines. Some vaccines also aren't effective after a certain number of years. Some people simply cannot be vaccinated for whatever legitimate reason.

If a person is refusing to vaccinate their child for some other asinine reason (fear or religious quackery), they are risking that their child will become a carrier of that particular disease. If that child becomes infected, they then spread it. It then becomes that much more difficult to eradicate that disease.

[2naSalit]

8. And so

those who can't tolerate the vaccine can't be carriers? And those for whom the vaccines are ineffective? And so they are, therefore, equally to blame for the inability to eradicate a disease? Disease does have a purpose, whether it is palatable or not to any of us, as they help control population. Since we are unwilling to accept that I guess mother nature has ways of dealing with us.

Sorry, I just can't get behind the rage.

[busterbrown]

13. When the CDC comes out and explicitly states that non vaccinated children represent a threat

its best to listen and not come up with your own conclusions..They are the experts after all.

Do you think they would come out with such a report if their fears were not real?

http://shotofprevention.com/2011/04/12/why-worry-about-the-unvaccinated/

[hunter]

14. It's like plutonium.

Below a certain amount there is not enough neutron activity to support an accelerating fission reaction.

Greater than that amount, and BOOM!



It's much the same as this:

The fewer mousetraps you have set with ping pong balls on them, the less likely you are to get an accelerating infection rate when the red ping pong ball is dropped into the box.

Yeah sure, fine, the deliberately unvaccinated are victims, but so are a whole lot of innocent people who were doing as best they could -- those in circumstances where the vaccine was unavailable, those who couldn't take the vaccine (allergies, etc.), those for who the vaccine didn't "take," those whose immunity has faded, babies not yet vaccinated, those with various immune disorders, etc..

[fujiyama]

17. Sorry I just can't get behind stupid

"Poverty does have a purpose, whether it is palatable or not to any of us, as they help control population. Since we are unwilling to accept that I guess the free market has ways of dealing with us."

Notice how crazy it sounds? Yeah, why bother vaccinating? Why bother educating? Or lifting people out of poverty? Some people just deserve to get sick and die, right? Your bizarre views on mother nature are quite at odds with rational and compassionate public policy. And its obvious you aren't "just curious", you're being deliberate in your ignorance. Go read some CDC literature or even the basic Wiki entry. I'm tired of this bullshit.

Adios. I have no patience for this insanity.

[2naSalit]

18. Whatever.

[3catwoman3]

11. Really scary, indeed.

I'm a pediatric nurse practitioner in a large private practice in a well educated and fairly affluent area of greater Chicago. I am reasonably successful in calming vaccine-reluctant parents who have bought into the "too-many-too-soon-overwhelm-the immune-system" BS when I explain the following:

1. newborns are exposed to thousands of antigens in the everyday world the moment they are born, and generally handle this just fine.

2. the total number of all the antigens contained all the immunizations given in the first 6 months is less than the antigens that used to be in a single smallpox vaccine.

3. 100-150 years ago, 16% of children died before they were 5 because of devastating illness we can now protect against.

It was quite interesting, during the first "swine" flu outbreak, everyone wanted the flu shot, they didn't care if it had a preservative in it, and they were upset when we ran out. The perceived risk was great enough that people didn't obsess over fears not supported by research.

We have one family in our practice whose mom was not vaccine averse (educated as a nurse practitioner but never employed as such), but terribly afraid that either the wrong thing would be administered, or a vaccine would not be prepared properly. She insisted that the immunizations be reconstituted and drawn up in front of her every single time so she could observe every step of the process. Unusual, but we accommodated her request. She was very worried about pretty much anything and everything. Imagine my surprise when, in the middle of the SARS epidemic in China, the family decided to go there so the kids could study Mandarin. Go figure.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

12. I first heard of this back in 2005 or 06 when the Imus's were beating the drumb

on Imus's MSNBC program.

There are a couple of birdbrains you want out in front cheer leading your cause.

[Bonobo]

15. A poorly educated country sees these things happening. nt

[Gothmog]

16. Vaccine truthers are dangerous

The whole population is at risk due to this stupidity

[MFM008]

19. wait until something like the 1918 flu hits

they will beg on their knees for a vaccine, worst epidemic ever. People died in hours. God some people are so stupid.

[fujiyama]

20. This paranoia and irrationality will doom this country

and it's not just from the right. The "woo wars" were revealing in how many on the left are willing to follow quacks because a basic scientific precept doesn't follow with their own preconceived notions or because anecdotes told them something conflicting. But then again, seemingly NO ONE has a basic understanding of statistics or scientific studies...and popular journalism does a piss poor job of explaining anything anymore...so can't blame them too much I guess. Fortunately there is an ignore option. I can't blame a person for not knowing something, but I cannot tolerate willful ignorance. Thankfully, there is an "Ignore" option.

Basic and willful ignorance of science is a real threat not only to economic growth and innovation, but to basic survival.