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74 Comments
- GregIsLegend, on 01/10/2009, -6/+47A proud European tradition.
- BeShirtHappy, on 01/10/2009, -3/+42We could start seeing serious outbreaks in the U.S. now that many parents are not having their children immunized.
- minoss, on 01/11/2009, -5/+39Looks like the fruits of the anti-vaccination movement are finally starting to bloom
- enosp, on 01/11/2009, -1/+25enjoy your ignorence, and measles encephalitis
- StigNordas, on 01/11/2009, -1/+24With more and more wealthier Americans choosing not to vaccinate their kids, measles is also making a moderate comeback here in the states. In the US It used to be a disease of the poor, but now it's turned into a disease of the rich.
- enosp, on 01/11/2009, -4/+22autism seriously? Antivaxx folks still hanging on to that?
I take it you haven't read any related scientific studies since the mid-1990s - Lavarock, on 01/11/2009, -3/+19 Africa exports Ebola. South America exports yellow fever. China exports everything else. Calm yourselves.
- Halsfield, on 01/11/2009, -0/+14some people will take a jab at America for anything. Lines on a map make some people insane and lose their ability to reason clearly.
- thedivinelyevil, on 01/11/2009, -0/+11in a lot of poor countries, vaccination is a big deal. i know that in nepal they even have a vaccination day where everyone gets free vaccinations, and holiday for schoolchildren. parents are encouraged to take the day off to vaccinate their kids. it's a huge campaign.
- nowhereelse, on 01/11/2009, -3/+13I don't know what's behind the decreasing levels of immunisation elsewhere in Europe, but here in the UK it's due to the MMR scare. The author of false reports associating autism with the MMR jab is Andrew Wakefield. His malpractice has put the UK in a situation where a measles epidemic is probably inevitable and imminent. He's in Texas now. Watch out for this conman.
- Punchcardz, on 01/12/2009, -0/+10Measles in the 1950's resulted in ~50,000 hospitialziations and 400 deaths a year. Yeah, MOST kids were fine, which is a hell of a long way it being zero problem for a very preventable disease.
- enosp, on 01/11/2009, -3/+12the differences between ethyl and methyl mercury aside, Thiomersal isn't even in MMR fool
http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm - inactive, on 01/11/2009, -1/+10It's not the wealthy, it's the stupid.
- Commonwealth, on 01/11/2009, -1/+10I don't believe Africa has ever exported Ebola, actually. That would be pretty serious...
- Disgod, on 01/12/2009, -2/+11They should be proud of themselves, they have a body count attached to their ideology for absolutely no gain. They are pseudoscience at its worst because it hurts children.
I have to agree with the "Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" and say that Jenny McCarthy is definitely the "Pseudoscience Douche Bag of the Year".
If anybody actually believes Jenny McCarthy's ***** I suggest reading this:
http://www.childrenofthenewearth.com/free.php?page ...
She thought that her child was an "Indigo Child", before she started campaigning for anti-vaccination. She has absolutely no scientific credibility and no evidence to back her claims up. She is junk science at its worst.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children - SammyJr, on 01/11/2009, -1/+9Beautyon, I love you guys. So dedicated to your beliefs.
My wife used to read Mothering.com and there's a lot of antivax types on there. So many of them vaccinated and had a child that ended up with autism. They then joined your belief system and refused to vaccinate their other children. As often as not, their other kids became autistic as well. They were at a loss to explain their unvaccinated child's autism using your dogma.
BTW, MMR is a live vaccine. Thimerosal was never used because it would kill the viruses and render the vaccine useless. - Halsfield, on 01/11/2009, -1/+9try earlier.
- peters1023, on 01/11/2009, -1/+9Really? Airplanes and boats man..... Its a much smaller world.
- Aliwalla, on 01/11/2009, -2/+10Were we kind enough to wrap the measles in blankets again?
- dhughes, on 01/11/2009, -0/+8 Since 1492?
- enosp, on 01/11/2009, -1/+9ah the august journal of some unreferenced comment on a baby blog who uses "my friend Allison" as primary lit, now thats believable testimony
grasping at straws indeed - norbiu, on 01/11/2009, -0/+7Account deleted. What the ***** did he say?
- inactive, on 01/12/2009, -1/+7Stupid knows no boarders.
Much of this scare started on daytime tv here in the US. Oprah or some of her ilk had on a crackpot like your doc. All the soccer moms sitting on fat asses soaking this stuff up. - farfromhere, on 01/11/2009, -1/+7Because Americans are the only ones to show concern for their own citizens.
/s - Disgod, on 01/12/2009, -0/+6Yeah, but those diseases aren't preventative. Measles is easily prevented by vaccination, but thanks to the Anti-Vaxers it is becoming more common. These outbreaks are completely preventable and would be prevented if it wasn't for their ***** pseudoscience.
- docbob84, on 01/12/2009, -1/+7Gardasil should be given to boys. A) a sexually transmitted infection usually involves sex to be transmitted, ie a girl AND a boy. Males are carriers of HPV and the infection rate is equally high. B) Gardasil does not only protect against the two strains that cause most cases of cervical cancer, it also protects against the two strains that cause most genital warts. Not going to kill the guy like cancer can kill the girl, but something neither should have to deal with. I do agree the price tag is somewhat prohibitive, but if possible males should get it as well as females.
Also, while talking about the diseases behind MMR and chickenpox: Autism's incidence rate is about 0.005, or 1 in 200 give or take. Each of the diseases you mentioned cause long term problems at a much HIGHER rate. Measles causes a disorder called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) which can kill around age 20. Mumps can cause orchitis (testicular swelling) and sterility, as well as life-threatening pancreatitis. Rubella will absolutely cause birth defects if caught by a pregnant woman in her first trimester; there's no "can" about it, it happens period. Chickenpox causes shingles; not life-threatening but ask someone who's had an outbreak if they wish they had been vaccinated, it hurts like a *****. My point is, even if you do believe MMR *MIGHT* cause autism (it doesn't but whatever), even then the chance of having something bad happen is much less than if they catch the diseases.
As far as choice is concerned: There are people who believe their kids should not go to school but to work. There are people who believe that women should have no role in society. There are people who believe that boy children are somehow worth more than girl children, and murder their daughters. Just because you believe something does NOT mean the government should bend around your beliefs, especially when not vaccinating is causing these diseases to come back. They should be compulsory, and you shouldn't be allowed to "opt out" of something so vital to public health. Because I guarantee if a seriously virulent, lifethreatening strain of Measles develops, you won't be able to just opt out of quarantine. - FungusAmungus, on 01/11/2009, -1/+7I know that's just sarcasm, but every time I see the whole smallpox blanket reference I cringe a little.
1. There was only one recorded attempt of infecting native people with smallpox using blankets and the result is largely unknown. The only thing recorded about it was from one man's journal, so it's not like it was a mandate from the leaders of the colonies. According to Wikipedia, cotton is a very poor transmitter of the disease, so it's actually very unlikely that it worked at all.
2. Colonists didn't understand how diseases were even spread. The concept of microbial life was kinda lost on them.
3. It is much more likely that native people contracted the disease from contact on the battlefield. It's a little easier to get a horrible disease when you have another man's blood all over you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_blankets#Bla ... - JamesBondJr, on 01/11/2009, -0/+6Watch out, with the type of karma you're getting from comments like that you're gonna be getting measles soon
- Lavarock, on 01/11/2009, -0/+5Actually the Philippines just had an ebola outbreak recently. Pretty scary.
- radiantstorm, on 01/11/2009, -5/+10All part of the coming global culling.
- inactive, on 01/11/2009, -0/+5Sport, show one peer reviewed medical journal linking vaccines to autism.
- crazy0, on 01/11/2009, -2/+6lavarock exports nonsense
- Aliwalla, on 01/11/2009, -0/+4i stand skepticized
- niczar, on 01/12/2009, -0/+4The problem is that the unvaccinated put the vaccinated at risk, because no vaccine is 100% effective. But when enough people are vaccinated, it creates enough of a barrier so that viruses can't spread. When the ratio gets too low, an unvaccinated person can pass on the virus to a vaccinated one for whom the vaccine didn't work. Tragically, the unvaccinated ***** might not even get really sick, just asymptomatically carry the virus.
- docbob84, on 01/12/2009, -1/+4Can we speed that process up a little bit?
- michaelrsa, on 01/11/2009, -1/+4We all do things we aren't proud of, Europe subjugated native people, America devastated the Indians, and as a white South African... you get the picture. It's to late to blame, lets just learn from our mistakes, that's the best we can hope for.
- shovelihave, on 01/11/2009, -2/+5Sharing is Caring
- secrity, on 01/11/2009, -2/+5When I was growing up, it was routine for kids to get measles, mumps, and chicken pox; it wasn't a big deal. Chicken pox and mumps were considered to be inevitable and it is better to get them as a young kid than to get them after puberty. Mothers had their healthy kids play with kids who had chicken pox so that their kids would catch it -- and get immunity to it.
- jpop, on 01/12/2009, -0/+3I would assume they would have died before it could be exported. Ebola acts pretty fast.
- peestandingup, on 01/11/2009, -2/+5Night seeking zombies to follow.
- Commonwealth, on 01/12/2009, -0/+2I looked that up, and apparently it's a form of ebola only found in pigs. Pretty interesting.
- soupwithafork, on 01/11/2009, -5/+7Another one of Europe's fine contributions to the developing world.
- Halsfield, on 01/12/2009, -0/+2you dont need to understand diseases to spread them fella.
- pe5t1lence, on 01/11/2009, -0/+2Ahhh Clerks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEEmxbqV3rg - inactive, on 01/12/2009, -0/+2@SammyJr - virii do not need to be alive to make a working vaccine.
- nowhereelse, on 01/12/2009, -0/+2To be fair to the soccer moms, they probably expected that a doctor was not spreading false information to support some ongoing lawsuits. The stupidity came when they refused to believe the 99% of researchers who called *****.
- SauceSpot, on 01/11/2009, -2/+4again?
- emecks, on 01/11/2009, -5/+7You're welcome.
:p - flanflan567, on 01/11/2009, -1/+3Cocaine's a helluva drug.
- minoss, on 01/12/2009, -1/+2Haha, awesome:
The Indigo phenomena may be the reaction of children watching television shows with an emphasis on magic and New Age-compatible language. An example of this was illustrated in a Dallas Observer article discussing Indigo children, a reporter recorded the following interaction between a man who worked with Indigo children, and a purported Indigo child:
"Are you an Indigo? he asked Dusk. The boy looked at him shyly and nodded. "I'm an avatar," Dusk said. "I can recognize the four elements of earth, wind, water and fire. The next avatar won't come for 100 years." The man seemed impressed."
Readers of the Dallas Observer later wrote in to inform the newspaper that the child's response appeared to be taken from the storyline of Avatar: The Last Airbender; a children's cartoon showing on Nickelodeon at the time of the interview. The editor of the Dallas Observer later admitted they were not aware of the possible connection until readers brought it to their attention. -
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