Wrote this for facebook, realized it was not a good idea and decided here was a better place for it.
Vaccinations need a better PR department. Apparently “You don’t have to get Polio any more” isn’t good enough.
Yeesh. The amount of sheer misinformation going around just among everyday people regarding vaccines is terrible. I got into a discussion with someone the other day who I generally hold in fairly high esteem who assured me that flu vaccines cause the flu (they don’t[1]), that this is because the vaccine contains the live virus (they don’t[1]); that vaccines intentionally weaken the immune system in order to work (they don’t); that vaccines contain mercury that makes you sick (not since the early 2000s, with few rare exceptions[2] - not that it matters as thimerosal was never shown to cause any harm in the concentrations found in most vaccines); and that a German study[3] showed that vaccinated children get sick more often than unvaccinated children. This one deserves its own paragraph.
I’m not sure if this [3] was what the person in question was talking about, but it’s worth a look anyways. First of all, it’s worth noting that when actual scientists took a look at it, the results were quite different[4], showing no actual difference. However, the number of unvaccinated children in that study was restricted to those who could actually be monitored - leaving the sample rather low. However, it had three distinct advantages over the vaccineinjury.info study:
First of all, in the Ärzteblatt survey, there was an actual control group. You know, normally when observing something like that you have a control group to make sure that your study isn’t flawed in and of itself? But the VI survey didn’t have that. It only asked for those who did not vaccinate. This is really basic stuff, guys.
Secondly, the sample from Ärzteblatt was actually representative. The VI survey was entirely self-selected. You had to go to the website and fill out the form. This is really bad form, as it leaves tons of room open for a severe case of self-selection bias. Those most likely to respond were parents with an axe to grind - people who would visit a site like vaccineinjury.info and not immediately say, “wow, this is complete crap”. People who don’t trust conventional medicine. I wonder if that assumption plays out?
Lastly, Of those who responded to the VI survey, over 95% stated that they did not use conventional medicine. With those kind of numbers, how many diagnoses do you think slipped by? How many children with only mild symptoms were missed? When you compare the rate of infection of diseases that often are easy to miss in their mild forms when checked by medical professionals and when checked by homeopathic quacks, then there’s a serious bias there that you have to account for. Which the study did not.
Honestly, I don’t know why I’m bothering, because Orac, a professional medical scientist and quack blogger tears this whole study a new one far better than I could [5]. But seriously… This shit has got to stop. Vaccines are quite possibly the single most indisputably beneficial invention in humanity’s history. They are certainly one of the greatest achievements in modern medicine. And the sheer amount of ignorance surrounding them is just… Ugh. What we need is another major Polio outbreak to get people to understand that this shit has gone too far, and that people like Andreas Bachmair need to shut their stupid, undereducated, scientifically illiterate faces before they hurt even more people. I hold all the respect in the world for the person in question (the person who I heard this stuff from, not Bachmair - she needs to go die of polio), but I’d rather not spend a lot of time researching this stuff. And if I have to then you’re gonna hear me rant about it on facebook.
1: Fact and Fiction About the Flu
2: Thimerosal and Vaccines | FDA
5: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/08/31/an-anti-vaccine-administered-survey-back/