# Hey antivaxers, suck on this **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 25, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290 "2011-07-25T18:07:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/21 "2011-07-26T15:58:27Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > No, it wasn’t, but it did kill some people. It also permanently scarred others, such as myself. I won’t say the scars caused my body image issues, but having scars on my face certainly didn’t help matters. I wish there had been a chickenpox vaccine when I was a kid, and if and when I have a kid, I will certainly get him or her vaccinated for chickenpox on schedule. ☹ One my friends was babysitting. She’s an immigrant from Colombia and never had the chicken pox or the shot. At the time she was in her 20’s. The idiot mom did not let her know that the kids she was watching had the chicken pox. She spent two weeks in bed and emerged with scars everwhere including a few dozen on her face. Anti-vaxxers can all drop dead. Their ignorance is not only inexcusable; it’s also sadly highly contagious. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/22 "2011-07-26T20:30:18Z")
Not only did my sister and I suffer from chickenpox (I remember it being itchy as anything), now that I’m getting to the age where I’m thinking of having a kid of my own, I realize that being stuck at home in a major snowstorm with a 4-year-old and an 18-month-old, both with chickenpox, was probably not very pleasant for my mother. I suspect that wasn’t one of the high points of her parenting career. Of course, there was no vaccine for chickenpox then, so what happened was nobody’s fault. If the same thing happens to antivaxers today, they deserve it, for being idiots. Their kids don’t deserve the suffering and possible long-term effects of these diseases, though, which is the sad part. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/23 "2011-07-26T20:40:10Z")
“Hey anti-vaxers, suck on this” Hell no, thats the biggest, ugliest, hairiest “needle” I’ve ever seen. I don’t think so 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/24 "2011-07-27T16:08:09Z")
It’s so \*cute \*how you think people like this will be convinced by facts and logic. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/25 "2011-07-28T03:03:27Z")
One reason to strongly support vaccinations is plague mathemetics. Most epidemic vectors require a certain “suseptible” percentage of the population to maintain any momentum. If you reduce that percentage below a certain level, you can stop the pandemic dead in tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/26 "2011-07-28T13:57:17Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > It’s so \*cute \*how you think people like this will be convinced by facts and logic. Oh, I don’t. But the law won’t let me do what I want to do to them, what they deserve for trying to bring back epidemic disease. So I vent at them. It isn’t good enough, but it is better than nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/27 "2011-07-28T15:38:52Z")
**FML** , I’m pretty sure the main reason to support vaccinations is _not being fucking retarded_. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/28 "2011-07-28T16:12:22Z")
I thought you could still get shingles even with the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/29 "2011-07-28T16:23:30Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I am getting the shingles vaccine as soon as I possibly can. The prospect of agonizing pain, potentially lasting months or years after the shingles outbreak, scares the crap out of me. Not to mention the damage it can do to the eye if you’re unfortunate enough to have it there! I have never seen anyone in as much agony as my mother in the throws of shingles. She lost part of her hearing from nerve damage and has chronic pain on her neck, so much so that the collar of her shirt is excruciating. This is a woman who knew about pain in her life and was utterly felled by shingles. You bet I’m getting the vaccine. I had chicken pox at age 17. 104 fever for days and my face completely covered in sores. I was lucky to only have two little scars, but I was extremely sick. My kids got the vaccine when it came out. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/30 "2011-07-28T17:00:19Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I have never seen anyone in as much agony as my mother in the throws of shingles. throes ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/31 "2011-07-28T18:21:57Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I thought you could still get shingles even with the vaccine. Good question - off to Google! It looks like the answer is, [“Maybe.”](http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/commoninfections/a/shingles_4.htm) > [@](#): > > Although the FDA hasn’t evaluated the effects of the vaccine on shingles, Krause believes that “in the long term, if you can prevent enough people from getting the wild (natural) type of chickenpox, you’re likely to see a beneficial effect on the incidence of shingles and post-herpetic neuralgia. But it may take several generations for this to happen.” It also looks like a chicken pox vaccination for older adults might help reduce the incidence of shingles, though. ---
**Author:** ![Tortuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@Tortuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tortuga)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/32 "2011-07-28T21:42:53Z")
I don’t know if anything short of a claw hammer can change the mind of a rabid antivaxer, but I’d like to think that some people who might be on the fence (or just too lazy to actually look into the issue and just side with the emotional fearmongering out of passive idiocy) would be motivated to vaccinate by the personal faces from real stories, so I link to stuff like the shotbyshot website. I don’t think people realise how devastating something like [chickenpox](http://shotbyshot.org/chickenpox/a-chickenpox-story/) can be. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/33 "2011-07-28T23:00:13Z")
> [@Tortuga](#): > > I don’t know if anything short of a claw hammer can change the mind of a rabid antivaxer, but I’d like to think that some people who might be on the fence (or just too lazy to actually look into the issue and just side with the emotional fearmongering out of passive idiocy) would be motivated to vaccinate by the personal faces from real stories, so I link to stuff like the shotbyshot website. I don’t think people realise how devastating something like [chickenpox](http://shotbyshot.org/chickenpox/a-chickenpox-story/) can be. Now, see, this just may be effective. I think that this may be how a lot of anti-vaxxers think…with their hearts. They sure aint thinkin’ with their heads. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/34 "2011-07-29T00:13:38Z")
Unfortunately the anti-vaxxers will always counter personal stories with stories of allegedly hordes of vaccine injured children. They really and truly are convinced of a few things about vaccines: a) the diseases we vaccinate against are minor and easily treatable (including ones like tetanus :eek:) b) most vaccines are given solely so that vaccine makers can earn a huge profit and c) vaccines makers and the government are concealing a huge epidemic of vaccine injured children who are dying by the thousands. No really. I recently picked up a copy of _Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights and Our Children_ by Louise Habakus and Mary Holland from the local library. The book’s really a close look at the lies told by the modern anti-vax movement. They even include chapters by discredited British fraudster Andrew Wakefield. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/35 "2011-07-29T00:20:31Z")
Well, my son got the vaccine, as required before starting Kindergarten. He came down with chicken pox two years later anyway. Vaccines are good, but they don’t always work. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/36 "2011-07-29T01:15:27Z")
You’re right, they don’t, any more than the wild type of the disease always confers lifelong immunity. All the more reason to vaccinate enough people to stop the spread of these diseases and protect those who can’t be vaccinated and those for whom they don’t work as well as we’d like. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/37 "2011-07-29T01:17:15Z")
> [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](#): > > One reason to strongly support vaccinations is plague mathemetics. Most epidemic vectors require a certain “suseptible” percentage of the population to maintain any momentum. If you reduce that percentage below a certain level, you can stop the pandemic dead in tracks. If you can come up with a better name for this than herd immunity, something that will catch on, I’ll help you promote it. I’m tired of being told that people aren’t animals and it’s nasty to refer to them as a herd. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/38 "2011-07-29T02:00:02Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > **FML** , I’m pretty sure the main reason to support vaccinations is _not being fucking retarded_. I think you’re being a bit unfair here. I’ve known many intellectually handicapped people who are perfectly capable of recognising the value of vaccinations. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/39 "2011-07-29T13:25:06Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Well, my son got the vaccine, as required before starting Kindergarten. He came down with chicken pox two years later anyway. Vaccines are good, but they don’t always work. They don’t. But you know what does? Eradicating diseases. You don’t know anyone who’s had smallpox since 1977, do you? And do you know how smallpox got eradicated? By vaccination, that’s how. We’re a long way from eradicating chicken pox, but it will never happen without vaccines. ---
**Author:** ![pikey\_pete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pikey\_pete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pikey_pete)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290/40 "2011-07-29T16:07:16Z")
i want to develop a vaccine for ignorance. not something long and difficult…like education. no, i want to invent a one-stop-shot that cures ignorance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-antivaxers-suck-on-this/590290.md?page=3)