I’m with you. Let’s get t-shirts made.
I got you, Kolga, I was just rambling a bit. Still am:
I think it is still important to note that the anti-vaccine assholes are almost always upper middle class whites. I’m not sure education or facts can fix the problem. The people that refuse to vaccinate have somehow learned just enough and amassed just enough wealth that they think they can ignore doctors’ advice. They are not “stupid” in the classic sense. They think they “know better” and will refuse to be convinced otherwise. I am reminded of conspiracy theorists when I think of them.
ETA: ermm… crap. You keep Ninjaing me Kolga! It’s cool, though. You print up those T-shirts and I’ll buy one. 
They ARE conspiracy theorists. A lot of them buy into the idea of a multi-decade conspiracy between Big Pharma, the CDC, the WHO, and the government to force our children to receive vaccines for the sole purpose of making children sick. Then, the children will have to be treated by more medicines from Big Pharma.
They are every bit as cracked as the moon hoaxer people.
I was thinking a design that looked like the FUTK shirts the Dixie Chicks wore during their feud with Toby Keith.
You’re probably right - I read and post to the forums that don’t delete posts or ban people that disagree with the forum owner, and the anti-vax forums are notorious for doing things like that (see comment 137 on this thread http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/03/quoth_mark_not_a_doctor_not_a_scientist.php where JB Handley boasts that he deletes posts on the ‘Age of Autism’ site to “protect parents” (apparently protecting them from hearing anything positive about vaccines).
Around here, just about any excuse seems to be valid if parents don’t want to vaccinate. Basically, it seems that all a parent has to do is say “I don’t like that law”: “Since 1972, Texas has allowed medical and religious exemptions from immunizations required for school entry. In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed a provision allowing exemptions from immunizations for reasons of conscience. To obtain a conscientious exemption, including religious exemption, the parent or guardian must submit a written request to the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to obtain an affidavit form.” Surveys | Texas DSHS Resistance to vaccination doesn’t seem to be limited to the upper class here, either. I’ve seen plenty of folks who are just barely scraping by, who insist that the Medical Establishment has an ulterior motive for pushing vaccination.
Frankly, I don’t think that exemptions should be granted, except for valid medical reasons. I don’t care whether someone thinks that their precious snowflake might become even more special if s/he gets vaccinated. Any person who isn’t properly vaccinated is a danger to the people who are actually most at risk.
And, by the way, I’m up to date on all my shots. Well, not the rabies shot, but I keep up to date on tetanus and pneumonia and flu shots.
I love Orac. LOVE him. He, and Paul Offit, are true heroes. They both get threats from the anti-vaxxers a lot. Offit has stated that he doesn’t go on book tours for his books because of the threats.
Mothering dot commune is another forum that disallows pro-vaccine information. A number of posters on this board have been banned from that site for attempting to discuss the scientific data regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
A report just came out that Colorado is 2nd in the nation in unvaccinated children, and the report specifically stated that parents who don’t vaccinate cite the discredited Wakefield study as a reason. Also, Colorado is a state in which it’s VERY easy to get a parental exemption.
I think that non-vaccinated children should have to wear surgical masks in school. But I’m not making the rules.
I think that FU Jenny McCarthy t-shirt needs a companion that says “Fuck You Andrew Wakefield.”
I took it as another sign that I’d picked the right doctor to switch to when she made sure that I didn’t leave the intake appointment before I got one. My tetanus was up to date, but the old guy (in several senses of the word) didn’t have whooping cough on his radar at all.
Maybe with a trank dart full of virus. Hypothetically, of course.
I think you misspelled “hypodermically”.
Sometimes living in the boonies of the Caribbean has its advantages: vaccination is universal and mandatory for all kids. Only legitimate medical exceptions, and I wonder how those kids get into school. Schools are required to request an up-to-date vaccination card before kids are enrolled.
Knowing people that within parent’s living memory suffered from Polio does that. Plus nobody knows who Jenny McWhatHerFace is.
Verily and indeed. My mother has a great immunologist who’s given the family a ton of information. Booster shots, flu shots, precautions to take both at home and in public, the works.
Thankfully, we do have a vast repository of data supporting the idea that absent vaccination, the human immune system just isn’t good enough and when left alone does lead to large outbreaks of deadly diseases and widespread child mortality. It’s called FUCKING HISTORY. See also: Third world, the.
To paraphrase a great American, if I ever met Jenny McCarthy in person, I’d probably never stop slapping her.
Last I checked, there was no religious exemption for requiring that children wear seat belts. Vaccinations should be equally mandated.
History doesn’t apply to 21st-century rich white Americans, apparently. Not until their own children start dying. They claim that improved hygiene and better nutrition are all that are necessary to survive vaccine-preventable diseases. I’ve read anti-vaccine propaganda that literally states that the polio vaccine was completely unnecessary because better hygiene is what REALLY wiped polio out in American society.
There is truly no limit to the anti-vax, pro-disease idiocy.
I love that. That’ll go on a t-shirt, too.
From your mouth to Og’s ear. There are some things that are too damn important to allow for exemptions unless there is truly a medical issue that prevents immunization.
The problem is that state officials have been letting people get away with vaccine exemptions.
I’m sort of wary of mandatory vaccines on one hand. On the other my personal beliefs are that if you attempt to infect me or my kids with a vaccine preventable disease because you did not vaccinate you are a fucking idiot. I should have the right to sue you and so should everyone else you infect.
A single idiot’s decision not to vaccinate his kid cost officials over $175,000:
I think the parents in question should have been fined the entire amount with an extra 100k thrown in for sheer stupidity.
Penn & Teller did a wonderful episode on their Bullshit series about anti-vaccination loons (and that’s exactly what those bastards are). Of course, they highlighted that nut-job. McCarthy is:
[ol][li]probably wrong about her own son’s disease[/li][li]simply an attention whore[/li][li]a bitch[/ol][/li]
Seriously, out of all the WONJCTs, I can think of none other than the anti-vaccineers who actually deserve the “Buzz Aldrin” treatment.
McCarthy actually came out in favor of botox. Because “toxins” are fine when injected into your face but suck when used to help prevent disease. She’s just a great big pile of stupid.
That’s another t-shirt design: “Jenny McCathy - A Big Pile Of Stupid.”
That isn’t only in Singapore, it’s in any country with the budget for it. In Spain, medicalized ambulances go to shack areas to ensure that those kids who aren’t being taken to school/the doctor will get their vaccinations. Refusing to vaccinate a child would constitute negligence on the part of the parents; mind you, by the time someone here would come up with such a notion the list of reasons to take the kids away is likely to be phone-book size.
While I agree that antivaccination foolishness is often manifested by relatively well-off, presumably educated white folks, it is by no means limited to them.
False rumor-mongering has limited effectiveness of vaccination campaigns in east Africa, for example. In South Africa, a recent measles outbreak was blamed on anti-immunization attitudes found among both poor and relatively well-off people.
And when African immigrants arrive in the U.S., we have native and imported antivaxers ready to stoke their fears about vaccines - as in the case of Somalis in Minnesota (where measles has rebounded thanks to people like discredited researcher Andrew Wakefield).
Historically, it seems that antivaccination attitudes sprouted up first among poor, less educated people. But now we often have a more affluent, Google-educated demographic fanning the flames.