Massive measles outbreak - thank you, Andrew Fucking Wakefield

The BBQ Pit
1021

“Flu like illness” is indeed a diagnosis- but IMO not often nearly as bad, and I’m going to borrow Rick’s description :wink:

Ironically I’ve been able to get folk to take the 2014 flu shot by pointing out that the flu kills people much more often than Ebola (I say this with a straight face) and they need to maximize their resistance.

Picture this- man in grocery line with quite a serious case of Dunlop disease and a cart containing beer, chips, Oreos, and dips, stating loudly that he doesn’t get flu shots because the flu can be prevented by good nutrition. Fucking idiot on a lot of levels.

I’m a Guillain Barre survivor, 1975. That was the year before it was considered a reaction to swine flu vaccine. For a very long time flu shots were not recommended due to fears of causing recurrence- and I’d get it, sometimes badly, sometimes not. What a relief for the last decade of being allowed to get them (and I always check yes on the questionnaire)- no flu (imagine that) in spite of working in ambulatory care.

Having read only the first ten pages of this I might be guilty of repetition- but are the antivaxxers willing to quarantine their families while letting the kids acquire natural immunity? My mother’s generation (b 1926) had quite strict rules- she was quarantined for MMR and scarlet fever. Doctors made house calls then, as did my GP when I had the now VPDs, so as to keep us out of the office. I lost half of the spring of my 4th grade year because of mumps on one side, measles, followed by mumps on the other.
So- I wholeheartedly pit antivaxxers, only a few of whom I’ve ever been able to convince otherwise.

1022

Here

1023

I did not get a flu shot for a good decade because I am allergic to the preservative. I think I got the flu once during that time period. Now I get the non-preserved flu shot, and I haven’t gotten the flu since. Thanks for the reminder to go get my flu shot!

1024

Nice stab.

1025

Brian Deer (the investigative reporter who revealed Andrew Wakefield’s unethical and dishonest research on the MMR vaccine) has a new story out about the continued fallout from the Wakefield scandal.

This time it’s the sad tale of a “mommy warrior” found to have fabricated accounts of her son’s autism which was falsely blamed on the vaccine and to have engaged in Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy.

“She claimed that from the time of his vaccination M had suffered from “autistic enterocolitis”, a novel condition not accepted by medical opinion but cited by Wakefield in his spurious research. Other ailments itemised with incredulity in (a British court judgment revoking her legal deputyship over her son) include loss of sensation in (the child’s) hands and feet, adverse effects of “electromagnetic energies”, apparent brain seizures, meningitis, “leaky gut syndrome”, Lyme disease, uncontrollable sneezing, a shut-down of his urinary system, “tumours” in his gums, chronic blood poisoning, uncontrollable temperatures, a “black shadow sitting on his left sinuses”, stabbing pains in his groin, rheumatoid arthritis, heavy metal poisoning and “black gunge oozing from every orifice”.
(The mother) embarked upon often costly remedies, including tin-foil wrapping on electrical equipment in (the child’s) room, cranial osteopathy, reflexology, six-hour sessions in an oxygen chamber and handfuls of pills…”

“In (the judge’s) view, (the mother) subjected her son to unnecessary tests and interventions and/or lied about purported illnesses. She denied (him) the chance to develop more independence. She allowed the pain of a dental abscess to go untreated for a year, then planned to send the lost teeth to Wakefield. And there are the conspiracy theories: thousands of doctors, scientists (and reporter Deer) conceal alleged horrific injuries to children; judges deny fairness; and social workers wish to remove autistic victims from their parents.
“(Her) allegations of multiple conspiracies are a fantasy,” (the judge) says… The judge found her controlling, manipulative, duplicitous and obstructive.
“In 35 years of family law and in the Court of Protection, dealing with many hundreds of families,” he writes, “I have rarely, if ever, come across someone who is so difficult.”
He adds: “(She) has dominated this hearing in a way quite unlike any other case in my professional experience. On more than one occasion she said that this case was about her and, although she was quick to retract that comment, when I pointed out that it was actually about (her son), there was no doubt that she felt she was the main focus of the inquiry. She was the centre of attention and, in my judgment, at times obviously enjoying the experience.”…
Here was a mother condemned like few others. It shows how Wakefield’s shadow continues to fall long after he was struck off. For (she) could be countless mothers, particularly in America where hardly a month passes without an appearance by Wakefield at conferences crowded with mother warriors. They trust him, I think, because the alternative is to blame themselves for their children’s condition.”

1026

Now see, if he had been a crystal child she could have fixed him with her Super Mommy Touch. That’s the real issue here.

1027

more on the spread

A Disease We Thought Was History Is Making An Alarming Comeback

1028

A friend posted a related link on FB:

How do vaccines cause autism?

kinda NSFW www.howdovaccinescauseautism.com

1029

Wasn’t going to bump it just to post this, but since it was bumped already…

I wrote a guest blog last week for the Immunization Partnership. Nothing as exciting as our own Doper’s book on vaccines, but… they tell me it’s (as of a couple of days ago) the second most read blog they’ve published!

Switching Sides: From Anti-Vaccine to Pro

1030

Great work,hon!

I just worry that this is what it is going to take: thousands of cases of measles again for no reason. Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that the best we can do is a) make it harder for those who are anti-vax for non-medical reasons to do things like send their kids to school and b) pat those on the back who are pro-vax a little harder. I think that gets lost in the shuffle. We spend a little too much IMO respecting people who don’t vax and too little respecting those who do.

1031

Nicely done, WhyNot.

1032

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/article8517110.html

1033

The woman who caused the Disneyland measles outbreak is known.
Why haven’t some of the victims sued her in court for damages?

1034

It might be doable:

1035

I was not thinking of criminal charges (which is why I said “suing for damages”). I was thinking of a civil lawsuit against her for the damages she has caused to them/their children.

1036

The article I pulled up also links to a paper that talks about criminal and civil charges.

1037

This ended up on my Facebook feed, thankfully not from a total antivaxxer.

As Penn Jillette would say:Then there’s this asshole

1038

On the plus side this just happened:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jan/29/anti-vaccination-campaigner-sherri-tenpenny-cancels-australian-tour

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Bolding mine.

1039

I’m totally OK with the anti-vaxxers. Natural selection is at work, nothing to see here, moving along.

1040

Except for the part where they give measles to those who can’t get the vaccine (like every baby under 1, those in chemotherapy, those allergic to the vaccine components) or who got the vaccine but didn’t develop immunity to the measles (about 1% of those with MMR vaccination history will still catch it when exposed to the virus. Better than the unvaccinated rate of 90%, but still not none.)

Yeah, sure. Want to kill your kid? Be my guest, I guess…except we don’t accept people actively killing their kids with guns or poison, or putting their health at risk through other forms of neglect.

But it’s more than just their own kids they’re putting at risk.