Antivaxxers Attempt To Kill African-American Children
That is the point of telling Black Americans in particular that medicine that makes them resistant to disease is bad for them, right? Somebody was inspired by the spasms of self-destructive ignorance being displayed by their African equivalents and thought, “There are just too many black people around, wouldn’t it be nice if they all died in a plague”?
I’d say less of that and more of trying to raise memories of things like the Tuskegee Syphillis Experiment to get a groundswell from a group that normally does not support their cause (anti-vaxxers tend to be white, college educated morons who think they know how things work and how to read stats.)
Antivaxer attempts to make black parents suspicious of the MMR vaccine, raising comparisons to the Tuskeegee syphilis trial, is one of the most revolting and contemptible aspects of their campaign. The timing (on the heels of the uproar in Ferguson) is also suspicious.
It’s to be hoped that parents will see through this transparent attempt at racial exploitation by the antivax movement.*
it helps that the “whistleblower” has expressed support for vaccines and for immunizing children of all races. Also helpful is the bizarre irrationality of antivax leaders, who compared the CDC to Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin.*
Diseases that were largely eradicated in the United States a generation ago—whooping cough, measles, mumps—are returning, in part because nervous parents are skipping their children’s shots. NOVA’s “Vaccines – Calling the Shots” takes viewers around the world to track epidemics, explore the science behind vaccinations, hear from parents wrestling with vaccine-related questions, and shed light on the risks of opting out.
In fact, there were a bunch of large population studies with data taken before and after the discontinuation of thimerosal (a preservative used in MMR vaccines), including studies in Montreal, in California, in Denmark and in Sweden. The timing of the discontinuation varied in different regions, from the early 1980’s to the late 1990s.
The rate of autism (or pervasive developmental disorder diagnoses) increased throughout these periods, and the discontinuation showed no effect on the rate of change in autism diagnoses. (It’s not correct to say the rate of diagnosis has stayed the same - it’s been increasing DUE TO changes in diagnostic practices.)
Thimerosal has fuck all to do with autism, just as the vaccines themselves have nothing to do with autism.
I’m still glad Thimerosal has been removed from childhood vaccines, as some people, including myself, are quite strongly allergic to it. If I had had any children (which I didn’t) I would have been wary of giving them Thimerosal-containing vaccines in case they had inherited my allergy. It’s still in the flu shot, I have to get the preservative-free version, and thank goodness it’s available now.
Already, antivaxers are preemptively denouncing it. Hilariously, one commentator on the heavily antivax Age of Autism website is fulminating about one of the show’s participants being a “profiteer” (for having developed a lifesaving rotavirus vaccine) - but her column is sponsored by a compounding pharmacy that markets dubious supplements to parents of autistic kids.
See, “profiteering” is OK if you make profits by selling false hopes to desperate parents.
I fucking love it. What, do these people think it’s somehow wrong to profit from an invention that makes the world a better place? That everyone making medicine should just do it pro-bono? Of course Offit made a fair chunk of change off the vaccine he made - he just basically solved a problem that was killing hundreds of thousands!