I like this rule and will implement it immediately on my ascension to Queen of the World.
(Actually I’m mostly just posting to say HI AUNTBEAST! I felt obligated to welcome back my fellow L’engle-ite.)
No. The people who don’t vaccinate have to do that.
Marry me.
This is what gets me. Given all the things that can go wrong in life, the difference in total risk between vaccinated and unvaccinated is effectively zero. I’ve lost track of all the various jabs I’ve had over the years, and in total the risk to my health is probably equal to crossing the road a couple of times. Do these parents also plan on keeping their kids locked up for life in sterile bubbles lined with hypoallergenic padding? Even if they do, the mental health risks from that are still far higher than any hypothetical risk from vaccines.
A newly-released study finds (yet again) that there’s no link between vaccination and autism:
*"Scientists who tried to replicate a study that once tied a measles vaccine with autism said Wednesday they could not find any link and hope their study will encourage parents to vaccinate their children to combat a rash of measles outbreaks.
Parents’ refusals to have their children vaccinated against measles have contributed to the highest numbers of cases seen in in the United States and parts of Europe in many years.
Measles kills about 250,000 people a year globally, mostly children in poor nations."*
They say heredity only works one way, I’ll put forth that having children increases your risk of having mental illnesses that focus on conspiracy theories and quackpot remedies. I’m sure there must be a genetic marker or something we can use to weed out these folks.
Imagine, finding out in your 2nd week of pregnancy that the child you are carrying will grow up to be a blathering idiot with no critical thinking skills and in a less motivated society, would probably shrivel up and die from unmitigated stupidity if given half the chance. Would you carry that child to term?
Well, Darth, here is what Wiki says.
Just how awful were those reported side effects?
I had a bout of meningitis when I was four and it still affects me (in a minor way) to this day. Although I am left handed, my left arm and grip are about a quarter the strength of my right.
Several years ago, an acquaintance mentioned to me that she hadn’t had her older daughter vaccinated because of her concerns that our immune systems are going haywire without the challenge of fighting off pathogens and that this is the cause not only of increased rates of asthma but of psychological ills such as depression. Ooooooookaaaaay, I can’t pretend to be any sort of expert in things medical, but this didn’t make a lick of sense to me.
We lost touch when she moved away and then when she moved back, she told me that her older daughter had gone through several illnesses, including whooping cough and something that involved a major rash over most of her body. Measles? Who knows? She wasn’t going to a pediatrician, what with that limited Western medicine they’re so blinded by and all, and the homeopathic treatments she used weren’t effective. In the meantime, she had had a second daughter, who she had immunized because she just couldn’t go through all that again. She = the mother, not the child.
The kicker? This mother is a pharmacist. :smack: Shouldn’t she have been exposed to some science along the way?
I think I’ve told this story before, but I can’t remember:
My next-door neighbor had a bad case of measles when she was five. She ended up in the hospital in a coma for six months. When she woke up she was in a full-body cast. She had to relearn how to walk. Today, fifty years later, she is on powerful medications for a seizure disorder which came from the bout with measles. Her speech has been affected, her feet have been affected (from the cast, mainly) and her mental processing has been affected. All of this came from the measles.
I really wish people would understand it’s not just a rash!
My wife still suffers physical side effects from a bout of meningitis over 50 years ago. Get vaccinated!
I was astonished when I first heard about this a few years ago (When my first child was born.) Now it’s something I just can’t talk to people about- because it seems to be one of those things that lives on despite the abundance of proof against it- even when it’s carefully laid out so as to be completely understood.
People will just believe what they think they are seeing; and there really is no arguing with it. Believe me, I have tried.
In terms of who is likely to believe this: I think the truth of the matter in relation to this is that, “Dumbass knows not religion or politics.”
I discussed this subject on the other stupid board that I’m a member of, and by the end of it (multiple cites and sites and every doctor in the world telling them there is no link), there were still a couple of people who were standing firm on the stance, “You can’t tell a parent what to do. There is still the possibility of vaccinations causing problems.” No vaccination for stupid. Until every doctor in the world declares there is zero chance of a link between vaccinations and autism and zero chance of side effects from the vaccinations, they’ll be content to take the biggest risk of their lives with their children’s health. You can’t even chalk it up to ignorance, because they have been informed of all the information they needed to make a good decision.
I had a flu last week (which is rare for me - I’ll get an occasional cold, but almost never flu), and it made me feel miserable enough that I can happily live the rest of my life without having another bout of flu. And that’s one of the mildest diseases on these lists. Being sick just isn’t fun, not one bit. Parent who won’t vaccinate just don’t seem to make that connection - your child is going to get very, very sick, and it is going to be horrible if not deadly. And not only will your child get sick, but they will likely make other people sick. And that is ALL YOUR FAULT.
Flu Shots are another hot topic. I love to hear people rant about how they got the flu shot and still got the flu. I love explaining to them how flu shots work. It is pretty interesting how those shots come about. I heard a report about how it works and to say it is fascinating how close we come to getting it right is a vast understatement.
Here is the obligatory wiki link Influenza vaccine - Wikipedia
I had a flu shot last October - either my immunity’s running out, this was a different strain, or it wasn’t actually flu (I did have a fever, which I understand is the differentiating factor between cold and flu). It was stronger than a cold, but weaker than a usual flu - maybe my flu shot prevented it from blossoming into full-blown flu. I don’t know if there’s a scientific basis for this, but after getting a flu shot, any colds I get seem much milder. I figure my body isn’t wasting resources fighting influenza bugs so it can attack the cold bugs better. 
Well, I vote for immunization.
I got a the first of two MMR shots two days ago. Based on my vaccination records that mom kept for the first 21 years of my life, a measles vaccination was the only one that I had no record of and knew I’d never had it. In terms of all the immunizations I’ve been getting in the past three years (travel to French Guiana and Kazakhstan, this was the worst I can remember. It felt like a white hot needle for about 20 seconds.
I deserved the pain: it was payback for telling my grand-daughter when she got her MMR earlier that it wasn’t going to hurt at all. I think they use Habañeros as a solution for the vaccine.
Still, it beats brain damage.
That is why I posted the wiki link. Flu shots are guesswork, this will be the first time in flu shots history they are replacing all of the viruses.
We are idiots, rock throwing little cave dwellers when it comes to understanding how many different ways these things can wreck complete havoc on us. It is pathologically insane to discard things that we KNOW are true for such inane reasons.
Remind me to call my pediatrician to get my daughters shot record. She starts school with the little side effects of these wackos. Save Me!
Maybe we should make those freak carry insurance to cover the possible ramifications for precious little Mehckailah not getting her shots. Who the hell is going to pay for the damage done to my child because of these people?
Tourist comes in… “Do you have your vaccination record?” No? Then you can’t come in. Other nations do this, we should also.
It would be easy enough to link it to the passport so that part of getting your passport is proving your immunization record (and by “easy” I mean getting a passport is so tortuous that one more difficult step won’t make that much difference 
).
Auntbeast - maybe people should be suing for medical bills.
It’s been mentioned in a couple of threads that both Presidential candidates have given evidence of pandering to antivaccinationist fears (McCain outright linking a once-common vaccine preservative to autism, despite ample evidence to the contrary).
Good news - Barack Obama has reportedly affirmed his support for comprehensive vaccination, in the process ticking off some antivax autism zealots.
More on Obama’s redemption here.
Congratulations, Mr. Obama.
I don’t think so: