I never spent an entire Sunday afternoon sitting in my room with no Atari because I asked the doctor a question. I was taught not to question the preacher/Sunday School teacher. You are broadening that out to imply unquestioning obedience to all authority, which I never claimed.
Also, I never claimed that unthinking obedience to religion is the cause of anti-vaxers. I claimed that a lifetime of fear-stoking, evidence-ignoring, science-trashing sermons softens peoples’ brains up and makes them more susceptible to anti-vaxers, because the anti-vaxers use the exact same tactics as the preacher. Obviously I am not claiming causation, or I would have to explain how I managed to escape the same fate. But these people have been taught all their lives to not ask questions and not think critically about what they are taught. The entire religion depends on that.
Don’t forget, the original sin was all about Eve searching for knowledge. How did the snake tempt her to eat the fruit? By promising her (truthfully) that she would gain knowledge. The search for knowledge strikes fear in the heart of every christian. It’s not that questions don’t need answers, it’s that people don’t need questions.
You know what? Fuck you. My paternal grandmother had a brother who died of pertussis (whooping cough) when he was three. I’m sure my great-grandmother would have been just thrilled with your attitude.
At least the flat earthers aren’t hurting anyone with their beliefs.
From the article linked by the OP:
Oh dear god, the ignorance, she burns.
First, dearest, it’s not dead bacteria. It’s a virus, you moronic cunt muffin. Second, yes, it’s a toxin. It’s been done for centuries. And it WORKS.
I’m a college student. I’ve currently opted out of getting the meningitis vaccine as I don’t like shots at all, am unnerved by the sideffects reported, and haven’t seen any news of outbreaks in the area.
This totally pisses me off. My nephew is immune-suppressed as a result of a liver transplant as an infant, and he depends on herd immunity for certain things (he can never have a live-virus vaccine, for example, nor be exposed to children immediately after they get it).
:mad:
The anti-vaccine crowd makes me crazy. There is ZERO evidence that vaccines of any kind caused their kid’s autism, but hey? Why let that stop them? :rolleyes:
Stupid fuckers. And don’t get me started on the dangerous things they try on their kids to “cure” their autism, such as chelation…
I think the legal problem might be that the state compels children to attend school. Maybe someone with more knowledge about the law can say something about this.
Some times I am happy to live in a third(ish) world country. Around these here parts (Dom. Rep.) vaccination is obligatory and free. For the lazy there is a yearly campaign in which vaccination staff is sent door to door in the poorest neighborhoods. And schools would NOT take your child without a full vaccination card.
These anti-vaccine people scare and sadden me. What the hell are they thinking? I am 38, but Polio took longer to be eradicated here, I met a victim of Polio, a poor man that was physically fucked up and whose physical ailments lead to a messed-up head.
Sometimes, just sometimes, I think that people should be required to have a license to spawn.
I dunno. I’m a college student too and I got the shot. But shots don’t really bother me. (I also enjoy giving blood. So maybe I’m just weird.) And I haven’t experienced any side effects. Oh, except for splitting headaches, tremors, minor blindness, ataxia, poor blood circulation, cardiac arrythmias, and anal seepage.
Also, my left arm fell off.
As for whether or not I would vaccinate my hypothetical kids? It’s not even a question. They would get the vaccinations. To do otherwise would be unconscionable to me.
IANAD, but my understanding is that the evidence in favor of the meningitis vaccine for college students is sort of equivocal. Currently the CDC recommends it for college freshmen, particularly those in crowded or dormotory living arrangements.
Frankly, this strengthens the argument for following the recommended vaccine schedules. The CDC and other bodies that help to develop vaccine schedules do their best to fully and carefully examine the scientific evidence for and agaisnt any vaccine. There are plenty of vaccinations that overwhelmingly people don’t get because very smart people have done some very careful accounting and due to either adverse effects of vaccination or the cost of vaccination they’ve advised against making it a vaccine that “everyone” gets. Obviously, these advisory bodies aren’t afraid to recommend against a vaccine, and they recommend them because of convincing scientific evidence in the vaccines favor.
Do you know what happens to you if you get meningitis? It attacks nervous system tissue, including your brain. If you live you have a strong chance that your wonderful brain is turned to some variety of porridge. Won’t that be fun? Even more fun than having a needle stuck in your arm and feeling a pinch for a few seconds.
By the time there’s an outbreak, guess what? You may be in the initial population it breaks out in. You can get it from relatively trivial contact with someone who doesn’t even know he or she is carrying it. Get the dam vaccination.
“measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis or chicken pox.” That’s interesting, as three of those (italics) are the ones that doctors locally prefer the child gets to confer lifelong immunity, and only immunise if they don’t get it by a certain age.
Its not the same stuff that’s been used for centuries. After the problems with the Whooping Cough vaccine in the 1970’s resulted in a drop in herd immunity (some quote from 80% down to 30%) they changed the vaccine. Now it appears the new vaccine doesn’t give lifelong immunity - by adulthood vaccinated individuals can catch and transmit the disease - and is having the effect of creating a rise in cases of infants three months old and younger catching the disease.
It’s only important if you’d prefer to avoid getting meningitis.
Look, much as I hate to dogpile you, you definately ought to get the shot. My daughter’s college has had three meningitis scares in the 2 years she has attended. In every case, it was one student with meningitis – one of the girls was quite sick and was hospitalized for a couple of weeks. These isolated cases never turned into outbreaks, though, because most of the students have been immunized.
That’s the thing about an outbreak, you know – it isn’t going to give you plenty of warning so you can go down and get the shot when you ‘have to.’ Once it goes to the outbreak stage, it’s too late. And an outbreak is more common if there are other students in your school who’ve ‘opted out’ of taking the shot. Man up and take the jab!
Joining the dogpile, sorry. Meningitis can progress really fast, and by the time you feel the symptoms it is too late to get a jab. A couple of years ago there was an outbreak of meningitis at the college where an aquaintance worked. We were supposed to be meeting that evening at the pub. At four that afternoon he phoned up saying he was going to the doctor’s with a headache. By seven that evening he was unconscious in intensive care. Fortunately he pulled through, but he was there for a week.
I’d really suggest you think very hard about getting that jab.
Frankly, I don’t blame Darth Sensitive about being a little sensitive about getting the vaccine, considering that ad for the vaccine on TV, which warns that, among other things, getting it could cause Gullian-Barre (sp?) Syndrome.
(Or maybe I’m just being oversensitive to that particular thing because I’ve never been able to forget reading in Reader’s Digest an excerpt of a book of a woman who had it, because her experience was completely and utterly horrifying.)
Those who don’t get their kids vaccinated are betting on enough other people risking their children (and their “potential” exposure to autism) to save their children’s lives or health or future fertility. Not only that, they’re risking the lives/health/current fertility (adult man with mumps? not a good thing) of adults, many of whom probably have not had their adult boosters.
Doctors here in the US don’t fuck around with measles and mumps. (Chicken pox I agree is stupid to vaccinate kids against; if they make it to puberty and haven’t gotten it, then vaccinate. That’s what happened to me.) You get your measles, mumps, and rubella all in one (the MMR) and you get it again before you go to college.
With regards to rubella, AKA German measles, I know a guy in his 40’s who’s almost entirely deaf because his mother got it when she was pregnant with him. It isn’t just about the effects of a disease on yourself personally.
