I had a serious reaction to a tetnus shot as a kid which makes me a little gun shy of the shots. I’ve also been exposed to many different strains of flu over the years so I have something of an advantage over a younger person.
With that said, I’ve been around a number of people who’ve gotten the flu this year and it’s a nasty one. I may take a stab at it this time.
An excellent juxtaposition of meme theory and gene theory. You should publish! (Though not on Facebook, and you must include me as co-author).
For what it’s worth, here’s a response to vaccine concerns from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
RickJay’s probably right, though – this strain of ignorance is highly resistant. The case of smallpox is the obvious nail in the coffin, but there are a whole host of diseases that have virtually disappeared from our experience – polio, rubella, etc. This article lists the ten that have gone from ‘major killers of children’ to ‘virtually unheard of’ in the last century, and discusses the resulting growth of the anti-vax attitude as people no longer see their children killed, scarred or brain-damaged by infectious diseases.
Many of them don’t think the vaccines erradicated the diseases we commonly vaccinate for, but it’s actually due to increased sanitation and cleanliness.
I don’t think there’s really anything that would convince them - all the evidence in the world doesn’t matter if you’ve already picked your pet cause, and people don’t like to admit they’re wrong, especially if they’ve invested a lot of time and energy into vocalizing their beliefs. I don’t think all anti-vaxers are like that, but the loudest ones are, and they’re the ones spreading the ignorance.
I blogged about this subject yesterday:
I’ve already gotten anti-vax comments. It’s like moths to a flame. Still, how mean can you be in replying to a person whose kid as autism and who’s been convinced it’s the needle to blame? If my kid turned out autistic I might be looking for someone to blame, too.
He already told us he had a serious, life-threatening reaction to a vaccine as a child. That’s the point. I’m not “attempting to make the conversation about [me]” I’m attempting to point out that there’s no need for you to make the conversation about him. He was simply trying to illustrate that not everyone who avoids vaccinations does so for tinfoil hat reasons. You attempted to bait and mock him for his comment. There was no need for your reaction. I was simply providing further information on titers and the use thereof in preventative medicine.
I mean, I’m not getting a flu vaccine either, and I’m not an anti-vaxer. I’m just in the lowest-risk group as a healthy 30-yr-old male in an area with 0 confirmed swine flu cases.
Ew.
You’re already got an vacciness equal autism freak over there. He clearly knows nothing about either subject yet he confidently expounds on his idiocy.
I hate people like that.
Autism is learning disabilities and mental retardation reclassified.
Here’s a very useful study on the subject:
Here’s today’s tinfoil hat report.
If you read all the way to the bottom, there’s an awesome blurb (extra points for use of the word “sinister”) about UK children being kidnapped in the dead of night and being disappeared into child trafficking networks under the vague precepts of “swine flu death”.
Actually, I’m getting sick of the media’s hyping and fear-mongering.
Where is the vaccine?!
We don’t have the vaccine yet?!
There’s a delay in the vaccine!
When will the vaccine arrive?!
The vaccine arrived today.
As though millions of people’s lives are in peril unless they get a flu shot. Which is false.
Luckily, nobody in the high risk groups ever catches the flu from healthy thirty-somethings such as yourself.
I’m more sick of “you should get the flu shot…but you can’t! worry about that!” tone to local news stories. I’m worried enough about not getting the shot in time given I got pnemonia the only time I got the flu, thanks.
This is why THEY get the shot. Since we’re getting hourly crisis reports on the shortage of vaccines I’m doing my part by letting them get it first. Problem solved.
Didn’t take long, did it? I haven’t the heart to check my unmoderated comments.
My 70 yr old auntie, who I don’t think goes online much, is refusing it too.
I agree, but we also know that the flu shot is not 100% effective. The more people that get it the better for everyone. I’m in a high risk group, I will get the shot when my name comes up on the list.
Yeah–I mean, the flu only kills 36,000 American each year. That barely qualifies as a health hazard at all, right?
When there are both A) confirmed cases within 100 miles of me and B) enough vaccine that the high-riskers are covered, then I’ll get one. Since the CDC is telling me not to get it yet, I think I can safely take that advice.
On another board I frequent, one of the anti-vaxers is claiming that “childhood illnesses” protect against asthma and allergies. I went to the link she supplied and read the report from one of the anti-vax leaders. He linked to studies in JAMA and Science. They were right, kinda. Apparently, if you have chronic intestinal parasites and/or tuberculosis as a child, you have a much lower risk of having asthma.
I think one of the problems is that the anti-vax leaders “trick” the sheeple into thinking their “research” is valid by providing links to JAMA, Nature, Science and other respectable medical journals, but they use false logic or just give out generic statements like “childhood illness is protective against asthma” and people believe them.
I have not had a response to my post that pointed out that the illnesses that protect you from asthma are TB, measles and chronic intestinal parasites. I’m not so sure about you, but I don’t want to suffer from any of those three in order to be “protected” from asthma.
Cites:
Shaheen SO, Abay P, Hall AJ et al. Measles and atopy in Guinea-Bissau. Lancet 1996;347:1792–96.
Shirakawa T, Enomoto T, Shimaz SI, Hopkin JM. The inverse association between tuberculin responses and atopic disorder. Science 1997;275:77–79.
Becklake MR. International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD): initiatives in non-tuberculous lung disease. Tubercle Lung Dis 1995;76:493–504.
Lynch NR. Influence of socio-economic level on helminthic infection and allergic reactivity in tropical countries. In: Moqbel R (ed.) Allergy and Immunity to Helminths: Common Mechanisms or Divergent Pathways. Bristol: Tailor and Francis, 1992, pp.51–62.
Oh, I and I had my H1N1 and seasonal flu shots last week.
I qualify as a health care worker. They gave them out for us last week.