I’d knock that timetable back at least 50 years or so. Effective and reasonably safe medicine did not magically appear with the development of penicillin, but evolved over time.
About placebo effect: its power and duration is classically limited. A lot of people drift from one alternative remedy to another as they discover that whatever benefits they initially thought it had could not be sustained.
Regarding homeopathic drugs: in themselves they are almost always harmless (unless one counts contaminants or the idiosyncratic negative placebo effect). They can cause serious harm or kill when people use them instead of effective treatment.
As I’ve posted a few times already in a Pit thread about anti-vaxxers, my own niece is adamantly refusing to get her 3-year-old and baby vaccinated. She is totally convinced that there is a huge conspiracy of liars and poisoners who are determined to force her kids to get these shots as part of some evil plan to infect them with…well, everything:
There is absolutely no way to reason with her. She also thinks the wicked medical community will come and take her kids away at some point because of her stance. Her own mom is a nurse but is apparently going along with it. Her dad (my brother) and I had vaccines and we’re still here and pretty much functional.
My mom, the great-grandma, is beside herself over this. She went through some horrible diseases as a kid (she’s 90) because at that time they couldn’t be inoculated against.
I really hope these precious kids don’t end up in the hospital.
In the meantime, I get the flu shot every year. I got the meningococcus vax too. When I’m old enough, I’ll get the pneumonia shot. And I plan to get the shingles shot. Why? Because I had chicken pox and I’ve known people who have suffered from shingles. My friend’s brother nearly lost his eyesight because of it.
And I get my cat vaccinated on a regular schedule. Why? Because I don’t want her to suffer unnecessarily either. (rabies, feline leukemia, FIV/kitty AIDS)
I’m just here to state for the record that I believe climate change deniers are worse than anti-vaxxers, even though the latter is easier to hate. Because climate change is much worse than smallpox or polio. The human race will not be extinguished by viruses. Even Yersinia pestis only made a dent for a few generations. But climate change won’t just destroy civilization, it will destroy a great deal of all life on earth. They aren’t comparable.
Of course, sure, I hate anti-vaxxers too. I can multi-task.
How is a parent who, knowingly, sends his child to school with the flu, bronchitis, or a cold not as bad as a parent who doesn’t vaccinate his child? To children with asthma or are immune compromised, a flu, cold or upper respiratory infection can be serious, sometimes fatal.
This. Both my brother and I dated sig others who were polio victims. Their pain was not insignificant. To allow that to happen to others is aweful. To expose your own children to it is inexplicable.
The anti-vaxxers are now being bolstered by our new US President, who still believes that vaccinations cause autism (despite the fact that that theory has been repeatedly debunked).
My five year old niece has cancer and has gone through many sessions of chemo, She can’t get vaccinated and any exposure to these diseases could be fatal. That’s why.
Plus, swimming pools were closed; movie theaters were closed; kids were kept indoors; playgrounds were off limits. My sister recovered, but not everyone was that lucky. The sound of a little kid’s leg brace is not easily forgotten.
But don’t you know, polio vaccines didn’t really eradicate polio in developed countries? The crooked medical establishment just changed the criteria for the disease and it never really went away.
I’ve told anti-vaxxers to be very careful whom they discuss this with. For example when a local tv station wanted to interview them I cautioned them to not do it. Dont give out their names for millions to see. People have lost friends, jobs, and been harassed for being anti vax. Its best to keep it to ourselves and slowly build our movement quietly. I mean look at some of the angry statements on this thread alone.
What is interesting is many anti vaxxers are people from the left. One of my Facebook friends was adamantly opposed to Trump but she silently cheered when she found out he was going to investigate the issue. An anti-Trump coworker of mine is anti vax.
If you’re “middle of the road” I trust you’re telling your anti-vax friends that the more crazy and outrageous claims they make are completely without merit. Right?
If you are going to say things that directly contradict each other, you might want to post one thing in one post or thread, and the opposite thing in another post or thread-make people work to see the contradiction.
IME, personal health, nutrition and alternative medicine are areas where the political left and right are the most likely to overlap, especially the fringe factions. GMO, vaccines, alternative cancer treatment, de-toxing and the “ideal diet”, whatnot.
