Posted on 02/07/2015 4:45:41 AM PST by Kaslin
It may have been Goethe who said there is nothing so frightening as ignorance in action, and it certainly has been active of late, especially when it comes to vaccinating kids against diseases that once killed and crippled and scarred and generally ravaged millions. Like smallpox, diphtheria, mumps, measles ... the whole catalogue of curses.
But that was back in medicine's dark ages -- before modern science came to the rescue, thank goodness. For there were giants in the Earth in those days, microbe-fighters who were willing to defy popular superstition and apathy and all the forces of inertia to change the world much for the better.
How long has it been now since the great Pasteur made it safe for kids to drink milk? A couple of centuries? The process he invented still bears his name: pasteurization, as in pasteurized milk.
And that was only one of his beneficences. There were so many, for Louis Pasteur was not only a scientist, inventor, humanitarian, tireless and courageous leader but a founder of the whole science of immunology. Thanks to the great advance Pasteur championed, developed and refined -- vaccination -- once feared menaces were wiped out. Or seemed to be.
One after the other, the most dreaded word a mother or father once could hear became only an abstraction, just an item in the history books: polio, diphtheria ... even mumps and measles, which once could have the most severe consequences, seemed under control and on their way out. O happy day! Or so it seemed.
But all that was before we started to forget, or even oppose, the kind of progress M. Pasteur and all those who followed in his footsteps made. Now old scourges are making a frightening comeback. And public ignorance may be the most dangerous pestilence of all, for it spreads all the others.
How soon we forget what great men taught us. And at what a terrible price. No matter how long their wisdom has been demonstrated. How long has it been since Cotton Mather championed inoculation back when the Puritans were on the leading edge not just of colonial theology but science? Two or three centuries now? Yet the lessons he and his fellow Puritans taught are forgotten with shocking regularity, among them the wisdom of vaccinating our kids.
Why? Because people give way to rumor and panic, not to say hysteria, and good judgment disappears along with the lessons of the past.
Now is the time not just to remember those lessons but to enforce them by law once again. It's our kids' health, and American society's, that is at stake. For God's and our children's sake, let's return to that enlightened past -- for that would be true progress.
All it takes is a few years of forgetfulness, or even willful ignorance, to wipe out the gains the Pasteurs and Mathers and so many others brought us over the years and centuries. All it takes is just one rumor repeated and spread till it's out of control and we'll be back in medicine's dark ages.
Look what happened when a public menace masquerading as a scientist -- his name was Andrew Wakefield -- published a wholly fraudulent article in the once respected British medical journal Lancet back in 1998 purporting to link vaccines and autism in children. His "scholarly" claim spread like wildfire in dry tinder, the way conspiracy theories always do among the susceptible, and there are an awful lot of gullible types out there.
Andrew Wakefield's dangerous work would leave who knows how many kids blind, crippled and marked for life thanks to their parents' credulity. His claims were repeated all over the Internet, and so-called journalists, pretending to be just reporting the news objectively, or even doing "due diligence," would solemnly repeat his warnings as if they had some basis.
It would take the "editors" of Lancet 12 years -- twelve years! -- to retract these false claims. You can imagine how many kids were infected in that period, and, unfortunately, you don't have to imagine, for the number of victims hoodwinked by Lancet and its star writer kept growing.
Andrew Wakefied was finally barred from practicing medicine in Britain after a full and exhaustive hearing, but he's still active in this country -- in the vicinity of Austin, Texas, last we heard -- and sounds as unrepentant as ever. What a pity he and all those who aided and abetted him are still at work fooling the all too easily fooled. And probably still making zealous converts long after he was exposed as a fraud and menace.
Conspiracy theorists never learn, but that doesn't mean the rest of us ought to stop protecting our kids. There ought to be a law protecting them against this kind of thing, and there is: compulsory vaccination. Just as there are laws requiring that kids be educated.
Yes, there are certain limited, well-regulated exceptions to those laws for matters of conscience and such, but they need to stay rare exceptions, not become the dangerous rule. Or we'll all pay a heavy price, especially children.
These days prominent politicians looking for an edge with the nutcase vote -- like Rand Paul and Chris Christie, both putative presidential candidates -- are saying the most irresponsible things about how vaccinations shouldn't necessarily be required, or coming dangerously close to saying it. The way they've (mis)handled this issue should alone raise the most serious doubts about their leadership among serious people. Because vaccinations are a serious business. And shouldn't be treated as just political fodder.
I didn’t get my kids vaccinated because my horoscope told it was a bad idea. That’s why I voted for hope and change instead.
Knowing you are an airhead, we assume that your scull like an NFL football was under pressurized. : )
No, I use acupuncture, herbal remedies and aroma therapy, which do not have the side effects of Western medicine. ‘Cause people were so much healthier in the 19th Century, when half of all Americans died of tuberculosis.
Hell, you could get away with it too...............
...........UNTILL Barry brought in all his widdle DISEASED Mehhicccccan GANGBANGERS, and spread them all over the country.
“Yes, there are certain limited, well-regulated exceptions to those laws for matters of conscience and such, but they need to stay rare exceptions, not become the dangerous rule. Or we’ll all pay a heavy price, especially children. “
Well looky here, a leftist worrying about children paying a heavy price. The jails, gutters and cemeteries are full of children who paid a heavy price for being born into leftist America.
The article has about it the whiff of leftist bullshit. One minute people who believe what they’ve read in Lancet are “gullible” and the next they are “hoodwinked” I’d guess that there is no connection between Autisim and vaccinations but even at that leftist can’t argue with out using the nasty little lies and name-calling with which they have long since become comfortable.
Lefties think they are little gods who can just will their children’s good health. How stupid is that?
“... especially when it comes to vaccinating kids against diseases that once killed and crippled and scarred and generally ravaged millions. Like smallpox, diphtheria, mumps, measles ... the whole catalogue of curses.”
It's called package-dealing. Smallpox, diphtheria, and polio did kill, scar, and cripple children, and I doubt any intelligent person would deny the virtue of vaccination against such diseases.
Mumps, measles, and pertussis (whooping cough) did not kill children, and scarring from measles is minimal, if at all. Since neither the effectiveness or safety of such vaccinations is certain, an intelligent person must weigh the risks against possible benefits.
Now that diphtheria is packaged with pertussis and tetanus, three unrelated diseases with totally different vectors and pathologies, (DTP), the choice for those vaccines has been reduced to all or nothing, which is no choice all.
I know there are many who believe some authority must tell people what they must and must not put into their bodies and even use force to ensure compliance.
For those who believe everyone ought to receive every possible vaccine, have you received the following yet: yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis (Japanese, tick-borne, and meningococcal), typhoid, cholera, rabies, and tuberculosis? Do you really believe everyone ought to use every vaccine available?
Perhaps you could explain that to the family of the lady who just died of the very flu for which she had recently been vaccinated.
Why is it the “experts” refuse to discuss immunities passed on to the children from the parents?
Ping to number 49 on this thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3254370/posts
You are so RIGHT when you state, “there is something suspicious about those who have to use deception to promote it.” The deception goes to the highest levels of the CDC. William Thompson, CDC Whistleblower who is providing testimony to Congress has admitted the fraud and corruption.
The author of the article states, “there is nothing so frightening as ignorance in action”. Well except maybe corruption and ignorance combined.
It is truly frightening to see a corrupt government sacrifice thousands of children by exposing them to unnecessary toxins and to refuse to even study the cause of increased Autism rates. They have literally skyrocketed and thousands of parents have witnessed the traumatic onset of symptoms following childhood immunizations. In 1980 the rate was 1 in 10,000 in 2013 the rate was 1 in 88.
Over and over again parents, government officials and doctors have asked the CDC to study the rates of autism in the unvaccinated versus vaccinated children. The study has not been done. CDC Whistleblower William Thompson is on tape saying the CDC is paralyzed when it comes to autism and probably 10 years behind in research because they had an agenda.
I don’t want my children, grandchildren or any children for that matter to be sacrificed and inflicted with autism so that we can avoid getting an itchy rash called the measles.
You can see a timeline of the events and more information on the CDC Whistleblower here, http://healthchoice.org/index.php/news/122-outline-of-significant-developments-in-the-recent-revelations-on-vaccine-safety-research-%20corruption
Quoting from the site, “8/18/14 – A video is released on the Internet with audio purported, and later confirmed to be, discussions between Dr. Brian Hooker and CDC senior research scientist Dr. William Thompson, one of the original MMR paper’s authors. The video claims that Thompson told Hooker in phone conversations that the research team found the association between vaccines and autism, and then changed the parameters of the study to get rid of the association, so they would not have to report it to the public. In the audio Thompson expresses great shame and remorse for “lying” and for going along with what the “higher-ups wanted.”
You can sign a petition to support Congressional Inquiry here http://marathonjon6.wix.com/cdcwhistleblower#!action/cee5
It may have been pretty easy for you or your editor to track down the source of a quote, Paul Greenberg, but you're just too lazy.
See, you found it. Why couldn’t the author or his editor?
Do you know how many quotes there are by Goethe? There are thousands. Perhaps Paul Greenberg didn’t have the time to search.
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