Posted on 02/08/2015 8:20:14 AM PST by Kaslin
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama gave cautious support for the anti-vaxxer cause a few years ago. While running for the presidency in 2008, Obama called the alleged link between autism and vaccination scientifically “inconclusive.” In the same year, Mrs. Clinton went further, expressing her support for an official study to track down “possible environmental causes” of autism “like vaccines.”
No scandal — though the eventual winner of the race did win a few “Pinnochios” for his statement. (Studies at that time had already determined no such link, hence the Washington Post’s awarding of demerits to both Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, for their suggestions otherwise.)
But only now that Hillary and Barack have stood up for vaccination, and Republican politicians Chris Christie and Rand Paul have openly talked about the risks of (as well as of parental rights and responsibility regarding) childhood vaccination has the issue hit the headlines. Indeed, the hot issue last week became mandatory vaccination.
As in state and federally mandated vaccination of children . . for the usual suspect list of diseases I got vaccinated for as a child, and which my children, in turn, received the prescribed dosages (though, on my wife’s delayed schedule, not according to state demands or the doctor’s usual schedule).
Of course, discussion of such talk in politics and in major media tends to the hysterical and simple-minded. Just as folks tend to move from “is” statements quickly and jerkily to “ought” statements (as David Hume famously observed), talking heads on TV quickly shift from chatting up the obvious benefits of past vaccination programs (and they are legion: millions of lives saved, after all) to the absolute necessity of requiring vaccination, backed by government force.
Science writer Ronald Bailey offered a more modest proposal. “Vaccination is arguably the greatest public health triumph of the past century,” he begins. But he continued not by calling for mandating vaccines, but for social pressure: “person-to-person shaming and shunning.”
Of the “anti-vaxxer” parents. That is, of the folks who refuse to let their children be vaccinated.
Shaming is one way to solve such problems — it is a traditional, manners-level version of “social control,” as social scientists like to say. And it is a much less extreme solution to such problems.
But what is the problem, at base?
Those who fear a negative personal effect from vaccination and refuse to vaccinate themselves or their children become “free riders,” as economists put it. They gain a de facto immunity without having to pay — either in money or in the small risk that vaccinations do indeed demonstrate.
This particular free rider benefit depends on the concept of “herd immunity.” That’s a conjectured level of protection for individuals who lack biological immunity. This immunity accrues to them by the overwhelming presence of vaccinated (or otherwise immune) people in a population. The disease can’t spread because it hits too many dead ends in healthy hosts. The modal target resists the infection, and so it doesn’t spread to the members of population who aren’t similarly immune.
That’s as I understand it anyway. As I often caution: I am not a doctor, I don’t even play one on TV.
But there’s a wrinkle to this herd immunity (do you like thinking of yourself as a head of cattle, by the way?): the more anti-vaxxers there are, the less the herd immunity. Epidemiologists estimate that herd immunity kicks in only at the higher concentrations of immunity in a population: probably above 90 percent.
And recent outbreaks of measles at California’s Disneyland and elsewhere suggest that Americans are losing the herd immunity that had seemingly eradicated that disease, and others, such as mumps and whooping cough, decades ago. The anti-vaxxers are endangering the population. And the biggest losers are those people whose immune systems are so endangered that vaccination does them no good: cancer patients and the like.
I don’t know if Bailey’s shaming strategy can work — though I suspect it can, since such strategies seem to move people to vote for bad presidents over and over. Unfortunately, different political groups are susceptible to different types of shaming. So it could get tricky.
As has been often noted the last few days, though the anti-vaxxer trend has mainly tended to “infect” (as a “meme”) urban populations of left-leaning folks — epitomized by Hollywooders Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey — the new backlash against anti-vaxxer rights has come strongest from the left-leaning media.
Republican “offenders” provide cover?
If it hasn’t become OBVIOUS to Anyone who has paid ANY attention to our”Political Landscape”,The DemonRats will ALLY themselves to ANYThing that they think will produce VOTES!!ANYTHING(that is)EXCEPTING LIBERTY,and Personal Accountability!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christie and Paul made a stupid mistake by picking up this bit of left-winger stupidity and running with it. If they back away fast enough, it’ll blow over.
I remember there was a girl in my karate class back in the 80s who was just getting over pertussis. Everyone in the class had taken their shots and had no unimmunized immediate family members so it was treated as no big deal to have her show up and mingle. I imagine in the pre-vaccine days it would have been unimaginable to mingle.
Let’s hope it knocks both those turds out of the race.
And what bit of stupidity would that be? That the government doesn't own your kids?
They didn't say avoid vaccination, they said the government should not be able to force vaccination.
If the vaccination makes one immune to the disease, I don’t understand why there is an uproar if those that haven’t been vaccinated get sick.
How do you figure being against forced healthcare is left-wing stupidity?
Has there ever been a study of infants who were warehoused in daycare centers from 6 weeks of age? I know infants don’t get the stimulation in daycare that they get at home. Just curious when the autism boom began.
Sure there are situations when someone should not be immunized. Take Small pox for example. Babies were not immunized before they turned one year old. Also if the baby had a serious illness including skin infection during it's first year of life, the mother/ parents had to wait another year to get the toddler immunized, The same with the booster immunization which was given to the child at age of 12 years
Now take my daughter for example. She was born in Germany in 1970 while we were stationed there. It was my husband's second tour there (different station than his first one which was from 1961 to 1966 during the Berlin Crisis.
During the summer of 1970 my husband was on orders for Vietnam. We had already cleared our government quarters and lived in a Army Hotel where we waited for our Port call. Someone goofed up and did not include my oldest son, (my husband's stepson) who was 10 years old at the time, although he had been a legal immigrant in 1966 just like I was when my husband brought us over to the states when his first tour in Germany was finished. In March of 1963 our son was born in Germany and because he was born in an American hospital he was born as a natural born citizen, just like his sister who btw was born in the same hospital. I even had the same midwife with her when her brother was born almost 7 years earlier.
After the mistake was corrected and we received all our port calls Thomas,my oldest son who had been attending school came down with the measles. Notice there was no measles immunization at that time. So we had to post pone our port call.
After he was over his measles, Dean, his younger brother came down with the measles. So my husband said to me, that's it, I am taking you and the kids to your parents until they are well again.
At the time Dean came down with the measles I noticed a rash also on the baby who was 7 month old. Two day later or so she was getting a temperature of 104°F. and was unable to keep her food down. My dad had a college of his drive me and my daughter to the American dispensary which was a little over 8 miles away from my hometown. The idiot at the dispensary who checked her out, said there was nothing wrong with her. Remember the baby had a fever of 104°F.
Anyway my husband came the next evening but it was to late to drive to the dispensary, so we took the baby there the next morning. The doctor who saw her told my husband the baby is very sick that he would not need to examine her and to take her immediately to the hospital. He asked if we wanted to go by Medivac helicopter or drive our self. Because my husband was using my dad's car we chose to take her in his car.
After we got to the hospital and she had ben examined and given a spinal tap her doctor notified us that she had Meningitis not the spinal kind, but the kind that affects the lining of the brain.
She remained in the hospital for almost 3 month until she was well enough to travel, which was the beginning of December. They had me going with her via Medivac from Ramstein, Germany to the Navy station at Jacksonville, Fl, where she had to stay at the civilian hospital in Jacksonville a week or so until she was released. My husband and the boys came a couple of days after the baby and I had arrived.
Because of her illness my daughter could not be immunized, which I of course knew already and then small pox was eradicated small pox immunization became obsolete
Understand that no vaccine is 100% effective in 100% of the people who get it. Some people get a vaccination but for reasons not fully understood, they do not develop the required immune response, develop the antibodies the vaccine was intended to create. But where there are high vaccination rates, the “herd immunity” effect comes into play. If the vaccination fails you or you are one of those people who cannot get vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons or have a medical condition like cancer for one and are undergoing chemo that causes a decrease in your immune system making you susceptible even if you had been vaccinated, the more people around you who are immunized and do not get sick, the less likely you are to become sick. And FWIW, babies under 1 year old are too young to get the MMR vaccination.
One might also consider the economic impacts. If a lot of unimmunized people or their children get sick with the measles (or any other vaccine preventable illnesses), they are likely to miss time from work, sometimes a week or more.
You may be fortunate to work for a company that provides paid time off for illness (PTO or Sick Leave) but someone is going to have to cover for you while you are out, and if that is an hourly position, that might mean the company has to pay one of your co-workers overtime or incur the costs of bringing in a temp on top of the cost of paying you. If you work for a small company and or one that doesn’t provide paid sick leave or personal time off, missing a week or more of work could be devastating to the family budget.
They might also flood ERs and urgent care centers and doctors offices, putting a strain on the system.
And FWIW, here is an article regarding a person with measles here in Lancaster County PA.
http://fox43.com/2015/02/06/measles-exposure-alert-at-millersville-university/
The State Health Department lists other locations in the county where people were exposed to a possible case of measles:
College Avenue Associates: 233 College Avenue, Lancaster, Wednesday, Feb. 4 from 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This includes all practices at the medical building:
Keystone Cancer Center
Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons
Red Rose Cardiology and Interventional Spine Associates
General Surgery Oncology Specialists of Central Pennsylvania
Lancaster Pulmonary and Sleep Associates and Infectious Disease Specialists
Red Rose Pediatrics
Lancaster Hematology/Oncology
Note the medical offices located in this building that I bolded were the person with measles went. This presumably unimmunized person might have infected some very vulnerable people – cancer patients and young infants. Measles is highly contagious, one of the most contagious viruses known. A person with measles merely walking through a building lobby or riding on a elevator can pass the virus on to others, even two hours later.
Yea, I had all the measles when I was a kid, I just stayed home for three days.
The flu is also deadly and contagious, so I guess next up is getting flu shots or go to prison.
You may think, but I saw a doctor on the news say “there is no scientific proof that vaccines are harmful or cause autism.” You may think the news media is reporting factual information but would you be surprised to learn they may not be reporting the whole story? Kathleen Sebelius is quoted in an interview with Readers Digest stating, “There are groups out there that insist that vaccines are responsible for a variety of problems, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary. We (the office of Secretary of Health and Human Services) have reached out to media outlets to try to get them not to give the views of these people equal weight in their reporting.” A Free Press is not instructed on what to report by Government Officials.
I ask you, if a product, say breakfast cereal caused 1 out of 88 children to be brain damaged, would that product be recalled? Would you tell your children or grandchildren to continue consuming it? The Rate of autism was 1 in 10,000 in 1980 and the rate of autism is 1 in 88 in 2013. (Many parents of autistic children swear their children were perfectly normal healthy children until they received their MMR shot, then regressed into autism.)
Another point of contention is whether vaccinations should be mandatory in order for children to attend public school. At this time most states have exemptions for religious, medical or philosophical reasons. This right to make personal medical decisions is under attack as more people demand vaccinations be mandated.
In Dr. Lee Heib’s column for World Net Daily, she says it much better than I could, “At the end of the day, the issue here is one of freedom, and freedom is the freedom to choose – even if we make a bad choice. The argument that I must vaccinate my children for the good of the community is not only scientifically questionable, it is an unethical precept. It is the argument all dictators and totalitarians have used. “Comrade, you must work tirelessly for the good of the collective. You must give up your money and property for the good of the collective, and now … you must allow us to inject your children with what we deem is good for the collective.” If American’s don’t stand up against this, then we are lost. Because we have lost ownership of ourselves. Our bodies are no longer solely ours – we and our children are able to be commandeered for the “greater good.”
The recommended CDC schedule for childhood immunizations has risen from 8 vaccinations before the age of 2 (and never more than 2 shots per doctor’s visit) in 1980 to 52 doses of 15 vaccines by the time the child is age 6 in 2013. As Grandparents tell today’s young people and parents of this generation of children, “Vaccines are good, they save lives.” Are they aware of the sheer numbers of vaccinations these babies are receiving? I doubt it.
Are they aware that the “boom” in autism correlates with the increase in childhood immunizations? Are they aware In August of 2014 a CDC scientist named William Thompson came forward as a “Whistleblower” acknowledging that scientists at the CDC had knowingly hidden the link to autism and vaccinations for MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella.)
Additional information that William Thompson brought to light in recorded conversations with Dr Brian Hooker states that they (CDC Scientists) had changed the parameters of the study to “get rid of the association” between autism and vaccines so they would not have to report it to the public. In the recordings Thompson expresses great shame and remorse for “lying” and for going along with what the “higher-ups” wanted. The evidence released by William Thompson is proof of research misconduct at the highest levels of the CDC putting American Families in jeopardy and sacrificing children in the process.
William Thompson was also recorded stating, “Oh my God, I did not believe that we did what we did, but we did. It’s all there… This is the lowest point in my career, that I went along with that paper. I have great shame now when I meet families of kids with autism, because I have been part of the problem.”
“We’ve missed ten years of research because the CDC is so paralyzed right now by anything related to autism. They’re not doing what they should be doing because they’re afraid to look for things that might be associated.”
I do not care what you buy. Legislating away God-given control over what goes into my body or the risks I am willing to take on the basis of a perceived greater good, real or not, is socialism, the basis of Obamacare and Michelle O’s nutritional programs.
I agree with you completely. If they can force citizens to get a vaccine, they can force flu shots, etc. Then what about forced abortions if the baby is suspected of being disabled?
Most vaccinations have done a lot of public good in eradicating horrible diseases, and I had my children vaccinated, but I don’t believe in forced healthcare.
My daughter got an exemption for her kids for the measles vac and I respect her decision. She personally knows someone whose child was normal until having the measles vac, then became autistic.
The rate was 1 in 88 in 2008. The rate for 2013 was 1 in 50. A 36% increase.
WTF are you talking about? My reply wasn’t to you so stop butting in
“”In Dr. Lee Heib’s column for World Net Daily””
I saw that and good for her.
Glad to see you back but I’m staying out of this one - Myself and others had all we could take from the jerk in TX. More power to you. There comes a point when it becomes necessary to stop pounding our heads on the wall...
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