Are you immune to hysteria?

[thebitterguy]

Apparently, the "scientist" who published the MMR/Autism study received £ 400,000 from lawyers who were suing the manufacturers of MMR vaccines.

Whoops.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Thanks! *adds to list of vaccination links*

I wonder who is more likely to be truthful - the researcher hired by the FDA to prove the vaccine's safety, or the one hired by lawyers to prove the opposite? (This is tongue in cheek, btw - I know which one is more likely to be truthful, because you'd be hard pressed to find a publicly-paid researcher who earned a million dollars for one small, poorly-conducted study.)

[thebitterguy]

I kinda knew you would find this one interesting.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I posted it to my own journal, and to a debate community, though I had to think hard to come up with debate questions. The questions were an excuse; I just wanted to get the info out there, because there are several anti-vaxxers in that community.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

It looks like Wakefield put the 'spin' in 'spin doctor'.

With this undeclared very obvious bias, he's no ethical scientist, but instead a shill for another industry; the lawsuit industry.

I know that the UK medical journal, The Lancet, apologized for publishing his now debunked 1998 'paper', but is there any evidence that Wakefield did?

::B::

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Wakefield never apologized, but if I recall correctly, every single one of his co-authors later recanted. The MMR vaccine story is an interesting case-study of why the media should either (a) learn something about basic science before they go spouting off, or (b) shut the heck up entirely. But (b) will never happen, and our sun will probably die out before (a) does, leaving me with nothing but a headache.

[thebitterguy]

Well, is The Lancet normally that disreputable a source?

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Lancet article isn't really the problem (at least to me) - it's the way it was picked up by the mainstream press and repeated ad nauseum, but the news that the study had been pretty much completely discredited was buried at the back of the newspaper if it was there at all.

HTML Entities

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

FYI:

£ displays as £.

Re: HTML Entities

[atomiks.livejournal.com]

And, when on a Mac, hold down Option, and then press the number 3 (above the W, not on the numpad).

Re: HTML Entities

[thebitterguy]

Excellent, danke.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this information being promulgated widely will help discredit this nonsense. If nothing else, I have sever people on my f-list who actually believe this idiocy - I just posted this link to several older posts by people on my f-list about the alleged "dangers" of vaccination :)

[innocent-man.livejournal.com]

Gotta tell you, though, even in the medical community it's not uncommon to run across people who have old data. When Heather and I were expecting, it was pretty darned prominent, and we're not the kinds of people to skimp on research for this sort of thing.

Just to play devil's advocate...

[racing-girl.livejournal.com]

Our school system actually obligates us to vaccinate our children. No record of vaccination, no education.

Shouldn't it be my right to choose as to whether or not to vaccinate my children? What if I'm a strong believer that the vaccination could, in fact, cause harm to my kids... Thalidomide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide) may not have caused such horrible issues if somebody had taken more time to look into it's affects... Are we always certain that, just because the FDA says so, it's ok???


Before I get yelled at, I believe in vaccinating my children and they are both up to date, but for a moment, I stopped and thought about it...

Re: Just to play devil's advocate...

[(Anonymous)]

I think the reason certain vaccinations are mandatory is that they are for diseases that are highly contagious, and therefore, a public health issue. I think you would be within your rights to not vaccinate for an illness that didn't pose a threat to classmates, etc. (though I'm hard pressed to think of one at the moment). My kids were vaccinated, too, by the way -- I had no problem with it.

Re: Just to play devil's advocate...

[thebitterguy]

Well, most of the people who don't vaccinate their kids are probably home schoolers, anyway.

Re: Just to play devil's advocate...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm actually not sure about that. With several diseases, including measles, mumps, whooping cough, and chicken pox, there are two main effects of mass vaccinations. The first is to raise the average age of infection (generally, for those, it used to be mid-childhood) and the second is to eliminate as many possible vectors for infection, thereby reducing the likelihood of encountering the disease at all. The two together produce herd immunity that protects even those who aren't themselves immune.

If the mass vaccination falls below a certain threshold, which varies by disease but is at least 65% and possibly as high as 85%, then the possible vectors of infection are sufficient to ensure that many people will come in contact with one, thereby eliminating that from the equation. Then the first issue comes into play. By raising the average age of infection, what happens is the people who are most likely to get complicated cases are the same ones whose immunity is weak or non-existent. The result is that the disease actually takes a heavier toll on the population than it would have if no one were vaccinated.

Your unvaccinated kids would probably have an uncomplicated case and be back at school in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the teacher at their school who was in her first trimester could cone down with measles and miscarry, or have a brain-damaged baby, even though she had her shots as a baby. Do you ave the right to mess with the herd immunity that protects everyone, for no valid medical reason? I would say, no - and that's why vaccinations are required for schoolchildren.

Re: Just to play devil's advocate...

[racing-girl.livejournal.com]

All valid points worth thinking about.

[lickerishwhip.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. :)

Still not vaxing, though, since our reasons have nowt to do with autism. Guess we're bad people endangering the herd OH NOES. ;)