Vaccine refusals fuel measles outbreak (Reuters)

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Vaccine refusals fuel measles outbreak

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Parents refusing to have their children vaccinated against measles have helped drive cases of the illness to their worst levels in a dozen years in the United States, health officials reported on Thursday.

In 2008 alone, 131 cases of measles have been reported, with 15 serious enough to be hospitalized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Most of those infected were not vaccinated and there is no reason for any cases to occur when vaccines can prevent them, the CDC said in a weekly report on death and diseases.
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Some religious groups refuse vaccination but many parents have fears that vaccines are unsafe or may cause conditions such as autism -- fears the CDC says are unfounded.

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I know that parents who choose not to vaccinate figure they are only putting their own children at risk, a risk they don't see as that dangerous, but they forget about the babies that are too young to be vaccinated, and are the most at risk for complications or death.

This is what happens when idiotic nonsense is taken seriously. A British doctor published an article saying that the MMR vaccine caused autism. It was later revealed that the doctor had falsified his data. By then it was too late, and increasing numbers of English parents were refusing "jabs" as vaccinations are called over there. Even worse, the idea that vaccines caused autism had spread, and huge numbers of parents, primarily in Western Europe and Israel, were refusing vaccines. Even WORSE, the idea that vaccines were bad spread to Africa, leading to mass outbreaks of polio in rural Nigeria after Muslim imams in that area put forth the idea that the vaccine was a plot to sterilize Nigerian girls.

We very well could see the return of horrible diseases that we thought were mostly eradicated because of declining vaccine rates. Autism is one thing, but being paralyzed for life due to polio or being rendered a vegetable due to encephalitis is in many ways a fate worse than death, much less a fate worse than autism. Few living people remember the terror of outbreaks such as the polio outbreak of the late 1940s that seemed to be impervious to every countermeasure and was really only stopped by a vaccine.

Bah. No vaccines for my children. End of.

Can anyone say propaganda, spin, and lies? And what are the stats on single vaccine uptake, you only ever hear about the combined one. Besides, 'the CDC says are unfounded...' These are the same people (US govt health agencies, just different letters; FDA rather than CDC) who've let aspartame, MSG (in its various guises), nitrates, sodium benzoate, acesulfame-k, sucralose, etc etc etc on the market too, which are all extremely toxic and leading to health problems on a massive scale and who deny there's anything wrong with them too. Why the hell would you trust a thing these people say?


By the way, if the NHS in England would offer single vaccines over a spread out timeframe instead of insisting on MMR it's estimated around 97% of those who refuse the vaccine for their children would vaccinate them. Simple answer but they won't do it, so clearly they don't care that much. So what's going on?

Oh, by the way...

Argentina Investigates Deaths Of Vaccinated Children

Study questions cost-effectiveness of Gardasil (Read study here: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/8/821 )

Go ahead, do some research on the polio epidemic 60 years ago. People actually moved away from the cities in order to escape the disease, like people in the Middle Ages. I just found out that my grandfather settled on what was then remote land partly so that his daughter (my mother) wouldn't get polio. Recently, the death of the last iron lung patient in the US was reported-a 60 year old woman paralyzed at age three by polio. The power went out and the generator wouldn't start, so she died. She had been stuck inside that thing her whole life.

I attended a community college whose president had fallen victim to the epidemic as a boy. Despite the fact that he could barely walk, he did things such as serving food to students in the cafeteria so he could listen to student and employee concerns. Then there's FDR, who was paralyzed by polio in the 1910s. He could stand only with braces and two strong aides holding on to his arms. He felt that it was important to not be seen in public in his wheelchair.

If it wasn't for vaccines, we'd still be suffering massive smallpox epidemics, and everybody would be hideously scarred from smallpox like during the Middle Ages. The simple truth is that autism is not nearly as bad as the effects of some of these diseases. Parents today lack perspective. The first massive polio outbreak, they'd be rushing to get vaccinations.

No, the first polio outbreak I'd be increasing the levels of Vitamin C, Omega 3 fatty acids, garlic, echinacea, etc etc in my children's diets, making sure they get lots of sleep and plenty of exercise, etc etc etc.

I have an uncle with a limp due to polio, I know it's a horrible disease. But just because these diseases are nasty, doesn't mean you'll get them. Oh noes you didn't take MMR doesn't mean you'll get the diseases, which is the implication from the pro-vaccine lobby.

Anyway, your kids are vaccinated and presumably you are too, so why are you so worried about me and my decisions? If they don't work then what's the point?

By the way, you may want to look into the links between the polio vaccine and CFS + related disorders...

You make this about the individual when it's about the collective. It's not just your children you put at risk when you fail to vaccinate. On the other hand it is just your children you put at risk when you choose to vaccinate.

Ahhh. That's your opinion. From what I've read - and I've read a lot, this is one of my sub-obsessions - that's not the case at all. So I will continue living a healthy lifestyle, eating a healthy diet, and when the times comes I will do the same for my children. Healthy doesn't involve injecting multiple vials of neurotoxins and viruses into a baby's body.

Which part do you feel is opinion? That it's not just your children you put at risk when you fail to vaccinate, or that it is just your children you put at risk when you choose to vaccinate?

I don't think I'm putting anyone at risk when I don't vaccinate.

If you truly believe they work and you truly believe there are no risks then vaccinate your children and don't worry about mine. You're protected after all, so mine won't pose any danger should the boogeyman get them.

Again, the issue is not your children or mine, it's the general population, all of us.

If we vaccinated every child for a generation or two, we would permanently wipe out about a dozen diseases, one child in a thousand or one child in a million would be injured by the vaccines, and after that there would be no more need for vaccines for these diseases, but it will never happen because there will always be some individuals who will be afraid that their child(ren) will be one of the one in a thousand or one in a million who will be injured by the vaccines, and who will place the right of the individual to act or fail to act based on their fears above the right of the collective to eliminate these diseases from the population.

There is nothing right or wrong about this. It is inherent that there will always be individuals who believe that the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. It's just the way it is.

Oh my lord these people are about as smart as a ret*d brick smoking dope, it has been proven that vaccinations do not cause autism. I really wish people would stop listening to fools like jenny mccarthy.

See, that does sound really lovely, and if I saw any evidence to suggest that it could happen if everyone did vaccinate, then perhaps I'd reconsider. But I have yet to see any evidence that the things work at all, and plenty to suggest the harm that can come from vaccinating far outweighs any positives, plus dozens of unvaccinated kids who are the healthiest I've ever seen, so the answer is pretty obvious to me. Don't vaccinate. It's all just fearmongering, and I don't buy anything anyone tries to sell using scare tactics. Sadly the govt are professionals at doing just that.


Philosopherboi - I don't think it causes autim. Perhaps a few cases are triggered by it, it certainly wouldn't surprise me, but I think on the whole that's barking up the wrong proverbial tree.

I don't think vaccines are 100% safe.
But I do think they are reasonably safe and much safer than the diseases they protect against.

L.

You never hear of someone dying because of a vaccine, but you do hear of people dying from what the vaccines prevent. Apparently death is better than a child with autism because why else would you forgo treating your child so they don' get sick???