Friday, May 24, 2013

5 Things I've noticed about... the Anti-Vaccination Movement

The anti-vaccination movement is a large group of like minded people whom believe that vaccines cause autism (along with some other stuff, but mostly autism). While there are a lot of things I've noticed about this movement, I've managed to narrow it down to five.

So here are five things I've noticed about the anti-vaccination movement:

5. There's no need for it to exist.

If you are part of the anti-vaccination movement, then you are in a movement that does not need to exist, and in fact shouldn't exist.

Every claim made about vaccines being harmful and causing debilitating neurological conditions (most commonly autism) has been proven to be false, and vaccines have been proven to be not only the cheapest method of disease control and prevention, but also the best, and the safest.

Complications from vaccines are rare (around maybe 1 and 1000) and mostly minor. Serious complications are extremely rare (around 1 to 2 per million), and deaths are even rarer than that.

4. It's biggest supporters are a bunch of cranks.

The biggest supporters (and leaders) of the anti-vaccination are not only people who should not be giving out medical advice, most of them aren't even doctors (and the ones that are tend to have some questionable credentials).

Jenny McCarthy, one of the top supporters, is not a doctor. In fact she left nursing school in order to become a model. She promotes therapies that are harmful, and she's also a liar too...

Andrew Wakefield, the ex-doctor whom's 1998 research paper that was published in the Lancet that claimed to show a connection between vaccines and autism, was stuck off of the British General Medical Council register (the British equivalent of having your medical license revoked) after the Lancet retracted his paper after it was proven his research was based off of fraud. He still claims his research was not fraudulent, and that there was a conspiracy against him to destroy his research (despite the fact that it took over ten years from the time his paper was published for his paper to be retracted, and for the GMC to strike off his name).

Then there is Alex Jones, who thinks that vaccines are being used to create genetically modified people and causes diseases, not prevent them.

3. The movement is based off of lies.

The whole bases for the anti-vaccine movement is based off of the proven fraudulent 1998 research paper by Andrew Wakefield that claims there is a connection between the MMR vaccines and austim. The paper was highly controversial even when it came out, and the claims made in it had been dis-proven years before it was formally retracted for fraud.

Other lies made by the movement are that vaccines have been made more dangerous over the years (in fact they have been made safer) and that and the rates of autism in children who are un-vaccinated is far lower then those that have been vaccinated, which is false. In fact the rates are the same.

2. People in the movement do stuff that's legally iffy.

Many of the things that people in the anti-vaccination movement do could be considered walking on the edge of the law, and even illegal.

Most states won't allow a parent to enroll their child into school unless they have been vaccinated.

Not vaccinating your child could be seen as form of child neglect.

The constant claims made against the companies that make vaccines could be considered liable and slander.

And even telling people that vaccines cause autism could be considered distribution of fraudulent medical advice.

1. What it's promoting is dangerous.

The anti-vaccination movement has been linked to the deaths of thousands of children, and not just children whom's parents got caught up in the anti-vaccine hysteria, but children who were to young to get vaccinated too.

Not only are people in this movement are putting their own children at risk of getting a serious illness, they're putting other children at risk as well. Not only is that dangerous, that's pretty selfish too.

3 comments:

  1. Guillain–BarrĂ© syndrome is known to be caused by vaccines, it's not the vaccine itself that causes the problems but the adjuvants within them. Should you not vaccinate? No, of course not! Most vaccines are useful because they target a specific virus/bacteria with few or no other know strains. The Flu shot however is ineffective in most cases because there is no such thing as 'the flu' Influenza had hundreds, if not thousands of strains and you are vaccinating for only one based on a 'good' guess, along with a yearly dose of adjuvants, including (but not limited to) Mercury, is not good for you.

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  2. I would skip the flu-shot which is worthless (even it's inventor agrees when he says it's 'better than nothing.') unless you come in contact with the exact strain you've been vaccinated against, but, since there are thousands of mutations... good luck. -- But when it comes to most other vaccinations such as Meningitis, Tetanus, Mumps and Hepatitis ... they work. Yes, they still have the 'bad stuff' but it outweighs the good if you ever come into contact with one of these nasty diseases. Unlike Influenza the aforementioned do not have tons of different strains and mutations.

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  3. Also, working in the medical field I know what I'm talking about as do all of the Nurses that year upon year protest the Flu-Shot. It's WORTHLESS. But, I can see your point ... some take it to far and reason that since the flu-shot is worthless (which it is for the most part) ALL vaccines are worthless which is nonsense. Yes all vaccines have risks but sometimes the risks outweigh the overall costs. If you decide to not vaccinate your child against nothing ... you're actually putting them at more risk than posed by a shot. I think the anti vaccination people need to be educated a little on the basics. Oh, beer and internet... you do not mix. :)

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