Slashdot Mirror
Measles Resurgent Due To Fear of Vaccination
florescent_beige writes "In the September Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Gregory Poland, M.D. writes that 'More than 150 cases of measles have been reported in the United States already this year and there have been similar outbreaks in Europe, a sign the disease is making an alarming comeback (abstract). The reappearance of the potentially deadly virus is the result of unfounded fears about a link between the measles shot and autism that have turned some parents against childhood vaccination.'"
This follows the recent release of a massive review of studies into the side effects of vaccination, summarized here by Nature, which did not find convincing support for the idea that MMR shots caused autism.
OK, I'm going to get flamed for this by a bunch of knee-jerk vaccination good people, but WTF. First strawman argument: which did not find convincing support for the idea that MMR shots caused autism . OK, so a load of people latch onto autism as a reason against vaccination, but its not the only concern. A lot of people are more concerned about lower-level negative immune system responses, such as increased allergy rates. Note that allergy rates have risen roughly in line with increasing hygiene and health-care in general (eg., hay fever was virtually unknown before the mid-1800s). Hygiene and health-care - vaccines included - affect the immune system, and its quite plausible that there is a balance point (between killing all but the healthiest or luckiest and weakened immune or damaged systems) which may have been passed. I'm old enough to remember measle parties, clearly people in the 50s and 60s (in the West anyway) were not very worried about it. It was something your kids got, and the sooner the better. Why is measles becoming more serious? Natural immunity to measles (ie., getting the real thing) likely results in greater protection passed to the kids from the mother (can't give exact details but the wife is a biologist who's been involved in immune research in the past). Then there's the multiple vaccination issue. The ability to survive an infection is a neccessary survival trait and would be selected for. The ability to survive multiple simultaneous infections much less so. Anyone see an issue here? I'm not anti-vaccination per-se. I am against the knee-jerk vaccinate against everything policy that governments and pharma push. MMR. How many people get bad affects from Rubella - none, only the foetus, so test girls before puberty and vaccinate those who are antibody-negative. Similarly for boys and Mumps. And I have a particular downer on the majority unthinking reactions that seem common on Slashdot whenever this topic comes up.
" drained out social safety nets by refusing to adjust to demographic realities,"
Republican FUD.
"lost two wars to a bunch of rice-eaters"
Bigotry flame bait.
" ruined the economy repeatedly"
the economy isn't ruined.
"shut down useful investment for future generations,"
clearly you are stupid.
" turned their back on our manifest destiny to conquer space"
have more exploration going on in space then ever.
"engendered an society where entertainers are ludicrously compensated"
as opposed to the production companies getting all the money.
" while teachers are vilified for taking crumbs from the mouths of millionaires"
Thanks Tea party. That's the current generation, BTW.
You need to stop your knee jerk response to your base instincts and think.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on