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Study Finds Unvaccinated Students Putting Other Students At Risk

New submitter haroldmandel writes in with a story about the increase of certain diseases in school-age children due to parents not having their kids vaccinated. "Parents nervous about the safety of vaccinations for their children may be causing a new problem: the comeback of their grandparents' childhood diseases, reports a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Despite the successes of childhood immunizations, wrote Penn Nursing researcher Alison M. Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, in the American Journal of Public Health, controversy over their safety has resulted in an increasing number of parents refusing to have their children vaccinated and obtaining legally binding personal belief exemptions against vaccinations for their children."

122 of 1,025 comments (clear)

  1. They're stupid by neo8750 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is all i have say.

    1. Re:They're stupid by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think there is a Vaccine for that. Maybe that is the problem, the parents missed their vaccinations?

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:They're stupid by dywolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And that's why they need educated. And the education system itself is to blame for this. Too much rote learning, and not enough learning how to learn and learning how to think. It's not terribly difficult to sit down and think for a second and realize that if you dont get vaccinated, you're dependent on everyone else still getting vaccinated in order to not get sick. And even then, that still leaves "outside the herd" sources of infection, as well as diseases that arent transmittable (and have no herd immunity effect), such at Tetenas (spelling, I know).

      But that requires thinking and reasoning skills, and too many people seem to only have the ability to yell at the tv "Stupid conservatives/liberals".

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    3. Re:They're stupid by NoSleepDemon · · Score: 2

      "However, since you obviously just think I'm stupid (as well as the people who modded you up), why don't you explain the error in my logic?"

      Well, for starters, your son might be gay...

    4. Re:They're stupid by jythie · · Score: 4, Informative

      Considering that populations that have the vaccine have seen a 95% drop in hep-B infections in children, so apparently it matters quite a bit to a number of people.

      There are all sorts of ways to get hep-b, including a dormant version passing from mother to child and then becoming active in the kid.

      I am not sure where you got your numbers, but I am seeing US infection rates near the million range. It is possible that what you are seeing are the numbers AFTER vaccination, meaning they are low because the vaccine is working as intended.

    5. Re:They're stupid by dywolf · · Score: 2

      Don't be a nitpicking nelly. "He can't see the forest for the trees", to say it another way. You can get all nitty gritty with the details, but the content is what I'm more concerned with. Besides, I majored in engineering, not grammar. Moment, bending, internal stresses, elasticity, those are my bag. Plus I'm typing at work and I don't know about you, but I don't really pull up Plussman's English Manual for /. posts. This is the "rote" part I was complaining about, the inability to think and look at what's important rather that nitpick details that are tangential to the issue at hand.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    6. Re:They're stupid by daem0n1x · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, the anti-vaxxer movement could be a fantastic way of getting dumbfuck retards out of the gene pool. Unfortunately, as can be seen by TFA, anti-vaxxing doesn't affect only its adepts but also innocent people around them. Too bad.

      Here in my own country, we have a vaccination plan with quite a few mandatory vaccines. Everybody has a little booklet we call the Vaccination Bulletin, where the nurses keep track of all the vaccines we take. We go to a Health Centre and get vaccinated for free. Kids can't attend public school unless they show their Vaccination Bulletin and prove all the mandatory vaccines are in order. Everybody vaccinates their kids. The only exceptions I can think of is ghetto people who may not do it, out of neglect. And anyway, only a very small minority of them.

      Maybe you could institute a similar policy in the USA. If the nut heads don't want to vaccinate their kids, they should home school them. That would keep their little walking petri dishes away from normal children. Yes, for an American this may sound like anti-freedom, but I think my freedom of not getting infected with a bunch of crazy diseases far outweighs the rights of other people to be dumbfucking stupid. And I believe the anti-vaxxer crowd is a very small minority, even in the USA (here they're non-existent). Why should they have the right to hurt the vast majority of normal people?

      Vaccines protect people in the developed world from a huge bunch of diseases that were eradicated decades ago or only exist in third world countries. Do you Americans really want to become Uganda in the name the freedom to be stupid? Get a fucking grip, already!

    7. Re:They're stupid by jareth-0205 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not to mention the people who can't be vaccinated for genuine allergic reasons. They rely on the vast majority of normal people getting done and are the really really innocent parties when the negligent parents won't vaccinate their own.

    8. Re:They're stupid by jc79 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why does having a vaccination "stress [your] son's immune system out" more than his routine everyday exposure to hundreds of potential pathogens, such as those on your skin or in his crib?

      There's a good review here of the development of the human immune system both pre- and post-natal. It's entirely possible that the difference in immune function between young children and adults is an adaptive trait, given that most classes of pathogen will be encountered in the first few months of life. Your baby might look fragile, but he's had T-cells since he was a 12-week old fetus.

    9. Re:They're stupid by Archimagus · · Score: 5, Informative

      I am an American, and I fully agree with this comment. And I don't know when this changed. When I went to school it was the same thing. The school wouldn't let me in if I didn't have all my vaccines, as it should be. As the old saying goes, "Your freedom to swing your arm ends at my nose." The same should apply here. You can't use your freedom to get me sick.

    10. Re:They're stupid by swamp_ig · · Score: 5, Informative

      1. The major forms of transmission for hepatitis b are anal sex and iv drug use.

      Incorrect, the most common form of transmission worldwide is vertical transmission, from mother to child at birth. Vaccines prevent this. Furthermore the vertical transmission of hep-b causes the worst damage, with the highest likleyhood of ending up in cirrhosis, and early death from liver cancer. So while the incidence near birth is low in the west, the consequences are higher making vaccination more worthwhile.
      Secondly, there will reach a point where your son could experiment with IV drugs or even homosexual encounters, don't you want him to be protected in that instance?

      If you are alergic to bakers yeast then you will likely be alergic to the hepatitis b vaccine.

      You cannot have an allergy at birth to anything. It takes at least one contact with the allergen to build up an immune response.

      Why should I stress my son's immune system out

      Your son's immune system is 'stressed out' by the new contact with the world outside the womb. Adding any number of vaccines is a tiny drop in the ocean compared to all those new antigens.

    11. Re:They're stupid by mrjb · · Score: 2

      Stupid eh? Go ahead, make vaccines mandatory. But that doesn't restore the faith in vaccines. I'm all for vaccination (my kids are both vaccinated, the first one has autism), but you know what? I think parents have a point when they're acting suspicious. Call it paranoia, but vaccines ARE being short tracked by big pharma so they're first-to-market. You think there's not a lot of profit to be made in vaccines? Think again. Everything that potentially can be sold to every new baby born on the planet amounts to a lot even if there's only a few cents to be made on a shot.

      Faith in vaccines has taken a hit due to mr. Wakefield giving them a bad name. Even if there wasn't anything wrong with them in the first place, faith in them needs to be restored. And in all fairness, there are a few things lacking to make vaccines deserve that faith.
      We can't allow Big Pharma to short-track vaccines, bypassing safety procedures. Parents AREN'T being properly informed properly of possible risks associated with the vaccine (handing them a flyer AFTER the shot is common), so any incidents will be blown out of proportion. Quality control on providing this information is lacking. Parents should be made to sign forms proving they've been informed of risks BEFORE the vaccination. I've never seen blood being screened before any vaccination - this should be made standard, to help ensure the vaccine is well tolerated for groups of people considered to be at increased risk. "Whoops sorry" after mutilating an otherwise perfectly healthy person, even with financial compensation, is not good enough.

      People should be allowed to have their children vaccinated against one bug at a time, rather than be presented a cocktail. That should sort out the suspicion against the MMR vaccine. Right now, people aren't being offered this choice, even if they're willing to pay for it themselves.

      You're free to call parents stupid. But some of these so-called "stupid" parents have informed themselves a lot better about the subject than you have. As long as vaccines are being short tracked to be first-to-market, being marketed to potentially *everyone* (at a nice markup), risks aren't being assessed properly, parents aren't being properly informed about those risks, and without proper procedures in place to ensure necessary information is being communicated... parents are damn right to be suspicious.

      Solve these problems and you'll see vaccination rates rise again.

      --
      Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
    12. Re:They're stupid by Stripe7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would leave it up to the insurance companies, let the insurance companies charge extra or not pay for treatment of people who get sick from diseases they should have been vaccinated for.

    13. Re:They're stupid by Pope · · Score: 2

      In order to know which vaccines my son should get, I had to essentially become and expert in each vaccine.

      And where did you obtain this expertise? How many experiments did you do do verify your hypothesis?

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    14. Re:They're stupid by compro01 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Justify why a newborn needs a hepatitis b vaccine. Go ahead call me stupid when I've done the research.

      1. The major forms of transmission for hepatitis b are anal sex and iv drug use.,

      1. Primary method of transmission is mother-to-child, via bodily fluids (you know, stuff the infant is utterly coated in when they're born?) or breastfeeding.
      2. Testing for Hep B can be unreliable at certain phases of the disease.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    15. Re:They're stupid by RabidReindeer · · Score: 2

      I think there is a Vaccine for that. Maybe that is the problem, the parents missed their vaccinations?

      Unfortunately, no. There's no vaccine against stupid.

      Although some people work at stupid so hard, a lobotomy would actually make them smarter.

    16. Re:They're stupid by DrXym · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because some vaccines are not 100% effective, or lose their efficacy and require boosters, or only offer partial protection against particular strains. So person A standing next to person B could potentially become infected. Aside from that person A might also have a baby at home too young to receive their shots, or a sick who is on immunosuppressants and thanks to dumbass B, there is a risk that they might be infected too indirectly.

    17. Re:They're stupid by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's the policy everywhere I've lived in the US, too, except that there are personal belief and medical necessity exemptions. The former is an obvious loophole; the anti-vax idiots just claim that they're religiously opposed to shots or something like that. The second is kind of problematic and I'm not sure how to solve it. There are certain people that can't receive particular vaccines for immune deficiency or allergy reasons. That's fine. The problem is that any doctor seems to be able to issue these exemptions. That unfortunately currently includes chiropractors, who seem to be opposed to vaccines for trade reasons (because chiropractic theory and disease theory aren't compatible).

      The obvious first step would be to limit medical exemption forms to only being issued by MDs (and maybe DOs? I think they're also pro-science), but then you'll have the chiropractic lobby complaining that they're being treated as second-class citizens.

      For the record, I love me a good chiropractor for back pain relief. They just don't have any business involving themselves in the vaccine non-controversy.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    18. Re:They're stupid by Jakester2K · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One of the fraudulent distortions of the anti-vax crowd is heir claim that disease rates were going down anyway.

      Sounds familiar... Oh yeah: "We don't need the IT people anymore - the machines are running fine!"

    19. Re:They're stupid by daem0n1x · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You post is just a bunch of straw men attacks.

      You do know that the authorities want to administer Gardasil to boys, right?

      What's wrong with that?

      The flu shot contains mercury (it's good for your baby, "they" say)?

      It contains a tiny amount of mercury, smaller than you'd get from eating fish. So, what's the problem? If you dread mercury that much, don't drink water or eat fish.

      They are also recommending lithium be added to drinking water, as well.

      Who are "they"? It was just a simple study! You make it sound like there's a hidden conspiracy for drugging Humanity!

      Don't be afraid to re-evaluate your beliefs from time to time. Culture, attitudes, environment...life...changes, and so should you.

      I do, you clearly don't. Otherwise, you'd be showing me any valid data, not trying to fool me into your beliefs using out-of-context data and alarmist bullshit.

    20. Re:They're stupid by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 4, Informative

      Please explain for all the stupid people in the room how, if student A is vaccinated but student B is not, that this will make student A sick.

      "Your freedom to swing your arm ends at my nose."

      This means the exact opposite in this context unless you can prove that an unvaccinated individual can make a vaccinated one sick.

      Most vaccines don't completely prevent you from becoming infected, but they severely reduce the risk of infection and transmission - meaning that the disease cannot get a grip in a community. There's also for example student A's baby brother who didn't get his jabs yet but is still at risk when student B visits student A (this is a particular problem for measles)

    21. Re:They're stupid by Mr.LightFoot · · Score: 2

      I am in WA state where vaccination is terrible. What's worse, I'm in the county where whooping cough and measels are running rampant. The parents still hold true to that fake study about autism/vaccination link. They also want to make others get vaccinated to protect "THEIR" child. A lot of dumbfucks here. WA state has the easiest form of exception and you do not need to prove anything to say no to vaccination. Personal feelings are acceptable for exception. Mississippi on the other hand requires vaccination with 0.00% exception. On the other hand, Mississippi is a major social disease ;)

    22. Re:They're stupid by DeadCatX2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You know, I find it completely immoral that an insurance company might choose to deny payment for a necessary medical treatment...

      and yet I find myself agreeing with you wholeheartedly that insurance companies shouldn't be obligated to pay for a disease that an individual acquired by intentionally denying routine vaccinations.

      Ouch! The cognitive dissonance! It burrrns us!

      --
      :(){ :|:& };:
    23. Re:They're stupid by mapkinase · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >Your freedom to swing your arm ends at my nose

      It seems that very often one cannot take a walk on a street without touching someone's overstretched nose.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    24. Re:They're stupid by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I remember back when I was a kid, and the vaccinations were mandatory....they actually lined us up in school about 1st or 2nd grade..and shot us up there....

      I remember it was interesting..which ever one leaves the mark on your arm...for me, it would never 'take'. I never got the scab nor the mark on my arm.

      The almost didn't want to let me in school, but I had the paperwork in my records saying they'd try to shoot me up at least twice...and I should be good to go.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    25. Re:They're stupid by Score+Whore · · Score: 2

      It's not religious nuttery, skippy.

      Three of the top four states for non-vaccination rates are: Washington, Oregon and Vermont. None are well known for being conservative or religious. The fourth is Alaska.

    26. Re:They're stupid by ekgringo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, gee, if a playwright from a century ago says that vaccinations are a scam, it can only be true!

    27. Re:They're stupid by mapkinase · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If your kid is vaccinated does it really matter THAT much if other kids are not?

      If presence of non-vaccinated kids increases the chances for your kid to get sick so dramatically, may be vaccination itself is not that effective?

      The whole purpose of vaccination of a person is to prevent (diminish the probability of) this person from being infected from a contagious person and if having couple of unvaccinated kids in the class dramatically changes that, then what is really the effectiveness of such vaccination?

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    28. Re:They're stupid by s73v3r · · Score: 2

      'Vaccination' is a massive fraud

      Until you look at history, and realize that vaccination is what wiped out many major diseases which often had debilitating effects, like polio.

    29. Re:They're stupid by daem0n1x · · Score: 2

      If the shot prevents my kids from getting HPV, why should I care if Glaxo makes money? Good for them.

      The companies that produce food make a shitload of money. Should I stop eating and die from starvation?

      I know people who got lesions from HPV, fortunately they didn't develop into cancers. I wish we could have this shot when we were kids.

    30. Re:They're stupid by rs79 · · Score: 2

      "contains mercury"

      Yeah, about that. Obviously there's no shiny liquid metal in there rolling around. What it actually contains is Thimerisol, which is "ethyl mercury". This has been in contact lens cleaning solution for at least 25 years. Not one case if autism there.

      "Methyl mercury" is the bad one. While ethyl mercury is simply excreted from the body methyl mercuty is not. We know all about what happens from acute and/or chronic mercury toxicity. First, Minimata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease and all the others, less famous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

      No autism. While mercury poisoning produces horrid symptoms not one case of autism is known. And no harmful efffects from *ethyl* mercury are known.

      So if somebody talks about mercury in the context of why vaccines are bad, they simply and literally do not have any idea what they're actually talking about.

      The one study that showed a link was fabricated. For money.

      There is Mercury in all fish (except small oily ones) now. So much you can test before and after eating one and find a measurable increase after eating one. And it's the bad one, methyl mercury.

      There's more mercury in a can of tuna than there is in a CFL lightbulb.

      Thimerisol only occurs in the flu vaccine any more, because it's the only one that works in there, it's been taken out of all other vaccines and substitutes were used - not because it's unsafe, but it was cheaper to do this than for the FDA to waste time on the tinfoil crowd who keep winging about it.

      --
      Need Mercedes parts ?
  2. Because... by jongalbreath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    everyone's best friend should be Polio.

    1. Re:Because... by Sarten-X · · Score: 2

      Can we see a peer-reviewed version of the Carlin study, please?

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:Because... by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      These are not synthesized germs, there is no mother nature, and there is no way it was intended to work.

      You are making patterns out of random chance, a pretty normal human failing, but a quite dangerous one.

    3. Re:Because... by Sique · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your post could be shortened to "I don't know how vaccination works".

      Almost every person with a healthy natural immune system exposed to Poliovirus will brush it off with no symptoms and gain additional lifelong protection.

      That's the only slightly correct sentence in your post. But all the conclusions you draw are wrong.
      Immunization via vaccination is based on exactly that fact: Given an healthy immune system, an exposition to the Poliovius will create an immune answer which a) stops the Poliovirus from spreading and b) gives you a lifelong protection. And that's how vaccination works. Your body gets a dose of dead or at least deactivated Poliovirus, your healthy immune system creates the immune answer, and you gain lifelong protection -- and that without the risk of actually catching Poliomyelitis, which an exposition to the real thing would yield.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    4. Re:Because... by hrvatska · · Score: 5, Informative

      The introduction of the polio vaccine in 1955 in the US had a dramatic effect on polio. In 1937 there were 9,514 cases of polio, 12,450 in 1943, 33,300 in 1950, 38,476 in 1954. The polio vaccine was introduced in 1955 and in 1956 there were 15,140 cases, 1957 had 5,485 cases. The number of cases dropped through the 1960s. By the early '70s total polio cases were down to single digits. In the last decade most years have 0 or 1 polio cases. Sanitation was introduced well before 1955, and yet we see a rise in polio cases from the mid 1930s until 1955. Did sanitation suddenly get better in 1955? Did immune systems suddenly get better in 1955? The source for the polio statistics is http://www.post-polio.org/ir-usa.html.

    5. Re:Because... by hrvatska · · Score: 2

      It's possible that a more virulent variety of polio arose in the mid 19th century. If you look at the stats on the page whose the link I provided, you'll notice that polio didn't start to increase rapidly until around 1943. I'm curious how much migration patterns and changes in population density due to WWII affected the spread of polio around that time. The incidence of polio increased dramatically after 1945, coinciding with the return of soldiers from WWII and the arrival of war refugees from Europe. Perhaps people arriving from areas where a more virulent form of polio was endemic and settling across the US were responsible for the large increase in the incidence of polio in the US post WWII.

  3. Vaccines should be mandatory. by ZorinLynx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is why vaccinations need to be mandatory. If you want to live in society, you have to follow society's rules and that includes rules that keep you from putting others at serious risk.

    1. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed. The only exemptions should be for allergy or other medical problems - those are sufficiently rare that herd immunity should not be compromised.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by sensationull · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed, parents who don't should be forced to wear dunce hats in public as they are usually to thick to even have a remotely reasonable reason why.

    3. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by sargon666777 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is why vaccinations need to be mandatory. If you want to live in society, you have to follow society's rules and that includes rules that keep you from putting others at serious risk.

      Wow what a slippery slope that is... So for instance should H1N1 vaccinations be required? What about flu shots? If everyone got the flu shot we would likely run out before the high risk people (the young and elderly) had a chance to get it. Not to mention the potential side effects of many vaccines. Personally I and my children are vaccinated for everything I consider a serious disease (polio, etc.), but not H1N1 for instance because the chance of death is practically non-existent. In a free society you have the choice to be stupid... If you take away that choice then its no longer a free society.

      --
      Am I lying when I tell you that im telling the truth? Or am I telling the truth when I say that Im lying?
    4. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Tastecicles · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Earth, Hitler. 1938.

      --
      Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    5. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      No way!

      Those that are vaccinated should be safe anyway.
      If they are not, then there's no reason to vaccinate.

      I've heard that mathematicians working at the cutting edge of theoretical statistics have recently hypothesized the existence of probabilities other than "0" and "1". It's pretty cool stuff, with potential implications in all sorts of areas...

    6. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's implicit in the definition of "society". If you don't participate, you're just a parasite clinging to the side.

    7. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Hardhead_7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think they need to be mandatory, but I think what *should* happen is we need to publicly shame these parents. Every time a kid dies of Whooping Cough, those parents need to be on the news the same as if they'd drowned their kid in a bathtub.

    8. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your problems aren't with a slippery slope. Your problems are with an over broad statement that you have found some practical concerns of implementation.

      However, the reason we would run out of flu shots before everybody got it is because of the production levels are where they are, not because more can't be produced. That said, you are correct that the flu shot is a temporary thing, but the problem in the statement you object to is a lack of technical qualification to it, which could be remedied with a limitation to serious diseases for which the vaccines will last a considerable period of time as opposed to something seasonal like the flu.

      The OP didn't make that distinction, but it's not a slippery slope problem that they didn't.

      Also, let's consider this, is a society truly free if other people are free to harm you?

    9. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by msauve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And what if I don't want to live in society? Will society let me independently exist, or will they force my participation, through such means as property taxes? And if I'm not given a choice, who's the parasite?

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    10. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by michelcolman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And increasing the odds for the disease to develop resistance against vaccination. Sick people spread millions of little bits of virus around, some of those have mutations, and some of those mutations will make them resistant against current vaccines. A mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people is probably the best possible breeding ground for resistant strains.

    11. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by ultranova · · Score: 4, Informative

      And what if I don't want to live in society? Will society let me independently exist, or will they force my participation, through such means as property taxes?

      Paying property taxes implies that you own property, which in turn implies that you're using the legal ownership guarantees of the society and thus participating.

      Yes, you can exist independently of society; it's just a such a darn miserable existence that no one chooses that. And if some do, that existence is likely to be a short one, since humans are herd animals and don't really do well on their own, even if we don't count receiving an education as participation.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    12. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Zocalo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't doubt that this is going to go through the upper reaches of legal system sooner or later, but initially at least, I think the solution is probably more in your second sentence than the first; non-vaccinated kids are putting other kids at risk, so perhaps the schools and local authorities need to start thinking about this in terms of risk and liability. Say one of the non-vaccinated kids is shown to have introduced a serious illness into a class, which then rips through the non-vaccinated pupils in that class and probably also picks up a few of the vaccinated ones too since vaccination isn't always 100% effective. If fatalities and/or life-changing debilities result it's probably just a matter of time before someone decides to sue their school board for gross negligence in failing to adequately protect little Johnny from what ails/ailed him, regardless of whether little Johnny was vaccinated or not.

      Not a lot a school is going to be able to prevent that from happening, particularly since some particularly nasty diseases are contageous before the symptoms become visible. Segregating the non-vaccinated kids individually clearly isn't going to be viable, so that really just leaves a choice between a school insisting on its pupils being vaccinated or them being unable to attend. Of course, neither of those options are likely to be palatable to the parents who strongly believe in the non-vaccination of their kids, even if the school provides them with some suitably frank educational material, so the courts are still going to get involved.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    13. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      He also ate breakfast and opposed smoking.

      Should we stop eating breakfast and start smoking?

    14. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by leonardluen · · Score: 3, Informative

      the flu averages about 36k deaths per year according to the CDC. though the number swings around quite a bit year to year.

      and that in 1952 at the height of the polio epidemic there were only 60k cases and 3k deaths in the US. according to this

      so even if vaccines were never developed you would still be more likely to die from flu than one of those "stable diseases".

    15. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      nd what if I don't want to live in society? Fine. But TFA is about parents sending unvaccinated kids to school. They do want the benefits of society, but not any responsibility

    16. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      Mostly an annoyance?

      I take it you never have actually had the flu. I spent a week in bed, high fever and hallucinating.

      This is the problem the flu vaccine has, what most people call the flu is not influenza but some other minor cold. The actual flu is no joke.

    17. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For the same reason, vaccination should actually NOT be mandatory. Let natural selection sort out the nutcases' offspring.

      Did you read TFA? or at least TFS?

      These children which aren't getting vaccinated because their parents don't understand science are putting other children at risk.

      So it may not be their own children which natural selection sorts out, it may be the children of parents who have accepted that vaccines work, aren't more likely to cause autism, and aren't part of some government conspiracy.

      So their "personal belief exemptions" are putting the lives of other people at risk -- basically they've gotten the right to become potential carriers of disease:

      In 2008 there was a measles outbreak spread in California. This outbreak was traced to a child whose parents had decided not to have him vaccinated. The child brought the disease back from Europe, resulting in infections of other children at his doctor's office and his classmates. The boy's parents had signed a personal belief exemption affidavit which stated that some or all of the immunizations were against their beliefs, thereby allowing their son to go unvaccinated prior to entering kindergarten.

      You can't just have people opting out of things which is intended to prevent disease in greater society if it puts other people at risk. You're free to choose for yourself, but not when you're talking about communicable disease.

      Someone needs to explain to these parents that the rest of the world shouldn't bear the risk of them being stupid. If it was only them and their offspring who might be affected, go ahead. But it isn't.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    18. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not a slippery slope. Vaccination recommendations and requirements (yes, you are quite rightly required to be immunized in some places, for some things), are based on a quantitative risk/benefit analysis.

      It actually amazes people from outside the US that children unvaccinated for things like whooping cough would be allowed into a public school.

    19. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      The flu kills just as many 5 year olds as octogenarians. The elderly and the very young are the highest risk age groups.

      I also bet the old geezer would object to you saying his life was worth less than some kid who just barely stopped drooling on himself.

    20. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unfortunately, the ones that suffer aren't only the kids of the parents who don't vaccinate. If it were only those parent's kids, I'd be in favor of vaccination being voluntary. However, when Parent A doesn't vaccinate his/her kids, they increase risk of infection for Parent B's baby (too young for vaccination), Parent C's child (can't be vaccinated due to valid medical reason such as allergies), and Parent D's child (vaccine didn't take). A person's rights to raise their kids how they want don't extend to putting other kids at risk.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    21. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by texas+neuron · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The flu vaccine does not really prevent the flu (20% effective). Instead, it prevents serious complications of the flu (80% effective). I am surprised that no one has mentioned that vaccines are actually cost effective. Virtually all other treatments and screenings are not. So there is a medical cost to society when people choose to not vaccinate.

    22. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, you know who else used logical fallacies to support his arguments?

      Hitler.

    23. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Glothar · · Score: 5, Informative

      As someone who has some expertise in this:

      The Flu vaccine is actually pretty effective. After all, they pretty much make a new one each year. They've had quite a bit of practice by now. However, getting a vaccine is not a full protection against the flu. The problem is twofold:

      First, the flu virus mutates very quickly, and likes to mutate in ways that change its antigen "signature". Though there are some interesting attempts at more general vaccines, currently, you can't even make a vaccine for H1N1 flu strains. You have to pick a specific subgroup of H1N1 strains, because even within the H1N1 type, there are variations that appear differently to our immune system. The same holds for the "old" H3N2 flu, and the even older H2N2 flu. It's not uncommon for a strain to mutate enough over a single season that last year's vaccine no longer works.

      Second, because there are so many different strains in the wild and they shift so quickly, you can't create a vaccine that is targeted against all of them. Why not? That wasn't part of my specialty. I think it has something to do with confusing the immune system with too many similar things. Anyway, the point here is simpler: Vaccine makers don't even try to protect against all the strains. They use clinical samples to determine which strains are looking to be the most common, pick the top four or five, and make a vaccine that protects against those.

      So, what happens if they guess wrong, and a rare strain from the previous year suddenly spreads wildly? Well, you don't get vaccine effectiveness. What if one of the popular strains goes through some mutations early in the season? Well, same effect. You've probably got a vaccine that won't help much. Is this the fault of the vaccine? No. It's the fault of the virus that mutates faster than vaccines can be created and tested. They are trying to find ways to make them faster, but that would only work if you were willing to get multiple shots per year. The better solution is to find a way to make vaccines that apply to larger groups of strains, but it takes time and lots of data.

      Of course, this all gets thrown out the window if you're a fan of Intelligent Design (aka: Creationism). In that case, vaccines don't work because God hates you and chose to use his powers to fiddle with a Germ Spirit and make it immune to the poisons created by the Unbelievers. He's punishing you for not having more faith in him. Of course, there's nothing you can do in this case, so there's no point in trying to understand exactly why it happened.

    24. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by iter8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My son was immunosuppressed because of a kidney transplant when he was an infant so he couldn't be vaccinated. We depended on herd-immunity. It was always scary to run into someone who was anti-vaccine. I thought "It's bad enough that you're putting your own kid at risk, but you're seriously endangering mine." The anti-vaccine people aren't always uneducated, many of the ones that I encountered were college grads. I guess they slept through biology class. Many seemed to think vaccination was some sort of plot by "The Man".

    25. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by jahudabudy · · Score: 2

      Society is a collection of individuals. It is what we, as a group, say it is. You don't like society, don't want to play by the rules the rest of us collectively agreed on, fine. You can go live in the wilderness and grow/hunt your own food, build your own shelter, etc. Can't find a space to do that where there aren't already other people that have rules they insist on? Tough shit. The only rights you have are those you can prevent others from taking. In a society, everyone helps you protect those rights the society has agreed upon. In exchange for everyone else helping you protect your rights, you get to obey the rules of society. Insisting that society respect your "right" to make a personal choice that endangers everyone else is absurd, unless you are powerful enough to force your decisions on society. Although why you think you have the right to endanger me and my loved ones against my will is an interesting question.

      Society is a meaningless idea

      Oh, right. That's why.

      --
      ...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
    26. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by Jessified · · Score: 2

      I have the same philosophy but I only apply it to the the eugenics people. That is, the people who believe in eugenics should be sterilized.

    27. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by tnk1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Vaccination does not work for everyone, and it does not work for everyone equally. Complete vaccination of whole populations serves two purposes. Firstly, to protect against the disease, but secondly, to reduce the pool of disease carriers to a level where an outbreak is unlikely or even ceases.

      In short, if the vaccination does not work for some child, or there is a child with a bona fide allergy to the vaccine who cannot take it, that child is much less likely to contract the disease at all if no one around them is a carrier.

      Taken to it's furthest extent, we can eliminate entire diseases that way. With no one for the disease to jump to, it dies off in the isolated hosts and can no longer reproduce. That's why smallpox no longer exists outside some very, very well guarded labs. And if you know anything about history, smallpox killed huge numbers of people, and scarred, disfigured, and otherwise damaged those it didn't kill. Making it almost completely extinct is a very good thing and is a direct result of vaccination.

    28. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      Some people have allergic reactions to the vaccines themselves. You can let those people remain un-vaccinated and herd immunity will still work. I think you typically need about 90% vaccination rate to stop a disease.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    29. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by tnk1 · · Score: 2

      It *might* work, but it is extremely not cost effective. Parents of special education kids have no choice in the matter, their kids need assistance and that is that. Parents of non-vaccinated children have a simple solution that is right in front of them, and often public funded or at least defrayed. Setting aside whole wings or creating whole schools for them is ridiculous if they can easily comply.

      If it was an open scientific question as to whether vaccination was dangerous, you might have a point, but it isn't. Vaccinations are good for society and they can end diseases which kill or cripple young people. This has been studied over and over again.

      If we could simply allow these children to die due to their parents' negligence, I don't think we would necessarily have to intervene. However, this is a public health issue and it needs to be enforced for the good of the rest of society.

    30. Re:Vaccines should be mandatory. by jahudabudy · · Score: 2

      You see, I actually PAY for services I need

      Not all of them. I believe this is the fundamental disagreement we have. You receive many benefits from society that you do not pay for, could not pay for without the aid of everyone else. To bring it back to the article, you benefit from herd immunity and the lack of disease it brings. There is simply no way for you to "pay" for that benefit; it requires a group effort. And unfortunately, things like this simply won't work if we allow people to approach society like an a la carte menu. That is in fact the entire point of the article - allowing you the freedom to abstain puts ME at risk. So yes, your freedom is limited in order to provide health to all the people that are not you out there. It is me, and my neighbors, acting in our own best interest as a group. Yes, if this sort of behavior goes too far, it will be a problem. Too much abuse of the individual by society harms the fabric of society (and of course, the abused individual). Alternately, allowing each individual to contribute exactly as he wishes, and no more, to society will also harm society. Which harms ME and my neighbors, and we don't like that. So we all struggle to find the balance between individualism and being a member of society. Of course I wish I could do just exactly as I please and no more, but I see the advantage in sacrificing some personal liberty towards a shared goal. You clearly don't, and think life would be better if you were allowed to do exactly as you please and no more. You're wrong, and luckily it's a self-defeating philosophy. Ironically, you'd have to get enough other individualists to work together to impose YOUR philosophy on me and those others that see a benefit to having a society. We have a natural advantage there, since we already believe in and appreciate the idea of working together towards a goal.

      --
      ...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
  4. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Vaccines are not that profitable. Please adjust your tinfoil hat.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  5. How is this news now? by VendettaMF · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every reputable medical doctor, along with every pundit even slightly knowledgable about medicine or even basic biology has been warning of this issue ever since the antivaxxer morons got their idiotic campaign going.

    --
    kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
  6. There's a shock... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suspect that, rather than "Despite the successes of childhood immunizations", it would be because of those successes that the 'controversy' is presently raging...

    Because of the effectiveness of widespread childhood vaccination, we've had at least a generation of people with minimal firsthand exposure to all the wacky pathogenic fun that used to be quite common. Plus, depending on the herd immunity requirements for a given pathogen and vaccine, being part of the first n% of opt-outs is basically cost-free. It isn't until you get closer to herd immunity breakdown that being unvaccinated starts to carry any serious additional risk of infection.

    If you have a situation where people's knowledge of the risks is largely historical and the odds are pretty good that you can free-ride your way past them in any case, it (sadly) seems only to be expected that there would be room for assorted controversy to flourish.

    1. Re:There's a shock... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      rtfa: The people who refuse the vaccines on the basis of some stupid beliefs are putting the people that can't take the vaccines because of some medical condition at risk.

    2. Re:There's a shock... by Dog-Cow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also I don't get why unvaccinated students are putting other students at risk.

      Another example of the reason why stupid should be painful. And given the topic, fatal.

    3. Re:There's a shock... by pscottdv · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to the article, some people cannot get vaccinations due to allergies or other medical conditions. Those people are put at risk.

      Also, some vaccinations are not 100% effective, so anyone for whom the vaccination was not effective is put at risk.

      --

      this signature has been removed due to a DMCA takedown notice

    4. Re:There's a shock... by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 5, Informative

      Also I don't get why unvaccinated students are putting other students at risk.

      A couple of reasons ;

      i) Vaccination isn't a perfect shield against disease.

      If vaccination gives you 90% immunity, and you spray a whole school with the disease, 10% of the kids will get it. But happily, diseases don't spread like that - they need human hosts. If the only person you come into contact with is your teacher, and they get the disease, you'll be exposed. But if he's vaccinated too, your chances of getting it just went down to 1%, because his chance of contracting it is lower. Herd immunity matters because it reduces the number of carriers, which decreases the risk that anyone, vaccinated or otherwise, will even contact the disease, let alone contract it.

      ii) The more hosts a disease has, the more it will mutate.

      Viruses reproduce at a prodigous rate under great selection pressure - they mutate quickly. Chances are, that one will develop a mutation that makes the current vaccines less effective, or ineffective. The more chances the virus has to reproduce, the more likely this will happen. Therefore unvaccinated folks are doing the equivalent of putting a sign in their lot saying "Terrorists welcome! Come experiment here to discover new ways to kill decadent infidels!"

    5. Re:There's a shock... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you don't use a condom, the only people at risk are you and your partner. (Well, and anyone else that person sleeps with, but the immediate risk is just the two of you.)

      If you don't get vaccinated, you can spread diseases to people who are too young to get vaccinated, people who's vaccinations didn't take (vaccination isn't 100% effective for everyone), people who can't get vaccinated due to allergies/illness/etc. And you don't have to have intimate contact with these people. Walk by one of them in a store and you might have passed on your virus. Sneeze on your hand, touch your desk, and you'll pass your virus on to the person who sits there next class period. This is bad enough when we're talking about something minor like a cold. However, if you're talking about whooping cough, mumps, or polio, your lack of vaccination could mean severe injury or death to someone else.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    6. Re:There's a shock... by HungryHobo · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Also I don't get why unvaccinated students are putting other students at risk. Wouldn't vaccinated students be risk-free? This article reads to me like "Teenagers foregoing condom use putting teenagers who don't have sex at risk" ... "

      sigh.

      not this idiotic crap again.

      There's always some moron who's too lazy to actually do some reading first to at least know what they're challenging.

      in a certain percentage of people who get vaccinated the vaccine doesn't "take".
      it varies by vaccine. in some the uptake is 95%+ in others 80% or lower. in some it's only a hair above the percentage of the population who need to be immune to maintain herd immunity.

      so if you get the shot there's only a 95% chance that your body will react to it and make you immune.

      there's also the immune compromised, the very young and the very old.

      so johnny idiot decides vaccines are evil and doesn't get his kid vaccinated. nod only does johonny idiots kid get sick or die but also a certain percentage of the children of non-negligent parents who just got unlucky or were sick. they suffer because negligent parents drag everyone bellow the herd immunity threshold.

    7. Re:There's a shock... by antifoidulus · · Score: 2

      Also keep in mind that most vaccines have a minimum age in which they can be safely administered, it's not like rhyme doctor sticks a measles vaccine in a baby as soon as the umbellical chord is cut. For measels vaccines should not be given before the first birthday, meaning those that don't vaccinate their children pose a threat to pretty much every baby out there....

  7. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He didn't need to be paid, the mind control nanobots they put in the vaccines made him do it.

    Alternate hypothesis ; anti-vaxxers are actually a shadowy conspiracy of the radical Green movement who want the human race thinning out a bit to lower our impact on Mother Earth.

    These diseases cause not just death, but maiming and suffering on a grand scale when allowed to spread unchecked. Not being vaccinated is on a par with smoking - it's a stupid and bad for not just your health but for the health of those around you.

    Vaccination must have been very successful for us to even HAVE an anti vaccination movement, because the memory of the horrors of childhood diseases makes anyone bearing it a lifeline proponent of getting your shots...

  8. Bad Risk Assessment by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At its core, the anti-vax movement is bad risk assessment for a few reasons. First of all, the horrors of the diseases that most vaccinations prevent against haven't been seen in a few generations. People my age (30's) with kids have never lived in a world where you could get polio or mumps at any moment and wind up dead, on an iron lung, deaf, scarred for life, etc. They score the risk of these infections as low because they don't see them. (The fallacy here being that the *reason* they don't see them is because of vaccines.)

    Then, they hear scare tactics from certain people (Wakefield, McCarthy, etc) who claim that vaccines contain mercury/fetal tissue/generic toxins/etc that will harm their child. One shot and suddenly your child will catch The Autism. (Picture that in a much scarier font and cue a woman screaming off camera.) This would be so horrible and so, they conclude, we must stop all vaccinations until they are proven 100% safe.

    The fallacy with this last one is that 1) there has never been a proven link between vaccines and autism, 2) even if there was, the diseases vaccines prevent are far worse than autism, and 3) no medical procedure is 100% safe. In fact, nothing anyone does is 100% safe. Driving in to work? You could get in a car crash and die. Better not commute to work until they can design cars that are 100% safe. Walking down the street? You could trip, hit your head, and die. Better not walk until they design 100% safe sidewalks.

    The fact is that risk that vaccines pose is minuscule (and mainly limited to allergic reactions or slight fevers) and the threat these diseases pose is huge should they make a comeback. It is only bad risk assessment that makes vaccines look like a bigger threat than the diseases.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    1. Re:Bad Risk Assessment by The+Moof · · Score: 2

      Maybe not, but the vaccine companies won't tell you the truth of the matter either

      That's a pretty poor logical jump. I could make some extreme, fraudulent claim ("Vaccines cause flipper babies and a second head to grow out of your neck"), they could deny it, and your logic would state that what they said can't be trusted, therefore avoid vaccinations. The problem is the entire link to autism was fabricated. It wasn't the companies coming out and disproving data that showed a link - there was never a link in the first place.

      Some of the vaccines stop super rare diseases that are no worse than getting a cold

      This is actually a legitimate complaint. There are some things being vaccinated for that aren't needed. There are also some things they refuse vaccination for if you request it without determining prior exposure. My sister works in the health service industry, and she requested a vaccination for her children due to her exposure to the disease at work (I want to say it was tuberculosis). The doctor refused to do so until he did an exposure test to verify that her family was already exposed to the disease.

      Society has lost the herd immunity we used to have from Whooping Cough.

      The Whooping Cough problem you're referring to was due to the vaccination being less effective than previously thought. They also suggested modifying the vaccination schedule to maintain the immunity in society. However, antivaxers took the proposed schedule change as "it didn't work" (just like your post) and used that as an excuse to avoid it all together. So instead of fixing the schedule problem, they (and you) are saying throw it out entirely, because that must be the better option.

  9. Thank you Jenny McCarthy by schwit1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jenny McCarthy body count

    “I do believe sadly it's going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe. If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it's their f___ing fault that the diseases are coming back. They're making a product that's s___. If you give us a safe vaccine, we'll use it. It shouldn't be polio versus autism.”

    Jenny McCarthy in Time Magazine, April 2009

  10. No, education should be optional: vaccine or GTFO. by Rogerborg · · Score: 2

    Tough on the kids, but if the flat earthers want to devolve back to their Garden of Eden fantasy, let's get the party started.

    The only real question is which group is going to end up as the Eloi and which the Morlocks. Me, I'm not that keen on the sun.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  11. Re:The point of a vaccination? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2

    I find that you deserve death by torture.

    My logic is just as unassailable as yours.

  12. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by alen · · Score: 4, Informative

    revenue not profits

    you have to spend money on R&D, FDA approval, complying with all kinds of regulations selling to the government, bulk discounts. very little profit on vaccines

  13. Re:What risk? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    RTFA: 'People who cannot get immunizations because of allergies or compromised immune systems rely on "herd immunity,"'

  14. So how does rapine of corporations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So how does rapine of corporations change medical fact?

    Vaccines work and not vaccinating your children cause infections in others.

    GSK empploy people. Does that prove employing people is SCAREMONGERING???

  15. Re:Hmmmm, color me confused.... by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Informative

    The only students at risk are those who do not get vaccinated

    False. Some number of children can't be vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons, usually allergic reaction to the vaccine ingredients. Then there's a certain number, ranging from 1-5+% that the vaccine simply doesn't take, they are not 100% effective. These two classes of people rely on the fact that the diseases they are vulnerable to aren't present in the general population, if there is an outbreak, the sick people don't come into contact with enough vulnerable people for the disease to spread at a rate that can sustain itself. The numbers necessary are different for each disease, but generally range from 90-99% need to be immune to prevent a wide scale outbreak. These people are harming more than their own children (which would be bad enough), they put everyone else at risk too.

  16. Re:What risk? by Lectoid · · Score: 2

    I'd guess mutations.

    --
    Is it just me, or do you hate it when people say "Is it just me..."?
  17. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Having worked in the medical research field, I can tell you with certainty that vaccines are that profitable...

    • They're profitable for the data center operators, who spend six months running database queries to assemble a clinical trial.
    • They're profitable for the insurers, who no longer have to pay for treatment of some very difficult diseases.
    • They're profitable for the utility companies who charge for powering the lab equipment for several years while a vaccine is produced.
    • They're profitable for the data analysts, who are paid to go over the results from the lab tests only to say "chemical A did not significantly do anything different than chemical B".
    • They're profitable for the researchers who get paid for spending a decade understanding the biological mechanisms of any particular disease, and finding ways to disrupt them (and nothing else).

    Finally when it's all said and done, the actual pharmaceutical company can bring in billions of dollars in revenue selling the vaccine, which is just about enough to fund the next few projects.

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  18. Choice works both ways by Geeky · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How about letting choice run both ways? If you choose to refuse vaccination for your child, the school can choose to refuse to allow them in? Exemptions only allowed in the case of provable medical conditions such as allergies.

    That way, if your community decides that it wants vaccinations, you can either go along with it, find an alternative school somewhere else or choose to home school.

    --
    Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
  19. Re:What risk? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Informative

    Vaccines aren't 100% effective. There are some for whom the vaccine didn't work. If we were talking about a fully vaccinated population, it wouldn't matter. Herd immunity would protect these people (along with those too young to get vaccinated and those who have valid medical reasons like allergies). However, if too many people stop vaccinating, herd immunity breaks down and these people are subjected to a disease that their immune system isn't ready for.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  20. Re:Who Benefits? by cyp43r · · Score: 2

    Effective does not equal one hundred percent efficacy. There is a direct correlation between being vaccinated and not catching those specific diseases - it's not a high correlation between being immunised for measles and catching something else, and this is still being tested in those parts of the world that don't have vaccinations. The risk of autism is small to non existent (there is no correlation). Would you rather your kid have autism or catching tetanus and dying? Parents tell all sorts of anecdotes that turn out to be true, the most prominent of which is sugar rushes. The singular of data is not anecdote. -just because big pharmaceutical companies benefit doesn't mean children who get vaccinated don't either. It's like not eating food because 'Big Agro' is profiting.

  21. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Informative

    Vaccines are not like other drugs. They expire... rather quickly. A large percentage of them are thrown out at the end of the year. Then the research for next years vaccine starts again. It's a never ending cycle and it costs them a fortune. Unlike a drug like Viagra where then can spent a bunch of money researching it, then make pills that have a nearly indefinite shelf life and they do not have to start over every year unless some terrible side effect is found.

  22. Great to see Romney's getting such good advice by wisebabo · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... from his buddy Donald Trump who recently claimed:

    “Massive combined inoculations to small children is the cause for big increase in autism spread shots over long period and watch positive result.”

    That's almost as bad as Akins "legitimate rape" comment (note: Romney's running mate co-authored the anti-abortion bill by the Republicans.). If you think this thinking is restricted to "just" a potential senator and vice-president please note the Republican platform REMOVED the clause allowing for abortions in case of Rape or Incest.

    Judge them not (just) by what they say but what they do.

  23. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Informative

    And that all goes into the drug company's pocket, because, of course, vaccines cost nothing to make.

    Vaccines make so little profit that there's difficulties in keeping the manufacturing of them going--and research into new ones has almost stopped.

  24. Re:Agreed by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

    You mean people who think they are special when they are not?

    You will grow up, your ideas will change and you may even come to realize that having a functioning society is good for even you.

    Being a human means being part of society, and to do that you have to expect some give and take. Vaccines or quarantine are one of those.

  25. Mandatory Vaccines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Interesting how "my body, my choice" has such limited applicability.

    1. Re:Mandatory Vaccines? by NeoMorphy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Interesting how "my body, my choice" has such limited applicability.

      Typhoid Mary would agree you if she were alive today.

  26. Re:Why do the Vaccine's need to be filled with CRA by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh noes, the chemicals!

    First, most vaccines don't contain mercury anymore. Second, vaccines only ever contained very small amounts, as a preservative. If you eat fish even a few times per year, that plus your exposure through drinking water probably adds up to more mercury than you'd get from a vaccine, even if you did get one of the vaccines that still has mercury in it.

    The preservative is necessary to keep the vaccine from going bad long enough that it can be reasonably distributed.

  27. Home school the unvaccinated ones then by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 2

    Simple solution. If you don't want to vaccinate your kid, they don't get to mingle with healthy ones. Added bonus: the healthy ones probably believe in evolution and other ungodly things.

  28. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

    First of all, do you know how much it cost to make that vaccine and how much total revenue it brings in compared to other medication. Here's why pharmaceuticals don't like vaccines: Some vaccines are only needed once. Sometimes you need boosters but at most it is a few shots over the lifetime of a person. A pharmaceutical is far more interested in selling something you need on a regular basis. For example generic Lipitor may cost $80 per month after insurance. I would bet you a year supply of Lipitor costs more than all the vaccines a person needs over their lifetime.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  29. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by samkass · · Score: 2

    Well, then you want to catch every single child you can, to maximize the profit, right? After all, you invested in R&D, FDA approval & compliance with regulations. But once you have it on the assembly line, each vial of vaccine can't really cost much on top of those up-front costs.... so we'd better start immunizing all those stragglers too!

    Lawsuits, education (ie. defending against boneheaded accusations), distribution, storage... We're struggling in this country to keep vaccine makers interested in continuing to make a flu vaccine, and that's probably one of the best health-for-the-dollar investments one can possibly make. Death from flu is similar to death from drunk driving (~11K drunk driving deaths; 3K-40K flu deaths a year depending on the severity of the season), and yet not getting a flu vaccine is not ostracized like driving drunk is. And yes, getting more children decreases the risk you'll lose money, but it's also the best way for vaccines to work. An individual getting a vaccine is only 80-95% effective, but a community getting a vaccine breaks the entire disease cycle and the effect is multiplied dramatically.

    --
    E pluribus unum
  30. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Informative

    In fact, that's the main reason behind the special "vaccine court" that handles claims of problems with vaccines. Vaccines make so little profit that any legal risk they pose to the company could tip the scales into them being not worth the effort. The vaccine court is a way to weed out the frivolous claims (i.e. "this vaccine turned my son autistic and my evidence is Jenny McCarthy") and take action on the valid cases. If vaccines were dumped into the main court system, lawsuits would spread like wildfire over every imagined complaint. The companies would have to defend themselves against them and vaccines just not be worth the effort, money-wise. They would be losing money (via frivolous lawsuits) and their production would be stopped. Then we'd all suffer through those diseases again.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  31. Re:Rights by BVis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose. Not vaccinating your kid exposes mine to potentially life-threatening disease. If you think that the (vanishingly small) risk of complications from vaccination is more important than my (vaccinated) kid's risk of contracting a disease that has mutated inside your (unvaccinated) kid.. well, you're bad at math. And, a selfish short-sighted asshole.

    I've never really understood why it is that something you were going to do anyway becoming mandatory means that you should automatically resist it. You've lost nothing except the choice you weren't going to make, and society has benefited. Making vaccinations mandatory is not the same as Hitler storming across Europe, get a grip. If the slope were really that slippery, we would have fallen down into the abyss a long long time ago.

    Obligatory car analogy: Sure, you have the right to drive around with faulty brakes. At least in this state, you do not need working brakes to pass the yearly inspection. You can argue that you're risking nobody except yourself.. except, you're not. Your passengers, and the other people on the roads that you slam into because you can't stop, would disagree.

    Part of living in a civilized society is recognizing when your actions have consequences for others that have no say in the matter. Yes, you can make the choice not to vaccinate your kid. But realize that your actions have consequences for others. (It may come as a shock to you that there are other people in the world besides you and your child.) One of the major problems we (USA) have as a society is the attitude of "I've got mine, fuck you." Take responsibility for your choice; keep your kid away from mine. If your idealism leads to my kid's death.. then it's not worth protecting. Die for your ideals if you want; it's your life to throw away.

    --
    Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
  32. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

    You say "on par", but the reality is that until vaccines were discovered, smoking wasn't that big a deal due to the probability that one of the diseases we now vaccinate against would kill you. Smoking is among leading causes of death because we managed to clear out a whole host of really nasty bugs.

    I personally believe in this day and age, anyone actively preventing vaccination of a child should be brought up on charges of crimes against humanity. Not even slightly hyperbolic.

  33. Re:Why do the Vaccine's need to be filled with CRA by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not to mention that mercury was blamed for "vaccines cause autism." They removed the mercury. Autism rates still rose. So they changed their claim of why "vaccines cause autism" to something else. Every time the link they claim is proven false, they move the goal posts somewhere else so they can claim that "vaccines cause autism" hasn't *really* been disproven and that the burden is on everyone else to disprove claim #1,263.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  34. Re:Who Benefits? by Crisses · · Score: 2

    Thanks for the insult. I know children aren't born vaccinated. Duh. Children are vaccinated the DAY they are born in the hospitals. Within hours of being born. For a disease they're not likely to get until at least teen years.

    I'm not saying there are no valid diseases to vaccinate against -- and people can do whatever they want. I'm saying that buying the government's line [on herd immunity/the safety &/or necessity of vaccinations...] without questioning it is for fucking idiots.

    Have you given birth? I have, twice. When you have a child, the assumption is you will vaccinate. If you don't stop them, they vaccinate your child within moments of birth. It starts with eye drops to prevent blindness from gonorrhea. If you know you don't have a VD, why are they putting drops in your kids' eyes? This is later followed up with Hep B vaccine -- same day as birth, before you're summarily dismissed from the hospital. Some of the diseases they're vaccinating your kids from are not the types that are spread by air or contact or drinking water... but they'll vaccinate your kid without full consent or full information.

    Legally, vaccination is an invasive procedure (akin to surgery), requiring full disclosure by the doctor of potential side effects, the information packet included with the vaccine serum, etc. What happens IN the doctor's office? They reach in the cabinet "It's time for your vaccinations..." and they pull out a bottle & a syringe & get to work...

    It's become so habitual that they're not even following their own industry regulations.

    You probably don't have kids -- like most of the "fucking idiots" posting on this topic. If you do, you almost definitely didn't go through the labor to have them, didn't see what they did to the babies when they whisked them out of the delivery room, and probably didn't go with them to the doctor's office when they got their vaccines.... And you're probably ignorant of what the vaccine schedule actually is, and how many vaccines they routinely give to children nowadays...usually in violation of law. It's an assembly-line procedure now. But it's not supposed to be. But that doesn't worry anyone here. :)

    --
    ---- I'm out of your mind!
  35. Someone may be stupid by gr8_phk · · Score: 2

    It may be the anti-vaccine crowd, or it may be you. There is evidence that catching things is good for you long term and that vaccines may not be as effective at building the immune system as natural disease. Notice that I'm sidestepping the issue of vaccine safety and still making an argument. Now I'm a fan of eradication programs - I've got a small-pox vaccination scar and think it's great that the disease has been eliminated. I think it's great that we may soon see an end to polio. I'm up for eradicating the really bad stuff. Chicken Pox vaccine? Fuck that, it used to be a right of passage. Sure, if you don't get it as a child you should be vaccinated because getting it as an adult can be terrible. Or perhaps it should be a choice, but to make people get vaccinated? And flu? God no, not for healthy people at low risk (my grandmother died of it at 92, she probably should have gotten the vaccine). Hey, if they really are stupid then not getting it will be evolution in action and humans will become smarter - you should be happy. And lastly, if you get your kid vaccinated and they catch the shit anyway please don't run around blaming those who didn't vaccinate. We have to many people blaming thier problems on others and trying to tell other people what to do.

    Again, I'm all for eradication programs for the really bad stuff, but for the rest I think calling people who don't want vaccines "stupid" is just plain ignorant.

  36. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fact is, there's profit being made here. The next question is what lobbying & what pressure is being put on legislators to insure these profits.

    If that is your sole argument, that someone is lobbying the government to force people to get vaccinated so these companies can make money, you've lost any semblance of logical argument.

    The fact that you consider homeopathic to be medicine, which it isn't, and choose to focus on the money aspect, which is completely irrelevant to the medically sound reason to be vaccinated, shows your lack of common sense.

    I can assure you when people were being vaccinated for smallpox or polio, no one gave a rats ass about who was making a profit, or if a profit was even being made. All they cared about was that the yearly sweeps of infections that plagued the country came to a stop.

    Are you now going to complain about all the money those big bad corporations made eradicating smallpox and polio? How about rinderpest, an equally devastating disease which has afflicted animals since before the time of Greeks? Are you going to complain about the money corporations made selling this vaccine to the animal industry to innoculate animals to prevent them from getting infected and making it the second time in human history that a disease has been wiped from the face of the Earth?

    It seems counter-intuitive to complain these companies are making money to produce a product which will, eventually, make the use of that product unnecessary (in the case of smallpox and rinderpest). After all, wouldn't it be easier to make something which only treats the symptoms rather than cures it? That way they could have a perpetual source of income.

    You and Jenny McCarthy would make a great pair. You should go on tour.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  37. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Firethorn · · Score: 2

    If the program was not profitable, the drug companies wouldn't produce the vaccines

    I wouldn't say that vaccines aren't profitable. What I will say is that they're closer to computer equipment profit margins(1%), not jewelry store ones(50+%) like designer drugs have.

    My grandfather had polio. I'm all for vaccination. While we're at it, I support putting unvaccinated kids together in special schools. That way when a MMR type outbreak happens they all get it and the parents get to experience the consequences of their failure. Oh, and it makes the news in a splashy public way so more parents get their kids their shots.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  38. Re:The irony by dougisfunny · · Score: 2

    Ah, you must not be familiar with the subfamily know as the American-Engrish dialect.

    --
    This is not the funny you're looking for.
  39. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by Crisses · · Score: 2

    Makers of vaccines are legally protected from lawsuits.

    See [new news]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/22/AR2011022206008.html
    or [established decades ago]: http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html

    Drunk driving vs. flu deaths? Wow....

    I wish people would stop comparing vaccines with things wildly unrelated.

    --
    ---- I'm out of your mind!
  40. An exercise in arithmetic by tgibbs · · Score: 2

    But there's plenty of parents whose children have problems within 72 hours of vaccines being administered to make at least the anecdotal cases seem compelling

    To the innumerate, perhaps. Let's do some simple arithmetic:

    Autism is typically diagnosed around the same time that children receive their childhood vaccinations, even in children who do not get vaccinated. Let's ignore the likely possibility that due to media reports, parents are more likely to be alert to symptoms of autism right after vaccination, and assume that children are vaccinated on a random date, and first exhibit clear symptoms of autism on a random date. If autism is unrelated to vaccination, what is the probability that a child in the US will first exhibit autistic symptoms within 72 hours (3 days) after vaccination?

    3 days is 3/365 = 0.0082 year

    About 4 million children are born in the US per year. Let's assume that they are all vaccinated in a single year (yes, I know children get multiple vaccinations throughout childhood but I'm being conservative)

    Incidence of autism is hard to estimate as diagnostic criteria have changed and doctors are more likely today to consider a diagnosis of autism as opposed to simple mental retardation. Current estimates of incidence are around 1%, and a survey of incidence of autism in adults in Great Britain indicates this has been fairly stable for the past 70 years. But this is still somewhat controversial, so let's be very conservative and assume that only 1 child in 1000 will first exhibit clear symptoms of autism in a the same year as he or she gets a vaccination. How many children per year will, purely by chance, first exhibit clear symptoms of autism within 72 h of their vaccination?

    4 million * 0.001 * 0.0082 = 33 per year
    So over 10 years about 330 children would have first exhibited autistic symptoms within 72 hours after vaccination. Expand the period after vaccination to 2 weeks (I've heard people blame vaccination when their child was diagnosed a month or two after a vaccination), and that number rises to 1,524.

    So even if autism has nothing to do with vaccination, plenty of parents would have children who developed autistic symptoms with 72 h of vaccination.

    Which helps to explain the scientific adage: "The plural of anecdote is not data."

  41. Easy decision by kalbzayn · · Score: 2

    Our son has autism and was about 4 1/2 when his younger sister was born (his twin sister does not). Our doctor congratulated us when we "decided" to vaccinate our youngest daughter because a lot of parents of a child with autism either are not or have to think about it a lot more than they should. It still makes me mad when I see the Jenny McCarthy types making their money promoting their anti-vax books and then I have to spend time explaining to relatives and friends that Jenny McCarthy doesn't have any real knowledge of science and is probably pretty useless source of information about anything except what kinds of bikinis are popular these days.

  42. Natural resistance is not always a good thing. by NeoMorphy · · Score: 2

    Malaria caused a selection for sickle-cell anemia. The ability to survive does not have to mean survival of the fittest.

    One of our strongest attributes is supposed to be our brains and the ability to work out solutions and/or create tools to help us survive adversity. It should be clear by now that if we were to try and survive in the wild without using even the most primitive of tools or our capacity to reason, most of us would fail. Though eventually selection of the physically stronger, faster, tougher and more vicious would probably make us more like our primitive ancestors.

    Another consideration is that the children who "SURVIVED" grew up with immunity to diseases like chicken-pox. I chose the vaccine for my daughter because I did not want her to be one of the few who died. It's stupid lottery to play.

  43. Re:No, they're right! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    By avoiding modern health system, you'd be bringing us back to the Middle Ages. If you cut down the average life expectancy, it won't be effective to properly take care of the children, why send them to college until they're twenty-five when half of them will be dead before they are forty? Eventually we'd all sink to the level of dirt streets and chamber pots being emptied out of people's windows and famines and everyone of us would have a really bad time. Oh, and no Nintendo for you.

    BTW, meanwhile, evolution happily churns on, no matter whether you like it or not. You don't have to be worried about that.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  44. You can't fix stupid by sjbe · · Score: 2

    And that's why they need educated.

    With apologies to Ron White, you can't fix stupid. There's not a class you can take or a pill you can eat.

  45. Re:SCAREMONGERING. by DeadCatX2 · · Score: 2

    Just to reinforce your point...

    Dr. Jonas Salk was the man who came up with the polio vaccine. He could have patented it and become rich beyond his wildest dreams.

    And yet he did not. In fact, when Ed Murrow interviewed him and asked "who owns the patent?", do you know what Dr. Salk's response was?

    "No one. Could you patent the sun?"

    Bless that man's heart. Saving his fellow human beings from a lifetime of paralysis - regardless of their gender, race, creed, or religion - was all the compensation he needed. Surely, if anyone rests in peace, it is him.

    --
    :(){ :|:& };:
  46. Student A at risk because of imperfect efficiency by DrYak · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please explain for all the stupid people in the room how, if student A is vaccinated but student B is not, that this will make student A sick.

    From the top of my head:

    Vaccine aren't 100% efficient. There might by a few case where the student received the vaccine but didn't develop the antibodies. (Just an example: if you're sick with a fever, there's a risk that the ongoing inflammation will destroy the vaccine content (through macrophages) before antibodies are developped (through lymphocytes))
    There might be student aren't anti-vaxx but who aren't up-to-date just yet (they missed a dose or whatever).
    There are people who have a compromised immune system (that's an example from TFA) and can't get vaccinated.
    There are people who have allergies and for whom the vaccine might be risky (another example from TFA). (As an example: for practical purpose, flu vaccines are grown on eggs. If you're allergic to the egg proteins, no shot for you, even if you're not anti-vaxx).
    There are people who have been vaccinated but can't momentarily fight the disease due to a compromised immune system (AIDS, or even disease as simple as mononucleosis can momentarily b0rk the immune system).
    etc.
    (Case in point: with some disease (like the flu) it's better to vaccinate the population which is at risk of spreading the disease, rather than the group which is at risk of the disease - it better to vaccinate the care taking/nursing/medical personal, rather than the weak elderly patients.)

    You end-up with a bunch of people who aren't anti-vaxx, but which still aren't protected against the disease.

    - If the number of non vaccinated people is underneath a specific treshold. Nothing happens. When somebody gets the disease due to complex unlucky circumstances, nothing happens, because chances are the sick person will never meet another susceptible person. The disease just can't manage to find enough victims to spread among.
    - If the number of non vaccinated people rises above a specific treshold, the shit hits the fan: the disease get a big enough and dense enough population among which to spread. There's a far greater chance that the disease in one sick person will get a chance to meet a susceptible person to whom to jump. Disease which were taught to be almost eradicated suddenly appear again and run epidemic.

    By being selfish and refusing to vaccine, anti-vaxx will raise this number above the treshold. They will not only pose a danger to themselves, but to the population as a whole including all the "innocent" categories cited before who weren't anti-vaxx, but will suffer because of the anti-vaxx.

    In a completely selfish way, it makes sense for the anti-vaxx to refuse the vaccine: vaccine aren't perfect and there very slight chance of secondary effect (ranging from simple inconvenience to more serious effect). Even rarest problem don't have a rate of absolutely zero but slightly above. And if the disease is almost eradicated chance, the chance to catch is are nearly zero.
    But that behaviour is really dangerous for the community because as a consequence of it, the number of susceptible people is at risk at passing the treshold. They end up making the chance to catch the disease non-zero. By just wanting to avoid a statistically really rare inconvenience, they put the community at a bigger risk.

    The example is the polio. In theory it has been recently almost eradicated, chance of catching it are nearly non existant. But vaccine against polio isn't a synthetic product, but a "stunned" virus. There a very slight but not completely null chance to develop a serious effect, something like a polio (sorry I don't remember if it was either because the virus wasn't stunned enough, or because the immune system was compromised).
    So the reasoning inside the head of anti-vaxx goes "chance of problems with vaccine > chance of problems with polio" therefore "don't get the vaccine".
    But the problem is that, in consequence of just a reasoning, the treshold has b

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]