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Measles Outbreak In NYC
sandbagger writes "New York City may have to deal with a measles problem. New Yorkers are being urged to make sure all household members, including young children, are vaccinated. To date, there have been 16 confirmed cases and four hospitalizations. This follows news from the CDC in December that 2013 saw triple the average number of yearly measles cases. 2014 is off to an even worse start; there have been cases recently in the Boston metropolitan area and more than a dozen in the Bay Area as well. Vaccinations seem to be a victim of their own success — people look around and see no polio or measles and wonder why they should bother. Others repeat bogus claim about vaccines causing autism. How do you think we can get through to the anti-vaxxers?"
Thanks a lot you dumb bitch.
We should present to them the facts! That will sway their minds. /sarcasm...
Tell these people a story about a kid that got sick and nearly died because of not being vaccinated. It was recently shown to be effective, which makes sense, since these people seem to think emotionally rather than rationally. Evidence does nothing to convince them.
"Well my kid died of measles, but at least he didn't get Autism"
People need to realize that Andrew Wakefield, the father of the anti-vax movement as we know it today, was discredited and disgraced for the shoddiness of his so-called "research".
Oh yeah, and he had a vested interest in kids not getting MMR vax - I think he had ownership of a patent on a different rubella-only vaccine. Herp derp.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
Maybe we'll have the capability to cheaply trace each confirmed case back to the source through the DNA of diseases. Turn a few ambulance chasing lawyers loose on folks causing outbreaks for whatever reason and a few people might change their tune.
How do you think we can get through to the anti-vaxxers?
Unfortunately, I don't think anything will get through to them until their kids and loved ones start dying from very old and highly preventable diseases.
Their mindset is one much like the followers of creationism, etc where they believe that:
1) All scientists have been bought out by "big pharma" or
2) That the consensus among the scientific community is some kind of organized ploy to sell more and more drugs.
Because of this, no matter what scientists or public health officials say, they just plug their ears and go "LALALALALA".
Just tell them that the vaccine is fully organic, low sodium, fat free and gluten free.
Also, it's got Electrolytes.
Its sad, but if the kids of parents who only think on a base emotional level die then its clearing out the human gene pool. We should thank them.
If you don't vaccinate your child, fine. But if you reject society like that then expect society to reject you.
No vaccination? Forbidden from attending school. Forbidden from visiting a doctor. Forbidden from visiting any public facilities like libraries, train stations, or airports. Forbidden from riding a bus or train or taxi.
Call me selfish, but that doesn't help my 8 month old daughter who can't yet get the vaccine and relies on herd immunity for the time being.
Casually watching the autism debate, I see that autism is:
- Now a spectrum, not a syndrome or disease. This has enlarged the affected population, enhancing the power of their advocates and increasing the urgency of finding a solution;
- Being blamed (root cause) on vaccines, diet, environmental effects, technology, with a de-emphasis on genetics and prenatal care.
- Used to describe many more behaviors, hence becoming a 'spectrum', not a syndrome or disease or even a process.
- Described as a growing treat, capable of potentially impacting a majority of the population, being caused by a multitude of toxins, exposures, and behaviors, hence the urgency to find 'a cure'.
This pattern is familiar to me. Have you other /.rs seen this before?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I've always known some people that were stupid enough to fall for this garbage. And I always told them how dumb they were being. But now I have my own kid. Now, I ask... "Is your kid vaccinated?" and if not they are not allowed in my house, and not allowed around my kid unless mandated by law (school) One couple got mad at me, and I finally just told them to go screw themselves. The life of my child is not worth maintaining your pseudoscience addled minds fantasy. I'm sick of it, and everyone else should be to. Ostracize these people and their kids. Do not allow them near you. The only thing that will fix this insane fad is peer pressure.
Herd immunity isn't rubbish. The reason we're worried is because of three things:
1) People who can't be vaccinated due to medical conditions. If you have an immune system disorder or are allergic to the vaccine, you won't be able to be vaccinated. In this case, you need to rely on herd immunity.
2) People who are too young to be vaccinated. Suppose you have an 8 month old baby and plan on vaccinating her. However, the MMR is given at 12 months. So your baby is still susceptible until then.
3) Vaccines aren't 100% effective. Nothing is. However, they are around 99.9% effective. Of course, with millions being vaccinated, this still means that thousands will still be susceptible.
If everyone was vaccinated who could be, herd immunity would protect these other people. When anti-vaxxers first started out, they relied on herd immunity also. Skip the measles vaccine and nothing happens! Because of herd immunity. As the numbers of anti-vaxxers grow, though, herd immunity breaks down and the diseases spread.
If anti-vaxxers were only affecting themselves/their children, I'd take a "it's a personal choice, albeit one I disagree with" stance. Since their choice affects (and kills) other people, though, I don't see this as a right of theirs. You don't have the right to kill someone else's baby because you want to listen to Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I skipped the second M of the MMR (mumps), as my sons exposure risk was minimal and it's very treatable with lower bad outcomes than the vaccine.
Have you ever seen the mumps? What kind of sadistic bastard would rather see his kid suffer through that than a 5-second injection?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
4) Viruses mutate, and mutations can bring rise to resistance against the existing vaccine. The more people who get the virus, the higher the chance it has to mutate into a new strain.
And you would most assuredly be wrong. Certainly not recently. We are quite careful about what we eat, tending only to eat those things God fashioned and directed us to eat.
God provided me with a cheeseburger yesterday, and it was aluminumally delicious.
Yes, I'm making fun of you. All opinions aren't equal, and yours is incredibly naive and dangerous. You're endangering your kids for no legitimate reason, you're a bad parent, and I have no desire to be tactful about this idiocy anymore.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
As a parent of a child with autism (as well as someone who is likely on the spectrum as well, albeit not diagnosed), I feel qualified to clarify some of this:
Autism is a developmental disorder. (It was never a "disease" as that implies being contagious. You'll never "catch" autism from me or my son.) The term "spectrum" is used because autism can describe individuals with vastly different levels of developmental delays. My son is very high functioning, you might not know from a casual observance that he even has autism, until he can't cope any more and melts down because his schedule changed slightly. Other kids with autism around my son's age might be non-verbal or have other, more severe, issues that their parents deal with.
This is only true for the anti-vaxxers and other such groups. Scientists actually investigating the cause of autism are focused on genetics as the primary cause. There might be environmental factors as well, but it looks like those only trigger existing genetic markers. I often liken it to diabetes. You can get diabetes from environmental factors (eating too much high sugar food), but your risk for it is determined by your genes.
See my first answer as to why it is a spectrum.
Again, this is just those anti-vaxxer/etc groups. Personally, I don't want to be cured. My brain is just fine as it is. In fact, I credit my autism with helping me program computers. (One of the traits of people with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism is thinking in If-Then terms. Horrible for social situations, but fantastic for working with computers which operate - at a basic level - on an if-then system.)
The "growing threat" is just due to better detection. Were I my son's age now, I'd likely get diagnosed, but back when I was a kid that didn't happen. I was just termed as "shy" and perhaps "weird." I took things too literally ("take off your coat" => I take it off and put it on the floor) and didn't understand why people seemed to "get" this socialization thing where I didn't. It was almost like everyone got some How To Socialize instruction book and they forgot to give one to me. (I could get a diagnosis now, but that would spend money we don't have and wouldn't really help me or my son.)
The best thing for kids with autism is early intervention. Detect it early and give them therapy and other resources to help them deal with the neurotypical world. (That'd be the rest of you who aren't autistic. Never use the term "normal" to someone dealing with autism unless you want an angry diatribe directed at you.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.