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Low Vaccination Rates At Silicon Valley Daycare Facilities
Vaccination rates across the U.S. don't neatly correlate with religiosity or wealth; Wired reports that one conspicuous pocket of low vaccination rates, according to California's state database of daycare records, is a place where you might not expect it: Silicon Valley — specifically, the daycare centers at some large tech companies.
A WIRED investigation shows that some children attending day care facilities affiliated with prominent Silicon Valley companies have not been completely vaccinated against preventable infectious diseases. At least, that’s according to a giant database from the California Department of Public Health, which tracks the vaccination rates at day care facilities and preschools in the state. We selected more than 20 large technology and health companies in the Bay Area and researched their day care offerings. Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s half—have below-average vaccination rates, according to the state’s data. ... And those six have a level of measles vaccination that does not provide the “herd immunity” critical to the spread of the disease. Now, this data has limitations—most critically, it might not be current. But it also suggests an incursion of anti-science, anti-vaccine thinking in one of the smartest regions on Earth.
Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s half—have below-average vaccination rates
As many have suggested, no duh.
according to the state’s data. ... And those six have a level of measles vaccination that does not provide the “herd immunity” critical to the spread of the disease.
So that is legitimately worrying, if the anti-vax situation has gotten so bad that half the schools don't have herd immunity.
But it also suggests an incursion of anti-science, anti-vaccine thinking in one of the smartest regions on Earth.
It suggests the null-hypothesis, that one of the smartest regions on Earth is utterly typical in this respect.
I stole this Sig
The valley has all but lost the ability to produce better tools and products to improve the world. Instead it focuses almost entirely on BS to make money off the hard work of the previous generation without providing value to the end user in return.
The lemming-esk groupthink that permeates industry as people mindlessly jump from one bandwagon to another without any understanding of what they are doing would be amusing if the stench of hubris and entitlement were not so overpowering.
Only measure of intelligence that at all matters is what you actually accomplish and spreading measles is quite the accomplishment.
It's just a bad summery of the data. It's that half fall below the 92% rate for herd immunity. Not that half are below average, and even then you'd be making the mistake of assuming that the Average is Normally distributed because that's the only time the Average is supposed to equal the Median other than by pure chance.
Most libertarians I know are reasonable libertarians. They want some service and regulations, they just want such to be minimal and to be served by the lowest and most local level of government. Just enough for basic safety, a level playing field, equal opportunity and most importantly accountability to locals.
I'd argue that in California, the biggest contingent is what are sometimes called "liberaltarians" (I include myself in this group): secular, very libertarian on social issues, skeptical of interventionist foreign policy, broadly pro-capitalism, generally just want to mind their own business and make money and be left alone, but don't usually freak out over income taxes and mildly redistributionist policies and universal healthcare, and probably more environmentally conscious than average. Personally, I despise laws banning smoking in private business (e.g. bars), or requiring seat belt or bike helmet use, but on the other hand, I think California's law declaring the coastline public property was one of the wisest things the state ever did.
Most of us are willing to put up with the large number of crazies in the Bay Area because overall, they're not nearly as powerful as you might expect (outside of Berkeley, at least), and they also like weed, gay marriage, and Mexican food, so at least we have that much in common.
Go into any whole-foods in Silicon Valley, and you'll see plenty of herbal medicines that do nothing but empty people's wallets. Silicon Valley isn't some kind of pro-science paradise.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
It seems that people have forgotten the autism/thiomersal hysteria of a few years back -- just in time to deliver a generation of unvaccinated kiddos into our schools. Unfortunately, the "thiomersal-autism-link" was promoted loudly by people like the well-meaning, but misinformed Jenny McCarthy as panicked parents sought answers for the "autism outbreak". Autsim is heavily over-represented in families that have engineers as family members. See this article from Scientific American (paywall, sorry): http://www.scientificamerican.... The referenced UK survey showed that families with engineers in them can have between 2.5 to 8.6 *times* the statistical occurrence of autism in their children. Even though the whole thiomersal-autism link has been debunked, in the intervening time a lot of people have sadly opted out of vaccinating their kids -- better "safe-than-sorry" seemed the prevailing wisdom -- until science can make a ruling on it, right? After all, when was the last time a kid came down with measles? ...This against the backdrop of seeing kids with a life-long devastating condition like autism -- nearly every family I know in Silicon Valley knows one or more families that are stricken with it. I personally know over half a dozen, including my own son.
Unfortunately, the success of vaccinations seems to have been blunted everyone's memory of why we did it in the first place.
As parents, all of us try to make the best decisions based on the most current studies/data available, but the tragedy is that current prevailing wisdom failed us on this one.
--Ace
Science denial is probably more strongly correlated with politics/emotions not intelligence level. The left and the right merely have different things they are in denial about, different things that touch on their politics and their emotions. And emotions lead people to stand by their beliefs regardless of rational thought and evidence, both on the left and the right.
In my experience, there's science denial, and then there's the more likely phenomenon occurring here which is the belief that one's personal interpretation of the evidence is vastly superior to anyone else's. If an anti-vax article sounds reasonable to them, its far more likely to their thinking that everyone else who considers it rubbish is wrong, because their own understanding is far superior.
That's not exactly science denial, that's narcissism masquerading as science denial. And this general belief is, in my experience, extremely prevalent in the various technology industries, particularly IT.
I'm actually astounded by how often computer guys can be so bad at the science they claim to be upholders of. In no other industry have I come across so many guys with actual degrees who are convinced climate change is some sort of vast left wing conspiracy, that vaccines are some sort of evil big-pharma plot, and so on.
I mean fine, believe what you want, but don't call yourself an engineer when you hold so much science in contempt guys.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
As a lawyer, I can tell you it is very possible under a negligence theory. In fact, there's a very recent Atlantic Monthly article on just this subject.
That's a neat narrative but doesn't actually fit the data very well.
Look at a map of vaccination rates. Georgia, Montana, and California have a similar rate of non-medical exemptions. Montana has a pretty high rate, too.
I have a different theory. Tree huggers and libertarians are both deeply suspicious of vaccines, for myriad reasons. But those people can't account for the degree of the problem.
I think the source of the problem has more to do with wealth. It's like breast feeding vs bottle feeding. When bottle feeding first came out, wealthy mothers jumped at the prospect of breastfeeding. Poorer mothers couldn't because it was too expensive. Fast forward several generations and the situation is reversed--many poorer mothers must bottle-feed in order to maintain employment, while wealthy mothers are likely to be able to afford the time to breastfeed. Of course, when you look at the hard scientific data, almost all the benefit from breastfeeding can be attributed to disparity in wealth and social status (including parenting culture). In fact, bootle-fed babies have _lower_ rates of food allergies, although that's probably also related to wealth and living environments (germ theory of immune system development and all that).
If you stand back, wealthy people are always trying to distinguish themselves from the poor. I think that's what's happening with vaccinations. Rich families have taken up the cause of anti-vaxxers because _they_ can. They feel more divorced from the threat of old-school diseases than poor families simply because of their social station. And feeling that way affirms their view about how they're better (healthier, smarter, etc) than the rabble. All the half-hearted mumbo-jumbo you hear from most parents (who aren't that extreme in terms of their beliefs) is just a rationalization of behavior that their social culture engenders.
Look at Whole Foods. _Most_ people who shop their aren't hard core environmentalists. They're rich people who _happen_ to passively support environmentalists causes simply because, in American culture, environmentalism is seen as anathema to the interests of the working poor. The rich tend to support environmentalist causes because it's a social signifier that says, "I'm not poor, and neither are all my friends who also support environmentalist causes".
Of course, it's all much more subtle than the above. But I think that's it in a nut shell.
Smartest Motherfucker in the Universe Syndrome. You see it all the time. One great famous geek example was Hans Reiser. He was so sure he was just smarter than everyone that he could get away with murder. No way those dumb cops could know more about criminal justice than him...
Geeks seem to have it the most, probably a combination of above average intelligence, below average social skills, and a culture that makes intelligence the be-all, end-all of being "better". However you see it in other areas too. My sister is really bad. Don't you dare to tell her about something she thinks she knows about, she'll jump all over your shit for that. As such, she's a fairly regular fountain of bad ideas. Mom calls me at least once every couple months to ask about some harebrained shit my sister is up on that is bad for her/necessary for her.
A local Italian court rules? We're supposed to take that seriously?
Tell me if any of these facts about the Italian case throw up red flags:
*) The court listed the thoroughly discredited 1998 study from Andrew Wakefield as proof that there is a connection. Everyone around here knows how much bullshit went into that.
*) The physician hired by the plaintiffs testified that there was a connection between Autism and MMR. That physician also sells an "autism cure," making money with snake oil.
*) Andrew Wakefield tried to open a business on the back of the vaccine scare he instigated selling tests for "autistic enterocolitis" from a company that would specialize in "litigation-based health testing."
So all the anti-vaxxers love to say that pharmaceutical companies have conflicts of interest, that it's in their interest for people to get sick so they can charge them for a cure. Why can't those conflict of interest charges ever apply to Wakefield (the only scientist who ever reported that there was a link between vaccines and autism) and the Italian doctor who also sought to profit from this?
So if there is an outbreak of measles, you think the state should be rendered impotent, that the lives of others who, for a number of reasons, do not have the luxury of choice over vaccinations (the very young and immuno-compromised people) should be sacrificed on your altar of absolute liberties?
Nope. As a libertarian and a physician I have absolutely no problems with government quarantining people who are infected or may be infected. I have no problem with the government offering free vaccines for epidemic diseases (not STDs) for people who can't afford it, and it's one of the few areas I don't mind the government spending taxes to help foreign nations.
I do have a problem with the government telling me what kind of medicine I have to take and by extension what kinds I have to give my kids. I get a vaccine for pretty much everything I can just because I can, but I will be the one to decide what I do and don't put into my body. From a moral and ethical stand point I have no problems with people opting out.
In addition anything the government mandates runs the risk of abuse. Who chooses what immunizations make the cut? MMR? Smallpox? Chicken Pox? What about HPV? How much rigging the system will the pharmaceutical companies do to get the new canker sore vaccine included or include something that's not nearly as effective as they claim?
Or, to put things more simply, you should be allowed to be a carrier of harmful diseases, and anyone that objects can go get fucked, and if any of them are harmed via your decision, well, too fucking bad.
If by your actions you knowingly put others at risk you should be criminally and civilly liable. It's the same a people who know they have AIDS then go have bare back sex with others without telling them. Those people go to jail for attempted murder. You take your kid who you know has to Disney? I have no problem with arresting them for that. I also don't have a problem with them facing other consequences like if you don't vaccinate your kid he/she can't go to a public school.
Your characterizations of Libertarians is way off base. You might want to try to speak with a few before you claim us all as heretics.
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix