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Study Confirms No Link Between MMR Vaccine and Autism

An anonymous reader sends word of a new study (abstract) into the relationship between the MMR vaccine and kids who develop autism. In short: there is no relationship, even for kids at high risk of developing autism. From the article: [Researchers] examined records from a large health insurer to search for such an association. They checked the status of children continuously enrolled in the health plan from birth to at least 5 years old during 2001 to 2012. The children also had an older brother or sister continuously enrolled for at least six months between 1997 and 2012. "Consistent with studies in other populations, we observed no association between MMR vaccination and increased ASD risk among privately insured children.We also found no evidence that receipt of either 1 or 2 doses of MMR vaccination was associated with an increased risk of ASD among children who had older siblings with ASD." ... [An accompanying editorial said,] "Taken together, some dozen studies have now shown that the age of onset of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, the severity or course of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, and now the risk of ASD recurrence in families does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children."

341 comments

  1. The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... Because this discovery was made by science.

    They will just claim this is
    1) Big pharma conspiracy
    2) Jewish conspiracy
    3) Both of the above

    Antivaxers will only refer to science when it supports their own theories.

    1. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by ArylAkamov · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Same thing with any group that has an agenda to push. Support and praise science when it supports your views/goals, discredit it any way possible when it conflicts with your views/goals. Business (Or politics) as usual.

    2. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Informative

      Remember, Jenny McCarthy's science is being a mother. That trumps all other lesser forms of science.

    3. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      Don't forget: "Mercury!!!!"

    4. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Those sneaky scientists. This study is for "MMR Vaccine" only. There are plenty of other vaccinations. Must be some of those, or perhaps a unique combination of vaccines given on the same day, or phase of the moon, or something.

    5. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by rogoshen1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think this is a common thread with any dogmatic conspiracy theory. Any amount of evidence you throw at discounting the claims, the more they are able to dig in and claim it's a fabrication. Moon landing, JFK, 9/11, Han shooting first, Firefly being cancelled.. etc.

    6. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by bad_fx · · Score: 1

      I'd +1 you if I could - completely true. The whole antivaxxer movement is the epitome of pseudoscience, in the worst possible way.

    7. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 4, Funny

      And taking her clothes off in front of cameras. Don't forget that, because that's the equivalent of having a PhD in biochemistry, only better. Just ask her.

    8. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One of the doctors who announced he would no longer accept unvaccinated children as patients nailed it with the question "If you don't trust my judgment on the extensive scientific research on the safety of vaccines, how can you possible trust my judgment on anything to do with your children?"

      If you really believe that the entire medical profession, literally every one of them, is either criminally incompetent or part of some massive conspiracy, then your only rational choice, when your child is sick, is to sit there and watch them die.

    9. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This project was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Health and Human Services under contract HHSN-271-2010-00033-C.

      Those "scientists" are obviously government stooges, part of the machine, sticking it (literally) to the poor children! You're not one of those credulous fools who believe what the government says, are you?

      ... like when Perry, while governor of Texas, tried to force all girls in the state to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus, only to find out his former chief of staff was now a lobbyist for the manufacturer of the vaccine.

      Money and politics and corruption are entwined into everything in the U.S. today -- even scientific studies. Those you disagree with have precedent for their doubts.

    10. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She feels that vaccines cause autism. Why can't you feel that? Are you not in touch with your feelings?

    11. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Statistics are like a bikini: what they reveal is suggestive but what they hide is vital.

    12. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is just how humans work, its called the backfire effect.

    13. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Twinbee · · Score: 1

      I tend to think people who are against certain things often don't know why they are. For instance, the antivaxers may subconsciously think that we shouldn't have to do anything as evolution will sort it out eventually (causing lots of short term pain, but long term, I'd guess we'd save time/money not having to vaccinate everyone in that hypothetical future).

      Similarly, people who are racist may simply not like the look of the other race from an aesthetic point of view, but because that's so hard to prove, they fool themselves and/or others into thinking the other race is 'inferior' due to other factors such as intelligence, wealth, crime rates etc. which are much easier factors to quantify and compare, (though still *really* tricky to get right in truth).

      --
      Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
    14. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe the anti-vaccine group do not say ALL vaccines are bad. They are saying that they suspect that one of the vaccines or a some yet undetermined factor(s) coupled with a particular vaccine may cause autism. This study indicates that the MMR vaccine is not the culprit. The pertussis vaccine was a notorious vaccine that caused high fevers in many children. If it has been studied and found to be safe (which I doubt), I hope someone will educate me. Does everyone here believe all vaccines are absolutely safe?

    15. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The people you're describing drive me insane. We have a pediatrician who said what you did: either you trust her to recommend vaccinations, or you find someone else to work with. She doesn't want patients who continually argue against everything she says.

      Here's a test. You know all those godless communist governments that want to take over America and sap our precious bodily fluids? They don't have profits, right, because they hate our freedoms. They also don't care about their disposable citizens. Right? OK. So why is it that those countries vaccinate their citizens? It's not for the profit motive of drug companies, because those are owned by the evil socialists. It's because they cheap out and practice preventative medicine so that they can keep working the proles 112 hours a week, and you can't do that when they're sick.

      But tossing aside the Fox-news-watcher-ready wrapper, it's true: absent a profit motive, every organized country in the world immunizes their citizens so that they don't get sick as much. Do you really think China gives a crap about GlaxoSmithKline's margins? Hell no. They use vaccines because it's far and away the best possible investment into keeping people healthy.

      There is literally no valid greed-based explanation for vaccinations. It's dumb when you consider the American health system, and utterly braindead when you look at the other 95% of the world's population.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    16. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Malizar · · Score: 1

      Since the latest studies indicate that there are 440,000 deaths per year caused by doctors screwing up. (http://www.medicalmalpracticelawyer.center/2014/05/new-study-confirms-440000-deat.html) Add to that the likely unknown millions beyond that that have serious to moderate problems that are short of death caused by medical negligence and maybe you should not trust anything a doctor says blindly.

    17. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a distinction between "accepting what your doctor says blindly" and "ignoring what your doctor and the entire medical community says because you overvalue fringe opinions."

    18. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      That's rewriting history. The anti-vaccine movement was specifically against MMR, following the publishing of a (since redacted) paper showing a link between MMR and autism. Not only was the paper redacted, the research was proven to be flawed and then re-done properly to show that there is zero correlation. That's the ONLY autism-related vaccine issue that's ever been raised.

      There are other (past and present) vaccines which do have potential side effects; these are generally understood and considered to be worth the risk. Usually it's a case of allergic reaction to the suspension that the vaccine is in, and is tied to the person taking it.

      Vaccines are not all safe, but herd protection is generally safer for the population at large than unchecked infections. "Dead" vaccines are generally safe, other than the possibility of your body rejecting the vaccine itself.

    19. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      I believe the anti-vaccine group do not say ALL vaccines are bad. They are saying that they suspect that one of the vaccines or a some yet undetermined factor(s) coupled with a particular vaccine may cause autism. This study indicates that the MMR vaccine is not the culprit. The pertussis vaccine was a notorious vaccine that caused high fevers in many children. If it has been studied and found to be safe (which I doubt), I hope someone will educate me. Does everyone here believe all vaccines are absolutely safe?

      Nothing is absolutely safe. Absolutely nothing. Pertussis is a straw-man argument; Yes the OLD vaccine caused fevers and discomfort, no, the fevers and discomfort were not particularly dangerous. No one has used whole cell pertussis vaccine for a couple of decades now.

      Is the risk-benefit ratio highly skewed towards benefit with general pediatric vaccinations - yes.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    20. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by youngone · · Score: 1

      What's Mercury got to do with vaccines?

    21. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

      Back off, man. I'm a scientist.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    22. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      Do the antivax people have a thing with Jews?

      Also: Today someone told me that circumcision causes autism. I laughed but they were serious.

    23. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      "then your only rational choice"

      Aha, and therein lies the problem.

    24. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not an anti-vaxer but I damn sure don't trust insurance companies to report truthfully either.

    25. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some vaccines contain Mercury - about the same amount that you get by eating a can of tuna.

    26. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 2

      You back off man. A scientist is no match for a stripper.

    27. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 1

      440,000 deaths versus how many millions of people who would have died without medical care? If you want to make it purely about numbers, you still lose, hands down. Without modern medicine, warts and all, average life expectancy is less than 40 years.

    28. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 1

      That's the thing. To some people, there isn't a difference. It's entirely binary to them. Either everything a doctor says is gospel handed down by God, or it's murderous conspiracy, with nothing in between.

    29. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      can they show a concrete benefit that isn't miniscule and shows people only get smarter, live longer, and live through sickness when people who go without are dumber, less healthy, and are actually dying from more issues?..

      or is there really nothing that shows vaccines have a benefit in todays society..
      giving a vaccine to a person is assault, so it really needs to show it's worth it for people to OPT in to using it.

      almost nothing overrides a persons liberty to choose, that's where the assault comes in if you force it. that's contrary to national security if they have to actually commit a crime to administer something. manufacturing consent to get people to agree doesn't remove the assault factor.

    30. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by jeff4747 · · Score: 2

      Just to toss another bit on the "greed argument" pile, the drugs to treat a disease cost 10 to 10,000,000 times more than the vaccines to prevent the disease. So if it was about greed, they wouldn't be giving vaccines. It's MUCH more profitable to treat a polio victim for the rest of their life than to vaccinate against it.

      "But Chicken Pox doesn't have a treatment drug!!". It has lots and lots of drugs in the rare cases when it causes serious complications and sends the victim to the ICU.

    31. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

      About as much as you get eating an apple.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    32. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      That's an excellent point. Yeah, I think we can cross that off as busted.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    33. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      ...he says, quoting a malpractice lawyer of all things. By that ludicrous number, one in 680 Americans are killed by doctors each year. If you live to the age of 75, your odds of dying this way would be 1 in 9.

      Plenty of people get bad treatment, sure, but you can't make me believe that one in 9 will actually die of it. That would make malpractice nearly as deadly as cancer, and that's just not plausible.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    34. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      What's Mercury got to do with vaccines?

      Not much really. Hell they used to let kids play with mercury in science class, even allowing them to put it on their skin. Those were the kids in the 40's 50's and 60's and it turned out fairly well, I mean we did have that fuckup with the 70's but we seem to have done okay.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    35. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I am a Scientist _and_ a Stripper.
      My Act involves thin Carbon Foils, Fomblin Films, and Heavy Ion Beams.
      Yes, I do have an Electron Complex.

    36. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by s.petry · · Score: 0, Troll

      "But Chicken Pox doesn't have a treatment drug!!"

      Calimine lotion is really not a mystery, and has been around since at least the 1960s when I was a kid and caught chicken pox.

      Largest number of "serious" cases on record in the US for chicken pox is 9,000 with a population of about 300million (According to the CDC and US Census data). The highest mortality rate is 100 out of that 9,000 in the same year.

      Surely I could agree that _some_ drugs for treatment are cheaper than _some_ drugs for prevention, but not all of them.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    37. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by rock_climbing_guy · · Score: 0

      Although mercury has not been shown to cause autism, I would like to point out that injecting something into your body does not necessarily have the same effect as eating it.

      --
      Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
    38. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The antivaxers who consider MMR an issue will ignore this because it does not address the claim that they are making. Their claim is that MMR triggers regressive autism in a (fortunately very small) number of children. This study (a) does not separate out regressive from non-regressive autism and (b) like other epidemeological studies cannot distinguish very small numbers from statistical error.

      You might still think they are wrong, but they won't be persuaded by any number of studies that look at something other than their claim,

    39. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would like them to explain the fact that at least two of the kids I know that have Asbergers where later found to have significant heavy metal poisoning and that de-chelating treatment was the first effective treatment they received? Then there is the fact that I know at least two families whose kids have Asbergers! Supposedly, it had an occurrence rate of 1/160,000 - yet there were three cases in my son's elementary school? No - it ain't the water - everyone moved into this location from other places with the kids already affected.

    40. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Pikoro · · Score: 4, Informative

      " the idea being to add it to shots as something to enhance the body's reaction to a foreign body"

      Wrong. the "mercury" in the vaccine is trace amounts of themirosol, which is a preservative used as an antibacterial/anti-fungal agent for multidose vials of vaccines. Its inclusion in single dose vials has been almost eliminated just to placate idiots like you who think it's dangerous or don't know what it actually does.

      If you stick a needle into a multidose vial and it keeps getting punctured, there is a chance of contaminants getting introduced. The themirosol prevents that.

      It has nothing to do with making the body react stronger to the vaccine. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Get educated:

      http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBl...

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
    41. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Exidor · · Score: 2

      I believe we should all get educated, and make an informed decision for ourselves as well as our kids.
      As you might have guessed, I'd be on the side that would rather not.

      You mean that you don't want to be educated and make informed decsions? Yep, that's exactly what I guessed.

    42. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Talderas · · Score: 1

      I am in close personal touch with my feelings. Anger is said she's making life hell for others. Sadness is telling me that it feels pity for her. Happiness doesn't have a comment.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    43. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a point in a discussion where a person is not only not right, they are not even wrong.
      You passed that point half way into your first sentence.
      You are both stupid _and_ uninformed, and a danger to the rest of us.

    44. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      Do the antivax people have a thing with Jews?

      Also: Today someone told me that circumcision causes autism. I laughed but they were serious.

      That's not a bad rumour to pass around :-) Genital mutilation is too readily accepted in otherwise civilised societies.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    45. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Holy shit, you're a fucking moron. I'm not sure it can be stated any more clearly than that. Pardon my French.

      Calamine lotion as a treatment for chickenpox? Are you fucking high?

      Calamine doesn't "treat" chicken pox - it treats the symptoms of the disease. That is, the itching and the rash. It's not a drug that fights off the virus.

      Next time I get a serious viral infection I'll just rub some zinc carbonate on my skin. Much better than vaccinating myself.

      Jesus fucking christ you anti-vaxxers are unbelievable.

    46. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      Statistics are like a bikini: what they reveal is suggestive but what they hide is vital.

      The attention grabbing metaphor perhaps obscure the utter stupidity of it. Earnestly conducted statistical analysis is the best tool we have for determining the vitally important truth.

      Same thing with any group that has an agenda to push. Support and praise science when it supports your views/goals, discredit it any way possible when it conflicts with your views/goals. Business (Or politics) as usual.

      This is unfortunately true. I expect logic to persuade none of the "enlightened ignorant" who think they are smarter than everyone else, including science. In another example, for over 10 years, disingenuous special interests have fanned the flames of doubt while science long ago concluded humans are creating global warming on a scale that will be disastrous for civilization. When 99 out of 100 people tell you your house is on fire, you call the f*ing fire department!! You don't dither about because you're worried those people disagree on whether it will burn down in an hour or a day.

    47. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      Similarly, people who are racist may simply not like the look of the other race from an aesthetic point of view, but because that's so hard to prove, they fool themselves and/or others into thinking the other race is 'inferior' due to other factors such as intelligence, wealth, crime rates etc. which are much easier factors to quantify and compare, (though still *really* tricky to get right in truth).

      Limiting my response to just this point, actually they have pretty much quantified aesthetic beauty.... http://www.femininebeauty.info...

    48. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by zenopus · · Score: 1

      Hank from SciShow on the antivax phenomenon,
      as Twinbee hints at; it's all to do with bias
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    49. Re: The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Mercury that was in vaccines was not the same as the mercury in tuna... Its 2 different types of mercury. The mercury in tuna is absorbed by your body while the mercury that was in vaccines passed right through. It's the difference between ethyl-mercury and methyl-Mercury

    50. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tuskegee syphilis atrocity
      MKUltra conspiracy
        Edgewood Arsenal experiments
      San Quetin

      Yes. We should trust them blindly. They ARE doctors and researchers with only good will.

    51. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This argument doesn't sound right to me. Imagine your car dealership said "you need to buy an expensive rust-proofing job for your car undercarriage... if you don't trust my judgment on this then how could you possibly trust my judgment on anything to do with your car." So you can't even go to them to have a headlight replaced when it burns out?

      The dealership may refuse to do service for you for some reason (including "you annoy me," which is what I suspect the argument really is), and the customer may decide to go to a different mechanic, but this particular argument seems like it is an exaggeration to the point of farce.

    52. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why not? pull up your pants, your bias is showing.

    53. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sneer at them but I understand exactly where they're coming from. Most people don't read medical literature, journals about immunology and so on. They read articles that are passed off as "journalism" but that are in fact just press releases from business and scientific institutions. Eggs are good for you. Eggs are bad for you. Eggs are good for you. X gives you cancer. X protects you from cancer. X gives you cancer.

      I don't blame people for thinking scientists are all a bunch of nutters.

      The positive thing to come from this is we have robust studies showing it does not cause autism that we didn't have before.

    54. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      You seem to be confusing your opinion and fact. Again.

    55. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, Mercury being a poison to the body...

      Wow. It took you 8 whole words to make a fool of yourself.

      Chlorine is also 'a poison to the body'. And Sodium is highly flammable in the presence of water. Strangely enough, you have consumed *pounds* of both of these over the course of your life, and you're still alive. (Sodium Chloride, aka: table salt)

      The effect of a molecule which contains an element is *NOT* the same as the effect of the pure element.

    56. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a lot of "I believe" that doesn't matter to anyone.

    57. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by jythie · · Score: 1

      Because distrusting them blindly works so much better.

      Yes, it is good to keep in mind that doctors can lie and do horrible things, but claims that they have done so on any particular topic need to be backed up with something substantial, something more than 'there have been lies in the past, and we REALLY want to believe this!'.

    58. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by jythie · · Score: 1

      Iron is also a poison, esp when forged into a hammer and applied at high velocity.

      Form and method of application are pretty important when determining what effect the chemical will have on a body.

    59. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by u-235-sentinel · · Score: 1

      Same thing with any group that has an agenda to push. Support and praise science when it supports your views/goals, discredit it any way possible when it conflicts with your views/goals. Business (Or politics) as usual.

      And we all know how reliable science has been throughout history.

      The world is still round btw.. right? ;-)

      --
      Has Comcast disconnected your Internet account? Same here. You can read about it at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com
    60. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That analogy barely fits.

    61. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So we just need to apply the same logic for these studies that parents use.

      For example, instead of saying, "Study proves children just as likely to have autism between vaccination and non-vaccination", change it to "Non-vaccinated children more likely to become autistic" or straight up scare tactics of "Study shows non-vaccinated children becoming autistic all the time!"

      Who cares if it isn't true? Obviously, the parents don't care. Either for science or their children.

    62. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Warhaven · · Score: 2

      " the idea being to add it to shots as something to enhance the body's reaction to a foreign body"

      Wrong. the "mercury" in the vaccine is trace amounts of themirosol, which is a preservative used as an antibacterial/anti-fungal agent for multidose vials of vaccines. Its inclusion in single dose vials has been almost eliminated just to placate idiots like you who think it's dangerous or don't know what it actually does.

      If you stick a needle into a multidose vial and it keeps getting punctured, there is a chance of contaminants getting introduced. The themirosol prevents that.

      It has nothing to do with making the body react stronger to the vaccine. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Get educated:

      http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBl...

      The OP was correct in that they do use adjuvants in many vaccines to promote a better response, although OP was incorrect about the thimerosal (both as an adjuvant and its safety, or lack thereof). Typically, it's aluminum or monophosphoryl lipid A used as the adjuvant.

      http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/adjuvants.html

    63. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also wrong about registration (phase III) trials. They are done with the exact fomulation used in the final vaccine, including adjuvents.

    64. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it must be OK for doctors to refuse to treat patients who consume alcohol or tobacco, correct? And how about refusing to treat patients who work night shifts, after all we know that is also an unhealthy choice. How about refusing to accept patients who eat at McDonald's? How far do you really want to go with this?

    65. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      He's right. Man-boobs or GTFO.

    66. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait.. What? Firefly was CANCELLED?

    67. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      And taking her clothes off in front of cameras. Don't forget that, because that's the equivalent of having a PhD in biochemistry, only better. Just ask her.

      And eating her own vomit on camera. That should qualify her for an honorary degree in biochemistry!

    68. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Are you from a Michael Bay movie?

    69. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I am in close personal touch with my feelings. Anger is said she's making life hell for others. Sadness is telling me that it feels pity for her. Happiness doesn't have a comment.

      Fear worries that she convinces other dullards who harm innocent children. And Disgust lords over all, annoyed that anyone would listen to her just because she's JENNY MCCARTHY.

      Inside Out 2015!

    70. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except a can of tuna is not injected directly into your veins....

    71. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Who cares if it isn't true? Obviously, the parents don't care. Either for science or their children.

      That will only embolden them. They will latch onto anything that supports what fits what they want to believe, misrepresenting the results of the study will be another arrow in their quiver they'll trot out in every discussion, just like the 9/11 Truthers do.

    72. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 1

      Only if he's an exploding stripper.

    73. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This CDC scientist is part of the anti-vaxxer autism conspiracy movement too! Where does CDC get these scientists?
      Someone must be paying him to spew this garbage. And now he's taken the services of a whistleblower law firm. I mean the above
      study can't be wrong. Can it?

      http://www.morganverkamp.com/august-27-2014-press-release-statement-of-william-w-thompson-ph-d-regarding-the-2004-article-examining-the-possibility-of-a-relationship-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism/

    74. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by rezme · · Score: 1

      Well.... Han *did* shoot first....

    75. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by hesiod · · Score: 1

      You're right: intravenous tuna use doesn't sound healthy at all! Salmon, however, is another matter entirely.

    76. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Before you rush out to get the MMR vaccine for your child or sign up for the latest statin or antidepressant pharmaceutical pill in obedience to the television, you might want to first consider what several former pill pushers-turned-whistleblowers have to say about how drugs and vaccines are actually approved, marketed and dispensed to the masses in today's corrupt regulatory paradigm.

      "Certified Health Nut" Troy Casey recently interviewed three former drug industry employees who divulged that drug companies routinely break the law in order to reap windfall profits. Most conventional doctors have also become nothing more than legal drug pushers, these whistleblowers revealed, regularly accepting bribes from drug industry reps in exchange for prescribing dangerous drugs to patients.

      Mychal Wilson, a former Bristol-Myers Squibb executive who now works as a whistleblower attorney, openly admitted that, while employed at the global biopharmaceutical giant back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he and his fellow co-workers "did everything across the board that was completely illegal."

      "We bribed physicians, we gave them liquor... anything you could possibly think about giving an inducement to a physician to write a prescription or a drug, we did it," he explained.

      octors and hospitals prescribe dangerous, ineffective drugs for bribe money; also routinely hide unfavorable safety studies
      Ed Kalpas, who studied biochemistry, public health, and epidemiology at some of the top Ivy League universities in the country -- and who also went to medical school -- corroborated this. Doctors and hospitals routinely prescribe drugs, he says, not because they work, but because they make money. Even when better, older drugs would be preferable, many in medicine prescribe newer, less effective drugs instead.

      He also admits that the drug industry regularly engages in publication bias, publishing only those studies that show favorable results for a drug while burying the others -- whatever will get a drug to commercial market the fastest, regardless of its safety or effectiveness.

      "One thing I realized is drugs are marketed... with these little pesky side effects -- but there's really no side effects, they're all effects," he stated.

      "And then the marketing department kind of shapes the market and decides 'oh, this is the side effect that we're going to market this drug for.' So one drug, one day, might be for glaucoma. The next day they might market it for your eyelashes growing longer. And it's the same drug."

      Many doctors don't care one iota about patient health; it's all about money!
      The third whistleblower, who chose to keep her identity a secret, says most of the thousands of doctors she's worked with over the years don't really care about patient health. Heavily influenced by bribes involving cash, hookers and even hard drugs like cocaine, many conventional doctors will prescribe whatever they're told to prescribe by the drug reps that visit them.

      The drug industry also has an extremely close relationship with the federal government, and the revolving door between these two entities is constantly spinning, she says.

      "Even when a drug is not getting good results, it's still pushed to market no matter what," she admitted. "And the highly paid FDA consults know the loopholes for how to do that."

      "People who are in charge of approving drugs then go work for the same companies they were previously supposed to monitor. I truly think it should be illegal for anyone who has ever been employed by the FDA to then consult for a pharmaceutical company, it's such a conflict of interest, it's ridiculous."

      American healthcare is a "disease system" that makes billions for corporate drug cartels
      Wilson, who was fired from Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2004 for raising concerns about corporate drug company corruption, successfully filed a whistleblower suit against his former employer, which settled in 2007 for $515 million. But the racket goes on, with millions of Americans be

    77. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      admission by the CDC that this year's flu vaccine doesn't work.

      As this story has gone extremely viral, I've also added these additional links to other news stories that report on the CDC's admission that this year's flu shot contains the wrong strain:

      Huffington Post: "Flu Vaccine Doesn't Protect Against This Season's Most Dominant Strain"

      The Seattle Times: "Vaccine problems may signal rocky flu season" - "New evidence shows that FluMist and seasonal shots likely won't protect very well against this year's flu viruses..."

      ABC News: "Flu vaccine may not be effective for this year's strains, CDC says"

      Freedom Outpost: "CDC Health Advisory: Get Your Flu Shot. It "Might" Work This Year. Sort Of"

    78. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ntelligent questions -- which the vaccine industry characterizes as "dangerous" -- are the greatest threat to the vaccine delusions still being played out across the world today, which is precisely why such questions are not allowed to be asked. Those daring to ask such questions are now being threatened with mass arrest and imprisonment -- that's how vulnerable the fraudulent vaccine industry has now become. It can be brought down by mere words if only those words are allowed to be circulated.

      What sort of questions are we not allowed to ask? Here are 21 censored questions the obedient, pharma-controlled mainstream media will never dare ask:

      Question #1) If measles vaccines confer measles immunity, then why do already-vaccinated children have anything to fear from a measles outbreak?

      Question #2) If vaccines work so well, then why did Merck virologists file a False Claims Act with the U.S. government, describing the astonishing scientific fraud of how Merck faked its vaccine results to trick the FDA?

      Question #3) If vaccines don't have any links to autism, then why did a top CDC scientist openly confess to the CDC committing scientific fraud by selectively omitting clinical trial data after the fact in order to obscure an existing link between vaccines and autism?

      His exact statement, published on the website of his legal counsel:

      My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where I have worked since 1998. I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.

      Question #4) If mercury is a neurotoxic chemical (which it is), then why is it still being injected into children and pregnant women via vaccines? Why does the vaccine industry refuse to remove all the mercury from vaccines in the interests of protecting children from mercury?

      The U.S. government tells us that lead in water is BAD, but mercury in vaccines is GOOD!

      Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/048467_vaccine_industry_intelligent_questions_scientific_principles.html#ixzz3Y3rWbtU3

      http://www.naturalnews.com/048467_vaccine_industry_intelligent_questions_scientific_principles.html

    79. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I assume many won't get that reference, so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

    80. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well, see for yourself

      Author Affiliations
      1The Lewin Group, Falls Church, Virginia
      2Optum, Eden Prairie, Minnesota
      3A. J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

      source: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2275444

    81. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's Mercury got to do with vaccines?

      The shitters demoted Pluto, and now they're trying to do the same to Mercury.

    82. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since the latest studies indicate that there are 440,000 deaths per year caused by doctors screwing up. (http://www.medicalmalpracticelawyer.center/2014/05/new-study-confirms-440000-deat.html) Add to that the likely unknown millions beyond that that have serious to moderate problems that are short of death caused by medical negligence and maybe you should not trust anything a doctor says blindly.

      Ok, so I read your link from the malpractice lawyers web site.

      Of the 440,000 deaths, almost all of those are due to doctors failure to diagnose a condition in someone who was already dying.
      That is not a doctor screwup killing a person, that is a doctor's shortcomings failing to prevent their already on-going death.
      In many of those cases, it was the difference between dying this week or extending their life by a few more.
      Sure, the end result is the same - a dead person.
      But what is implied in the number is that the patient would have been ok if it weren't for the doctor's screwup, and that's not true.

    83. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sure have a hell of a lot of "I believe"s in your post.. meaning you're pulling shit out of your ass or just read/saw it somewhere and are repeating it (on top of the fact you have a lot of misinformation there)

      Why don't you go get some of that tetanus and let us know how lockjaw and the like are (or have the immunized with the vaccine?)

    84. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Actually, the saying sounds good to me. Statistics suggests things that may or may not be true. Good statistical analysis is better than bad, but there's considerable limits in what it will show, and also remember that "figures don't lie, but liars figure".

      Does A cause B? This can be a vital question. Statistics can show that A is correlated with B, maybe an even better correlation with A at year Y and B at year Y+2, but it isn't going to tell us if A causes B.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    85. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I suspect there's also a lot of goalpost moving. Anti-vaxxer says MMR vaccine causes autism, is shown to be wrong. Anti-vaxxer then says some other vaccine must cause autism or something else bad.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    86. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      Statistics suggests things that may or may not be true. Statistics can show that A is correlated with B, maybe an even better correlation with A at year Y and B at year Y+2, but it isn't going to tell us if A causes B.

      The *statistics* don't suggest any such thing. The people who misunderstand them or deliberately mislead using them create these suggestions.

    87. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, be nice. He just confused one "poison" with another, aluminum, mercury - who cares, they are all evil! DIE EVIL CHEMICALS! DIE! ... I do concur on the 'idiots' part though but for a different reason - thimerosal is not a toxic compound, just like bitching at salt for containing chlorine, cause you are putting bleach on your eggs man! And no fucking way, they to test all components.

      Well, and "nearly all vaccines don't convey the very immunity they claim to" - that's absolutely correct, cause we do have smallpox, measles and whopping cough running rampant all around us! ... oh wait...

    88. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here we go again. No, the global warming has not been concluded to be created by humans. It may have been enhanced, maybe happens earlier, but no it was not a human creation. It has happened before you douche. You are you one agenda pseudo science.

    89. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

      No, the global warming has not been concluded to be created by humans.

      Cool. Just remember to pull your head of your ass occasionally to breathe.

      And peruse a grammar book sometime while you're at it. I can't understand the second half of what you wrote at all.

    90. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by OutOnARock · · Score: 1

      the thing about a bikini is not about what you can see or can't see

      its about what you MIGHT see

    91. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Confidential document has surfaced that makes clear what science has led Natural News readers to believe: Yes, vaccines are linked to autism.

      The document,[PDF] which runs over 1,000 pages, is from the fraudulent and corrupt GlaxoSmithKline. Several hundred pages in, it's revealed that vaccines are tied to autism. It's blatantly outlined in a chart, along with a long list of other conditions caused by vaccines, including "motor development delay," "tremor" and "altered state of consciousness." Autism is listed in this chart as a nervous system and mental impairment disorder associated with receiving GSK's Infanrix hexa vaccine.(1)

      Signed by Dr. Felix Arellano, the Vice President and Head of Biological Safety and Pharmacovigilance of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, the document's introduction states:

      This summary bridging report integrates the information presented in the two Combined Diphtheria, Tetanus and Acellular Pertussis, Hepatitis B enhanced Inactivated Poliomyelitis and Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine (Infanrix hexa) periodic safety update reports (PSURs) covering the two year period from 23 October 2009 to 22 October 2011.(1)

      Vaccine is "favourable," despite long list of health conditions
      The document suggests that, although there are several adverse health effects associated with vaccine, the risk is not deemed to be problematic:

      The Company will continue to monitor cases of anaemia haemolytic autoimmune, thrombocytopenia, thrombocytopenic purpura, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, haemolytic anemia, cyanosis, injection site nodule, abcess and injection site abscess, Kawasaki's disease, important neurological events (including encephalitis and encephalopathy), Henoch-Schonlein purpura, petechiae, purpura, haematochezia, allergic reactions (including anaphylactic and anaphylactoid reactions) cases of lack of effectiveness as well as fatal cases.(1)

      Yet, despite the long list of health problems mentioned, the document maintains, "The benefit/risk profile of Infanrix hexa continues to be favourable."(1)

      In 2014, Infanrix was ruled by an Italian court to be responsible for a young Milan boy developing autism shortly after receiving the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine. As such, the decision was to award the boy for his vaccine-induced autism.(2)

      The child received a series of Infanrix hexa injections in 2006, a vaccine designed to protect children from polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis and Haemophilus influenzae type B. Instead of being protected, his health declined: He developed autism. Medical experts in the Italian Court pointed to the confidential document, suggesting that the boy likely developed the condition due to the variety of antigens and thimerosal (a mercury-containing preservative now banned in Italy due to its neurotoxicity) and a host of other toxic ingredients that were in the vaccine at the time.(2)

      Of Infanrix hexa's thimerosal, the Court noted that it was "in concentrations greatly exceeding the maximum recommended levels for infants weighing only a few kilograms."(2)

      Despite irrefutable proof that vaccines cause autism, court appeals are in the works
      Interestingly, in 2012, the Italian courts made a judgement in a similar situation in which they ruled that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine caused a child's autism. Just like the Infanrix hexa ruling, however, this finding has not set well with the Ministry of Health; they initially denied compensation to the family. Ultimately, the court granted compensation. Still, in the case of the young boy who was given the Infanrix hexa vaccine, the Ministry of Health has appealed, a process that's expected to take several years to sort out.(2)

      Such rulings should be applauded, although it's disturbing 1) that appeals have ensued, and 2) that the United States has yet to come close to such court decisions.

      This document -- straight from the horse's mouth, GlaxoSmithKline themselves -- blatantly shows that vaccines are linked to autism and other conditions. What more is there to question, when the proof exists before our very eyes?

      Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/049458_autism_Infanrix_vaccine_GlaxoSmithKline.html#ixzz3YCjY7ZvX

    92. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by tedgyz · · Score: 1

      "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain

      --
      "No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
    93. Re: The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. Because not everyone gets full immunity forever, not everyone can get the vaccine for rare reasons.

      2. Ask them?

      3. Ask them?

      4. Different kinds. Not all radiation is equal. There's trace amounts of many poisonous chemicals in food, such as rice. But taking something once with life saving benefit is different than everyday poison ingestion.

      There's always answers, you just don't accept them.

    94. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Asking questions won't get you arrested or imprisoned. Putting other people at risk of easily preventable diseases might, although I think at this point it's just a fine or exclusion from schools.

      1. Because about 1% of the time, it doesn't work as long or as well as it's supposed to. However, as seen in the recent measles outbreak, almost all of the children who were vaccinated and got exposed were protected.

      2. Source?

      3. William Thompson is a psychologist. He reanalyzed data that were collected by people who were actually qualified to do so, and made numerous errors in his analysis. If you'd like to understand what those were, I'd suggest talking to a biostatistician.

      4. Well, most vaccines don't contain mercury any more, which makes them more expensive. Furthermore, the dose makes the poison, and the levels in vaccines were not high enough to have a significant impact. Ethyl mercury (the kind that was in vaccines) is substantially less neurotoxic than environmental mercury (methyl mercury) and is cleared from the body much more quickly.

      Lastly, "Natural News" is a quack site that fails to critically analyze many of its own suggested remedies. The people running it have little to no epidemiological training, don't understand how to run a good clinical trial, and consistently mistake the placebo effect and anecdotes for real significance.

    95. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not that it doesn't work. It will probably protect you against the strains in the vaccine, it's just that they chose poorly this year, and so it won't protect you from one of the circulating strains. This story also says nothing about how effective other vaccines (which don't target something that changes very quickly) are.

  2. in other words, by penandpaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    another study confirms that water is wet.

    1. Re:in other words, by ArylAkamov · · Score: 2

      another study confirms that water is wet.

      Hey, that's just like, your opinion man.

      http://www.theguardian.com/not...

      Water isn't wet. Wetness is a description of our experience of water; what happens to us when we come into contact with water in such a way that it impinges on our state of being. We, or our possessions, 'get wet'.

    2. Re:in other words, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can abide by that.

    3. Re:in other words, by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Not in most of its solid forms, it isn't.
      Inland Antarctica is a very dry place.

    4. Re:in other words, by tverbeek · · Score: 1

      Meanwhile, another person has dropped two different weights from the Tower of Pisa, and observed that they landed at the same time.

      And this just in: high-resolution photos taken from the International Space Station appear to confirm that the Earth is approximately spherical in shape. Experiments intended to determine whether objects in motion tend to stay in motion, are underway.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    5. Re:in other words, by Chelloveck · · Score: 1

      Water isn't wet. Wetness is a description of our experience of water; what happens to us when we come into contact with water in such a way that it impinges on our state of being. We, or our possessions, 'get wet'.

      Is he a dot, or is he a speck?
      When he's underwater does he get wet?
      Or does the water get him instead?
      Nobody knows, Particle man

      --
      Chelloveck
      I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
    6. Re:in other words, by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      I KNEW there was a TMBG joke in there somewhere.

  3. That's the problem with such studies by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The normal people knew it already.

    The conspiracy nuts will think it's just another layer of the whole conspiracy.

    Bluntly, if it was just for them, I'd say "let Darwin win at least sometimes". The problem is that they're a threat to everyone around them, too.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    2. Re:That's the problem with such studies by idji · · Score: 1

      NASA never landed on the moon you know!

    3. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The normal people knew it already.

      No, bullshit, sorry. "Normal people" are not sufficiently technically skilled (probably you included) to be able to "know" except by appeal to authority, i.e. trusting that certain organisations if humans properly apply the scientific process. It is therefore even more important for controversial subjects than in general (and it is also useful in general) for results of importance to be verified and for that verification to be published, because each such occasion is an opportunity to bring more people on site.

      Do you have many friends who are recent parents? I know several who have asked questions about safety of vaccination, and – with no exception – have been convinced that vaccination is a good idea. But what was convincing is precisely the relentless pursuit of evidence that it is safe and efficacious. Any answer of the form, "Well, we've decided that now, so only an idiot would disagree from here on!" Is precisely the kind of arrogance that not only leads to error, but leads to distrust in scientists.

      Bluntly, if it was just for them, I'd say "let Darwin win at least sometimes". The problem is that they're a threat to everyone around them, too.

      It's quite embarrassing for you to whine about anti-vaxx pseudo-science then misrepresent Darwinism by conflating it with some stupid 19th century social engineering theory. (Also the kids and their stupid parents are separate people.)

    4. Re:That's the problem with such studies by towermac · · Score: 2

      AC is right. You don't "know" it; any more than the anti-vaxers know what they think they know. (Actually, that's not entirely accurate, at least anecdotally. I know a few anti-vaxers, they are intelligent and well-paid (make more than me), and none of them think they know anything extra, beyond what we all know.)

      Both of you, you only "know", what you are told.

      The difference is, they have lost their faith. That makes them apostates.

    5. Re:That's the problem with such studies by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because not everyone can be vaccinated. Infants can't be vaccinated, along with people with certain kinds of immune problems. Those individuals are kept safe by herd immunity.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re:That's the problem with such studies by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but the initial claim about vaccines causing autism were made by a man who was proven to be lying and had to his papers retracted.

      There never was any credible evidence for this, and it has been perpetuated by idiots like Jenny McCarthy. Who is too stupid to take medical advice from.

      Which means expecting someone else to disprove a collective delusion is a fucking waste of time.

      Watching Sponge Bob causes cancer ... now, you disprove it as I sit here and go la la la ... that is essentially the epic stupidity coming out of the anti-vaxer camp. They expect people to disprove their irrational theory, while they themselves have zero evidence to support it.

      Some asshole lied about something, and a bunch of people with insufficient critical thinking skills have continued to act as if it is true.

      One thing the anti-vaxers don't seem to know is there has never been a single, credible source to actually suggest the link to autism. Not one. But stupid has its own momentum, and people keep believing a completely unfounded story.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    7. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but the initial claim about vaccines causing autism were made by a man who was proven to be lying and had to his papers retracted.

      Yeah, but he got his papers past the peer review process and his results wound up in the mainstream media without independent verification.

      So, the science community failed to do their job.

      So, a mistrust of the science community .

      So, the science community has to rebuild trust.

      Nearly everyone isn't a scientist specialising in vaccines. They must rely on the good reputation of those who are.

      Own the problem. Arrogance won't win anyone over.

    8. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the anti-vaxers were only a danger to themselves(herd immunity being very important to our species), I would let them suffer for their bad choices...But I don't want every immunocompromised or just unlucky(because vaccines are not 100% effective) person to suffer with them.

    9. Re:That's the problem with such studies by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      No, the science community doesn't need to do anything. Your thesis that once a paper passes peer review it is automatically inserted into the canon is just completely wrong. You need to understand what science is.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    10. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Smallpond · · Score: 1

      You say "peer review" as though that means something:
      http://www.vox.com/2014/11/21/...

    11. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Smallpond · · Score: 1

      Because the way vaccines are alleged to work is that almost everyone needs to be vaccinated. What you believe to be "alleged" is just your own misconception, although not uncommon.

    12. Re:That's the problem with such studies by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      Yeah but practically all of the anti-vax people are fully vaccinated, because they had parents who weren't asshats. Darwinism wouldn't weed out the right individuals, although it would weed out their genetic lineages.

    13. Re:That's the problem with such studies by towermac · · Score: 1

      It's not a camp man. It's just people. I hope you won't call them stupid to their face at least. Not helping.

      I'd bet a dollar you don't have a kid of your own, and you haven't had to face this. Otherwise you would not be so strident in your arrogance.

      I had to face it, and luckily for me, the thimerisol had already been removed when I insisted on reading the vaccine labels myself in 2001. So I also got to dodge the question.

      And now I get to have my asshole opinion, which means absolutely shit, because I haven't had to face infecting the most innocent and beautiful healthy human that ever existed with heavy metals and known toxins.

      Okay, I injected my kid with toxins, but at least not mercury.

      And I'm not so arrogant about the anti-vaxers now.

    14. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And that there is precisely the arrogance that promotes the anti-vaxx movement.

      There is a difference between "science" (the ideal) and "the science community" (the human specialists who sometimes try their best but often fall short). The latter has a place within society and a responsibility to act in a particular way within society, and it doesn't get to say, "That's not my department!" when faced with a wider social response to scientific research.

      To begin, that was not my thesis. I was making two observations on the root causes of the recent anti-vaccination movement:

      1) The peer-review process failed so fucking spectacularly. Scientists can whine about how they are such delicate, wholesome little things and that their processes are not prepared for outright fraud, but to everyone else this just makes them look out of touch with reality. Specifically, it makes observers wonder on the extent to which groups of scientists can be influenced by conflict of interest without being caught;

      2) Scientists have become so competitive and desperate for funding that they are keen to disseminate their results to as wide an audience as possible, feeding the beast of science reporters whose job it is to give undue weight to individual studies rather than discussing the tide of consensus. Universities have whole public relations departments these days, spanning the popular media with summaries of individual publications, and researchers are quite happy to benefit from it - yet also the first to wash their hands of the inevitable outcome of this misrepresentation.

      Deny reality all you want, but that is what is actually going on. I am pro-vaccination because I am sufficiently scientifically literate to digest primary sources (my field is mathematics, and see epidemiology as a neat application of statistics), but most people are not. They must rely almost entirely on trust.

    15. Re:That's the problem with such studies by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Hey I think we went to college together.

      Seriously this was the first thing one of my roommates in the dorms said to me. He was a weird one and believed every conspiracy theory.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    16. Re:That's the problem with such studies by rhazz · · Score: 1

      I saw a meme recently, with a pic of a disgruntled looking doctor: "Remember that time you got Polio? That's right, you don't, because your parents got you vaccinated"

    17. Re:That's the problem with such studies by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The scientific process is prepared for outright fraud. It happens. Scientists don't whine about how their method is vulnerable to people who lie, because it isn't. However, this isn't just the job of peer review, and nothing is conclusive just because it appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. I managed to convince my mother-in-law of that, and she's pretty well science-illiterate.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    18. Re:That's the problem with such studies by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Who's arrogant? I know that there is absolutely no credible evidence supporting the anti-vaxxer claims. I'm not the idiot claiming to know things without evidence because they sounded catchy and an ex-porn star said something about them. That's arrogance.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    19. Re:That's the problem with such studies by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      Awesome. Was it this one?

      My most-used link when wasting my breath debating those nitwits is survivorship bias.

    20. Re:That's the problem with such studies by rhazz · · Score: 1

      This one actually. Same quote but better facial expression. http://publichealthmemes.tumbl...

  4. Anti-vaxxer response... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts!

  5. of course there's no link by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    for me. for you, there is a link since you believe one to exist. sorta like string theory.

  6. But! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I read on this website I found on google with "Vaccines cause autism" a lot of people claiming that it does in fact cause it! I prefer believing random people on the internet than to believe actual scientific evidences!

  7. How vaccines cause autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    http://howdovaccinescauseautism.com/

    1. Re:How vaccines cause autism by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 0

      I wish I could mod this up.

    2. Re:How vaccines cause autism by jfbilodeau · · Score: 0

      Wish I could mod this up.

      --
      Goodbye Slashdot. You've changed.
    3. Re:How vaccines cause autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You, sir, win teh interwebs for today.

    4. Re:How vaccines cause autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NSFW site - no nudity but very large font sized profanity - you shouldve put that as a note in your link for those of us at work who can get in serious trouble viewing profanity on company computers and where others around us can see it.

      Thanks alot.

    5. Re:How vaccines cause autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you work in an environment where they are uptight about seeing some particular words on a screen, then perhaps you shouldn't be using company resources to read slashdot, or at the very least don't click on random links. It's not like there was nudity, violence or anything gross there. I wouldn't consider that link NSFW, and if your boss disagrees then he needs a fucking sense of humour.

  8. Let me know when can confirm autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's the real conundrum, I don't are about the MMR issue so much.

  9. How do we state findings? by fricc · · Score: 0

    When I read "Study Confirms No Link Between MMR Vaccine and Autism", it sounds that "the final truth" has been found out about something.

    Is it really the case?

    Wouldn't it be more accurate to instead say something like: "One Study Finds No Correlation Between MMR Vaccine and Autism"?

    1. Re:How do we state findings? by grimmjeeper · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How many studies do you need? Every single legitimate study shows not only that vaccines do not cause autism, there isn't even any correlation between the two at all.

    2. Re:How do we state findings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. There have been many studies that have shown there is no link between vaccines and autism. This new study confirms the prior studies results as well.

    3. Re:How do we state findings? by John+Bokma · · Score: 1

      Maybe click the link first? Thank you!

    4. Re:How do we state findings? by John+Bokma · · Score: 2

      Aargh! Wrong thread, my apologies!

    5. Re:How do we state findings? by grimmjeeper · · Score: 1

      No worries.

    6. Re: How do we state findings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't be sloppy. The study finds correlation. Causation is much much harder to prove.

    7. Re:How do we state findings? by suutar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It would be more accurate to say "12th study confirms no link between MMR vaccine and autism", with a subtitle of "versus no studies showing a link"

    8. Re:How do we state findings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One study? how about dozens of studies that have found no link. While ZERO studies have found any sort of link

    9. Re: How do we state findings? by grimmjeeper · · Score: 1

      Did you read the article?

    10. Re: How do we state findings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The study finds NO correlation which means MMR vaccines are not the cause.

    11. Re:How do we state findings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to be unaware of the facts.Maybe you should stop licking corporate ass and corporate cronies.A confidential document has surfaced that makes clear what science has led Natural News readers to believe: Yes, vaccines are linked to autism.

      The document,[PDF] which runs over 1,000 pages, is from the fraudulent and corrupt GlaxoSmithKline. Several hundred pages in, it's revealed that vaccines are tied to autism. It's blatantly outlined in a chart, along with a long list of other conditions caused by vaccines, including "motor development delay," "tremor" and "altered state of consciousness." Autism is listed in this chart as a nervous system and mental impairment disorder associated with receiving GSK's Infanrix hexa vaccine.(1)

      Signed by Dr. Felix Arellano, the Vice President and Head of Biological Safety and Pharmacovigilance of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, the document's introduction states:

      This summary bridging report integrates the information presented in the two Combined Diphtheria, Tetanus and Acellular Pertussis, Hepatitis B enhanced Inactivated Poliomyelitis and Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine (Infanrix hexa) periodic safety update reports (PSURs) covering the two year period from 23 October 2009 to 22 October 2011.(1)

      Vaccine is "favourable," despite long list of health conditions
      The document suggests that, although there are several adverse health effects associated with vaccine, the risk is not deemed to be problematic:

      The Company will continue to monitor cases of anaemia haemolytic autoimmune, thrombocytopenia, thrombocytopenic purpura, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, haemolytic anemia, cyanosis, injection site nodule, abcess and injection site abscess, Kawasaki's disease, important neurological events (including encephalitis and encephalopathy), Henoch-Schonlein purpura, petechiae, purpura, haematochezia, allergic reactions (including anaphylactic and anaphylactoid reactions) cases of lack of effectiveness as well as fatal cases.(1)

      Yet, despite the long list of health problems mentioned, the document maintains, "The benefit/risk profile of Infanrix hexa continues to be favourable."(1)

      In 2014, Infanrix was ruled by an Italian court to be responsible for a young Milan boy developing autism shortly after receiving the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine. As such, the decision was to award the boy for his vaccine-induced autism.(2)

      The child received a series of Infanrix hexa injections in 2006, a vaccine designed to protect children from polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis and Haemophilus influenzae type B. Instead of being protected, his health declined: He developed autism. Medical experts in the Italian Court pointed to the confidential document, suggesting that the boy likely developed the condition due to the variety of antigens and thimerosal (a mercury-containing preservative now banned in Italy due to its neurotoxicity) and a host of other toxic ingredients that were in the vaccine at the time.(2)

      Of Infanrix hexa's thimerosal, the Court noted that it was "in concentrations greatly exceeding the maximum recommended levels for infants weighing only a few kilograms."(2)

      Despite irrefutable proof that vaccines cause autism, court appeals are in the works
      Interestingly, in 2012, the Italian courts made a judgement in a similar situation in which they ruled that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine caused a child's autism. Just like the Infanrix hexa ruling, however, this finding has not set well with the Ministry of Health; they initially denied compensation to the family. Ultimately, the court granted compensation. Still, in the case of the young boy who was given the Infanrix hexa vaccine, the Ministry of Health has appealed, a process that's expected to take several years to sort out.(2)

      Such rulings should be applauded, although it's disturbing 1) that appeals have ensued, and 2) that the United States has yet to come close to such court decisions.

      This document

  10. You are preaching to the choir by aepervius · · Score: 1

    The problem were not the people which trusted medical research to begin with. the problem was always the mccarthy of the world which distrust "big pharma" and their "research" and all of them, those anti vaxxer "know" that MMR vaccine make their kids have autism and they have even anecdote to boot.

    Good luck convincing the faithful. Some rare one may be, but if it was that easy, there would be no major religion by now.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:You are preaching to the choir by vux984 · · Score: 1

      and they have even anecdote to boot.

      I'm with you. My kids are vaccinated. I'm not an antivaxxer. I recognize the science is valid.

      However, what about the anecdotes? I even have one myself.

      One of our friends daughters went in for a vaccination shot, reacted badly to it, (high fever, seizures, rushed to hospital...) She was around 3, she was communicative (limited vocabulary and speech), walking, made eye contact, etc,.. came home from the hospital - massive regression to earlier state, and subsequently diagnosed as autism.

      You can show me as many studies as you like. But the anecdote still sits there. I know the little girl. It happened.

      The vaccination event in that childs case clearly seems to have triggered the onset of autism.

      And that deserves an explanation. And a better one than "Your a crazy loon, we have a study that shows your reality didn't happen."

      So I don't know. Maybe the studies aren't big enough. Can they catch a 1 in 100,000 event? Or 1 in 1 million? Maybe the risk is that small. Or maybe the child would have developed autism anyway so the vaccine as a trigger event was just that and triggered something today that would have happened anyway next month or next week or the next time the kid caught a cold so the overall autism rates aren't effected; and all the vaccine did was move the onset date to "today" instead of "some other day".

      I just don't know. I believe the science. I think the benefits of vaccination are clear, and the studies show pretty clearly that autism is not a significant risk. However, I also believe the anecdotes -- not enough to let them change my behaviour with respect to vaccination, but enough that I think we haven't laid this issue to rest yet, and think it does to be explained properly.

    2. Re:You are preaching to the choir by towermac · · Score: 1

      You're McCarthy.

      You're in power, and there's a small minority of people that threaten you and your way of life.

      There really were communists infiltrating Hollywood. There really are anti-vaxers that could damage herd immunity if their numbers grow large enough.

      I'm just saying. You're McCarthy. Don't overreact like he did.

    3. Re:You are preaching to the choir by Smallpond · · Score: 2

      Except when you look at these anecdotes, like all of the cases in the Wakefield study, you find out there were signs of autism before the vaccination. People like to have something to blame.

    4. Re:You are preaching to the choir by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And that deserves an explanation. And a better one than "Your a crazy loon, we have a study that shows your reality didn't happen."

      Yes, there may very well be something interesting going on there. Perhaps the causation goes the other way: having autism causes a bad reaction to some aspect of being vaccinated - even if it's just the emotional stress. Either way, there may be an important biomedical discovery to be made.

      Of course, the obvious thing to do would be do give the kid a bunch more vaccines under various different circumstances to see what's triggering the reaction. And then once you're able to trigger the severe reaction reliably, you do it over and over again to try to understand what kinds of permanent damage, if any, is being caused.

      But there might be just a few ethical issues there. :) And that's one of the key problems. You've got these potentially interesting cases but many of the obvious ways to study them would be bad for the kid - who's already been dealt a raw deal by having autism.

      Can they catch a 1 in 100,000 event? Or 1 in 1 million?

      Oh, absolutely. No real conscientious scientist would ever claim to have proof that vaccines never cause autism. Instead they would claim that it's unlikely that vaccines cause autism at a rate that's greater than the limits of their study. It's not impossible that vaccines never ever cause autism but a serious scientist wouldn't claim to have proof of that - because it's impossible to prove.

      In the bigger picture, though, advances in biomedical science are likely to make vaccines increasingly obsolete over the next few decades. These days, vaccines are like the C programming language - ugly but still the best tool for the job in many situations. In another decade or two, vaccines will be like Fortran - only holding on in certain niche use cases. And perhaps even within the next century, vaccines will become entirely obsolete.

  11. News for nerds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stuff about vaccines and autism?

  12. And never has been one. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2
    FIrst it was the preservative - they took the preservative out - No change

    Then it was the vaccine itself - So0 thte stupid fucks stopped vaccinating their children - No change.

    Thn they listened to a porno princess whoo's qualifications were? none.

    Then it was proven that the "researcher was operating in tandem with a lawyer to make money off sympathetic juries. A lie based on lies, but they still believe.

    Then Autism speaks sychophants started foaming at the mouth when certain people were removed from the "autism spectrum", because they really needed and demanded that rising epidemic.

    You are as likely to change these people's minds about vaccines as you are to convince a fundamentalist Christian that the world wasn't created in 4004 b.c.e.

    In fact, anti-vaxxers are just the liberal version of creationists.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re: And never has been one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Michele Bachmann is a liberal now?

    2. Re: And never has been one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you thinking of Jenna Jamesson, not Jenny McCarthy.

    3. Re: And never has been one. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Michele Bachmann is a liberal now?

      No, she just hates science.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    4. Re: And never has been one. by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      I think you thinking of Jenna Jamesson, not Jenny McCarthy.

      Ah. Thank you for clearing that up. I don't want any McCarthyism getting into my porn feeds.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
    5. Re:And never has been one. by lgw · · Score: 1

      You are as likely to change these people's minds about vaccines as you are to convince a fundamentalist Christian that the world wasn't created in 4004 b.c.e.

      There are precisely 0 fundies that believe that. They know the world was created BC, none of this liberal progressive "bce" bullshit. More seriously, that's a over-broad stereotype and about as funny as a racist joke.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    6. Re:And never has been one. by towermac · · Score: 1

      They did quietly remove the liquid mercury, long after the anecdotal stories circulated about how kids went autistic overnight after vaccination.

      I did notice that.

    7. Re: And never has been one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, then you've admitted that anti-vaxxers are not a particularly "liberal" phenomenon, and that it was dishonest of you to imply that they are.

    8. Re:And never has been one. by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      You forgot that the "porno princess" now claims her child is not autistic.

    9. Re:And never has been one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you notice how, even though thiomersal has been removed from vaccines for years now, the rate of autism diagnoses isn't any lower than before? That's pretty indicative that thiomersal wasn't causing autism. Unless you believe in time-travel conspiracies.

      Thiomersal isn't actually a liquid at room temperature and sealevel pressure. It's a solid. Also, it's not "liquid mercury" it's an organometallic compound that, despite safety studies, doesn't appear to be harmful in the amounts encountered in vaccines.

      Thiomersal was removed from vaccines due to fearful people who were ignorant of the science demanding that it be removed. There was no compelling scientific reason to do so.

      In addition, if you don't care that Thiomersal has different properties from pure Hg or methylmercury, keep in mind that a couple of fish fillets have more mercury in them than all the vaccines you would get as a child. So be careful to never feed little billy any tunafish sandwiches, or fresh trout, or any seafood, really.

    10. Re:And never has been one. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      You are as likely to change these people's minds about vaccines as you are to convince a fundamentalist Christian that the world wasn't created in 4004 b.c.e.

      There are precisely 0 fundies that believe that. They know the world was created BC, none of this liberal progressive "bce" bullshit. More seriously, that's a over-broad stereotype and about as funny as a racist joke.

      Before Common Era. If'n you don't like that, well sue me, because it is the right term, and only in your world is it a Leeeeeeeeburul thing.

      I know a lot of conservatives of other religions thzt wonder exactly why the birth of some Jewish Rabbi controls their dating system. So tough

      Where on earth do you get off on telling me that fundies don't believe in a young earth? I was raised in large part by young earth Christian fundamentalist creationists, and I can tell you that they do indeed believe just that.

      Why, its even in my bibles....

      In my Scofield reference edition, on page 3 it states B.C. 4004 right beside the text.

      In my KJV self pronouncing version same thing, 4004 BC.

      Nelson KJV concordance - 4004 B.C.

      Bishop James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland in the 1600's, dated the age of the world, and therefore universe, as having been created on Sunday 23 October 4004 BC, the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden on Monday 10 November 4004 BC, as well as other dates that are now held as truth by fundamentalists.

      Now of course, that is just dates put in by a human, and not the transcribed word of god, but most respectfully, you are so wrong to think that fundamentalists do not believe that. If you don't believe every word writtien down in the KJV bible, you are no True Scots.....erm.... Fundamentalist Christian.

      I lived with that stuff.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    11. Re:And never has been one. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      You forgot that the "porno princess" now claims her child is not autistic.

      No one can keep up with her changes.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    12. Re:And never has been one. by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Don't know if you are trolling or not, but I was unfortunately brought up in a very fundamentalist church. Basically a non protesting version of the Westboro Baptist Church. Only other baptists were real Christians and Catholics were basically considered satanists, the blacks carried the mark of Cain, gays are sinners who need to be admonished and cast out, the world is ~6000 years old, a woman is to be subservient to her husband, etc.

      I figure that if the christian god is real I should get into heaven anyway for time served while growing up as I didn't become a racist, sexist, homophobe, raging ass hole to everyone around me person.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    13. Re:And never has been one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thiomersol is liquid mercury like salt is liquid chlorine.

    14. Re:And never has been one. by lgw · · Score: 1

      It's an overly-broad stereotype, as there are a great many fundies who don't believe in any of the Young Earth stuff these days, but are clearly still fundies as they believe the important thing about their religion is the scripture (or some creative interpretation thereof), not the church.

      Denying evolution and astronomy used to be a key social signal for fundies, back in the day, but that's gradually fading, and was never "all fundies" as there are more weird cult beliefs than you can shake a stick at.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    15. Re:And never has been one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And we sincerely thank you for not being a dick!

    16. Re:And never has been one. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      It's an overly-broad stereotype,

      But you see, your original statement was:

      "There are precisely 0 fundies that believe that."

      Now that that's been corrected, we can write back and forth correctly

      as there are a great many fundies who don't believe in any of the Young Earth stuff these days, but are clearly still fundies as they believe the important thing about their religion is the scripture (or some creative interpretation thereof), not the church.

      I would never assume that there is a homogenous belief set. After all Man makes God in his own image. Even aside from just Christianity and the other religions out there. Ever notice how many Christian churches there are these days? There is a whole subset of Americans who spend years searching for the church that believes what they do. And they get emphatic about it. Divorce is a growing problem amongst the fundamentalist/evangelical crowd. Because whne one of th etwp has an epiphany about how things are supposed to be, and the other doesn't tag along, they'll leave their spouse like they did their old church. http://divorce.com/divorce-rat...

      Denying evolution and astronomy used to be a key social signal for fundies, back in the day, but that's gradually fading, and was never "all fundies" as there are more weird cult beliefs than you can shake a stick at.

      And every one of them has the " actual truth"

      But on to the Creationism thing.

      It's not that long ago that the ID'ers were pushing thier "teach the controversy" bullshit. A highly recommended read is Intelligent Thought - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      It's a compilation of various contributors - Pinker, Dawkins, Dennet, Randall, Hauser, and T.D. White, as well as an excerpted judgement by the Judge who presided over the Dover Deleware Intelligent design case.

      The part that will be surprising to some is the incredible duplicity of the ID'ers. No mere slight of hand, but outright purposeful lies in their quest to replace actual science with Christian science.

      Having been raised in that insane world, (strict Catholic parents with strict Baptist Grandparents) and grown up in a likewise crazy town where all references that might support evolution or an old earth were scrubbed from the curriculum, and the town was shut down on Sunday's until the 1970's, I fully understand that duplicity, and I am much less optimistic than you are. They haven't given up on their quest for domination, they're just waiting.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    17. Re:And never has been one. by lgw · · Score: 1

      "There are precisely 0 fundies that believe that."

      Now that that's been corrected, we can write back and forth correctly

      You should get your sense of humor checked every couple of years, as it seems to be on the fritz. Try again looking for the "b.c.e" vs "BC" joke. 100% of fundies know the calendar is based on the birth of Christ, not "current era".

      strict Catholic parents with strict Baptist Grandparents

      That sounds like a heck of a conversion there, or at least a heck of a story.

      They haven't given up on their quest for domination, they're just waiting.

      No doubt, but the tribal signalling changes over the generations. "Evilution" was the Boomers' windmill to tilt at. There will be some new rallying cry for all the disjoint fundie cults to unite around, since the real point is to signal each other they're all part of the same clan, not the belief itself.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    18. Re:And never has been one. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      You should get your sense of humor checked every couple of years, as it seems to be on the fritz. Try again looking for the "b.c.e" vs "BC" joke. 100% of fundies know the calendar is based on the birth of Christ, not "current era".

      Of course that is what it is based on. But not everyone is Christian, and by going to B.C.E. or C.E. we can avoid discussions like this one. This is just fun stuff for you and me, but its like arguing over the shape of the negotiating table for scientists. Its just a time marker, and not even a very good one, whether we demand that it be related to the Christian church, or something else.

      strict Catholic parents with strict Baptist Grandparents

      That sounds like a heck of a conversion there, or at least a heck of a story.

      My mother was raised as baptist, but when wanting to marry my father, who was catholic, the catholic church insisted she convert. Upon conversion, she became very conservative about it. Meanwhile my Grandfather, after being widowed, remarried a super fundy woman, and the shenanigans were on.

      Growing up was interesting to say the least.

      They haven't given up on their quest for domination, they're just waiting.

      There will be some new rallying cry for all the disjoint fundie cults to unite around, since the real point is to signal each other they're all part of the same clan, not the belief itself.

      I think it might be biblical injunctions against making penis shaped cakes.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  13. I don't think there is a link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even though I don't think there is a link am I the only one baffled that they claim to have proven a negative. in reality they proved that getting the MMR does not appear to increase the chances of developing ASD. but what the headline states is an overreach.

  14. Okay, so you did some "study"... by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

    But did anyone ask Jenny McCarthy about it?

    1. Re:Okay, so you did some "study"... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      No, but we did ask Bennet Haselton.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  15. I think I found the true link... by grimmjeeper · · Score: 2

    I found an interesting article about autism. And I'm treating it just like the anti-vaxxers. I found it on Facebook. I'm applying no scientific analysis of the contents. I'm spreading it around without putting any real thought into it, expecting everyone to just mindlessly forward it to as many people as they can find.

  16. Does it matter? by wile_e8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it even about autism anymore? I'm lucky enough to have some family members that are anti-vax and post about it frequently on Facebook, and it's never about autism. Now everything is about "chemicals" and "toxins" and staying natural and how measles didn't kill our grandparents. They've made up their mind, so it won't matter if science shoots down an excuse that was never in doubt to anyone that cared about science. They'll just come up with another excuse that is just as baseless.

    1. Re:Does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Measles DID kill many people prior to vaccination being available. The most common deaths were for young children though so yeah it probably didn't kill many grandparents as they never had a chance to live long enough to become grandparents.

    2. Re:Does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From a practical point of view , even if vaccines could cause autism, try weighing this against the alternatives such as Polio. Polio is much worse than autism.

    3. Re:Does it matter? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Yeah I'm the same. I have these heated wars break out in my facebook feed.

      Even more fun though is we have a friend who is expecting her second child in about 3 months and a person in the same friend group who is an anti-vaxer. Because there has been an outbreak of whooping cough (due to anti-vaxers) the expectant mum has said she wont be anywhere near the other mum or their child until her child has all the jabs.

      That said the current government has just introduced new legislation that says if your kids haven't had their jabs you lose all child related wellfare. Dependent on your income that could be as much as $15k a year per child.

    4. Re:Does it matter? by TimSSG · · Score: 2

      Measles DID kill many people prior to vaccination being available. The most common deaths were for young children though so yeah it probably didn't kill many grandparents as they never had a chance to live long enough to become grandparents.

      As I have said many times, having children is hereditary; because chances are if your parents did NOT have any neither will you. But, in the case of measles remember it also tends to cause men to be sterile if caught at the wrong age. Tim S.

    5. Re:Does it matter? by sysrammer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That said the current government has just introduced new legislation that says if your kids haven't had their jabs you lose all child related wellfare. Dependent on your income that could be as much as $15k a year per child.

      Good. If I'm paying for someone's kids, I want them to at least have a chance of being healthy.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
    6. Re:Does it matter? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      But, in the case of measles remember it also tends to cause men to be sterile if caught at the wrong age.

      Close, no cigar. You're thinking of mumps (the other 'M' in MMR).

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    7. Re:Does it matter? by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 1

      That's something I've also noticed. Internet conspiracies have very mobile goalposts, so while their conclusions are always the same, they frequently manage to adapt and change to continuously counter facts. If you hit on last years version of the conspiracy (in this case, autism as opposed to 'too many too soon' or some other such excuse) then you're the one they call a dummy because they're totally over that and on to something else now. Completely countering them (not that many will accept being demonstrated to be wrong anyway) requires that you stay up to date on the latest misinformation.

    8. Re:Does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well of course measles didn't kill their grandparents... Think about it... ;)

    9. Re:Does it matter? by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      I had this day long argument with this antivaxxer chick on Tinder. She ended up sending me pics of her tits so they're not all bad people.

    10. Re:Does it matter? by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 1

      Was her name Jenny?

    11. Re:Does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So delete them, and don't invite them or their kids to any family events. They don't have a right to bring their little plague carriers into your home.

    12. Re:Does it matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From a practical point of view , even if vaccines could cause autism, try weighing this against the alternatives such as Polio. Polio is much worse than autism.

      And you know this how?

      Because you had both, right?

      There's so much disinformation about polio, complete with horror iron-lung propaganda pictures, that is makes out favouriite german dictator took like a good guy!

    13. Re:Does it matter? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      The iron lung was so mid 20th century. Propaganda pictures? Hospital wards were packed with iron lungs during the polio outbreaks of the 1940s to the 1960s. Iron lungs disappeared for two reasons. First the polio virus nearly wiped out the disease. Second, we now use positive pressure (tubes into the lungs inflate them) instead of the negative pressure (the lung creating a vacuum around the body) to make the lungs work. No need for a bulky and restrictive iron lung when there are more portable and lightweight medical ventilators.

  17. Headline doesn't really match study conclusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not here to say there's a link between autism and vaccinations. I really have no idea. But the study looked to see if children who had siblings with autism were more likely to develop autism if they were vaccinated with the MMR. This really presupposes that there's a genetic link to autism and that multi-sibling families are more likely to have multiple children develop autism. As far as I know, that's a theory but not proven. Antivaccers often say that vaccines don't cause autism in otherwise healthy children but do cause it in children who are susceptible to brain inflammation. So, it theoretically makes sense to do a sibling study, since many people would believe that the sibling of an autistic child is more likely to be susceptible to the inflammatory effects of aluminum in the vaccines. However, whether you are pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine, as far as I know, there are no studies that show siblings of autistic children are, in fact, at higher risk for developing autism, and even if they are, that the cause of the higher risk is due to shared DNA mutations.

    The more accurate headline on Slashdot and the UT San Diego website would be, "Study finds immunized siblings of autistic children not at higher risk of developing autism than immunized siblings of unaffected children."

    1. Re:Headline doesn't really match study conclusion by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      The more accurate headline on Slashdot and the UT San Diego website would be, "Study finds immunized siblings of autistic children not at higher risk of developing autism than immunized siblings of unaffected children."

      No, the correct headline is "Study finds immunized siblings of autistic children not at higher risk of developing autism than non-immunized siblings of autistic children."

      Additionally, this study says the precise opposite of what you said the headline should read, finding that siblings of autistic children were almost 8x as likely to develop autism as children who did not have an autistic sibling, regardless of whether those children were vaccinated or not.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  18. Damn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wanted to give my kids autism.

  19. You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by PeterM+from+Berkeley · · Score: 5, Informative

    Think of it this way. You're living in your mom's womb, then you get born. Your mom's womb is pretty darn sterile. Suddenly, you're born and you're literally being assaulted by every germ around you, with probably thousands of them being encountered by your immune system every day.

    How are a *few* shots (7 may seem like a lot to you) going to compare against thousands of things all hitting the naive immune system of an infant all at once, starting from birth, every day?

    Or is it the fact that the particular antigen is injected into a muscle supposed to make it more scary?

    It just seems to me that the amount of antigens presented to someone during a shot is just completely dwarfed by the natural exposure. It's just that the select few antigens in the shots just happen to be particularly helpful in helping you resist *actual serious disease*.

    Also, I can't find your "varicella vaccine mortality rate of 1 in 30,000" information on the CDC website, Please provide source. What I found was this: "Other serious problems, including severe brain
    reactions and low blood count, have been reported after
    chickenpox vaccination. These happen so rarely experts
    cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or
    not. If they are, it is extremely rare." I think we would hear about it if thousands of people died from the chickenpox vaccine.

    Furthermore, they also say that only the FIRST dose has such an extreme reaction. So the "much higher than 1/30,000" claim you make is extremely dubious.

    --PM

    --PM

    1. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by thermowax · · Score: 3

      You are aware, are you not, that mothers pass antibodies to the fetus during the last trimester because they share, oh, I don't know, BLOOD?! There's even a name for it: 'passive immunity". Antibodies are also heavily transferred during the first couple of weeks' breast milk.

      Their effect tapers off after a couple of months, which is why vaccines are necessary. (Or if the mother hasn't had a disease or its vaccine).

    2. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I work in biomedical research and my own opinion is that vaccines are a useful tool in the fight against infectious disease - a bit like the C programming language: a bit dated and plenty to dislike but still a useful tool. On the other hand, you don't help your cause by including points that are obviously wrong.

      Suddenly, you're born and you're literally being assaulted by every germ around you, with probably thousands of them being encountered by your immune system every day.

      Not all germs are equally dangerous. Presumably you wouldn't be too happy if someone exposed your baby to the ebola virus.

      Or is it the fact that the particular antigen is injected into a muscle supposed to make it more scary?

      There are actually lots of different kinds of vaccines. Some vaccines consist of live virus that has been mutated such that it can no longer evade certain parts of the immune system. Incidentally, if you happen to have a genetic disorder that weakens those parts of your immune system then such vaccines are extremely dangerous to you. Other vaccines consist of parts (i.e. proteins) of inactivated viruses. Some such vaccines also contain an adjuvant which can take various forms - include compounds that cause irritation/pain at the injection site and high fever in certain individuals.

      Point being, different vaccines have different side effects. For some vaccines, such as the inactivated flu virus without adjuvant, the only "side effect" for most people is the momentary pain of the injection itself. But other vaccines cause permanent scarring at the injection site in most people. And for certain rare individuals (i.e. with weakened immune systems) vaccination can even be fatal.

      Don't get me wrong I'm not claiming that no one should ever get vaccinated or that no one should ever use the C programming language. But it's equally ridiculous to claim that vaccines and the C programming language are totally perfect and there's no possible room for improvement.

    3. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by CauseBy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your mom's womb is pretty darn sterile.

      You've obviously never met his mom.

    4. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by PeterM+from+Berkeley · · Score: 1

      Yes, and that helps keep babies alive. However, that doesn't change the fact that the baby is now being assaulted/presented with all the microbes outside the womb and must develop immunity to those thousands of microbes that s/he never saw before.

      This is in comparison to the 7 or so that are in shots.

      --PM

    5. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that among the piles of natural things assaulting an infant, the 7 or so man-made and unnatural things we inject are harmless, just because of statistics?

      If the first dose has a stronger reaction, it being foreign when the other doses are familiar stuff, that kinda suggests foreign stuff is bad.

      I think anti-vaxxers are retarded. But your argument is just as ignorantly stupid. Try again.

    6. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by s.petry · · Score: 0, Troll

      At least seven _additional_ SEVERE diseases/viruses. This is the part I really find baffling from you vaccinate everything all the time people. No, it's not just 7 vaccines. It's 7 MORE nasty things than the body normally has to deal with, including a whole lot of various ingredients that the body has to process in terms of attenuation solutions.

      These are not mild and easy to fight diseases and viruses which is why people figured it was a good idea to make vaccines for them. Today, we are giving kids 312% more vaccines than we did 25 years ago. How many long term studies do we have on the impact of vaccines in that time? Only what the manufacturers are giving to the FDA and CDC for the most part.

      Again, if you think it's just 7 shots you are either a shill or insane. The Monsanto executive that claimed that vaccines are so safe you could get 10,000 vaccinations in a day. Yet he never accepted bets from a few people to get just 100 or 1000 in a day. Similar to the the guy from Monsanto that claimed Roundup was so "not harmful" you could drink a gallon and it would not harm you, yet he would not take a sip when the interviewer took him at his word and offered a glass.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    7. Re: You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've proposed a very convincing argument. So convincing, I don't think I'll vaccinate my children.

    8. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Yaztromo · · Score: 2

      Today, we are giving kids 312% more vaccines than we did 25 years ago.

      Yes, and the viral load of each of those vaccines is 1/3000th of what the load was in the 1970's.

      In other words, you are an idiot.

      Yaz

    9. Re: You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correlation != Causation

    10. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget breast-feeding. Antibodies are conveyed whilst breastfeeding too.
      So babies growing up on breast milk are not as sick, and studies suggest learn faster too.

    11. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > In other words, you are an idiot.

      Well, it *is* an S. Petry (tm) post...

    12. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Vengeance_au · · Score: 4, Informative

      You keep referring to the CDC in this and other child posts - to back your claims. I'm in extremely strong opposition to your view on both the danger of the MMR vs the diseases it protects us from, as well as the autism claims. Let me call out a few which may be of interest;

      From the CDC page entitled "Top 4 Things Parents Need to Know about Measles" http://www.cdc.gov/measles/abo...
          - About 1 in 4 people in the U.S. who get measles will be hospitalized
          - 1 out of every 1,000 people with measles will develop brain swelling, which could lead to brain damage
          - 1 or 2 out of 1,000 people with measles will die, even with the best care

      From the CDC page entitled "Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism" http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafe...
          - well, suffice to say they have a different world-view to yourself

      Please feel free to reply to this post with peer-reviewed medical evidence which articulates why countries where immunisation is low or non-existent are in less danger than those who have a high immunisation level, or alternately cite your source on the autism to MMR link.

      We read those two numbers clear as day, but we are not allowed to look at vaccines as a possible cause? Are you kidding me?

      If you're so willing to disregard the study linked in the topic which clearly addresses exactly that point comprehensively, and categorically denies it i know, RFTA, how gauche) then I assume you have an empirical model you can clearly articulate which shows the link? Or is it correlation == causation, facts be damned?

    13. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Blinded by your hubris once more. Tragic. Maybe you should add "Pseudodoctor" and "Senior Conspiracy Analyst" to your job title. This is bordering on the pathetic.

    14. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by dave420 · · Score: 1

      The silence is deafening. S. Petry, Senior Nonsense-Peddler, where are you? :)

    15. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      312% more. Sounds so much worse than 4 times as many.

      I'm always wary of people who use percentage changes like that.

    16. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Today, we are giving kids 312% more vaccines than we did 25 years ago.

      That's fantastic, thanks for the great news! That means science has advanced and we've developed ways to protect against over 3x more debilitating and deadly diseases than we used to be able to do!

    17. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't share blood. If they did, the ABO and RH blood groups would have been bred to homozygosity in short order. Capillary beds from the mother and fetus meet in the placenta and transfer nutrients and some macromolecules (including antibodies) from one person to the other. Aside from a little leak, no cells are transferred and it is cells that keep the immune system's memory. An infant receives no long-lasting adaptive immunity from the mother.

    18. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      Yes, but the mother's milk antibodies don't work nearly as well if the mother had a vaccine rather than has real antibodies from getting the disease. Vaccines don't work as well as getting over being sick. There are people who have a defect in their immune system where they don't even make antibodies. These people still get immunity from a disease after getting it, so there is much more do immunity than we understand.

      I like that we have vaccines for serious and deadly diseases. I don't like the fact that they are pushing them for non-serious things. The last time someone died in the U.S from measles was in 2003. The news likes to tell you how scary measles are and how there are many many deaths per year, but it is a misleading statistic since those are from third wold countries where children don't have good nutrition. There has been 98 deaths from the MMR vaccine in the same time frame. Some studies suggest that vaccine related reactions and even death are under reported by as much as 90%. This means there could be anywhere from 98 to 980 deaths from a vaccine for a disease that has caused 0 deaths. If you keep telling me lies I am going to stop listening to you!

      I never did believe the autism link though. From what I have read before, the rates of autism were the same for people getting vaccines and those who did not. That seems pretty straight forward to me. I only wish I could get the individual vaccines that are in the combo shots. My daughter already had whooping cough, so her immunity is far superior to the DTaP vaccine. Tetanus isn't too serious as there are treatments if you get it, but it does seem like one less worry since everybody who spends time outside will eventually step on a nail somewhere. Measles would be skipped as it isn't serious. I would just pick the ones that are bad and get those by themselves.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    19. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by rhazz · · Score: 1

      The Monsanto executive that claimed that vaccines are so safe you could get 10,000 vaccinations in a day. Yet he never accepted bets from a few people to get just 100 or 1000 in a day.

      So some guy who is not a doctor, not an expert on vaccines, and not a scientist, says something about vaccines that I can only assume was a gross exaggeration (and obviously untrue), therefore vaccines are bad?

    20. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

      Autism rates have gone up just a hair under 300%

      Personally, I blame inbreeding.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    21. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Do you have any citations for your first paragraph? It looks like utter nonsense to me. For example, people aren't necessarily immune to a disease after getting it.

      As far as your second paragraph goes, the useful question is not "Does the MMR vaccine kill more people than measles kills in a mostly immunized population?" but rather "Does the MMR vaccine kill more people than measles would kill in a mostly unimmunized population?".

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    22. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, fetus does not share blood with the mother, they have separate, contained blood system. http://americanpregnancy.org/while-pregnant/fetal-life-support-system/ ... This has no bearing on the rest of the discussion and does not make antivaxers any smarter. Just a random tidbit of info.

    23. Re:You think 7 vaccines is a lot? by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      Do you have any citations for your first paragraph? It looks like utter nonsense to me. For example, people aren't necessarily immune to a disease after getting it.

      Immunity against measles in populations of women and infants in Poland. Low titers of measles antibody in mothers whose infants suffered from measles before eligible age for measles vaccination. Outbreaks of Measles have occurred in schools with 99% vaccination rates.

      As far as your second paragraph goes, the useful question is not "Does the MMR vaccine kill more people than measles kills in a mostly immunized population?" but rather "Does the MMR vaccine kill more people than measles would kill in a mostly unimmunized population?".

      Yes, I have thought about that. Most people are vaccinated for Measles so there are a lot less people getting it that would otherwise if the whole population were not vaccinated. But still, the primary cause of problems from Measles is due to the complications that arise from things like dehydration or poor nutrition. Ask your older relatives how many people they knew when younger that died of Measles. I bet you won't find any. Everybody got it and it wasn't a big deal then. Today it is made out to be a big deal. If you are some starving African kid with no medical attention it can be a problem. But that kid probably doesn't have access to the MMR shot anyway. Here in the USA we have good nutrition and access to medical care. Complications from Measles would be rather rare.

      Severe complications from measles can be avoided through supportive care that ensures good nutrition, adequate fluid intake and treatment of dehydration with WHO-recommended oral rehydration solution. This solution replaces fluids and other essential elements that are lost through diarrhoea or vomiting. Antibiotics should be prescribed to treat eye and ear infections, and pneumonia.

      All children in developing countries diagnosed with measles should receive two doses of vitamin A supplements, given 24 hours apart. This treatment restores low vitamin A levels during measles that occur even in well-nourished children and can help prevent eye damage and blindness. Vitamin A supplements have been shown to reduce the number of deaths from measles by 50%.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  20. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by hondo77 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The mortality rate of the vaccine according to the CDC is 1 in 30,000. (The actual wording on the CDC site is that 2 out of 15,000 will have extremely severe reactions to the vaccine, and 1 of those will be fatal.

    You are completely full of shit. From the CDC site:

    • Serious health problems after (Varicella (Chicken Pox) vaccination are extremely rare. Only a few have been confirmed by lab testing as due to vaccine-strain VZV, including:
      • pneumonia,
      • hepatitis,
      • severe rash, and
      • shingles with meningitis.
    • Some children who had these serious health problems after vaccination had weakened immune systems before they were vaccinated, but they had not been diagnosed by a doctor at the time of vaccination.
    • Other serious health events after vaccination have been reported, such as thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), acute cerebellar ataxia (brain injury that leads to balance problems), and acute hemiparesis (paralysis on part the body). It is not known if these were caused by the vaccine. Lab testing was either not done or did not confirm if the health effects were caused by vaccine-strain virus.

    I await your retraction before calling you out as a shill.

    --
    I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  21. Scientists have some culpability. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Normal people" are not sufficiently technically skilled (probably you included) to be able to "know" except by appeal to authority, ...

    That's how this whole controversy started - by fraudulent science by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. What are people supposed to do? Say nevermind, I'll wait for his studies to be peer reviewed and in the meantime, I'm going to risk my kid's health? And don't get me started on Jenny McArthy's total irresponsibility and our society's worship of celebrity.

    And regular folks see how something is "bad" for you and then "good" for you and then "bad" again and on and on and on. Science reporting in the general media is irresponsible and I really think the scientific community needs to be a little more careful in their announcements to the public. Actually, I do not think reputable scientists should announce their findings directly to the public. It's one thing if a science reporter sees a paper in a journal, it's another when the scientist(s) calls for a press conference. And they should follow that guideline to protect their own reputations - does anyone remember the first Cold Fusion announcement? Those guys ended up with a lot of egg on their faces. That wouldn't have happened if they waited for the peer review.

  22. You're pro-science? That explains it. by mmell · · Score: 1
    A star is rising in Uranus. That's why you can't see the obvious truth, that vaccines cause famine, pestilence, plague and death.

    See? The science of Astrology explains it all!

  23. Fatality rate of measles can be high by PeterM+from+Berkeley · · Score: 2

    In the US, with proper care and diet, measles is about .5% fatal or less to someone who was not vaccinated. Even if you don't die you've got a significant (~1%) chance of having some sort of brain damage (I'm including deafness/blindness in "brain damage".)

    If you have a vitamin A deficiency, though, measles can be up to 25% (or so) fatal.

    Measles isn't a joke and like polio, we should eradicate it if we can.

    --PM

  24. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

    There are some valid questions regarding our vaccine policy and it's impacts on health, which you can't find because shills on both side drown out any discussion.

    The same problem exists with gun control, abortion, and a hundred other subjects...

    Too often, the extreme sides prevent any rational conversation from happening.

  25. Pity ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    It's a pity we have to spend research money on crap like this.

    It diverts resources from useful things, so that stupid people who think Jenny McCarthy is a fucking credible source of medical information can still choose to be stupid people and not listen to facts.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  26. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You whine about shills and them spew the talking points from the anti-vaxers. Seriously? Regarding point 1. You do realize causation does not imply causation, right? The most likely and confirmed cause is later age of parents, which has also risen. The fact that parents are older when they have kids than in the 80s has nothing to do with vaccines.

  27. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am a medical professional, a pediatrician to be exact. I don't share your concerns about the rising number of vaccines and the prevalence of autism. First, although the number of vaccines has increased, the number of epitopes that the immune system responds to has actually decreased. Look at page 126 of this article:

    https://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/overwhelm.pdf

    Secondly, its not clear that the prevelance of autism is increasing:

    http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9495906

    It is true however that both of those facts make it much harder to not un-separate vaccines into a "proper" discussion.

  28. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    T 1. Why have vaccines and autism rates both grown exponentially in the last 25 years? (no, detection does not come close to answering)

    According to at least one study, changes to the diagnostic criteria and including outpatient diagnosis accounts for much of the rise. In essence, creating an autism spectrum diagnosis resulted in more diagnosis. That doesn't mean actual cases are on the rise since there is no way to rediagnosis those prior to the change. As for vaccines, correlation does not imply causation, something the recent study on the vaccine / autism link proves yet again.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  29. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    The first question is related to how in 1989 Kids up until age 18 received 7 vaccines. [...] Today, it is 72.

    You're so full of shit. According to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, in 1989 the CDC recommended 8 vaccines for kids (the same 7 it recommended through the 70s, plus Hib). The 2010 schedule includes the 8 from 1989 plus hep A (dangerous in kids, lethal in adults), hep B (40% lifetime risk of liver cancer in 95% of newborns who contract it), flu, varicella (not the innocent, cute little illness antivax wingnuts claim it is), pneumococcus (lethal), and rotavirus (potentially lethal).

    The evil drug companies took the 8 vaccines from 1989 and added 6 more potentially lethal or crippling diseases, for a total of 14. One-four. Maybe the 72 number is an innocent mistake reflecting the total number of shots, although I sincerely doubt it's that high as DTaP and MMR are each 3 vaccines combined into 1 (as they have been since the early 80s). That narrows it down from 14 to 10 unique vaccinations, and they simply don't take an average of 7 shots each per vaccine.

    Yes, I get testy about this. As many times as antivaxers tell me to "do my research!", it seems that none of them can be bothered to.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  30. I wish vaccine lovers would JUST TAKE THEM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously...if you believe vaccines are the answer to all the worlds ills, just take them...yourself, and if your kids are like you...give them a couples shots too.

  31. Break out the rabies shots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see a lot of rabid idiots posting here about things they think they know. A few can claim to experts. Please either learn to be civil or shut up. If you can't be civil and can't shut up it just proves how truly stupid you are.

  32. Re:Agreed but there is a point by aitikin · · Score: 2

    There is also something particular to Chicken Pox which makes the vaccine even less desirable: length of immunity. If you actually catch Chicken Pox you get immunity for life. However if you vaccinate against it you need to continuously remember to get boosters - I believe currently every 10 or 20 years - otherwise your immunity may lapse. What is bad about this is that Chicken Pox for adults is known as Shingles which is far nastier than Chicken Pox. So in this case taking the vaccine to protect against a very mild childhood disease may lead to an increased chance of a more serious disease later in life...unless you set a 20 year alarm so you never forget a booster shot!

    You're full of shit too. You speak as though getting chickenpox will prevent shingles which it won't and there's other things that you have claimed that I find to be...less than accurate but don't have the time to find sources so I won't claim them.

    --
    "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
  33. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

    What is bad about this is that Chicken Pox for adults is known as Shingles which is far nastier than Chicken Pox. So in this case taking the vaccine to protect against a very mild childhood disease may lead to an increased chance of a more serious disease later in life...unless you set a 20 year alarm so you never forget a booster shot!

    As far as I know, this is very inaccurate. Shingles is a neurological disorder which only affects people who have generated Chicken Pox antigens. Chicken Pox itself has two or three strains, which can be contracted at any point in your life. For instance, the common Chicken Pox (the one with the vaccine now) is something I might have been exposed to when very young, but I've never officially got it (no pox) and eventually I figured I was immune and was tasked as the person to take care of anyone who had it. However, as an adult, I got a secondary strain of Chicken Pox -- symptoms are pretty much identical to the common variety. Result? I'm now susceptible to shingles. If a vaccine had been available back when I contracted it (and I'd had the vaccine instead), that would likely prevent me from getting shingles, as I would never have developed the requisite antigens. However, since there's still no vaccine for the second strain as far as I know, had I taken the vaccine (which was pretty much the same as my existing immunity), I still would have contracted Chicken Pox and then been susceptible to shingles. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  34. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Chicken Pox for adults is known as Shingles which is far nastier than Chicken Pox"

    Wrong to an extreme.

    Shingles is a resurgence of the virus which causes chicken pox. Once you get chicken pox, the virus is dormant in your body, your immune system continues to fight it. When your immune system is weakened, you get shingles.

    Vaccination against chicken pox not only reduces chicken pox, but never being infected with the wild strain of chicken pox reduces the probability of contracting shingles when older:

    " the risk of getting shingles from vaccine-strain VZV after chickenpox vaccination is much lower than getting shingles after natural infection with wild-type VZV" http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/varicella/

  35. Re:Agreed but there is a point by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And you are exactly right. The OP does have one reasonable point in his post - now that we've knocked out the 'big' childhood infectious diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and haemophilus) through vaccinations, we are working on immunizations where the cost - benefit ratio is much less clear.

    Hepatitis B, Varicella (Chicken pox), pneumococcus, rotovirus and Hepatitis A are all safe and effective. Whether or not they need to be given to everyone is an interesting question. Hepatitis B is certainly reasonable for persons living in areas where the virus is endemic (South Asia in particular) and is reasonable for persons who plan on being drug addicts or health care workers. The problem is that most people who end up in the former life style aren't the type to seek medical attention early on. Varicella immunization, as you point out, wanes after a decade or so (as does tetanus, diphtheria and especially pertussis) and chicken pox is a largely benign illness (although complications do occur). The pediatric community has decided that a nuanced approach to this won't work so it's "everybody gets everything all of the time".

    This appears to be pretty safe (again, the number of distinct antigens in all vaccines is dwarfed by the number of different proteins presented to your immune system every time you go out in a crowd) but there are theoretical concerns. You can make the argument that antigens presented by a vaccine are qualitatively different from your garden variety protein. You can also note that autoimmune diseases (where the body overreacts to antigens) is common, sometimes severe and undoubtedly increasing in the Western world. Thus, one can be concerned that pissing off the immune system could cause problems.

    It, however, has never been demonstrated that vaccines are causally related to any autoimmune phenomenon or disease.

    So, in the best of all worlds, one would have an informed discussion about the risks and benefits of all 14 recommended vaccines. Which would take a couple of hours. Which, of course, doesn't happen.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  36. CDC whistleblower by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On camera interview:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGOtDVilkUc

  37. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by DrJimbo · · Score: 1

    1. Why have vaccines and autism rates both grown exponentially in the last 25 years? (no, detection does not come close to answering)

    Oh for goodness sake, are you claiming these are the only things that have grown rapidly over the past 25 years. Sugar consumption has grown rapidly. Maybe, just maybe, the mother's freakin' diet has something to do with autism. Why, yes it does. That one study does not explain the majority of cases of autism but it is a big red flashing neon sign pointing in a direction to look. In addition to eating too much sugar, which we now know can trigger autism, there are many many other things mothers are exposed to on a daily basis in modern societies that may also be detrimental to the health of their babies such as: an overabundance of drugs (in food and water), other highly processed foods, chemicals from plastics that get into food and water, and many forms of pollution. Perhaps it is related to increased stress or lack of sleep.

    Many years ago, some shyster dickhead of a scientist made a bunch of money (from a firm that was already planning a law suit over the MMR vaccine) by concocting lies about a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. The science system worked, the lies were caught, the paper was retracted and the shyster lost his "scientist" badge.

    What baffles me is that so many people cling to the results from the exposed shyster who truly was only in it to make a bunch of bucks while they ignore all the reputable scientific studies that don't agree with the conclusion they have already jumped to. I'm reminded of Feynman's description of cargo cult science. One problem with your completely irrational position (on the fence or not) is that it causes us to waste valuable and limited resources following up on things we already know are dead ends so we can't use those resources to look for the real cause of the increase in autism.

    --
    We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
    -- Anais Nin
  38. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Smallpond · · Score: 1

    Are you counting Andrew Wakefield as one of these "medical professionals"?

  39. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Smallpond · · Score: 1

    You whine about shills and them spew the talking points from the anti-vaxers. Seriously? Regarding point 1. You do realize causation does not imply causation, right? The most likely and confirmed cause is later age of parents, which has also risen. The fact that parents are older when they have kids than in the 80s has nothing to do with vaccines.

    I'm pretty sure that causation does imply causation.

  40. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NVICP has paid out $3 billion in compensation for vaccine injury:
    http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/data.html

    Vaccine injury table:
    http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/vaccinetable.html

    Vaccine Court Awards Millions to Two Children With Autism
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/post2468343_b_2468343.html

    1. Re:National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one is saying that people can't be hurt by vaccines. They are saying that the mmr vaccine doesn't cause autism.

  41. Even the Elmo Vaccination is critized by Anti-Vax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Elmo Vaccination Video Blasted by Watchdog Groups
    http://www.thewrap.com/elmo-vaccination-video-blasted-by-watchdog-groups/
    What Watchdog Group? It is blasted by the National Vaccine Information Center, a nutbar Anti-Vax group that still believes autism is still associated with vaccination.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Vaccine_Information_Center

  42. Autism... The new cigar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Interesting how it wasn't until various drug companies started pushing their "anti-autism" drugs that the medical community started diagnosing (actually, misdiagnosing just about 'brain development' related issue as ) autism. As far as I have read, autism is not a "disease", but a cluster of symptoms indicative of a misconfiguration or incomplete growth of the brain - at birth - that the sufferer occasionally is able to grow out of. The chances of a person being able to outgrow this condition are dependent on several factors (not ordered in any rank):
    1. How severely the misconfiguration is - Under-development vs not present. Runs the gamut from a slight mis-wire to a meth-high spider monkey with a punch tool.
    2. How stupid their parents attempts are in "treating" it - Give the kid drugs in order to be an "absent" parent vs. force the kid to be active.
    3. Nutrition - If your kid doesn't eat right, the brain won't grow right.
    4. Mental Stimulus - Ignore your kid, don't pay them any attention, and see what you get.
    5. Generic health care.

    Real diseases (mumps, chickenpox, etc) can be prevented/treated.
    Autism is a bunch of conditions, not a disease. Only some forms of autism are permanent, most is temporary.
    Mental Diseases that have no basis in fact (Anti-Vaxxers, Conspiracy Theorists, etc) are self-inflicted.

    1. Re:Autism... The new cigar. by seebs · · Score: 1

      This is a fascinating set of claims that have nothing to do with any autism research I've seen. I've never seen an "anti-autism drug" get any kind of approval or testing or even marketing, and I've never heard serious claims about people "growing out of" autism. I've never actually heard of "temporary" autism. There's lots you can do to mitigate the inconvenient or harmful symptoms, but the underlying neurology seems to be pretty stable.

      --
      My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    2. Re:Autism... The new cigar. by Rolgar · · Score: 1

      My wife has gotten our daughter into a program called Brain Highways, that may help a child cure their autism, or other similar conditions. The program costs around $2000 (as of a few years ago), done at home, parents guiding their children through physical therapy.

      Their science says that there are three sections of the brain. The lower brain controls all involuntary body functions. The upper brain controls thought and memory. The middle part of the brain controls things that we have control over, but handles them on a subconscious level. So, when I run, I don't think (step, step step), I just start running. Some functions controlled by this part of the brain have to do with focus, processing and understanding the surrounding environment, controlling body activity, etc.

      What their science claims is that a person who has an underdeveloped middle brain has to compensate by forcing the upper brain do handle these activities, but it's not very good at it. And since the upper brain is distracted into focusing on the mid brains role, it can't do what it's supposed to. Fortunately, you can train the brain to finish it's middle brain development by doing some therapy that emulates some of the activities that babies do when they lay on the floor (perhaps the rise of autism has been caused by parents holding their children a little too much instead of giving them exploration time on the floor?). Specifically, they teach a series of motions where the child rolls over a couple of times in a particular way, lays on the floor and moves their arms and legs in proscribed patters, then pulling themselves across the floor on their bellies. They progress naturally from dragging themselves inch by inch using just their hands to adding toes, then eventually using their whole legs and flying across the floor.

      Our oldest had the greatest deficiency, has been very resistant to doing the work, and she hasn't completely overcome her limitations, and my wife hasn't forced the issue due to her resistance. Our second was about half developed, and has completed the program. Our third was completely developed before she started.

      Our oldest has also made some progress using sound/body therapy, called Interactive Metronome, to speed up her brain and synchronize it with her body. This therapy involves the subject listening to a sound on head phones, and timing motions to trigger a button (attached to wrists, or positioned on the floor) in time with the beat. The longer somebody practices, the more they will be able to get the right timing, the more in sync the body and the brain, and the faster the brain will work. Some parents we know have reported significant developments in focus and faster thinking. We haven't progressed as far with this because it's about $1200 per semester, so we've only made it about halfway up the progress tree, and now our therapist is moving 500 miles away to live near family. There is software to do this at home that can be purchased, and I'm probably going to tell my wife to buy it soon.

      Once a child is fully integrated, with a fully functioning brain, there is some catch up time as they progress through normal development stages that they've lacked. But eventually, most children should be able to function completely normally.

    3. Re:Autism... The new cigar. by Rolgar · · Score: 1

      And after I posted this, I came across this article from same day as this Slashdot item.

  43. Um. by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

    Actually, if you think detection can't come close to answering, you're probably mostly buying the antivaxxer accounts--and I'm being quite charitable there. Admittedly, a good part of it also comes from changing the diagnostic criteria, which is a Problem because as my dev psych professor brutally put it, it's the end of the goddamn bell curve--literally so, as a certain amount of autistic behavior is within the range of normal, which means that if you want to increase the number of people with autism the easiest way is to literally lower the threshold.

    This folds into the fact that, frankly, the US school system has a perverse incentive to have as many students as possible diagnosed with a disability--they get money for it--and it's one of the easiest ones to game this way. (Yes, this qualifies as practicing medicine without a license and is harmful but since when did that ever stop the public schools?)

    The least nasty player in all of this is that we've lost the perverse incentive to avoid diagnosis, as the stigma's decreased and, well, forced sterlizations & euthanasia is no longer anywhere near a problem as it was around 90 years ago. (Some of these court cases are still being settled though.)

    Now, on the rest of it? If the clinic fails to check the health before giving the vaccine, GTFO. Vaccines should never be given to somebody not healthy. This is why I was delayed on one of mine when I had to get mine redone--I walked in and was bounced to the ER for a serious infection.

    I don't know what you mean by the '17 vaccines,' but then I live in an area where the list is...about five, all of which are cheap and out of patent. I don't actually trust Gardasil, but that's because the way they did the challenge in testing it is absurd. (This is basically the gold standard, and is deliberately infecting somebody who has gotten the vaccine with what the vaccine is supposed to be against. Very few diseases are so bad as to warrant using a faux antigen--arguably, none are, as if they're dangerous enough to make it ethically doubtful to deliberately infect somebody who volunteered and knowingly consents to doing this test, it ought to be also unethical to sell it as a vaccine because it'll still get tested this way, just on people who did not knowingly volunteer to do so...and you can cover for it a lot more easily.)

    That said, we actually do have some pretty strong proof that autism is probably a defect in brain development--last I checked we'd pushed back the earliest age at which we can diagnose it to before you should be getting any vaccines, namely six months. At least some cases can be traced to exposure to diseases at the prenatal stage, as the whole idea that the womb is a sterile, clean environment is hilariously wrong--let's take rubella, for example.

    People exposed to it in the womb can end up with autism.

    Ever asked what the R in MMR is for? I did, or rather I read the info sheet the clinic had to give me before accepting my consent to get it (again). It's rubella. Oh, and it turns out the vaccine is not for-life, regardless of what was previously thought; herd immunity just covered for a lot of people's immune systems 'forgetting,' sort of the equivalent of nobody noticing if antique computer viruses are no longer protected against by antivirus programs because there's little chance of somebody encountering an infected system anymore...

  44. Still, even the CDC says there are side-effects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.vaccines.gov/basics/safety/side_effects/

  45. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    Sorry, mortality rate for getting Chicken Pox is 2 - 4 per 100,000.
    You've also go associated problems with having Varicella, like arthritis, osteomyelitis, hepatitis, and intracranial vasculitis. Along with secondary bacterial infections in the blisters.

    30% of new born babies who's mother has chicken pox around delivery time can pretty much kiss their short life goodbye.

    http://www.immune.org.nz/disea...

  46. Re:Agreed but there is a point by CauseBy · · Score: 2

    "unless you set a 20 year alarm so you never forget a booster shot! "

    So, go see a doctor at least four times during my adult life? That's a standard that I can meet. When you see a doctor, they check your immuno records. For those who don't currently see a doctor once every five Presidential terms, let's find a way to get them more medical care.

  47. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by CauseBy · · Score: 1

    Awesome. Well done.

    Today I had someone arguing that circumcision causes autism (I know, I know, but they said it). I told them circ rates are declining while autism rates are apparently rising. They said "Correlation does not imply causation!" and I scratched my head before saying "Yeah, but causation does imply correlation". They then went to special pleading, so I considered the point won.

  48. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by arth1 · · Score: 1

    In a way, you are correct, but unintentionally so.
    There is a correlation, but the causation is one layer higher.

    Vaccines are safe, and save lives. And that's the problem. Whenever a young life is saved, that is one person who would have been culled from the pack that now grows up and likely will procreate. Nobody can deny that.
    That means that genes that earlier were weeded out now survive and spread in the population the next generation. Including genes that code for weaker immune systems, which appears to be a common factor for both propensity for dying from childhood diseases if catching them, and propensity for becoming allergic.
    In short, it's not the children being vaccinated that causes autism, but their parents having been vaccinated if they survived as fertile individuals as a result of the vaccination.

    Until we obtain the genetic know-how and competence for how to fix this in individuals, that's the price we have to pay for taking action in saving lives that otherwise would have been lost. The consensus (except for crackpots) seems to be that as a society, we are willing to pay that price.

    That there are negative side effects to saving children's lives is not a popular thing to mention, though, so I'm waiting for the down-votes to start.

  49. I'm definitely going to ignore it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks for pointing that out

  50. Unconscionable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many kids has Jenny McCarthy and other antivaxers at least indirectly killed?

    Parents who choose not to vaccinate their kids (except for the very few with justifiable medical reasons at the direction of a doctor) are bad parents.

    Antivax==child abuse

    1. Re:Unconscionable by Kobun · · Score: 1

      As of right now, the count sits at 8,973.

      http://www.antivaccinebodycoun...

    2. Re:Unconscionable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world is definitely a messed up place - somewhere around 20,000 children die of poverty every day.

  51. Apples and oranges by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

    1. Why have vaccines and autism rates both grown exponentially in the last 25 years? (no, detection does not come close to answering)

    Changes to the definition and protocols for diagnosing it account for the rate changes just fine.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:Apples and oranges by seebs · · Score: 1

      Exactly. I never met anyone autistic as a kid. Now about half the people I regularly interact with are autistic. Actually, several of them (including me) are people I knew as kids... But what we mean by "autistic" has changed hugely over that time period.

      --
      My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
  52. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Dputiger · · Score: 1

    You don't get 72 vaccines.

    You get 49 doses of 14 vaccines by 6 and 69 doses by 18 if you follow the recommended schedule.

    http://www.nvic.org/CMSTemplat...

    Part of the reason we do the vaccines this way is because we now know more about the immune system and how effective the shots are / how long they last.
    Part of the reason we do the vaccines this way is because the less-toxic versions that have been developed since the 1960s are also less effective and must be administered more often.
    Part of the reason we do the vaccines this way is because its the best way to give immunity for life. After six, you shouldn't need a booster for polio, measles, varicella, or several others.

    Either way, nobody gets 72 vaccinations.

  53. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "unless you set a 20 year alarm so you never forget a booster shot! "

    So, go see a doctor at least four times during my adult life? That's a standard that I can meet. When you see a doctor, they check your immuno records. For those who don't currently see a doctor once every five Presidential terms, let's find a way to get them more medical care.

    I go to a VA doctor every year and have yet to have them say anything about shots other than constantly trying to shove Flu shots at me, and to my knowledge I've never had a chicken-pox vaccine or chicken-pox or measles etc. The doctors don't seem to be concerned about any of that.

  54. Who is full of shit? by s.petry · · Score: 0, Troll

    Try actually searching the CDC site, and you can find some amazing information. Your page is quite different from this CDC page. Funny that attempt to call me a shill yet completely ignore the disclaimer on these pages. How did you miss the fact that the date of your information is from 2008, and provided by Merck. You do know that there are numerous manufacturers of different types of varicella vaccine don't you? And you only cover one.. shame on you.

    The page I linked above has this:

    (This information taken from MMRV VIS dated 5/21/10. If the actual VIS is more recent than this date, the information on this page needs to be updated.)

    Amazingly you find yet more information on that link, I know.. research is hard.

    This CDC page says 4 in 1 million. or 1 in 250,000 which is still how many times higher than 100 in 300 Million? I'm not able to find the 1 in 30,000 number at the moment, but I don't need to do so to prove that the odds of death are higher with the vaccine.. for a non-lethal and non-debilitating virus. Sure, I'll retract the 1 in 30,000 and replace it with 1 in 250,000 and you still have 24 times greater chance of death than with the virus (not considering how improvements in medical treatments would change the highest ever rated mortality rate for chicken pox.)

    I await your retraction of false allegations and apology for shitty research..

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Who is full of shit? by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      Neither of the two pages you link to put any figure on fatalities caused by a vaccine that covers chicken pox. The second page mentions "4 per million" this this context:
      "These include severe allergic reactions (fewer than 4 per million), and problems such as:

              Deafness.
              Long-term seizures, coma, lowered consciousness.
              Permanent brain damage.

      Because these problems occur so rarely, we can’t be sure whether they are caused by the vaccine or not."

      Note where it says "fewer", where it says "can’t be sure whether they are caused by the vaccine or not", and the lack of any mention of death.

    2. Re:Who is full of shit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This CDC page says 4 in 1 million. or 1 in 250,000 which is still how many times higher than 100 in 300 Million? I'm not able to find the 1 in 30,000 number at the moment, but I don't need to do so to prove that the odds of death are higher with the vaccine.. for a non-lethal and non-debilitating virus. Sure, I'll retract the 1 in 30,000 and replace it with 1 in 250,000 and you still have 24 times greater chance of death than with the virus (not considering how improvements in medical treatments would change the highest ever rated mortality rate for chicken pox.)

      What are you talking about. On the page you referenced it lists:

      Several severe problems have been reported following MMR vaccine, and might also happen after MMRV. These include severe allergic reactions (fewer than 4 per million), and problems such as:

      Deafness.
      Long-term seizures, coma, lowered consciousness.
      Permanent brain damage.
      Because these problems occur so rarely, we can’t be sure whether they are caused by the vaccine or not.

      So in contrast to what you wrote it is not about mortality rate at all and the problems can not even be reliably attributed to the vaccination.

    3. Re:Who is full of shit? by dave420 · · Score: 1

      So your awesome researching ability doesn't include reading the pages you cite. Please tell us again why should anyone pay attention to you?

    4. Re:Who is full of shit? by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      I await your retraction of false allegations and apology for shitty research..

      I'm sorry for you that your antivax agenda results in you doing shitty research.

      Your first citation shows only severe reactions to chicken pox vaccine, none of them fatal, and no rate is given other than "very rare".

      Your second citation also only refers to severe reactions. The word "fatal" is not on the entire page.

      Go away, shill.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  55. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  56. You are wrong on every part! by s.petry · · Score: 0, Troll

    I picked on the Varicella vaccine for a reason, namely that I have done some hefty research on this. The only misinformation is yours, stop reading the first thing you find and believing it's the gospel. CDC's web site is full of many studies, some more recent than others. So lets clear up two of your completely false points

    First, The varicella vaccine does NOT make you immune to shingles. That is a fairy tale, and if it's not on Snopes yet it should be. Manufacturers don't make the claim, and CDC states flat out that Shingles is not impacted by the vaccine what so ever.

    Next, there is no such thing as immunity to chicken pox. People who have had the vaccine series still have a 10-20% chance of infection (depending on which study you read on the CDC's site). People who received the live vaccine will amazingly be able to transmit and have all of the chicken pox symptoms with a milder version, and still be infected by a more severe case due to natural exposure. The whole reason for the newer series of both varicella and MMR is that they were only 60-80% effective (again, choose a study). They "believe" that with a series of 3 there is an effective rate of 90%.

    Yeah, pushing dubious vaccines is bad. I brought up some legitimate questions which you simply dismissed without doing ample research. "it's certainly not dangerous" is an outright lie. Here I quickly found that the odds for a "severe" reaction to MMR (not MMRV) is 1 in 250,000. Compared to the severe complications to the raw varicella virus, it s certainly more dangerous. I'll certainly be fair and retract the 1 in 30,000 (looks like the CDC removed that link) and go with the 1 in 250,000. My points are all still valid because the vaccine is exponentially higher risk.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:You are wrong on every part! by dave420 · · Score: 2

      So you are doing "hefty research", yet are making mistakes that anyone having performed such research would not make. So either your research approach is fatally flawed, you are lying, or you have forgotten the research you made. Pick one :)

    2. Re:You are wrong on every part! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Severe reactions are not necessarily "lethal". 1 in 250 000 chances of a severe reactions are not bad. If you're that worried about those odds, buy a lotto tickets. I think you'll find the odds can be even better!

    3. Re:You are wrong on every part! by tbannist · · Score: 1

      S. Petry could be the poster child for the Dunning Kruger effect.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
  57. Wait, what? by s.petry · · Score: 0

    There are certainly many factors that could be impacting increased physiological disorders. Average age is the only factor and we have ruled out everything else? Prove it!

    Look at factors that have changed in the last 30 years along with the ~300% increase in autism, and there are several.

    I await your amazing proof, and hope you validate the source. No! An opinion piece from WebMD or any other site does not constitute a study.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Wait, what? by CauseBy · · Score: 1

      Did you mean to reply to me? I'm a little confused by what you said. I can't connect my comment to your reply.

  58. Vaccinate, but No Mandate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We fully vaccinate our children. But the moment any government tries to force any self-respecting parent to do anything with their kids will have some serious fish slappage coming their way. If I think a vaccine is dangerous I'm not giving it to my child. And no, I do not trust the government to be reasonable about my health decisions or those for my child.

    I trust my doctor, not the government.

    He says the current vaccines are safe so we vaccinate. If he told me an ebola vaccine was safe I'd consider it, but the decision ultimately lies with me as the parent. Anyone who tells me I *have* to inject anything into my children will have some serious Jem'Hadar rage to deal with.

    Thanks for letting this anonymous coward rant and get some stress off the chest.

  59. What blows me away...... by mark-t · · Score: 1

    .... is even *IF* there were some truth to the allegation that such vaccines have a link to autism, which there isn't.... the allegation that this should be justification to *NOT* vaccinate is equivalent to saying that one would rather have their child die from a curable disease than have autism... like autism is somehow the 21st century version of what leprosy was 2000 years ago.

    As someone who was diagnosed a number of years ago as autistic, I can't help but be slightly offended at the notion

  60. Wow by s.petry · · Score: 0, Redundant

    You claim I'm full of shit, then list out exactly what I called out. You claim to get testy about this, yet ignore the CDC's vaccine schedule. Fact: Varicella is not, and never has been, considered a fatal or debilitating disease. Why is it in the same category as Polio? Later you claim "it's not innocent and cute" but I don't see any proof that it's dangerous. I never claimed it was innocent or cute for that matter, I simply stated that it was not lethal or debilitating. Like I said above, 100 out of 300 million mortality rate. Outside of that, if you stop scratching the sores there are no issues. Influenza has not been considered a fatal illness since the time when we began treating dehydration by IV, yet it's in the same category as Polio as well.

    The 7 vaccines you mention up until about 1989 were given how many times? Exactly once. Compared to each today being given 3 times. Varicella vaccinations did not exist until the 1990s, and went through several horrible issues and recalls (perhaps you just forgot to mention the egg based vaccine). But we can't talk about vaccines as different entities, they are all identical in ingredients, effects, and effectiveness right? WRONG.

    I never ever stated that any of these vaccines were bad, go back and read my post again. I said that there has been both an increase in number and little discussion for the patient's health when giving vaccines. A perfectly healthy child getting 1xMMR is something we had 40 years experience with to know it was safe. We don't have the same track knowledge base for an unhealthy kid getting 1xMMR, 1xDTap, 1xInfluenza, 1xHep a/b (depending), gardasil, etc... every 6-12 months for years on end during their most prominent development ages. In fact, change that to the healthy kid getting all of this simultaneously, and we don't have enough research to claim it's always safe, especially if a person should not be receiving a vaccine (see next).

    As I stated above, manufacturers recommend that you do not get a vaccinations all the time. In fact here is one of many CDC warnings, this one about MMR. Different vaccines have different warnings for when not to get vaccinated. Make sure you check dates and defer to the Manufacturer's information as the CDC claims they do if you are going to present a rebuttal and claim "always safe".

    So I brought up several distinct points and told you that my source was the CDC. You claimed "nuh uh" to one point, lied to back your "nuh un", and finally claimed I'm full of shit. Go figure.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Wow by Pikoro · · Score: 1

      You still never provided a citation to your claim of 72 vaccines. Way to miss the point.

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
    2. Re:Wow by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      Eh? I had 1xMMR as a child and 3x polio/tetanus/diphtheria (not once as you've mentioned). In addition to that there were smallpox (yep, the actual vaccine) and BCG.

      My parents unfortunately forgot about Hep A + B, so I had these as an adult paying them out of my own pocket.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  61. yay! evidence! by surd1618 · · Score: 1

    I know what works! Evidence! Maybe if we stop repeating that it doesn't work, it'll start working! Why do you write the exact posts that you expect to read? I'm very happy for evidence, even if it ony helps convert a tiny number of people! I wish it worked better, but.. YAY!

  62. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by s.petry · · Score: 0

    No, I never made such a claim. Go back and read it again. I stated that some areas of vaccination are deserving of questions, and I provided one example of a vaccination where "forced" vaccines should be questioned. I further stated that all of my numbers could be found on CDC's web site, not some random stuff that has been disqualified. Read the CDCs information, and make sure to check dates for their publications and follow links they provide to "up to date" information.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  63. Mi child is not poor and filthy! by Ateocinico · · Score: 1

    Maybe those upper middle class parents associate vaccination with third world countries, and they're dark skinned and/or poor and filthy children sitting naked in dirt. Anti vaxxers children are superior to those halve humans. Watch this: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/previe...
    http://www.theatlantic.com/hea...
    http://www.latimes.com/busines...

  64. This won't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The antivaxers don't read scientific papers, the antivaxers don't read papers, the antivaxers don't read. They don't trust science. I used to play D&D. I was in a dungeon and the DM had set things up fairly well. A large troll came in. I didn't believe it (I thought it was a spell). I said so. The DM said "but its there" I said "I think its a spell". He calculated a die roll for me to continue in this way "get a 20 sided die, and roll a 17 or higher to disbelieve". I did and got an 18. I didn't die right away, but the others were fighting a +20 troll with magic while I merrily wandered down the hall. The point being that if someone doesn't want to believe something, they won't. Einstein was asked about elderly physicists not believing some of his theories of Relativity and refusing to believe. He said some of them would have to die for the Physics world to come to a concensus. And that's what happened. With anti-vaxers, they will have to get the disease and get really sick and not see dozens of doctors and nurses who have been vaccinated not get sick, and they still won't believe. I've seen people refuse 'scientific cancer therapy'. They wanted their traditional cultural medicines. The doctors said that there is a 90+% chance of recovery with chemotherapy. They refused and went to court. They won. Little girl died 6 months later. You can refuse to believe in science if you want, but the pesky thing about science is that even after you stop believing in it, its still there.

  65. You wiill ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://vaers.hhs.gov/data/inde...

    So all of the adverse vaccine reactions reported on this official government website (hundreds of thousands) must all be a coincidence, right?

    I'm certainly not a "scientist", but I was always taught that mercurty (primary adjuvant used in vaccinations for decades) was highly toxic and can cause brain damage. Anyone care to refute that?

  66. Re:My friend's son got autism after taking 2nd MMR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's unfortunate that you got modded down because there's potentially a lot to learn from cases like your friend's son. Maybe the causation goes the other way: autism causes adverse reactions to vaccines - either the vaccines themselves or the emotional stress of being vaccinated. But, either way, by dismissing such cases as "normal", we're missing out on important opportunities for biomedical discoveries.

  67. Re:Agreed but there is a point by ignavus · · Score: 1

    Chicken Pox for adults is known as Shingles which is far nastier than Chicken Pox.

    No, chicken pox for adults is known as chicken pox. In my 30s, my eldest toddler got chicken pox, then a week or two later my youngest toddler got chicken pox. Then a week or two later I got chicken pox. I had never had it as a kid, so I got it as an adult. It was standard chicken pox, and I was off work for 2.5 weeks.

    My wife got shingles when she was pregnant with our first child. She had had chicken pox as a child, so she was the only one to miss out when our household had its chicken pox epidemic.

    So chicken pox for adults is chicken pox - these are adults who never had chicken pox before. Shingles is for adults who had chicken pox as a child.

    --
    I am anarch of all I survey.
  68. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hepatitis B is certainly reasonable for persons living in areas where the virus is endemic (South Asia in particular) and is reasonable for persons who plan on being drug addicts or health care workers.

    I work in a global company and I had the following conversation at the healt care facility provided by the company:
    -Hi, I received the Hepatitis A vaccination before my last trip and since I could not get the combine A&B then, I would like to have the B vaccination now.
    -Well, Hepatitis B is only a risk if you want to use drugs with shared needles or have unprotected sex with new people. Or plan to have a blood transfusion in a third world country. I don't think you need it.
    -I travel a lot with a taxi in China...
    -Here you are, please reveal your left arm.

    (I was later wondering if I should be more worried when entering a taxi in China)

  69. Next at 11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Grass Grows.

  70. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by SalafranceUnderhill · · Score: 1

    > Whenever a young life is saved, that is one person who would have been culled from the pack that now grows up and likely will procreate. Nobody can deny that.

    You do realise that proximity and exposure is the biggest factor in determining who develops antigens to any given disease?

    ie, chance?

    You're a proud member of that breed of social darwinist which personifies the saying 'A turkey voting for Christmas'.

    Congratulations.

  71. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it has nothing to do with the inmune system, they literally dont know why the actual fuck it comes back, they dont have a fucking clue

    i had not have the flu or a cold in 5 years straight yet i had the shingles (herpes zoster) a couple years ago and im outside the age window, and i also had a small herpes related lession in an eye for a week or so last year, no other illness, low inmune system my ASS

    i had chickenpox as a child and was vaccinated like everybody else, still got it, yay

    they dont know half of what they pretend to know, and thats the reality of it, most of them are just pushers, thats why they used to sell a cancer related medicine to treat severe acne, like they did with aids in the beggining, they go with whatever floats the boat and a healthy dose of propaganda, thats why when you hear the news and they are talking about a revolutionary new treatment half the time it feels like an infomercial, because half of the time it probably is

    dont get me wrong, i only use modern medicine, but systematically beleiving all the shit they say is fucking retarded, because systematically beleiving all the shit anybody says is stupid

  72. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because 25 years ago we wouldn't call them autistic, we'd simply call them retarded and be done with it.

  73. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

    If you're talking about Accutane, it cured me after 20 years of severe cystic acne.

    Cured. No more drugs, no more blood on my shirts, could go swimming and even get my first massage.

    Medical science is pretty clear about what they dont know. You always have to read carefully.

  74. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by arth1 · · Score: 1

    You do realise that proximity and exposure is the biggest factor in determining who develops antigens to any given disease?

    ie, chance?

    Um, yes? But the diseases we vaccinate against aren't 100% lethal or 100% sterilizing.

    It's not chance that determines whether someone who does catch the disease will survive as a reproductive individual. It's the overall strength of the immune system and fitness of the individual.
    As long as some catch and survive a disease, evolution selects for the genes those individuals have versus those that die, become sterile or never catch the disease. Take away the risk of catching the disease, and those genes no longer have an advantage. With vaccination, those with weaker immune systems have an increased chance of surviving until reproduction, and as a result, the next generation will, on average, have weaker immune systems than if the culling had taken place.

    If your father would have died from measles as a child had he caught it, due to him having a weak immune system, and he survived because he or those around him got vaccinated, chances are higher for you to have a weak immune system than the child of someone from an area without vaccinations. And if you have a weaker immune system, the risk of allergies is higher.
    Of course, your father might have had a strong immune system and laughed off measles. But the reason we do vaccinate is that not everybody does. There will be lives saved, or we wouldn't do it. Even if just some survive that otherwise wouldn't have, this will have an impact on the next generation.

    We choose to save lives now, and accept the genetic costs of the weakest not being culled from the herd. This isn't something that is disputed. It's a moral choice we make, but we don't get to escape paying the price - at least not until we reliably can make genetic repairs.

  75. big lawsuit against parents of unvaxed kid by peter303 · · Score: 1

    If it can be shown the kid infected and damaged another kid. Maybe peole will respond to money.

  76. Re:Can we both play that game? by dave420 · · Score: 1

    Your whole "profit" argument is nonsense, as we can see in more developed countries where charging ludicrous amounts for vaccines doesn't happen. You sound like a conspiracy nut! Of course those companies have issues, but the research performed outside those companies, show their vaccines are safe and effective. It really would help you to learn about this instead of spouting someone else's opinion - with every post you make you make yourself sound more and more like APK. It's embarrassing, as I know you are intelligent.

  77. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by dave420 · · Score: 2

    But your numbers have repeatedly been shown to be inaccurate, or describing something different to what you think... Again, really - why should anyone discuss this with someone who gets so easily confused and who is frequently mistaken or flat-out wrong?

  78. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Imazalil · · Score: 1

    Going through my vaccine history was literally the second thing my doctor did when visiting. First thing was asking if I was in good health right now. This was after moving between cities and visiting the doctor for the first time. Their computer system has all my suggested booster shots scheduled until the day I die.

  79. 1 to 5 years old by barryvoeten · · Score: 1

    Well that's that then. All of the autistic children that I know - but I'm no database, I'm a teacher - are over 12.

    Quite obvious trick to search in a group where they have not been labelled autistic yet.

  80. Who is full of shit? You are, that's who. by hhas · · Score: 1

    [s.petry] For example: The highest rate of mortality for Chicken Pox is 100 out of 300Million. This was what could possibly be attributed, which means that most of these people were already fatally ill with things like Leukemia when they contracted the Chicken Pox. The mortality rate of the vaccine according to the CDC is 1 in 30,000. (The actual wording on the CDC site is that 2 out of 15,000 will have extremely severe reactions to the vaccine, and 1 of those will be fatal.

    [hondo77] You are completely full of shit. From the CDC site [cdc.gov]: "Serious health problems after (Varicella (Chicken Pox) vaccination are extremely rare."

    [s.petry] Try actually searching the CDC site, and you can find some amazing information. Your page is quite different from this CDC page.

    OK, here for reference what that page says:

    Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine side-effects

    What are the risks from chickenpox vaccine?

    A vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. The risk of chickenpox vaccine causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small.

    Getting chickenpox vaccine is much safer than getting chickenpox disease. Most people who get chickenpox vaccine do not have any problems with it. Reactions are usually more likely after the first dose than after the second.

    Mild Problems

    • Soreness or swelling where the shot was given (about 1 out of 5 children and up to 1 out of 3 adolescents and adults)
    • Fever (1 person out of 10, or less)
    • Mild rash, up to a month after vaccination (1 person out of 25). It is possible for these people to infect other members of their household, but this is extremely rare.

    Note: The first dose of MMRV vaccine has been associated with rash and higher rates of fever than MMR and varicella vaccines given separately. Rash has been reported in about 1 person in 20 and fever in about 1 person in 5. Seizures caused by a fever are also reported more often after MMRV. These usually occur 5-12 days after the first dose.

    Moderate Problems

    • Seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever (very rare).

    Severe Problems

    • Pneumonia (very rare)

    Other serious problems, including severe brain reactions and low blood count, have been reported after chickenpox vaccination. These happen so rarely experts cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. If they are, it is extremely rare.

    ...

    [s.petry] Sure, I'll retract the 1 in 30,000

    How... magnanimous of you. Why not just a simple, honest admission that you were completely and utterly wrong, then leave it at that before you make an even bigger fool of yourself? Oh wait, too late:

    [s.petry] Funny that attempt to call me a shill yet completely ignore the disclaimer on these pages. How did you miss the fact that the date of your information is from 2008, and provided by Merck. You do know that there are numerous manufacturers of different types of varicella vaccine don't you? And you only cover one.. shame on you.

    The page I linked above has this:

    (This information taken from MMRV VIS date

  81. Non-antivaxxer who's son shut down after the MMR by gary.mcmullen · · Score: 1

    Before I start, I am not an antivaxxer but I do believe them to be one of many immune system stressors that help trigger an auto-immune disorder called NIDS (Neuro-Immune Dysfunction Syndromes) that makes kids "act" autistic. In other words, autism would happen with or without the vaccines but in my son's case the vaccine was the last thing to occur before the knock-out punch happened. This happens so often, it's why the vaccines get blamed despite whatever study results are posted. My son developed normally until 18 months and then shut down the evening of his MMR. He also had two additional vaccines that day along with it. This was years before anyone talked about autism vs vaccines. That night he behaved like he had the flu (but this was in August) and his personality was different which is normal when you feel like crap. We called the doctor and she said he probably had a mild reaction to it and it should pass otherwise come back in. The flu like symptoms went away but his bubbly personality was gone and he was now sensitive to sounds. His stats were normal so the doctor sent us to some specialists to try to help us figure out what was going on. To make a long story short, it took 5 long years to get an autism diagnosis. A similar situation occurred to an old classmate of mine with his step-son. At the time we were convinced it was the vaccines because it was the last thing that changed before he "turned off". We hit the internet and found a doctor in Tarzana, CA (Dr. Michael Goldberg) that spoke to Congress about the rising rates of autism. He explained that traditional autism is a neurological disorder so it is unlikely the cause of the increase that is seen. It makes more sense for it to be viral and there is a type of herpes that lives in the brain in most of the population (HHV6 and HHV7). The thought is the immune system goes sideways and the virus that normally coexists starts to affect the temporal lobe where it lives and then comedy ensues. My son's HHV6 levels were 300% higher than normal levels. Dr. Goldberg prescribed Kutapressin (the old school anti-herpes medicine) and his autistic symptoms decreased along with the levels. Unfortunately, the immune system has to win the battle on it's own and auto-immune disorders don't always give up easily so my son is now improved to moderate on the spectrum. A couple of my son's classmates and my coworkers daughter have completely snapped out of autism which should be impossible if it's a neurological disorder but makes sense if it's viral and the immune system was able to find a way to co-exist with the virus again. Anyway, I wrote this because when families see their kids turn off just after the MMR shot it's hard to wrap your brain around why science is saying the two aren't even loosely related. To add insult to injury, you have people on the outside of your Hell mocking you because you say you saw what you saw. If that's you, hopefully you can now see how what you saw and what science is saying can both be true.

  82. vaccinations good/bad != antivaxers good/bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would vaccinate my own child but agree with parts of the antivaxer platform.

    And it is a platform, because people have become so polarized and dismissive. Here's what I see on the platform:
      1. the scientific method today is perverted by corporate influence, bad peer review, and broken statistics
      2. scientists are biased toward themselves when studying their past behaviour
      3. doctors give themselves a free pass to manipulate their patients with falsehood to increase "compliance": they tell each other one story and the public another

    With respect to #2, thimerosal was removed in 1992 from all child vaccines (but not from the adult flu vaccine). I don't expect science will ever honestly study whether doctors caused an autism epidemic by dosing all those children with mercury or not. This study, cutoff 2001, doesn't answer that question. It's better than a study with earlier cutoff would have been for answering the question, "should I vaccinate my child?" but most of the discussion here is about the other question, that it doesn't answer, "did doctors cause this epidemic?"

  83. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's not being a shill, that's outright lying.

  84. why the debate? by chronoglass · · Score: 1

    The job of academia is to inform people, the job of (at least an american) citizen is to make their own choices and live with the consequences.

    IF your consequence is that your child isn't allowed into some private schools.. well then, that's your choice. BUT public schools should not have the right to require a parent to "be a parent in whatever way the government currently sees fit" it's BS.

    I really don't understand why this whole issue is suddenly EVERYWHERE in the press.. OMFG some people make bad decisions despite research, news at 11! Think of the children!.. the ones that were vaccinated and not at risk, or the ones who's parents made a choice on? Cause, i get the basic feeling that there isn't even an actual problem here..

    the only REAL possible problem is the vaccinations themselves. since they aren't 100% effective, if you are in public you get a slightly more weighted dice roll on wether or not the thing even worked.. you get that by traveling to another country too.. soo should we be banning that?

    it's enough to make a person go all tin-foil hat and wonder why the novaccies are being attacked in the media so urgently..

  85. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Chicken Pox in adults is called Chicken Pox. Shingles, while caused by the same virus is not the same thing. Shingles is painful and uncomfortable but does not tend to be life threatening. Chicken Pox in adults though can be very life threatening.

    I like the fact that I cannot get Shingles (never exposed to varicella), I do not like the fact that I can still get chicken pox and if i do it could be very bad. Unfortunately for me I cannot take the varicella vaccine.

  86. correction by hhas · · Score: 1

    risks of death from chickenpox (1 in 3,000,000)

    Oops, apologies, a thoroughly derpy error on my part: the death rate from chickenpox is actually a teensy smidgin higher than 1 in 3 million, ranging from 1 in 100,000 in children [1], to 1 in 4000 in adults [2]. From CDC's Pinkbook:

    The risk of complications from varicella varies with age. Complications are infrequent among healthy children. They occur much more frequently in persons older than 15 years of age and infants younger than 1 year of age. For instance, among children 1–14 years of age, the fatality rate of varicella is approximately 1 per 100,000 cases, among persons 15–19 years, it is 2.7 per 100,000 cases, and among adults 30–49 years of age, 25.2 per 100,000 cases. Adults account for only 5% of reported cases of varicella but approximately 35% of mortality.

    My guess [3] is that s.petry took the US's 100 deaths per year and divided it by 300M population to arrive at 1 per 3M death rate, but of course that calculation would only work if the entire population was catching chickenpox every year, whereas only only few percent of the population actually do: those catching it for the first time, those who failed to develop an immune response after catching it previously, and those whose immune systems are compromised for other reasons.

    --

    [1] or "acceptable losses" in antivax-speak

    [2] a.k.a. "they deserved it anyway for not getting sick sooner"

    [3] Actually, I know this is what s.petry did, 'cos I made the exact same mistake doing a quick back-of-the-envelope conversion from CDC's description of chickenpox killing 100 people per year prior to varicella vaccine introduction. But it had that "off smell" to it, so I went back and researched further till I found the right numbers, posted them publicly apologizing for any confusion caused, and moved on. Self-correction, it's the nuts.

  87. vaccines can kill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure it's a small number, but some people who receive the vaccine will die because of a bad reaction to the vaccine. The government passed legislation that protects the makers of vaccines against lawsuits. What does the study have to say about the people who are killed as a result of receiving the vaccine?

  88. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Secondly, its not clear that the prevelance of autism is increasing

    I know a lot of diagnosed ASD adults and kids. Once you know enough people, it's pretty easy to identify non-diagnosed folks who exhibit multiple
    hallmark behaviours. There's no question in my mind that it's on the rise.

  89. Re:Agreed but there is a point by lars_stefan_axelsson · · Score: 1

    Varicella immunization, as you point out, wanes after a decade or so (as does tetanus, diphtheria and especially pertussis) and chicken pox is a largely benign illness (although complications do occur). The pediatric community has decided that a nuanced approach to this won't work so it's "everybody gets everything all of the time

    That's an interesting difference between countries. In Sweden we don't have much of an anti-vaccer movement, though the mishandling of the bird flu didn't help, so let's say "not yet" at least. However, while we vaccinate children on schedule for most of the above, Varicella is not on the general schedule yet.

    The schedule here is, wait and see if you get it, and if you haven't had it by your late teens, then we'll talk immunization. So we're still holding chicken pox play parties, to expose our children at as young an age as is practical (it usually is worse the older you are).

    The profession says themselves that given the severity of the disease, you could perhaps make an argument for vaccination on economic grounds; having people stay home from work (on the governments dime) to care for sick children has a non-neglible cost, but from a pure medical perspective they don't feel it's justified, and hence it stays of the recommended list. For now at least.

    --
    Stefan Axelsson
  90. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are the shill.you would buy any slick crap by big pharma who have the most money and most power.people like you make sick and show what is the wrong with world today.

    It's vested interest people like you who make the world a shit place to live in.

    Andrew Wakefield has been totally vindicated if you bothered to your research instead of corporate lies.

    Why don't you take some round up glysohate as your mother Monsanto says it is safe?

  91. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop peddling corporate bullshit.We know you get kick backs form your mother big pharma.

  92. Just like the 2004 study by the CDC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will this end just like the 2004 study by the CDC? With one of the 3 scientists involved getting whistleblower protection and stating that the numbers were fudged?

    http://www.morganverkamp.com/august-27-2014-press-release-statement-of-william-w-thompson-ph-d-regarding-the-2004-article-examining-the-possibility-of-a-relationship-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism/

    A 340% increase in autism among black, males, who got the MMR vaccine before the age of 3.

    Now if I was head of the CDC and my scientists were telling me this the first thing I'd do is change the protocol to give them the vaccine AFTER the age of 3 and see if the problem went away. I would also get serious followup studies going to check the kids vitamin D & A levels because both are crucial for vaccines to work and be safer.

    Of course I'd never get a job at MERC for 3-4 times my salary at the CDC like the then head of the CDC did. Her response? Withdraw 41% of the kids from the study because they didn't have birth certificates so their race couldn't be determined. Ignore the fact that their race was clearly stated on the school forms.

    Sort of like winning the lotto this legal bribery scam isn't it. Just get yourself into the right position and then don't do the right thing. Voila you are rich!

  93. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    Yes, Shingles is something you get when you are older if you had Chicken Pox earlier in life. It still makes no sense to get the Chicken Pox vaccine. The vaccine has possibility of side effects, however small they may be. If you get vaccinated you have to get new ones every 10 years for life. If you get the Chicken Pox, you are immune for life from getting them again. As an older person you can prevent getting Shingles by getting. . . wait for it. . . the Chicken Pox vaccine. So even though you had Chicken Pox as a kid and now have the threat of Chicken Pox you can prevent it by getting shots. So you either get shots your whole life, or you just get them when you get older. If you never got the Pox you can then get the vaccine when older. If you did have the Pox, you can get the vaccine to prevent Shingles. So what's the point of getting the shot when young then if you need to constantly keep getting more of them. Oh yeah, I know, they get more money out of you that way!

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  94. Re:Agreed but there is a point by rhazz · · Score: 1

    If you go to a walk-in clinic and just get whatever doctor is on staff, they probably will not ask you about your detailed history unless it pertains to whatever issue you are visiting them for. A walk-in doctor is their to help with your immediate problems, it's your family doctor that should be concerned with your long term health. And yes many doctors push the flu vaccine, it brings the clinic the money AND it's good for you and the community (it IS possible for both of those to be true). If you have a family doctor who you are registered with, and they have never asked for your immunization history, that strikes me as being rather lazy. However, and this may be shocking, you can be the one to bring it up.

  95. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, but there are quite a few diseases out there that will kill the strongest, yet the already sickly might survive. Very frequently a "strong" or "weak" immune system has little to do with whether you catch a disease.

  96. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by clovis · · Score: 1

    For example: The highest rate of mortality for Chicken Pox is 100 out of 300Million. This was what could possibly be attributed, which means that most of these people were already fatally ill with things like Leukemia when they contracted the Chicken Pox. The mortality rate of the vaccine according to the CDC is 1 in 30,000. (The actual wording on the CDC site is that 2 out of 15,000 will have extremely severe reactions to the vaccine, and 1 of those will be fatal.

    Your claim of a 1 in 30,000 mortality rate is false.
    Here's the CDC safety data for vaccines:
    http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/va...

    Here's chickenpox vaccine:
    http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/va...

  97. Inevitable by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    According to the CDC, about 1.5% of children in the US have autism. Of those, about 90% have had normal vaccinations. If you're one of the unlucky parents, you're going to be looking for a cause. Of course, it MUST be the vaccinations, what else could it be??? There is probably no way to convince these parents otherwise.

  98. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

    That's not what vaccines are for. They're herd protection, and are to decrease the number of possible hosts in a population. If everyone who CAN get vaccinated does, then that protects those few who can't get vaccinated for whatever reason (too young/old, react to the vaccine, forgot to get the booster, etc.).

    That's the point of getting vaccinated. What possible side effects are there that are greater than contracting chicken pox without the vaccine?

    It's kind of like wearing a seatbelt while driving a car. Same counter-arguments get used too. It doesn't change the scientific reality that belt enforcement saves more lives than not having belt enforcement.

  99. Scientific ignorance of the masses by mattwarden · · Score: 1

    a study finding no link does not confirm the absence of a link.

  100. Re: Agreed but there is a point by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    Execpt wearing a seatbelt does not increase risk to me only to give possible benifit to someone else. It is possible that you might start shooting random people some day. Does that make it ok to kill you now to possibly save people in the future. If I would rather get the flu than a shot, I have that right. I don't believe the vaccines work as well as we are told. We keep learning about the companies that make these and how the effectiveness is way lower than they have been telling us, or it turns out to cause cancer. I will get the ones I determine to be justified while you can get vaccine for everything including sky falling-itis.

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  101. Re: Agreed but there is a point by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

    Wearing a seatbelt does in fact increase risk to you of serious harm in certain kinds of accidents. It also protects those around you, as you are held into the driving position in your vehicle, so are less likely to lose/be unable to regain control of your car.

    Vaccines protect the herd -- this is not "random people" but the people you come into contact with each day.

    The next time a vaccine starts shooting random people, let me know.

    You do indeed have the right to get the flu instead of a shot. However, by exercising that right, you are putting people in harms' way that would otherwise be more protected. That's a decision you get to make. Other people have made the decision to get vaccinated, which indirectly benefits you, as long as enough people get vaccinated.

    We keep learning about the companies that make these and how the effectiveness is way lower than they have been telling us, or it turns out to cause cancer.

    Who is we? I haven't been hearing these things. There are some non-approved vaccines that have side effects that are considered worth the risk in the middle of a pandemic -- are those the ones you're referring to? They have nothing to do with chicken pox, nor with the flu virus, nor MMR (the vaccines discussed in this thread so far).

    Flu vaccines are a crap shoot -- I never used to get them, but now I do, as it costs me nothing. The reason they're a crap shoot isn't because they're not effective though; it's because they only target one strain. Vaccine companies look at what's brewing in China at the beginning of their flu season, and then inoculate against that in North America so by the time flu season hits NA, enough people are inoculated to the most likely strain, protecting the herd. This year, they guessed wrong, and a different strain made the hit list. Result? A greater number of child and elderly deaths due to influenza.

    Everyone was still inoculated against the strain that went nowhere; nobody was inoculated against the strain that became pandemic. Was the vaccine effective? Not at minimizing flu exposure, but it WAS effective at minimizing exposure to the target strain -- in China, before it ever spread anywhere else.

    The main reason vaccines don't work as well as we are led to expect is that what many people hear regarding vaccines is "get this shot to be protected from viral family X" when, as I originally stated, that's not what vaccination is about at all.

    Vaccines are pretty simple; reviewing them is pretty simple, and delivering them without side effects is getting simpler as time goes by. Stay away from "live strain" vaccines, and at worst you're injecting junk into your muscle tissue that your lymph nodes have to collect and dispose of (or in a minority of cases, your body marshals its T cells and histamine chains, and the NEXT time you're exposed, you go into shock).

  102. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by david_thornley · · Score: 2

    I am not officially on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. My son is, for behavior very much like mine.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  103. Re:Non-antivaxxer who's son shut down after the MM by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    The last thing that hit?

    Quite a few years ago, my wife ate some Dairy Queen Dilly Bars, and then became seriously ill. She was blaming Dairy Queen, as the illness seemed to just follow from eating the stuff. Then I drank some A&W Cream Soda, and it seemed to upset my stomach, and develop into the same sort of illness. It would appear that we got sick, and associated what we ate or drank as the disease was starting to show up with the disease.

    I still can't drink A&W Cream Soda, though (not that that's any loss).

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  104. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    Wrong to an extreme. Shingles is a resurgence of the virus which causes chicken pox. Once you get chicken pox, the virus is dormant in your body, your immune system continues to fight it. When your immune system is weakened, you get shingles.

    Umm...so how is it wrong to say that Shingles and Chicken Pox are the same disease given that they are caused by the same virus? All you stated I already knew. Indeed Shingles often emerges when the immune system is compromised.

    However if you had the vaccine and so never caught Chicken Pox. Then your immunity wears off (which does not happen with Chicken Pox since you have the virus inside you) then when you then get exposed to the virus again you will have no immunity and so end up with Shingles EVEN IF your immune system is fully operational.

  105. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    You speak as though getting chickenpox will prevent shingles which it won't

    Correct - once you have the virus you never lose it and shingles can emerge if something compromises your immune system. However if you have the vaccine and then the immunity wears off and you are exposed to the virus again then you can get shingles even without a compromised immune system.

  106. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    So, go see a doctor at least four times during my adult life?

    No, go an see a doctor fours times at 20 year intervals AND remember to ask for this shot because unless you go to the same doctor throughout your entire life it is unlikely that they will.

  107. Re:Agreed but there is a point by aitikin · · Score: 2

    Contrary to your argument, those who receive the chickenpox vaccine seem to have proven to have a lower risk of shingles (scroll to "Risk Factors"). Stop posting lies and deceit.

    --
    "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
  108. ...and another reason by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    It also turns out there is another reason this vaccine is bad. Older adults in contact with children who have chicken pox get a boost to their immune response to the vaccine which helps prevents shingles. The vaccine prevents this from happening: see this.

  109. Re:Agreed but there is a point by CauseBy · · Score: 1

    How much does a doctor earn for giving a flu shot? The cost is $20 cash (at the local drug store) so their profit must be less than $20, probably less than $5. I've never understood that criticism (which you didn't make, but I've heard a lot). Vaccination is the opposite of the profit motive; doctors would make WAY more treating sick people than giving vaccines.

  110. Re:Agreed but there is a point by CauseBy · · Score: 1

    I haven't had a consistent doctor but I've been reminded by almost every doctor to get re-ups on my vaccines. Like changing oil on a car, if it's a 20-year vaccine then it's not too hard to guess when people need them. If a 25-year-old walks into the office, it's probably time. If a 45-year-old walks in, it's probably time again. This is how it's seemed to work for me.

  111. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by arth1 · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, but there are quite a few diseases out there that will kill the strongest, yet the already sickly might survive.

    Measles, mumps and rubella do not fit that description. They have a very low mortality rate, and it's the weakest that tend to succumb.

    Smallpox has a higher mortality rate, but also here, it's those with weak immune systems that tend to die.

    This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective - diseases that don't kill its vectors are going to outcompete those that do.

    I can't think of any disease which kills healthier specimens more than the weak. The avian flu scare a few years ago was initially reported as hitting the healthiest the hardest - that turned out to be misinterpreted results; it hit the most mobile part of the population more often due to a shorter than usual incubation window, not harder, which led to more young adults dying. And many elderly were already immune due to an outbreak in the 60s.

    So I'm sorry, what are those "quite a few diseases out there" that you refer to?

    Very frequently a "strong" or "weak" immune system has little to do with whether you catch a disease.

    Very frequently, it has a lot to do with whether you survive it if you catch it.
    And that is what determines whether your genes have an advantage or not. It only takes a small statistical advantage for successful genes to be selected for.

  112. MMR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I feel like many of you would change your mind if you had a perfectly healthy child, and then literally no less than a month after vaccination you watch them regress into themselves, constantly screaming, rolling their eyes into the back of their heads, becoming un responsive, loosing their personality.

    Moreso, you would be sceptical that the MMR causes 'no damage' if you yourself received the vaccine at age 19, then no less than a month later were thrown into the depths of an auto immune condition. This is what happened to me, it seems to close to be coincidence. For the past 6 years my life has been hell. Up until I was 19 I was perfectly healthy, at the gym 5 days a week, happy, social, great career prospects. Now I am confined to my bed 95% of the time, and have an immune system that is at war with itself

    Many people will say 'its just coincidence' but through this journey I have met literally thousands of people who have had similar experiences - too many for it to be coincidence. Even if the MMR vaccine is declared to damage health, it wont cure me, but it might stop other people having to go through the suffering I go through. Then again many people do not react. It could be the MMR saves them from getting measles and dying... who knows. What I know, is i am almost certain the MMR put me in this hell. Make up your own mind. I am very scientifically minded, but I also am aware that not everything on paper is gospel, despite countless scientific studies. Only in the past decade are we discovering the dangers and micro biome shattering effects of antibiotics after things like penicillin which were dubbed the holly grail of medicines. Humans make mistakes. Take everything with a pinch of salt. People cling on to their opinions because they don't want to loose their sense of identity. All i know is i'm in a living hell, heck... perhaps it wasn't the vaccine... but it seems much too coincidental that i would get a jab and suddenly start deteriorating.

  113. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

    Shingles is not adult-chicken pox. Shingles is a remergence of the virus. Adults can get chickenpox. It's just that most have had chicken pox as children, or they're immunized.

    You can only get shingles if you had chicken pox. It's far less likely to get shingles if you've been immunized to chicken pox.

    This means that if you have a 'pox party' rather than immunizing, you're not only giving your child chicken pox, but they have a far greater likelihood of developing shingles later in life.

    http://www.patient.co.uk/health/chickenpox-in-adults-and-teenagers

    My girlfriend endured shingles, she was in agony for over a week and the symptoms are extremely different than chicken pox. She had chicken pox as a child.

  114. Re: Agreed but there is a point by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    Wearing a seatbelt does in fact increase risk to you of serious harm in certain kinds of accidents. It also protects those around you, as you are held into the driving position in your vehicle, so are less likely to lose/be unable to regain control of your car.

    Yep, and making people wear a helmet causes more and worse head injuries than if you don't require them. Sometimes things are not the way you would think they should be.

    Vaccines protect the herd -- this is not "random people" but the people you come into contact with each day.

    Why should I care about "the herd"? I am not a cow or sheep. I will do what is right for me and my family. They used to tell you to use all the anti-bacterial solutions in you soap and sanitizers also. Only we now find out it is causing much worse bacteria that we can't kill off. Some studies show that being too clean makes your immune system overreact to things causing allergies and autoimmune diseases. I put vaccines into that category. Getting the disease does something different from getting the vaccine as is evident from the different length of immunity given. I'm not saying people should be getting the polio disease. But go on and ask all your older relatives how many people they knew as a kid that died of Measles and I bet you don't find any. Everyone got it, but they make it sound so scary today in the news and it's not.

    You do indeed have the right to get the flu instead of a shot.

    Only until people like you get the law changed to make it mandatory that everyone get every vaccine that the government mandates and get the flu vaccine added to the list. California is getting rid of the religious exception for vaccines for school children. I guess we just have to get fake medical records made up then. The situation does not really get better, does it. Plus, when you see these outbreaks in the news, they always fail to tell you how big a percentage of the outbreak is among vaccinated people. The Measles outbreak at Disney Land was mostly among unvaccinated people, but there were five vaccinated people that got it anyway. In New York in 2011 an outbreak was traced to a vaccinated 22 year old that gave it to 4 other fully vaccinated people. Did you know that getting the vaccine can cause you to shed fully contagious Measles virus and you can then make other people sick. You probably didn't know that either, did you.

    We keep learning about the companies that make these and how the effectiveness is way lower than they have been telling us, or it turns out to cause cancer.

    Who is we? I haven't been hearing these things.

    They have nothing to do with chicken pox, nor with the flu virus, nor MMR

    It seem to me that you people that want to be part of the herd of Sheeple always claim that us "anti-vaxxers" don't know how to think clearly and use scientific methodology and instead just listen to the wackos out there. I find the opposite is true. The people questioning the vaccines we are told to get are always a part of the highly educated demographic and some of the more intelligent people in the population. second paragraph in conclusion In this case you state you haven't heard about something that was discovered back in 2010. I can't help it if you choose to believe the lies spread by vaccine makers and the media, perhaps you need to read up more on the subject before you tell people they should do something when you are flat out wrong. It is in fact the MMR that lack the effectiveness. In particular it is the Mumps part of the MMR. Merk states it is 95% effective. If they don't meet that rate they loose their licence to be the only maker of the Mumps vaccine. So they just lie about it. When challenged and taken to court, their response is that the safety is fine, they don't even try to answer the actual accusation, rather they redirect.

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  115. Re:Agreed but there is a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The chicken pox vaccine has not existed long enough to do such a study. If one has been done it should be outright rejected.

  116. Re:Non-antivaxxer who's son shut down after the MM by gary.mcmullen · · Score: 1

    I understand what you're saying; correlation does not imply causation. To explain my intended point using your analogy, it would be like my entire neighborhood showed up to Dairy Queen and all ate the Dilly Bars and got a similar illness. We all agreed it must have been the food because how else could so many people have the same experience from the same activity? After going to the doctor, we found out we all had a preexisting condition exacerbated by milk and the Kardashian family. Even if we hadn't eaten the Dilly Bars, Kim Kardashian was guaranteed to make us sick given her pictures are freaking everywhere. All I was trying to say was given the multitude of people experiencing the problem on the exact same day as the shots, it's very easy to fall prey to suspecting the vaccines when no other explanation can be easily found. If science can adequately answer the timing paradox, it would help the parents that experienced it to change their views.

  117. Cut the rhetoric, look at the evidence by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 0

    Contrary to your argument, those who receive the chickenpox vaccine seem to have proven to have a lower risk of shingles [cdc.gov] (scroll to "Risk Factors").

    ...and yet the vaccine prevents those people who already had Chicken Pox as a child being re-exposed to it the virus later in life which has been shown to prevent shingles in adults.

    Now I could accuse you of spreading lies and deceit but really that would be behaving exactly like the anti-vaxxers: adopting a preconceived notion, ignoring all scientific evidence to the contrary and getting mad at anyone who disagrees. So how about we adopt a more scientific stance which is that for the specific case of the Chicken Pox vaccine there is no clear evidence that it is a net benefit to individuals or society over just catching the disease as a child and recovering? The risk of the vaccine is not measurably less than the risk of the disease and there are clear questions about the net affect of susceptibility of adults to shingles: it might be good or it might be bad but we really don't have a clue either way.

    My position is that if there is no clear evidence for any benefit from a medical procedure then you don't do it. If that changes with more studies and they can show that there is a clear benefit then great I'd be 100% behind it. In the meantime I would argue that it is unethical to coerce people into undergoing a medical procedure for which there is no evidence of a net benefit to them or to society. Worse, because in this one specific case, the evidence is lacking you give the anti-vaxxers ammunition which they can use to shoot at the cases where the vaccine is incredibly beneficial and absolutely should be taken by everyone.

  118. Re: Agreed but there is a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For whatever it's worth, if I had mod points today I'd give you all of them.