Here’s another article linked to sally’s article above:
Since logic and visual imagery don’t work, that leaves us with force.
Maybe that’s one advantage of more people kids on public health benefits
I agree with vaccinations being available and required when considered individually.
However, I still am not clear on why three injections of HBV, the last at six months of age, for a disease that most infants will not be exposed to, yet they ( infants) have a higher risk of exposure to measles/ mumps & rubella, but vaccination for those diseases does not begin until they are 1yr to 1 &1/2 yrs old, and requires a booster at 4 yrs to 6 yrs old.
If infants do not have a strong enough immune system to develop antibodies of their own until four- nine months of age, why not begin the schedule then?
I also am not clear on why the fund to pay out compensation to victims who have been harmed by vaccines is in the billions of dollars, and why the govt controls the payouts while the pharmacutical companies are shielded from lawsuits from individuals? is it because the FDA is not requiring manufacturers to develop better vaccines?
It will be interesting to watch the fraud cases against Merck now in the courts
Is this going to be some new kind of “purity” test for presidential candidates?
Ummm…Rand Paul is an MD?! And he is using “evidence” he has “heard of” to give people profoundly incorrect and dangerous advice?
Three years ago when Michele Bachmann said this people (rightfully) called her crazy. I am no great fan of Christie or Paul, but I thought both were reasonably intelligent men until this.
Obviously he is not. It is incredibly irresponsible for politicians to express their uneducated opinions about topics that carry the potential for widespread panic and poor decision making. What an idiot.
Regarding why the MMR is given after 12 months and not earlier:
Why is the first MMR vaccination given at the age of 15 months?
The MMR vaccine is given at the age of 15 months to ensure that the effect is not inhibited by the congenital antibodies. The first 6-12 months following birth, the infant is protected by antibodies to measles, mumps and rubella which are transmitted from the mother during pregnancy. If the MMR vaccine is given too early in life, these antibodies may render the vaccine ineffective.
In cases of outbreak the vaccine may be given as young as 9 months but must be followed up by two boosters (instead of the typical one booster at age 4-6.
I read an article that said you could pretty much take a map, pinpoint where there were Whole Foods markets and that’s where the anti-vaxxers live. People pay enormous amounts for organic foods when I don’t think there’s any scientific evidence that eating organic will protect you from cancer, for example. Most people just simply don’t want to believe that most cancers are simple really, really bad luck. They want to think that there’s a way of controlling their lives so they don’t get it. They drink bottled water because they don’t trust city tap water. They remind me of the people back in the 50’s who thought fluoridating water to prevent cavities was some sort of Soviet plot to kill America’s children. Nuts. And yes, if Paul is an anti-vaxxer then he lacks the common sense to be president.
^^^I don’t know that I can buy that theory (about Whole Foods). The anti-vaxxers I know are actually folks who live in the country - several of them.
I think though that you have to be careful when you start grouping antivaxxers with people who think about the ingredients in their foods and water. I’m sure there is a correlation between those groups but eating organic fruit doesn’t effect other people’s children in an adverse way. Cancer is often bad luck but there is no disputing that lifestyle plays a part in it and other life altering or threatening conditions. It’s not really bad science like the vaccine controversy…
I have to admit to being one of those people who, after two cancer diagnoses, eat only organic. The difference is that if I’m wrong all I’ve risked is my wallet, not my health or safety or that of the general public.
I don’t buy the Whole Foods theory either. But it’s a strange anomaly that conservative/libertarian politicians are spouting the same anti-vax drivel that ultraliberal wealthy people who would never vote for them are.
Michelle Bachman’s popularity quickly plummeted after she claimed that the HPV vaccine had made a girl “retarded”. Let’s hope for the same for Rand Paul.
IMO, there are several branches of anti-vax nuts. One branch is like Tatin’s example. Another is the country people who want to be off the grid as much as possible and don’t trust “guv’ment”. Yet another is the people who believe that any form of medicine is the devil’s work.
^^^ Yes. Yes, yes, yes! I know some of them all - and they frustrate the heck out of me!
“They remind me of the people back in the 50’s who thought fluoridating water to prevent cavities was some sort of Soviet plot to kill America’s children. Nuts.”
The mayor of Albany from the mid 40’s until the mid 80’s, believed that. Ir’s why our water is still not fluoridated. There have been fights about this for years here. My kid had to take the fluoride pills.
In California, the anti-vaxxers live in Marin County, Santa Monica, the wealthier enclaves of Orange County, etc.
The charts have been in the Times.
Whole Foods is based in Texas. You can’t pick such an easy generalization and expect it to hold water.
Tonight on the local news they profiled a pediatrician’s office in Marin that is telling people that if they choose to not vaccinate their kids they need to find another doctor. The doctor interviewed stated that these kids were putting the infants and kids with immune issues at risk and that they need to protect those kids first.
I wouldn’t tie it to a grocery store exactly but the stereotype works. They are not Rand Paul people as a rule.
The Whole Foods people are libertarian, profit driven people. Their prime directive is not the health of the community.
Re the HepB schedule: it’s not that babies’ immune systems aren’t strong enough to make antibodies or withstand vaccines. Our immune systems are exposed to antigens from the moment we leave the womb. It’s because studies showed that the antibody production/anamnestic response was spurred at those times (2,4,6 months) and then boosted most effectively (according to in vitro and in vivo studies) after x number of months, which is then fitted into the schedule at a convenient time.