SMH @ these anti-vaccine ppl

Swiffness!
Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
"I've Got Whooping Cough. Thanks a Lot, Jenny McCarthy."

At this writing, I have been coughing for 72 days. Not on and off coughing, but continuously, every day and every night, for two and a half months. And not just coughing, but whooping: doubled over, body clenched, sucking violently for air, my face reddening and my eyes watering. Sometimes, I cough so hard, I ? . Other times, I ? myself. Both of these symptoms have become blessedly less frequent, and I have yet to break a rib coughing—also a common side effect. Nor do I still have the fatigue that felled me, often, at my desk and made me sleep for 16 hours a night on the weekends. Now I rarely choke on things like water, though it turns out laughing, which I do a lot of, is an easy trigger for a violent, paralyzing cough that doctors refer to not as a cough, but a paroxysm.

There’s a reason that we associate the Whooping Cough with the Dickensian: It is. The illness has, since the introduction of a pertussis vaccine in 1940, has been conquered in the developed world. For two or three generations, we’ve come to think of it as an ailment suffered in sub-Saharan Africa or in Brontë novels. And for two or three generations, it was.

Until, that is, the anti-vaccination movement really got going in the last few years. Led by discredited doctors and, incredibly, a former Playmate, the movement has frightened new parents with claptrap about autism, Alzheimer’s, aluminum, and formaldehyde. The movement that was once a fringe freak show has become a menace, with foot soldiers whose main weapon is their self-righteousness. For them, vaccinating their children is merely a consumer choice, like joining an organic food co-op or sending their kids to a Montessori school or drinking coconut water.

The problem is that it is not an individual choice; it is a choice that acutely affects the rest of us. Vaccinations work by creating something called herd immunity: When most of a population is immunized against a disease, it protects even those in it who are not vaccinated, either because they are pregnant or babies or old or sick. For herd immunity to work, 95 percent of the population needs to be immunized. But the anti-vaccinators have done a good job undermining it. In 2010, for example, only 91 percent of California kindergarteners were up to date on their shots. Unsurprisingly, California had a massive pertussis outbreak.

It would be an understatement to say that pertussis and other formerly conquered childhood diseases like measles and mumps are making a resurgence. Pertussis, specifically, has come roaring back. From 2011 to 2012, reported pertussis incidences rose more than threefold in 21 states. (And that’s just reported cases. Since we’re not primed to be on the look-out for it, many people may simply not realize they have it.) In 2012, the CDC said that the number of pertussis cases was higher than at any point in 50 years. That year, Washington state declared an epidemic; this year, Texas did, too. Washington, D.C. has also seen a dramatic increase. This fall, Cincinnati reported a 283 percent increase in pertussis. It’s even gotten to the point that pertussis has become a minor celebrity cause: NASCAR hero Jeff Gordon and Sarah Michelle Gellar are now encouraging people to get vaccinated.

How responsible are these non-vaccinating parents for my pertussis? Very. A study recently published in the journal Pediatrics indicated that outbreaks of these antediluvian diseases clustered where parents filed non-medical exemptions—that is, where parents decided not to vaccinate their kids because of their personal beliefs. The study found that areas with high concentrations of conscientious objectors were 2.5 times more likely to have an outbreak of pertussis. (To clarify: I was vaccinated against pertussis as a child, but the vaccine wears off by adulthood, which, until recently, was rarely a problem because the disease wasn't running rampant because of people not vaccinating their kids.)

So thanks a lot, anti-vaccine parents. You took an ethical stand against big pharma and the autism your baby was not going to get anyway, and, by doing so, killed some babies and gave me, an otherwise healthy 31-year-old woman, the whooping cough in the year 2013. I understand your wanting to raise your own children as you see fit, science be damned, but you're selfishly jeopardizing more than your own children. Carry your baby around in a sling, feed her organic banana mash while you drink your ethical coffee, fine, but what gives you denialists the right to put my health at risk—to cause me to catch a debilitating, humiliating, and frightening cough that, two months after I finished my last course of antibiotics (how’s that for supporting big pharma?), still makes me convulse several times a day like some kind of tragic nineteenth-century heroine?

If you have an answer, I’ll be here, whooping, while I wait.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115551/jenny-mccarthy-anti-vaccination-movement-blame-whooping-cough

SMH. At least you're not hurting anyone w/ some 9/11 or Sandy Hook "truth" video, but this anti-vaccine ignorance directly leads to kids dying from completely preventable diaseses. Get your ? kids vaccinated, ? .

Comments

  • Swiffness!
    Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
    TDaP stands for Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis. In the anti-vaccinating crowd, most people indicate that they skip this one due to the presence of “toxic chemicals,” most often specifically citing the presence of formaldehyde and aluminum. While it’s true that the vaccine does contain these ingredients, the amounts are miniscule, and their relationship to disease states is overblown. In short, they don’t pose a threat, even to an infant. You’ll find about 50 times more formaldehyde in a pear than you will in a TDaP vaccine.

    Okay, up next, MMR. The anti-vaccination crowd suggests that the MMR vaccine causes autism. I’m going to put this in bold text because it’s important that you read this. The MMR vaccine does not cause autism. Autism is a genetically-based developmental disorder. That’s why it runs in families. That’s why it’s more common in boys than girls. That’s why researchers have documented autism symptoms in infants before they even reach the age when the first MMR booster is given. That’s why you can safely vaccinate your damn kids, because autism is a genetically-based developmental disorder that cannot be caused by a vaccine. So, what about Dr. Wakefield’s work linking autism to the MMR vaccine? Yeah, it turns out he misrepresented or straight up falsified the data from all 12 patients in his study. And the studies that have since debunked that work? Included thousands of patients, and produced replicable results clearly demonstrating that there is no link between vaccines and autism. So, if you choose not to vaccinate your kid as a result of your fear of autism, you’re really only increasing the odds that your autistic child will come down with a nasty case of the measles. Good luck with that.

    These statistics and symptom lists are all from the CDC:

    Tetanus: Tetanus is a bacterial infection that you can get when a cut or puncture wound is exposed to dirt, feces, or spit (so, basically, any cut a kid gets). Symptoms include headaches, painful muscle cramping of the jaw, muscle spasms throughout the body, and seizures. The muscle cramps are intense enough to break the infected person’s bones and can make it impossible to breathe. 10-20% of patients will die, usually as a result of this breathing difficulty.

    Diphtheria: Diphtheria is horrifying. Someone coughs or sneezes, exposing you to the bacteria. You get a fever for a few days, then suddenly your body starts to produce a grayish green coating in the back of the nose and throat that is so thick that you lose your ability to breathe or swallow. 10% of patients die. The good news is that vaccination has been particularly effective for diphtheria, with fewer than 5 cases reported annually, as compared to the 100,000 cases and 15,000 deaths each year before vaccination was common.

    Pertussis: You have a cold – runny nose, maybe a mild fever for a couple of weeks. Then the coughing starts. The coughs come in fits, and it can be hard to breathe, and you might even throw up. The coughing fits last for two months, or sometimes even longer. Babies are particularly vulnerable to pertussis, with half of those infected ending up in the hospital, 1 in 8 ending up with pneumonia, and 1 in 200 dying. It’s no picnic for older kids or adults, either. Symptoms typically last 6-8 weeks, and can include coughing so intense that you lose bladder control (1 in 4), pass out (1 in 20) or break a rib (1 in 25).

    Mumps: Admittedly, the mumps are pretty mild. You get a fever and a headache, and your salivary glands swell up painfully on both sides of your jaw. Every once in a while, someone might get encephalitis. Slightly more commonly, male patients end up with tender, inflamed testicles.

    Measles: You feel a little run down with a sore throat and a cough for a few days. Then, suddenly, your temperature spikes, and you get a rash all over your body, spreading from the head down. One in 20 kids will end up with pneumonia. One in 1,000 will develop encephalitis. One in 1,000 will die.

    Rubella: Rubella is an interesting one. The disease is pretty mild – a low fever, a rash that lasts a few days. No big deal, right? Unless, of course, you catch it while you are pregnant. Among pregnant women who get rubella, as many as 85% will give birth to a child with birth defects. Congenital heart defects, mental retardation, and deafness are the most common.

    Let me put it plain: you are accepting the intuitions of celebrities over the data of research scientists, and it is costing children their lives and their happiness.

    Like Gavin Norton, who died of pertussis when he was barely 10 weeks old. He contracted the disease before he was eligible for his first TDaP vaccination.

    Like 7-year-old Alijah Williams, who cut his foot, and ended up with a tetanus infection so severe that he was put into a medically induced coma. He hadn’t been vaccinated because his parents believed what they read online about the risk of adverse reactions to vaccines.

    Like Dakota Colfer-Williams, who lost her dad at the tender age of 4. He died of measles earlier this year; fortunately, she survived because he had recently brought her in for vaccination.

    My youngest daughter, Isabelle, is still 7 months away from her first scheduled MMR vaccine.

    One of those confirmed cases of measles in the Seattle area is a kid known to have visited my town while contagious. That kid? Not vaccinated. And now, every time my baby gets a rash, I have to wonder whether she’s going to end up with encephalitis.

    Vaccinate your damn kids. Please.


    http://blog.mommeetmom.com/index.php/vaccinate-your-damn-kids/
  • BiblicalAtheist
    BiblicalAtheist Members Posts: 15,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Did she know adults are suppose to keep inoculating themselves from these diseases throughout their life time?
  • perspective@100
    perspective@100 Members Posts: 1,862 ✭✭✭✭
    Stop having kids... Please! They are full of diseases and spread them at will. Keep your children at home at all times. I hate hearing your kids in restaurants and movie theaters or of all places on a plane crying. Your child does not make you cool and I dont want to hear about what cartoon your child watches that you find annoying. No one cares that your child is the reason you continue to live. Its pathetic really.
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Stop having kids... Please! They are full of diseases and spread them at will. Keep your children at home at all times. I hate hearing your kids in restaurants and movie theaters or of all places on a plane crying. Your child does not make you cool and I dont want to hear about what cartoon your child watches that you find annoying. No one cares that your child is the reason you continue to live. Its pathetic really.

    I agree lol....the world is getting overpopulated, not enough resources to go around and with the dollar being worth less year by year, it's smart economics anyway
  • LUClEN
    LUClEN Members Posts: 20,559 ✭✭✭✭✭
    They're offering free flu shots at my school

    I don't trust the ? .
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    yeah, Jenny McCarthy has done a hell of a job... and, oh wait, her kid might not even have autism after all! thanks for all that ? for nothing!
    I agree lol....the world is getting overpopulated, not enough resources to go around and with the dollar being worth less year by year, it's smart economics anyway
    however, you DO need enough population to keep things moving forward, which is the issue some European countries/Japan are facing
  • twatgetta
    twatgetta Members Posts: 6,705 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Just like a ? to champion the white man's vaccines. smdh at you ? .
  • konceptjones
    konceptjones Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 13,139 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's not the vaccines that are a problem, it's the preservative and other ? they put in them.

    Alone, the vaccines do what they're supposed to. The reactions we have are caused by the "extras" like the preservative (thiomersol, which contains mercury and it's replacement) or extra ? that somehow manages to find its way into the vaccines

    http://www.who.int/biologicals/areas/vaccines/thiomersal/en/
    http://fdanews.com/newsletter/article?issueId=11889&articleId=109729

  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    twatgetta wrote: »
    Just like a ? to champion the white man's vaccines. smdh at you ? .
    the problem here is calling them the "white man's vaccines." they have science backing them. look, forget even that and look at the arguments AGAINST vaccines... which, by the way, are predominantly coming from crazy ? white people like Jenny McCarthy

    i mean, if it's a choice between "white science dude" and "white ? ," i'm siding with the science dude. even if he's white.
  • Swiffness!
    Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
    twatgetta wrote: »
    Just like a ? to champion the white man's vaccines. smdh at you ? .

    laff.giflaff.giflaff.gif

    white boy exposed himself here. I knew you'd let the mask slip eventually, cracka. For your next act, you should try calling Muhammed Ali a ? .........these other gullible negroes MIGHT keep falling for your lil' infiltration cover story (i bet you from "DA HOOD" hanh? ROFL), but I see right through you. ? .
    janklow wrote: »
    twatgetta wrote: »
    Just like a ? to champion the white man's vaccines. smdh at you ? .
    the problem here is calling them the "white man's vaccines." they have science backing them. look, forget even that and look at the arguments AGAINST vaccines... which, by the way, are predominantly coming from crazy ? white people like Jenny McCarthy

    i mean, if it's a choice between "white science dude" and "white ? ," i'm siding with the science dude. even if he's white.

    Don't bother, Jank. You're not arguing with a real person, just somebody's fictional persona.
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    Swiffness! wrote: »
    Don't bother, Jank. You're not arguing with a real person, just somebody's fictional persona.
    hey, what can you do