Hopefully you've either never heard or this or at least heard about it from either sciencebasedmedicine.org or scienceblogs.com/insolence/. See what's going on is there's this Anti-Vaccine/Anti-Science, trying to be polite here, person by the name of Joe Mercola (to whom I will not link for fear of speading his lies) who has dubbed this week the title above in an attempt to bombard the Internet with his misinformation and falsehoods regarding the dangers and efficacy of vaccines. The doctors at SBM and Respectful Insolence decided to mirror that... Guy's idea by trying to spread as much truth about vaccines this week. While I am aware that like three people actually read this blog, I'm still going to throw my hat in the pro-science/pro-evidence side of this little online tussle.
Vaccines work. Want proof? Find me a case of Smallpox. Go ahead and look! I'll wait... Note how the only Smallpox on the planet is frozen in researcher's labs under high security? That there is proof that vaccines work. There's other evidence, but it doesn't get better than Smallpox, a horrifying disease that was completely eradicated by vaccines. If you insist on more proof, SMB and RI both have dozens if not hundreds of posts on vaccine efficacy that you can check out.
Don't vaccines cause autism or something? No, they don't, but if you've heard this there's a good chance it's because of Mercola or Jenny McCarthy by way of Oprah. Not only is this false, but it's the most pernicious attack on science, relying on emotion fueled rants from parents who believe their children were thusly affected by vaccination. Science and studies don't make these parents feel better, and all the evidence in the world won't change the mind of a parent who "knows" what really happened. That Mercola and his ilk use these poor people's tragedies to fuel their weapons is deplorable. Vaccines do not cause autism. Parents beliefs aside, the evidence clearly shows this. Again, SBM and RI have all the information you need.
I implore you to read the evidence about vaccines. Not just from the shrieking people, but also the calm doctors and medical professionals who really are helping people and aren't the "big pharma" schills they are being made out to be.
As a final point, a personal anecdote. My father is having some health issues and can't afford a bout with the flu because he might die from it. Because of this, for the first time in my life, I am getting a flu vaccination. I'm doing this because it might save my father's life. Does this seem reasonable to you? I sure hope so.
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6 comments:
Seems reasonable to me...
kisses steve for this one. If you need any data on this, you know where I am.
Oh hey, remember when I had smallpox and threatened Shaun with Polio? It's only funny because protective immunity works.
I'm guessing you heard/read about the whooping cough outbreak out west? CA I think..? I've never believed any of the anti-vaccine hype. I was happy to vaccinate my kids, the thought of them even possibly getting autism (no matter how unfounded the thought may be) is still better than them getting small pox and polio.
What I really want to punch someone over is people saying the HPV vaccine is a cancer vaccine. It's scare tactic bullshit.
I hope your Dad is feeling better soon.
So Kate, the HPV vaccine is a cancer vaccine in that Human Papilloma Virus causes cervical cancer. This is a rare case of a cancer having a specific cause.
That being said, I would agree that it's a lousy term in that implies that the vaccine protects against 'cancer' generally. It is instead only highly effective in preventing infection by HPV which is a major cause of cervical cancer.
HPV can lead to cervical cancer, but in very rare cases. Certainly not enough cases to have the female population believe that if they don't get the vax, they will get cervical cancer. Or that if they get HPV, which pretty much every female on the planet will get at some point, that they are going to get cancer too.
Stats from the CDC: "Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. Another 6 million people become newly infected each year." "It is estimated that about 10,800 new cases of HPV-associated cervical cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year."
That comes out to a 0.18% chance per year that you'll get HPV and have it lead to cervical cancer.
Also it's been shown that having multiples decreases a woman's chance of having uterine and cervical cancers, but I don't recommend that everyone run out and have a set of twins to prevent cancer.
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