Diphtheria Returns To Spain For Lack of Vaccination 254
TuringTest writes: A six-year-old child was admitted to a hospital in Barcelona and diagnosed with diphtheria, which hasn't occurred in Spain since 1986 and was largely unheard of in western Europe. The boy had not been vaccinated despite the vaccine being available in free vaccination programs. Spanish general health secretary called anti-vaccination campaigns "irresponsible" and said: "The right to vaccination is for children, not for the parents to decide." The child is in critical condition, though he's now being treated with a serum expressly brought from Russia through an emergency procedure.
You wouldn't pay to see a Rob Schneider movie... (Score:5, Funny)
... so why are you listening to medical advice from him?
A Public Service Announcement from Get Your Brats Immunized
Parents should be liable (Score:5, Interesting)
I strongly think that parents who elect to not vaccinate their children (absent a documented medical condition preventing safe vaccination) should be liable for child endangerment [wikipedia.org]. This is reckless behavior that is reasonably likely to result in bodily harm to another human being. This is a public safety issue with a clear and benign and effective solution. Those who opt out should be liable for the consequences of their actions.
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That was the topic of a Law & Order SVU a couple weeks ago.
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I strongly think that parents who elect to not vaccinate their children (absent a documented medical condition preventing safe vaccination) should be liable for child endangerment [wikipedia.org]. This is reckless behavior that is reasonably likely to result in bodily harm to another human being. This is a public safety issue with a clear and benign and effective solution. Those who opt out should be liable for the consequences of their actions.
Good luck going against religious beliefs that curtail vaccinations. That "endangerment" has one hell of an establishment in the community.
Re:Parents should be liable (Score:5, Insightful)
Good luck going against religious beliefs that curtail vaccinations. That "endangerment" has one hell of an establishment in the community.
Several states in the US have done so successfully. No reason why more couldn't. You do have a fair point though. It's amazing how much nonsense we put up with in the name of "respecting religious rights" even when they are clearly crazy and/or self destructive.
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I strongly think that parents who elect to not vaccinate their children (absent a documented medical condition preventing safe vaccination) should be liable for child endangerment [wikipedia.org]. This is reckless behavior that is reasonably likely to result in bodily harm to another human being. This is a public safety issue with a clear and benign and effective solution. Those who opt out should be liable for the consequences of their actions.
Good luck going against religious beliefs that curtail vaccinations. That "endangerment" has one hell of an establishment in the community.
There is already precedence in court (US, Canada, and abroad) overruling the objections of Jehova's Witness parents with regard to blood transfusions. A quick Altavista will reveal many cases, as recently as this year (in favor of the child, not the parents). It's not inconceivable that these ruling could extend to cover vaccines as well, if someone (or agency) were to actually bring a lawsuit against the irresponsible parent.
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Am I protected if my religious beliefs say I need to sacrifice a virgin? Certainly not..
Well, I suppose that depends on how the virgin was "sacrificed", now wouldn't it...
...so why should I be able to gamble with my child's life based on religious beliefs?
Because your religion says it's not a gamble. At all. It's God's will. The question for the courts is when will they start defining the death of a child as criminal. The risk of non-vaccination is not merely endangerment to the public, but can also be viewed as murder in the case of a child who doesn't know better.
Furthermore, they are MY religious beliefs, not my child's. Who is to say my child is going to give a crap about my religion when he grows up.
Uh, your religion does, by ensuring your child will go to [insert eternal damnation definition here] if they
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No, don't touch the touch nor the child. By that I mean it was the choice of the parent(s) to not get their children vaccinated, it should not be up to the state (i.e. taxpayers) to foot the bill to take care of the kid.
Let nature take its course since that is what the parents wanted. If the kid survives they got lucky. If the kid survives but is disabled, the parents take care of everything. If they die that's one less we have to worry about and the parents will have to live with their decision for the
It doesn't just endanger the idiots (Score:2)
Let nature take its course since that is what the parents wanted.
Stupid argument because the consequences go beyond the idiots who avoid getting vaccinated. There are people cannot get vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons. There are people who are too young for a particular vaccine. No vaccine is 100% effective either and sometimes the protection disappears over time. By not getting vaccinated people are not only endangering their own family but the families of others.
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it should not be up to the state (i.e. taxpayers) to foot the bill to take care of the kid.
Man, do I hate these abstract arguments with a passion.
I'll simplify your argument for you: "I'm perfectly fine with innocent children suffering and dying."
You're not punishing parents, you're punishing kids.
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For someone who hates abstract arguments, you didn't waste any time abstracting the issue to "children suffering and dying."
And come on.. be honest.. aren't you perfectly fine with innocent children suffering and dying? I think you must be, given that you're wasting your time here on slashdot instead of saving innocent children.
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No, I'm not punishing anyone. The parents are the ones doing the punishing.
Unless of course you're suggesting it's up to everyone to watch out for everyone else in which case I get to yank cigarettes out of people's mouths since I'm footing their medical bills, get to post their faces at bars and liquor stores so the alcoholics can't but more and tie drug users down until they detox since, again, I'm the one footing their insurance and medical bills.
Or are you saying people should be forced to pay for the
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I strongly think that parents who elect to not vaccinate their children (absent a documented medical condition preventing safe vaccination) should be liable for child endangerment [wikipedia.org]. This is reckless behavior that is reasonably likely to result in bodily harm to another human being. This is a public safety issue with a clear and benign and effective solution. Those who opt out should be liable for the consequences of their actions.
Would you support also eliminating the immunity from liability that has been granted to pharmaceutical companies for vaccines? Would you include mandates for things like Gardasil even for boys (which Merck & Co have been promoting)? Who do you hold responsible when a mandated vaccine proves to be defective (like happened with RotaShield [cdc.gov]), or has manufacturing issues that causes problems, which happens with vaccines more than any other drug [gbiresearch.com]). If a parent gets a vaccine for their child that causes a pr
Re:Parents should be liable (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll take it a step further and state that the blonde bimbo should be tried on charges of attempted genocide.
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Not everyone can be vaccinated (allergies, compromised immune systems), and vaccines are not 100% effective.
Yes it is a public health and safety issue (Score:5, Insightful)
how is it a public safety issue, the ones who do get vaccinated aren't at risk... so they only endanger themselves and likeminded folks
Wrong. Not everyone can get vaccinated because some people legitimate medical conditions making it inadvisable. Sometimes they are too young. Sometimes they have allergy or other medical conditions that prevent their vaccination. These people depend on herd immunity [wikipedia.org] to avoid the illness. If people start avoiding vaccines for non-medical reasons then these people who cannot be vaccinated are endangered by those who recklessly decide to avoid vaccination for no good reason.
Furthermore diseases have a substantial and measurable cost to society. We have finite resources both financial and time to devote to treating diseases and if we waste them on something that could be solved with a cheap and safe vaccine then we necessarily cannot spend those medical and financial resources on something else. Should we spend a few dollars for a vaccine or thousands on a treatment. THAT is a public health issue.
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Re:Parents should be liable (Score:5, Informative)
Diphtheria has a very serious "side effect", and I suspect the percentage of patients who develop it is larger than the percentage that react to the vaccine. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] says:
"Diphtheria is fatal in between 5% and 10% of cases. In children under five years and adults over 40 years, the fatality rate may be as much as 20%.[17] In 2013 it resulted in 3,300 deaths down from 8,000 deaths in 1990.[6]"
Dr. Cox says: (Score:2)
Dr. Cox would call the side effect a major case of "deadness." [youtube.com]
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Add in Measles, mumps and rubella.
All nasty and they do maim and kill. Think chicken pox and how well that spreads. Now try measles and how that spreads (far faster)
I fear that many do not know the harm that these diseases caused. .
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The biggest problem with vaccines was their unbridled success. Because vaccines eliminated those terrible diseases and all that remains are distant memories from a dying generation; you have functional retards that publish crap like this: http://www.amazon.com/Melanies... [amazon.com]
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Is that for real? Sometimes I wish I could sensor this kind of trash. Well I do not really A question of what do you chose. Do you let people decide for themselves? . Not an easy question. when it comes to vaccinations.
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Unless you are ready to pull the trigger of the gun of force.
Fine, don't wanna vaccinate your kids, they shouldn't be allowed in public schools. This is a nice, fair solution. If people want to make their kids a vector for eradicated diseases (hey it's their "right") they should make other arrangements for education.
Re:Parents should be liable (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally, I'd expect to see signs on every office, library, store, business, government building, restaurant, laundromat, bowling alley, etc etc etc that say "NO SHIRT NO SHOES NO LEPERS"
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I have seen, and heard of other cases, where doctors' offices put up a sign in the waiting area that non-vaccinated children should be kept in a different place (another room or the hall, depending on what's available), so as not to endanger other children who are obviously at the doctor because they are already immuno-compromized (i.e. sick).
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Unless you are ready to pull the trigger of the gun of force.
Fine, don't wanna vaccinate your kids, they shouldn't be allowed in public schools. This is a nice, fair solution. If people want to make their kids a vector for eradicated diseases (hey it's their "right") they should make other arrangements for education.
Sure, sounds fair.
Although I'm struggling to understand how a public school ban will do fuck-all to truly protect the masses.
In other words, Disneyland isn't a public school...
Re:Parents should be liable (Score:5, Insightful)
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Somehow I doubt this. Homeschooling is a growing trend.
If you don't trust what the government says about vaccines; do you think you would trust the education from the government?
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If your argument is that it won't fix the problem (Disneyland) but it might persuade then you're not trying to be fair you're trying to be punitive towards people that don't do what you want. When their are so many other better arguments you'll have to forgive me if I completely ignore your suggestion if that's the argument you want to make for vaccines.
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Vaccines aren't 100% effective, otherwise you're right that it wouldn't be an issue.
There are also people who can't use vaccines due to allergies, and the idea is they are protected via "herd immunity" -- basically if enough people are vaccinated, then disease can't get a foothold and spreading it is much harder.
I'm not sure how I feel about that case, because to me if you're allowing people to go to public school without vaccination because they are allergic, then you're admitting it's not a safety issue t
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I suspect the safe percentage is much higher than the percentage of allergic people, and considerably lower than the percentage who are stupid.
Re:Parents should be liable (Score:4, Insightful)
If we didn't have the anti-vaxxers or the people who think vaccines are a plot for some kind of non-microscopic genocide, we'd probably have a few less diseases in the world to worry about or continue vaccinating against. After all, how many people get a small pox vaccination these days?
Re: Parents should be liable (Score:5, Informative)
As the parent of a child with autism, the "vaccines cause autism" crowd triply annoys me.
1. They take funding that should go to diagnosis/treatment and send it to Yet Another Study that will yet again show no link. (Or worse: Advocating "treatments" that are a baby step shy of torture.)
2. They fear monger autism such that you'd think your child would be better off dead than autistic. I know plenty of parents of kids on the spectrum. Some with pretty severe issues. None would rather their kids were dead.
3. They make it hard to support autism societies because you need to first weed out the ones dedicated to "proving" an autism-vaccine link.
The sooner these people accept that autism and vaccines have no link, the better for everyone.
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Speaking as a guy who is on the autism spectrum (diagnosis of Aspergers - from a registered psychologist, I might add, not just a Doctor Google diagnosis - a couple of years ago): that crowd is, in essence, saying that people like me should not exist. That they would rather see hundreds of thousands dead, and millions crippled for life, than see one person like me exist in the world.
I know that autistic children can be a burden. They demand more care, more attention, more specialist intervention early in li
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If you don't like that then you should bite the bullet and get your kids the shot.
I prefer:
If you don't like that then you should bite the bullet and get your kids shot.
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Since you're obviously an antivaxxer moron, I'll spell it out.
In almost every other case, the bad effects of bad parenting stop with the kids.
But in this case, their precious little walking sacks of infection can toddle off outside of home septic home and spread their diseases far and wide.
And if you don't think that's a problem that needs solving, you don't think at all.
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The GP is a perfect example of his own signature.
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In almost every other case, the bad effects of bad parenting stop with the kids.
Are you kidding???
1. Badly parented kids can become bad parents themselves, affecting the next generation
2. Your badly parented kids may be in my kid's classroom, seeking negative attention
3. Speaking specifically of health concerns that GP brought up, your badly parented kid who is exposed to second hand smoke makes my health insurance premiums go up
There's very little you do that doesn't affect other people.
But in this case, their precious little walking sacks of infection can toddle off outside of home septic home and spread their diseases far and wide.
And if you don't think that's a problem that needs solving, you don't think at all.
Hmm so how do you propose solving the problem of kids who can't get vaccinated because they are all
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*yawn*
Oh my, do you need a nap? That might explain your nonsensical reply to me.
All of which is why I said almost every other case.
Yes, you did, and that's wrong. That's why I replied to you. Virtually every case has effects that go beyond the kids.
none of your three Ever-So-Significant points are the direct causes of otherwise perfectly preventable deaths.
Oh I get it now. You're an idiot! You should have just said so.
You said "the bad effects of bad parenting stop with the kids." No mention of preventable death. The person you replied to was talking about demonstrable harm to children... again, not preventable death, just harm.
Now why are you pretending that you meant t
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Only once you've ruled out consumption of tomatoes and aubergine [nejm.org].
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Reckless endangerment is not victimless. The victims are those you recklessly endanger.
If we criminalized not having vaccines -- and I don't go that far (yet) -- the victim would be "everybody else" since you're a walking biological weapon.
This is similar to how attempted murder is still a crime even if you miss with your sniper rifle. I absolutely do not think it is always reasonable to wait until actual harm is done.
The problem we have here is that the rights of the child are being represented by two pr
How is the virus even still around? (Score:2)
The only way I even know the name is because George Bailey saved the pharmacist from poisoning a kid with it in "It's a Wonderful Life." And the last recorded case of it in Europe was decades ago. So did it go hide out for a while in Africa or something?
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Maybe the virus has access to a NotTardis.
Nearly impossible to get everyone vaccinated (Score:2)
So did it go hide out for a while in Africa or something?
Completely eradicating a pathogen from the globe is absurdly difficult. So far as I know we've only actually managed to do it once for a pathogen in the wild (smallpox) and even then we still have small stores of it in bio-weapons labs. You have to basically vaccinate the entire human population which is a logistical nightmare to accomplish. It's not too hard in wealthier countries with robust healthcare systems but in poor remote areas with low levels of education it can be extremely difficult to get to
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I'm skeptical it can even be done at all. So it's said that smallpox is gone. But.. it's just too big of a big world.
Besides the know laboratories there has to be somewhere that some viri have somehow managed to be preserved. Maybe a vial that has long since lost it's label, now stuck in an attic or basement waiting to be sold with a pile of antiques. Maybe it's in a body that has managed to be burried in just the perfect environment to preserve it. Maybe it's in a stain on some old antique, totally not o
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Most will die quickly without a host to reproduce in. I do know that.
But... a small number will not. I certainly don't believe that every place a smallpox victim has been or every gravesite where one was buried still contains viri. But there were a lot of hosts before it was 'exterminated'. I do think it's probably out there somewhere.
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http://www.newscientist.com/ar... [newscientist.com]
Smallpox virus is reasonably stable when dried. There probably are graves where it still exists. We're pretty careful when opening graves, particularly old ones, though.
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no other natural reservoirs. this thing has been killing us for what, 12 millenia. They're pretty specific to the human animal.
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Smallpox is still maintained in US and Russian laboratories. It was declared eradicated in 1980. The WHO wanted the last of the laboratory samples destroyed, but it has so far been delayed [nytimes.com]. Interesting history in that link.
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And who knows how many more forgotten samples [cdc.gov] are out there?
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That's pretty dumb. Comparing a virus to macroscopic animals.
Re: How is the virus even still around? (Score:3)
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I don't think it survives in the environment, and it doesn't seem to have any animal hosts. There are places in the world where it's endemic and somewhat common, and it can live in the pharynx of vaccinated or asymptomatic humans. So it probably comes into a country from an immigrant or traveler with some frequency, it just doesn't spread because of vaccination.
Then there's this kid.
Re: How is the virus even still around? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think it survives in the environment, and it doesn't seem to have any animal hosts. There are places in the world where it's endemic and somewhat common, and it can live in the pharynx of vaccinated or asymptomatic humans. So it probably comes into a country from an immigrant or traveler with some frequency, it just doesn't spread because of vaccination.
Then there's this kid.
From microbewiki (emphasis added): "C. diphtheriae is a Gram-positive, aerobic, nonmotile, toxin-producing, rod-shaped bacteria belonging to the order Actinomycetales, which are typically found in soil, but also have pathogenic members such as streptomyces and mycobacteria."
Diphtheria vaccine doesn't prevent infection, (Score:5, Informative)
The Diphtheria vaccine doesn't prevent infection, it only immunizes against the effects of the toxin the bacteria produce.
Thus, it's still around and kicking, it just doesn't kill people anymore as most people can fight off the infection on their own without the toxin wreaking havoc on their body. And most people won't even notice anything other than "flu-like symptoms" as all the effects of Diptheria are caused by the toxin, rather than the presence of the bacterial infection.
The poor kid probably just got coughed on, or touched something and then cross-contaminated something he put in his mouth.
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That's not how vaccines work.
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seems to be in Asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... [wikipedia.org]
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There are a quite a few pathogens that can exist outside of the human body and hence will never be exterminated. Some are deadly, like tetanus. For others, like the case at hand, the vaccination does not prevent the infection, but its grave effects.
Not being vaccinated is asking for serious consequences, frequently including death.
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That said, mass va
It's endemic in some populations; also: a bacteria (Score:3)
The only way I even know the name is because George Bailey saved the pharmacist from poisoning a kid with it in "It's a Wonderful Life." And the last recorded case of it in Europe was decades ago. So did it go hide out for a while in Africa or something?
It's endemic in some populations; also: a bacteria, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, not a virus, FWIW.
Yes. There are large reservoirs of the bacteria in many North African countries, as well as Pakistan. What's only noted in a couple of places is that while the kid was "a resident of Olot (Girona)", the kids origin was as an adoption of an immigrant child.
To see the reservoirs, here is the World Health Organization data on reported cases by country through 2014:
http://apps.who.int/immunizati... [who.int]
If you care, y
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So did it go hide out for a while in Africa or something?
Many diseases that were rare or unknown in developed European nations twenty years ago have been making a comeback lately. The reasons are obvious, but no-one is allowed to talk about them in SJW^H^H^Hpolite society.
"With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!"
That joke about the West Nile virus posted on twitter by the Greek triple jumper athlete Voula Papachristou few days before the 2012 Olympics was the reason to be expelled from the games...
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The reasons are obvious, but no-one is allowed to talk about them in SJW^H^H^Hpolite society.
Something to do with gaming journalism?
Anti Vaxxers unite! (Score:2)
Pass around those lollipops so your kids all get those diseases
Avoid all modern medicine.
And let Darwin take care of it all.
p.s. Take Jenny McCarthy with you.
I hope this movment dies out. (Score:2)
Curious if they vaccinate there next child. Its easy to sit above everyone when you have never seen the issue, because its been almost entirely eradicated, but at the turn of the 20th century people were ready to stand in line for the mere chance that they could prevent permanent disability or death from a number of childhood disease.
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In the U.S. the anti-vaxxers are largely those who go around calling people Deniers because they don't drive a Prius.
GIven that much edepends on the framing ot the questions, it appears that between liberals, moderates, and conservatives, it's all about the same.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.... [discovermagazine.com]
As in so many aspects of life, it depends on your own political views. If you are conservative - the liberals are the bogeyman. If you are liberal, it's conservative bugaboos.
People like myself, in the middle, recognize that one's politics, left or right, does not prevent them from being a flaming asshole, which any anti-va
Re:Deniers on the Left? (Score:5, Informative)
No. Vaccination rates are highest in the Bible belt, while they are lowest on the west coast. I think it has less to do with political affiliation and more to do with who reads idiot granola mommy and food blogs.
You might want to check that data again... (Score:5, Informative)
Bible Belt states have some of the highest AND the lowest vaccination rates.
http://www.motherjones.com/pol... [motherjones.com]
And as usual, it is probably a combination of factors which influence the anti-vaccination attitudes.
Though one factor does seem to be common - clustering.
I.e. It's social. Where there's one anti-vaxxer, there's more anti-vaxxer.
Overall, national vaccination rates seem high: The median rate of coverage for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, administered to most before entry into kindergarten, was 94.7 percent for the 2013-14 school year. But, as Schuchat points out, the rate is lower in communities where unvaccinated families tend to cluster. In some areas, low rates might have more to do with access to clinics than with beliefs about vaccinations.
"The national estimates hide what's going on state to state. The state estimates hide what's going on community to community. And within communities there may be pockets," Schuchat said. "It's one thing if you have a year where a number of people are not vaccinating, but year after year in terms of the kids that are exempting, you do start to accumulate."
Re:You might want to check that data again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Where there's one anti-vaxxer, there's more anti-vaxxer.
Just like infectious diseases.
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Where there's one anti-vaxxer, there's more anti-vaxxer.
Just like infectious diseases.
And rats.
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Them damn commies? Really? (Score:2)
MotherJones used to have journalists, but they are now nothing but a pro-progressive propaganda rag, fond of running hit pieces on anyone to the right of Mao Zedong.
You do realize you just replied with a "god damn commies" ad hominem to an article citing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, on the topic of... well... diseases and vaccination?
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No. Vaccination rates are highest in the Bible belt, while they are lowest on the west coast.
[citation needed]
We keep hearing this. Please substantiate your assertion.
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/sigh... and as I do in every single thread this comes up in: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/previe... [cdc.gov]
Further data: 7 of the 8 most vaccinated states went to Romney in '12.
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and by county? i think you have lots of dems in the cities driving up rates bro.
Cognitive dissonance.
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No. Vaccination rates are highest in the Bible belt, while they are lowest on the west coast. I think it has less to do with political affiliation and more to do with who reads idiot granola mommy and food blogs.
This. In Australia the only significant anti-vaxxer crowd are the nutbar organic and/or anti-government conspiracy crowds. Strangely enough these two groups tend to be so similar it's pointless to even try to separate them a venn diagram.
Re:Deniers on the Left? (Score:5, Interesting)
I didn't know there WAS a Bible Belt in Europe, especially the Netherlands. Here in the US, non-abortion-related medicine is usually without any religious controversy, save for the Christian Scientists (who are, depending on what angle you view them from, neither Christian nor scientific), a relatively small, fringe sect that believes that all medical care represents faithlessness.
Here in the deep-south, there's a modern-day parable that goes around Christian circles that demonstrates the general philosophy in this regard: A man goes over a cliff overlooking treacherous waters and manages to grab hold of a thin root half-way down. In desperation he cries out to God, "Save me! Send me deliverence!" Having thus prayed, he resolves to place his trust in God. A man walks by the cliff and lowers a rope. "Grab the rope!" he says. The hanging man replies, "I cannot! I have placed my trust in the Lord, and I will await His deliverance." Next a boat drives by under the cliff. The man in the boat says, "Jump! I'll catch you!" The hanging man replies as he did to the first. Next, a rescue helicopter hovers nearby, and a man lowers a ladder. "Grab the ladder!" he says. Again the hanging man replies as he did to the previous two. Slowly, the hanging man loses his grip, falls into the swirling waters, and drowns. He arrives at heaven, meets God, and cries, "Why did you never answer my prayer?" To which God replies, "What are you talking about? I sent you a man with a rope, a boat, a helicopter..."
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Shit reading comprehension, perhaps?
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Which diseases does a bday party protect one from?
Depends on the age - that 18th birthday party has been know to cause internal parasites that take the better part of a year to get over.
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I didn't know there WAS a Bible Belt in Europe, especially the Netherlands.
FWIW, there's even a "church-tax" (fees collected by the government on behalf of a church) in many European countries including the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) and Austria, Italy and Germany. Rules vary, but participation of the population in state affiliated churches is north of 67% in some countries, although there has been a recent trend of people leaving churches in European countries if it allows them to avoid paying these "taxes".
Of course paying the tax and actual ac
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oh, we got those too, that's different. We've got the ones on the right that have always done it for religious reasons.
what he's talking about is the newer movement that says vaccines are bad for you and cause disease.
the religious exemption has never been a big issue, not enough to make a dent in herd immunity. It's the dirty hippies that are causing the big problems in the US.
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Just because Jenny's child has a serious condition doesn't mean she has the right to give thousands of other children a different serious condition.
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And he is right.
Re:Odd comment (Score:4, Interesting)
We had the choice to get vaccines growing up (2nd grade, 6 y/o). ..., and that pretty much scared people more than the needles (which I would say didn't really bother half the class).
They explained it to us, and most took it because of the dire warnings and videos of people with diseases.
They showed us filmstrips from the 40s and 50s about measels, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever,
For the few who didn't want to, they were just goaded into it by peer pressure of all their friends and classmates (either by comforting or mocking, depending on gender). Kids are cruel, and also don't want to be excluded for chickening out / being afraid (and then teased). It's pretty effective.
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can you give me an example of a home school kid infecting anyone because of lack of vaccines?
Measles at Disneyland.
Patient 0 for the Disneyland outbreak had just returned from the Philippines, which is a measles hot zone, and did not self-quarantine for a couple of weeks before mixing with the public, and so did not know he was sick.
Here are the WHO statistics on the number of cases of various diseases reported for various countries, through 2014:
http://apps.who.int/immunizati... [who.int]
The Philippines has the highest incidence of measles of any country (but China, with a vastly larger population, is not that far behind).
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None of which is going to happen with vaccinations. The Autism legend was caused by scientific fraud, perpetrated to promote some new vaccine. The one perpetrating it has by now been stripped of his PhD for gross scientific misconduct. But stupid people will believe whatever fits their messed-up world-view, no matter what evidence is presented to them. One of the reasons why stupid people have a higher risk of killing themselves or dependents by entirely avoidable problems.
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Sure, it's very difficult to find side effect rates. In fact, nobody even keeps track of them! Oh, wait, no it's not:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/va... [cdc.gov]
The risk from vaccine side effects is very carefully measured against the risk of not being vaccinated and the vaccines are approved only if the benefit very much outweighs the risk.
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Interpret it differently: The right of a child to be vaccinated takes precedent over the right of the parents to decide whether to vaccinate.
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The modern era began approximately in the 16th century.
So vaccines are modern technology that enough people regard are evil magic voodoo to impact the effectiveness of herd immunity in our "modern" communities.