Stargazer said, “Being a sceptic is not like being a Christian. As we know, all you need to do in order to be a Christian is to say you are one. Nothing more.”

If you believe (as you all may) that Christianity is a farce, based on myth, lacking the ability to change a person on a fundamental level, then his/her statement is true.

However, if you look at what Christianity requires of believers, it is easily recognized that simply saying one is a Christian does not make it so. There are issues of moral choices, salvation, repentance, and how well one truthfully represents the Christian way of life. To assume that there are no rules or requirements attached to religion – any religion – at all, seems a bit odd.

So, in a worldview in which Christianity is considered legitimate, saying “all one has to do is say they are a Christian and they are one” is false. Saying “merely calling oneself a Christian does not make them one” is true.

But, of course, in alternate worldviews, worrying about such technicalities must be akin to wondering if a tree cares that a dog has just raised its leg.

What brochure did you receive? I’m looking at the VIS for DTaP from the CDC that is given to every family at our clinic every time they are given DTaP, to review prior to giving a the shot. I believe it is the most commonly distributed vaccine information in clinics. You should be able to find it at http://www.immunize.org/vis.

Section 3 describes, in plain language, reasons why a child should not get DTaP, including previous adverse reactions. Other reasons to not immunize that are not specifically listed in this statement are well recognized by doctors, such as certain immunodeficiencies (for live viruses anyway) or certain other medical conditions. I’m not sure why you believe that doctors are not aware of these.

I don’t think anyone here thinks that parents are bad when they have a medically legitimate reason not to vaccinate. That’s one reason why widespread vaccination is so important – to protect those who legitimately cannot be vaccinated. But sometimes parents do not get vaccinated based on beliefs that are not based in science, and put their children at risk of dangerous disease. I’m glad you recognize that autism is one of those beliefs. However, it is important to know that a family history of a reaction is not usually a medically legitimate reason not to vaccinate, as many “reactions” are not true vaccine reactions, and it is unlikely that the predisposition to such reactions would be inherited.

Thanks for raising these valuable points.

Have you ever seen a tiny child coughing itself to death from an easily preventable disease?

There are a whole list of things that a doctor should be wary of when vaccinating, but most don’t bother to warn people of such things or be aware of them themselves. Even if one out of a thousand react for whatever reason, that is still a lot of people and we should be aware of any/all effects that MAY occur – just like any other drug/medicine on the planet – but most doctors don’t even pause to inform people of this.

I’m not in any way behind the autism thing in ANY way – but there are other LEGIT reasons to be careful about these things we’re giving ourselves and our children. Caution should always be exercised and patients/parents informed as to any POSSIBLE effects. It just seems that when we’re handed vaccine brochures, nowhere does it list the people that SHOULDN’T have them, as is done with any other type of medicine.

People should be given information on these things and allowed to make a choice, based on both the good and the possible bad of such actions. It seems that it’s either YES or NO – but it shouldn’t be that way. I delayed my sons vaccinations (and refused some completely) due to reactions in my family and that doesn’t make me a bad mother, it makes me a good one for being aware of my family history and making a choice on behalf of my son. I’ll make sure that HE is aware of this history so when he has kids, he can make an informed decision with his doctor as well.

Painting ALL people that don’t fully vaccinate their kids as evil isn’t fair – there are MANY legit reasons to say no or delay them – but this is rarely brought up. It’s not ALL or NOTHING for everyone, and not everyone said no because of some made-up autism link.
Remember there ARE legit reasons for some to say no!

Wakefield is a bigger ahole than most aholes because he continues to play the victim of big pharma. He’s still in the limelight as the poster boy for the vaccines=autism myth. I believe he’s currently living here in the U.S. and performing some kind of consultation service. He was on Coast to Coast a couple weeks ago whining about how he was unfairly ousted, blah blah. They practically made him out to be some kind of underdog hero. *sigh* The radio show host was sure to keep the vaccines=autism debunked myth alive and well. The more they’re proven wrong the more they deny they’re wrong.

Wakefield was kicked out of medicine for valid and good reasons, whether he has any decency left to admit it or not. Reasons including to protect innocent people from being suckered and deliberately mislead by medical charlatans like himself. But misinformation and lies have a life of their own, unlike the kids and people he persuaded not to vaccinate and ended up dying because of what he told them.

It is very likely that those reading this blog post who have not already planned to attend this year’s TAM (TAM8 July 8th – July 11th), will not be able to attend. But TAM8 will have a strong Science Based Medicine “track” plus a potentially interesting panel discussion titled Global Climate Change and the Responsibility of the Skeptics Movement. Penn, nor Teller, won’t be there for this panel as they will be traveling for European performances.

You can see the full TAM8 schedule (and weep if you can’t go) here:

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/component/content/article/37-static/882-the-amazing-meeting-8-2010-schedule.html

It is said that there will be a DVD of the proceedings available sometime after the meeting.

George

PS. I’m kind of hoping some one will reassuringly convince me that I’m wrong about this view expressed here so please do try!