Comments on: Indexed takes on antivaxxers

By: While people sicken, CBS reporter spreads antivax propaganda | Citizens against marijuana

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:56:25 +0000

[...] Indexed takes on antivaxxers – BREAKING: BMJ calls Andrew Wakefield a fraud – More on Wakefield’s descent: money, money, money [...]

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:15:09 +0000

@ #3 J. Wong: Wow, that’s very cool. I had no idea that Benjamin Franklin wrote about inoculation, or that it was so common that early on. And those casualty rates! And yet, they saw that it was still the safer option compared to doing nothing. I can’t believe people are so damn reluctant to vaccinate their kids today, when things were once so much worse!

@13 Meta: Well said!
But yeah, that’s why I always tell people (while probably frothing at the mouth and appearing a bit unhinged in my exasperation) that even if the anti-vaxxers were RIGHT; even if vaccinations DID cause Autism, your kids would STILL be much worse off by not getting them. I can’t believe that it’s not bloody obvious to everyone.
*headdesk*

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:08:12 +0000

This is actually incorrect. Medical advances leading to the availability of more vaccines have also led to an increase in detection methods for autism, so we’ve been able to detect more cases of autism at the same time that we’ve been getting more vaccines. So, there most definitely is a positive correlation between the two; there just isn’t any causation.

By: PeteC

PeteC — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:04:00 +0000

I think an interesting statistic would be the rise in autism cases ploted against the decline of cases of what, in the past (and please note that I certainly don’t endorse the terms or their use), people called “village idiots”, “morons”, “halfwits”, “retards”, “dummys”, and just plain “slow” and “stupid” folk.

A significant part of the rise in autism cases is that we are now actually diagnosing autism cases, when before they’d be brushed off by putting the unfortunate sufferer into a somehow “broken” category.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:23:44 +0000

MetaJetta, your comment cracked me up – and I agree. Thanks for posting.

By: MetaJetta

MetaJetta — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:04:56 +0000

Im high functiining autistic (with a dog bit texting hand I’m somewhat less so tonight). I have a brother like me and then one lower functioning brother, and one profoundly delayed in social behavior. I kind of resent the message that we are broken, with vax as the blame. My brother who doesn’t talk and can barely dress himself is fluent in several dozen languages, and is really funny if you can decipher his humor. Yes, polio would have enriched hiss life greatly.

By: Murr Brewster

Murr Brewster — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:17:53 +0000

We didn’t have as many vaccines when I was growing up. We didn’t have as many diagnoses either, but we certainly did have a lot of what were known at the time as “weird kids.” I believe that was the technical term.

By: sdn

sdn — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:09:34 +0000

Ah, thanks Brett. That makes sense.

By: bigdaddyhen

bigdaddyhen — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:54:34 +0000

I am surprised I did not see Phil post this story when I saw it a couple days ago.

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/28/airline-passengers-exposed-to-measles-in-4-states/?iref=allsearch

By: MichaelL

MichaelL — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:51:40 +0000

I have had all my vaccinations, several in the past year – H1N1, Hep A, B, and C. I must say I have had no ill effects. In fact, I have Tiger blood and Adonis DNA. Oh… wait…

By: Brett

Brett — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:46:03 +0000

sdn@7: To correlate, people with autism would have to be more likely than the general public to be vaccinated (or people who have been vaccinated would have to be more likely than non-vaccinated to develop autism). Neither is the case – you’re just as likely to be autistic if you have vaccinated as if you haven’t, and you’re just as likely to be vaccinated if you’re autistic or not. So, while many autistic folks have been vaccinated, there’s no correlation because it’s not a different percentage than that of the general public.

By: sdn

sdn — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:35:45 +0000

Is that true, though? Vaccines may not cause autism, but they should correlate because most people with autism have been vaccinated. It’s just that there’s no evidence of a causal link.

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:11:22 +0000

I just started reading The Panic Virus (which you all should read if you’re interested in this topic – it is fascinating!) It says that the form of inoculation mentioned in the NY Times article is first documented as early as the 14th Century. Yes – it is icky, isn’t it! I was telling my mom about the original smallpox inoculations (a retired nurse – super-pro-vaccine) and she said, “Wow, that is taking live vaccine to a whole ‘nother level.”

By the way Phil, that’s an awful face you’re making there in the photo of you getting the pertussis shot – surely it wasn’t that bad You’re gonna scare the kiddos! (I’m just gloating because I just asked my mom if I am up to date on all that stuff from childhood vaccines and she said yes – phwew!)

By: techskeptic

techskeptic — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:47:17 +0000

J wong,

thats an interesting article. Especially the part about how they inoculated (yuck!). But the mention that this method came for the far east kind of makes me smile…

How is it that nonsense therapies from the far east (reiki, acupuncture, etc) are considered good by the woo-folk and not this method that is shown to be effective?

By: Keith Bowden

Keith Bowden — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:40:31 +0000

Thank you (and your brother) for introducing me to Frazz!

By: J. Wong

J. Wong — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:57:16 +0000

Interesting (pro) essay on vaccination in NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/health/01smallpox.html?hpw

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:45:33 +0000

Both were brilliant!

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:34:48 +0000

Damn straight!