User login

Comments

I got into an extended vaccination debate on FB that probably relates to your opening comment here, but let me re-factor it.

Vaccination and vehicle safety are two different things. The safer thing with a vehicle is to not use it, once you use it there are risks of accidents so the “goal” is to minimize the occurrence of them. Vaccines have a very different scenario: they are introduced when there are already “accidents” (e.g. deaths or serious impacts from a disease are occurring) and they are “successful” when the overall result is improved from not using them. So if 10 in 1,000 people are adversely affected by a disease, and vaccinating the people causes it to be 1 in 1,000 then the vaccination is a success even if people can easily show that the 1 in 1,000 is because of the vaccine. Epidemiology is about the overall effect not an individual case. Does that make sense? The weird thing is that they have to ignore that potentially the 1 in 1,000 injured by the vaccine wouldn’t have been any of the 10 in 1,000 that would have been hurt by the disease—they just have to focus on the overall impact on the population.

As long as I have the option to not vaccinate my children against a disease that’s very significantly behavior based then I’ll opt out. However if it becomes mandated I won’t complain either. On the FB debate I engaged in I did have to conclude that I would accept revoking all mandated vaccination and allow my child to die from a preventable disease in order that someone else could have the freedom not to be vaccinated, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg on that discussion.

Yes, the vaccine debate is a fun one. I have read nursing books on the subject (and posted excerpts in the second-to-last comment here).

A friend deals with a gluten intolerance and gluten is covered by the company’s ability to conceal trade secrets. There are discussion groups that know certain medications contain gluten because everyone with a gluten intolerance reacts when they take these medicines.

Modern medicine is very good, but it does not have the answer for everything. Politics still play a role—as you would know.

I’ve seen attempts by other people to document how effective (or ineffective) vaccines have been. I lack the ability right now (or, perhaps more accurately, time) to verify their timelines. What I have seen is that the Swine Flu infections were projected to peak before the vaccine became generally available. I watched projections and news reports a lot last fall. The projections dragged out, both for the peak and the availability but the vaccine was not ultimately responsible for the end. This was true even after they decided that they could vaccinate in a single dose.

Your other post about “survival of the fittest” is mildly amusing because it applies here as well. Most of the deaths from “flu” are not the flu, they are complications from the flu. The immune system was already weak. The annual flu shots only protect from two strains that generally (combined) add up to far less than half of the flu infections each year.

Did you know that tetanus shots are not a major issue? Doctors can deal easily with the disease after it is contracted.

Unfortunately most shots that are viewed as “necessary” have very similar stories. I know my view of some diseases is different from a lot of people in our culture. I’m ready to see heaven. If others aren’t, let them take their chances with the shot. Most people are not aware of the risks.

I know someone who told their doctor that they did not want Gardasil administered to their daughter. The doctor jabbed the needle into the girl anyway, just a couple minutes later. It was clearly intentional and the daughter was in agreement with her mother. The landscape is rather ugly.

As long as things are “recommended” I have a personal preference to get them because I hate being sick (again, if it’s become so established that it’s “recommended” then I’m assuming the benefit outweighs the risk). While in general I resist treating illness once I get it (suddenly then I care about putting artificial things in the picture), which I’ve learned to moderate in the context of marriage and family, I have to honestly say I like the avoidance of pain vaccines offer.

The easiest thing to get a rise out of me on this debate is when people take their or a direct experience and go “see, the government or vaccine makers lie to us”. Um, I just want to grab them by the neck and force them to admit they don’t understand the concept of a double-blind study. We don’t begin to understand how our brain has so much control over our health…but it does, and we all need to start and end with that factor.

I have tried to resolve not to admit anything under torture. raspberry

The avoidance of pain is fine. I’m not saying that you can’t have it. wink

Add new comment