Vaccine Skepticism Grows in US

[SilentLoner]

Vaccine Skepticism Grows in US

(Oct. 2) - As the United States awaits the arrival of the H1N1 vaccine next week, growing skepticism over the overall safety and importance of vaccinations of all types is worrying health officials.
A combination of factors has led a statistically significant number of people to forgo vaccination for their children, resulting in a return of the very diseases the vaccines had helped eliminate.

http://news.aol.com/article/growing-...worries/698882

Anyone else find this disturbing? I don't mean the flu vaccines.

[Your Crazy]

I'm more concerned about this.

[Zephyr]

It's one of those weird things I've noticed happens from time to time - some kind of delusion becomes popular for seemingly no reason other than its own popularity. It reaches a critical threshold and then it's everywhere...only to burn itself out in a few years after which it lives on in our memories as "that crazy notion a previous generation believed in."

I guess people would rather live in a world where smallpox, polio, and global flu pandemics are rampant. *shrug*

[Homersxchild]

I don't think people are cautious of vaccines because it became 'popular' to distrust them, I think its because people are hearing horror stories. I don't have any articles to link, but I did hear of girls dying a couple hours after receiving the Gardasil vaccine, and of course the infamous assertion that autism could be linked with getting many vaccines. It seems like they just pulled the H1N1 vaccine right out of their asses, should we trust something that was made extremely fast? People mistrust being guinea pigs to new vaccines that we don't know the side affects of.

I don't have anything against getting vaccines for serious diseases that are contagious, but I must admit I was cautious of Gardasil, and I did decline when my doctor asked if I would want it.

I think people are just starting to realize the dangers of just 'accepting' anything their doctor gives them. It's a good thing to not follow others blindly. The people that make these vaccines are capable of making mistakes or something that's not entirely safe.

[WineKitty]

Originally Posted by Zephyr

I guess people would rather live in a world where smallpox, polio, and global flu pandemics are rampant. *shrug*

Exactly. I cannot imagine getting NOT getting my kids his shots. Parents arent doing their kids any favors but not getting these shots.

[mountain5]

My sister is big into this and avoids giving certain vaccines to her young kids. Not much you can do about it, once they've made up their mind.

[EremitaGermanus]

Well it doesn't hurt to question certain things from time to time!

These days people are better educated and thus more critical than years ago when doctors were considered gods in white!

There's a mesh of interrelations between the pharmaceutical industry that financially supports physicians and medical institutions, the public authorities along with greed and international competition, as in any other business.

So, I simply doubt the independence of recent studies and recommendations. Critical physicians are muzzled and parents are considered irresponsible. That is making me sharp-eared.

About three years ago teenage girls over here were urged to get a vaccination against cervical cancer with an advertising compaign . Now from what I heard, it is internationally highly controversial. No ads anymore!

[EagerMinnow84]

""There is absolutely no way of knowing whether that shot is doing what is says it is doing," Karpfinger said"

Umm... how about that the measels and whopping cough have been pretty much eliminated?


I would definitely vaccinate my child. It is irresponsible not to.

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by Homersxchild

but I did hear of girls dying a couple hours after receiving the Gardasil vaccine, and of course the infamous assertion that autism could be linked with getting many vaccines. It seems like they just pulled the H1N1 vaccine right out of their asses, should we trust something that was made extremely fast? People mistrust being guinea pigs to new vaccines that we don't know the side affects of.

I don't have anything against getting vaccines for serious diseases that are contagious, but I must admit I was cautious of Gardasil, and I did decline when my doctor asked if I would want it.

The girl you're referring to actually died from an large undiagnosed tumor they found in her chest cavity when they did the autopsy. It had nothing to do with Gardasil.

Cancer jab girl 'died of tumour'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8284517.stm

And there are around, what, ten worldwide studies that have failed to prove an autism-vaccine link?

[pointy]

I find it extremely disturbing.

Originally Posted by EremitaGermanus

Well it doesn't hurt to question certain things from time to time!

These days people are better educated and thus more critical than years ago when doctors were considered gods in white!

I have been following this topic for a while now and from what I have seen, vaccine skepticism and critical thinking do not often go together. The anti-vaccination lobby often promote quackery such as homeopathy in the place of real medicine. They spread disinformation, brandish widely discredited studies and rely on unfounded conspiracy theories.

There is, of course, harm when this manufactured controversy gives people unreasonable doubts and results in inaction:
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com
http://whatstheharm.net/vaccinedenial.html

[Amelia]

They're acting like the people who thought that the smallpox vaccine would turn them into cattle.

[VIncymon]

I see nothing overly educated about avoiding a vaccine to (what has been proven) a deadly disease, which almost became a bad pandemic.

It reminds me of a line a philosopher once said. "People are stupid."


There is no way of ever knowing whether a vaccine will kill you or not. The point of the vaccine, is so that you don't infect everyone in your neighbourhood.

[Aurora]

Im not getting it and Im not getting it for my child, but wont risk the other big vaccines on my child, so Ill get them even though I dont agree because well, I cannot push my personal beliefs onto my child, I just feel a bit more comfortable that the other vaccines have been around for years now, doesnt mean I agree with them either. Its a risky decision to take them or not, and is a difficult decision when its not your life but a babies that cannot speak for itself!
I dont have to justify my decision to anyone. Its my decision. Im just so glad we still have a choice here in Australia and these vaccines are not manditory, because that to me, is taking away a persons right of choice, and in todays society, rights are increasingly taken from us. Im terrified for my childs future if this society keeps going the way its going. There will be no choice and there will be no such thing as democracy. Such a backwards paranoid society we are and its the ignorant that drive it.
It amazes me how people blindly follow these so called 'researchers' and put so much trust into 'doctors' and believe everything they hear on the news/media/government advertising without question.
The flue? come one people! Harden the **** up and dont believe everything your told unless it agrees with your own logic and reason! (theres a quote about that somewhere).

[ivankaramazov]

Originally Posted by Aurora

Im not getting it and Im not getting it for my child, but wont risk the other big vaccines on my child, so Ill get them even though I dont agree because well, I cannot push my personal beliefs onto my child, I just feel a bit more comfortable that the other vaccines have been around for years now, doesnt mean I agree with them either. Its a risky decision to take them or not, and is a difficult decision when its not your life but a babies that cannot speak for itself!
I dont have to justify my decision to anyone. Its my decision. Im just so glad we still have a choice here in Australia and these vaccines are not manditory, because that to me, is taking away a persons right of choice, and in todays society, rights are increasingly taken from us. Im terrified for my childs future if this society keeps going the way its going. There will be no choice and there will be no such thing as democracy. Such a backwards paranoid society we are and its the ignorant that drive it.
It amazes me how people blindly follow these so called 'researchers' and put so much trust into 'doctors' and believe everything they hear on the news/media/government advertising without question.
The flue? come one people! Harden the **** up and dont believe everything your told unless it agrees with your own logic and reason! (theres a quote about that somewhere).

You're clearly a "flue" expert.

[pointy]

Originally Posted by Aurora

Its a risky decision to take them or not

Where is the risk? What leads you to believe that it is risky?

Originally Posted by Aurora

I dont have to justify my decision to anyone. Its my decision.

Sure, but if you can't adequately justify your decision to anyone else, then how can you justify it to yourself in a reasoned manner?

Originally Posted by Aurora

It amazes me how people blindly follow these so called 'researchers' and put so much trust into 'doctors' and believe everything they hear on the news/media/government advertising without question.
The flue? come one people! Harden the **** up and dont believe everything your told unless it agrees with your own logic and reason! (theres a quote about that somewhere).

I'm still curious as to what reason you have for not believing, aside from a conspiracy theory. The flu kills people. If a novel strain comes along that we have little to no prior immunity to and it happens to to be particularly virulent (we were lucky that swine flu wasn't too bad in this regard) it could kill an enormous number of people.

When you vaccinate your child, you aren't just protecting them, you are protecting everyone they come into contact with. Their friends, siblings, grandparents, those unable to get the vaccine due to illness or pregnancy, those with compromised immune systems, those who have had the vaccine but weren't protected by it, etc. It is the socially responsible thing to do.

There is no reason to "blindly" follow anyone. The facts are easily available to anyone who knows how to find them. Anti-vaxxer's claims are debunked all the time: www.google.com, www.wikipedia.org

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by Aurora

Im not getting it and Im not getting it for my child, but wont risk the other big vaccines on my child, so Ill get them even though I dont agree because well, I cannot push my personal beliefs onto my child, I just feel a bit more comfortable that the other vaccines have been around for years now, doesnt mean I agree with them either. Its a risky decision to take them or not, and is a difficult decision when its not your life but a babies that cannot speak for itself!
I dont have to justify my decision to anyone. Its my decision. Im just so glad we still have a choice here in Australia and these vaccines are not manditory, because that to me, is taking away a persons right of choice, and in todays society, rights are increasingly taken from us. Im terrified for my childs future if this society keeps going the way its going. There will be no choice and there will be no such thing as democracy. Such a backwards paranoid society we are and its the ignorant that drive it.
It amazes me how people blindly follow these so called 'researchers' and put so much trust into 'doctors' and believe everything they hear on the news/media/government advertising without question.
The flue? come one people! Harden the **** up and dont believe everything your told unless it agrees with your own logic and reason! (theres a quote about that somewhere).

Yeah, what could those "doctors" or "researchers" possbily know? I treat my own injuries and chronic illnesses at home.

[IDK]

let them reject the vaccinations if they want to. It will help thin out the large masses of stupid people we seem to be developing these days.

[Aurora]

Originally Posted by ivankaramazov

You're clearly a "flue" expert.

and you are too???

[IDK]

Originally Posted by Aurora

and you are too???

I think what he means is if you can't even spell 'flu' correctly, who are you to make judgments of medical and scientific facts and research that is much more advanced than basic English language rules.

[Drew]

There's a great book about this as it relates to autism:
Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure
http://www.amazon.com/Autisms-False-.../dp/0231146361