197 Doctor Distrust
Since 1992, Vaccines have saved the lives of 732,000 children and another 322 MILLION children have been spared from serious illness (CDC). However, preventable diseases have been on the rise thanks largely due to belief exemptions. To be clear, we are talking about the small 1.8% of Americans who have refused to vaccinate for nonmedical reasons.
Largely this increase is due to a myth spread by uninformed celebrities and irresponsible journalism. Very rarely can a specific myth be linked to a single person, but myth that autism is linked to vaccinations was created by (former) doctor Andrew Wakefield. Not only was his study fraudulent, but he was caught taking money in an obvious conflict of interest. His study was retracted, and he was found to have “repeatedly breached fundamental principles of research medicine” and barred from practicing medicine by Britain’s General Medical Council.
Why people choose to believe in con-artists even after they’ve been exposed – I’ll never understand.
Wylona, if you're going to be around after the pregnancy, it's important that you get your shots.
WYLONA
Vaccines are just a way for doctors to make money.
KATE
I think immunity is worth a small copay.
WYLONA
But what about autism-
KATE
How come the only doctor you believe is one that lied for money.
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“…myth that vaccines are linked to vaccinations…”
You may want to check that. 🙂
“I’m going to stick to my guns on this one.” – if I were Fox News.
“Needle goes in, vaccine comes out. Never a miscommunication”
Confirmation bias is one of the reasons why people choose to believe the charlatan. Sadly, people from all walks of life have this in one form or another.
It is notable that the population that has the strongest belief that vaccines cause autism overlaps with several others. One other such is the population that continues to reject the effects of genetic inheritance on behavior. The diehard nurture-over-nature clack still evident in academia. Another overlapping population is the group that still treats their genes they might pass on to their kids as “their fault”.
I was born with Asperger Syndrome, and did some periodicals research on autism in the early 1960s. Even then the physical evidence for genetic causation was far stronger than any equivalent for the “Refrigerator Mother Theory” that dominated US autistic psychiatry between 1945 and 1995. I’ve talked with a specialist in autistic psychology who did her grad work 1987-89. She said she never hear a single word about genetic causation. That political resistance to accepting genetic inheritance caused us to lose 50 years in getting genetic inheritance of autism accepted by the public. That is what held open the garden gate for people like Wakefield and the Trial Lawyers to scam people.
Worse, some of the Wakefield followers have grabbed hold of a strategy used by their nurture-over-nature professors. They contribute most heavily to *primary* race campaign funding, and the pols have tweaked to that. Democrat or Republican, or the Kennedy in the Wakefield camp, they all respond to the fact that they must win the primary to even be in the general election, and smaller amounts of money can win or lose a primary campaign.
Well, some people may just not bother to dig deeper and find more information about things, instead of just sharing it on to other uninformed people. And thus, the vicious cycle of misinformation continues. There are a lot of things that can be discovered as false within a few minutes of googling, and in these days with widely accessible internet, I don’t think there is any excuse for people not educating themselves on matters related to their situations.
Then again, there are false information on the internet too, and people simply believes what they want to believe. Sigh.
There are inherent risks associated with all vaccines. Risks with certain diseases can obviously outweigh the risks associated with vaccination. For other diseases, that is a much smaller gap. Why is it that you have to be either completely for something or completely against it? For the record, there were studies that linked an increased risk of ASD to vaccines.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24354891
Recently, thimerosal, the ingredient in question was removed and is no longer approved for use in children under the age of 6. Consequently, a study was performed that suggested it be removed from all vaccines regardless of age.
http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/8/3771/htm
There are some crazy things stated by naturalists and homeopaths all the time, but to ignore everything they say would be a mistake and to blindly accept that something is safe just because the government tells you would be an even worse mistake. Everything has risks/rewards and by allowing everyone to scrutinize and make there own choices we end up with a safer product than we would if we were mandated to take it.
Regarding thymerisol, it was removed not because of any risks were associated with it – but because people were afraid of it (although it wasn’t widely used anyway). The risk of adverse reaction is less than getting struck by lightning. Yes, there are tiny risks – but the risks that scare people into not vaccinating are imaginary.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15342856
So in response to my peer reviewed study, you cite a peer reviewed study that is 9 years older? Not that it matters because thimerosal isn’t used anymore. I would like to point out that the job of the FDA isn’t to ban products that people do not trust, it is to ban products that are unsafe. Everyone on here seems to claim that Anti-vaxxers ignore all scientific data, but here I am with a peer reviewed study that shows there use to be a link between vaccines and autism… why is no one explaining what’s wrong with it? Why are we ignoring it?
It was used in all DTaP vaccines until recently. As far as lightning goes, you are 4 times as likely to go blind, deaf, or develop brain damage from the measles vaccine than the odds of getting struck by lightning in a year. 1 out of a million for lightning compared to 4 out of a million for MMRV.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/mmrv.html
4 out of every 10,000 will experience seizures within 5-12 days from MMR. (please remember that we are talking about children under 7)
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/MMR/
I’m not saying vaccines are bad, I am saying that there are risks. I am saying that we shouldn’t be bullying people into taking something they aren’t comfortable with, but instead, we should be educating and laying out all facts (good or bad) for people to make informed decisions. This information should be available at any hospital with real numbers (not percentages) so that people can make informed decisions comfortably. If you want to make people feel bad for not vaccinating perhaps you can recruit some of these people to help you:
http://vaccinechoicecanada.com/personal-stories/
http://thinktwice.com/stories.htm
Otherwise, you should respect people’s right to choose.
Yes, there are risks (but not of autism). But even if these risks are presented next to the risk of contracting that disease and the risk of dangerous complications that disease poses – presenting facts and figures to parents still does not allow for rational, informed decision making. Parents do not decide based on what’s rational, they rely on emotional biases (explored in an article by NPR). This is a medical decision that affects both the individual and the public, and should be made by medical experts who have access to and can properly interpret the published risks and rewards.
Um, kinda just shot yourself in the foot, there…
“Parents do not decide based on what’s rational, they rely on emotional biases.”
… and in your comic, the one pushing hardest in favor of vaccination is a pregnant woman. Should we discard her opinion simply on basis that ‘she’s being emotional’? (for the record, I wouldn’t, but the question still needs to be asked)
And as a side-note, since parents are apparently such illogical decision makers, should doctors take all choice in the matter away from them? Call it a strawman, if you will. I find people never state their limiters (to avoid losing argument strength) unless faced with strawmen.
Should there be a belief exemption in the US? No, I don’t think there should. We don’t allow belief exemption for seat belt laws. Or, allow parental choice on vaccines, but charge childrens’ deaths due to preventable diseases as parental negligence.
Other people don’t have the “right to choose” to expose me to highly contagious diseases. It’s the principle where the right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose.
So you don’t think it is right for someone to decline a vaccine because they may catch and then give you the disease and harm you, but you do think it is right to force people to take a vaccine that may harm them? It would be wrong to make vaccines mandatory before they are 100% safe. “… the right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose.” – Abel Undercity
By your logic, James, we would never have passed the Civil Rights Act. Because Congress, the public … none of them were “comfortable” with it, and had to be “bullied into it” by the President signing it into law. And even he knew it was going to make waves, he just knew it had to be done.
And that is sometimes what we have to do – the right thing, even if a bunch of sheep listening to a fake news network, celebrity shills and quack discredited doctors ignore mountains of evidence don’t like it. There are times you can’t just pat them on their heads and walk away.
And I will tell you what. As long as they get to choose whether or not they or their kids get vaccinated – then I should have the right to choose whether I or my kids have to be in the same room with them and be exposed to what they are likely carrying. Thus, they have to wear warning signs, so we know and can make informed choices.
People continue to believe in failed prophets because to quit would mean they were stupid in the first case. They were, but why should they let their ex-friends go ‘neener neener’ at their expense?
Just a question: how many of you here taking away the right of others to choose whether or not to receive vaccine injections have actually been lied to by our medical industry in the past, or suffered some form of malpractice?
Let’s give you an example: the antidepressant Paxil was given to children before the age of 18 despite evidence of it producing suicidal ideation – evidence that was systematically concealed by its maker.
I happened to be one of those children. I have had broken bones and almost died of a bacterial infection once; and yet I will tell you that the terrible chemical depression and imbalances produced by Paxil are easily among the worst pains I have ever felt.
Of course vaccination as a science is sound. That doesn’t mean the particular group of VACCINATORS that comprise our current medical system are.
What right do any of you have to take away my ability to choose whether or not myself or my family should make our own decisions about trusting this system?
We don’t have the right, but the government has the responsibility to act in the interest of public safety. For example, requiring fire exits, seatbelts, and fluoridated water – all of which are examples of successful policy. The essence of your argument is a common one that “science was wrong in the past therefore we can’t trust scientists”. Well, if you can’t trust scientists, doctors, and researchers around the world in all sectors, who can you trust?
Please don’t say mommy-bloggers.
@CarbonKyle: I agree with your basic tenet, but I’m afraid you might have lost the argument in trying to link government with a responsibility to act in the interest of the public.
Note: Certain government officials may not know about this responsibility – haha!
” how many of you here taking away the right of others to choose whether or not to receive vaccine injections … What right do any of you have to take away my ability to choose whether or not myself or my family should make our own decisions about trusting this system?”
That’s how society works. I can’t choose whether or not to pay taxes, serve on jury duty, or testify in court if I’m summoned. Being a citizen is not only about rights and liberties. There are responsibilities, as well. Getting vaccinations to ensure herd immunity for the benefit of everyone should be one of those responsibilities. Personally, I don’t think the current laws go far enough. The only teeth the law has are for students attending public schools. Parents who send their kids to private schools are allowed to endanger their children’s lives by withholding vaccines, and there are far too many states that allow exemptions for non-medical reasons.
Why listen to proper scientists when you can leap all the learning curve and get the facts straight from an ex-media student?
When I found this, I knew I had to bring it back here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDjz5qHIzsc
That “magic school bus” video grossly misrepresents what Chris Christie actually said, and in fact puts words in his mouth that are nearly 180 degrees opposed to his introductory remarks.
Can someone please explain why the removal of thymerisol in UK vacine if it posed no risk ?