I know anecdotes aren’t a great way of looking at things (it’s a big one used by anti-vaxxers) but I’ve just never met an autistic person who wants something that “cures” them. Plenty want stuff to deal with a few extreme symptoms (one of my friends gets seizures for example) but otherwise they want to keep their personality. So to them a cure just seems like a distraction from making society more accessible.
Tom Barnett from the Involuntary Medication Objectors Party, who is against mandatory vaccinations,
Lets see what primary vote he gets.
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I’ve never followed how to vote cards. Even the LNP and ALP have learnt from the experience of optional preferential voting and automatic distributions through negotiated preference deals.
Outside a handful of marginal seats in the country for Labour and in the cities for the Libs the election result is likely decided. The Nats some suggest are simply hoping not to become extinct?
For the more tightly contested seats, it appears strategy wins over principle every time. The Nats in disguise in Qld as part of the Libs are putting Palmer ahead of the ALP. Clive left the LNP as a member and donor years back vowing to bring the LNP down. Short memories there too.
None of this makes moral sense!
P.s.
Hopefully enough of us vote according to conscience and not blind allegiance. Science has it that lemmings are socially like humans in many ways, although mass suicide is an attribute lemmings do not possess.
Mass stupidity?
Disney film White Wilderness which won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature and in which producers threw lemmings off a cliff to their deaths to fake footage of a “mass suicide,” as well as faked scenes of mass migration.
Perhaps a more human trait?
For the approximate science and facts.
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This is one of the issues with politics. Most parties would sooner have a lunatic in power than someone they disagree with. And that does tend to benefit the Anti-vaxx cause
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And now for today’s episode of “You just can’t help stupid”.
Kentucky teen who sued school for banning him for not getting vaccinated for chickenpox catches ths virus.
You have got to love karma.
Germany has proposed a 2,500 euro fine for parents who do not get their children vaccinated for measles.
The WHO has again warned regarding the measles epidemic as 34,000 cases reported in just 2 months in Europe.
Hepatitis A cases are surging across the USA.
Only around 25% of Australians vaccinated for flu so far this season.
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An amusing article regarding countering an anti-vaxxers “logic”.
And now for today’s episode of “You just can’t help stupid”.
Firstlly, an article about the development of the first vaccine and the rise of the first anti-vax idiots.
Next, an article regarding charlatans in the USA claiming that their quackery can prevent measles and cure autism.
And finally, the rise of the anti-vax idiots in Australia.
Perhaps the proposed human head transplanting may also be useful in curing these anti-vax idiots.
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Anti-vaxer children’s future problems when they realise the benefits of vaccination (or risks of not being vaccinated)…
With many Australian’s being travellers, the risks of getting a preventable (through childhood vacconations) disease increases substantially. A memory one may not wish to have of their overseas holiday.
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A couple of interesting articles regarding the history of vaccinations.
A first person report of how it is to be without vaccinations, and how virulently ignorant antivaxers can be.
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We have friends which haven’t vaccinated their children and also wont’t let their children have any medicines (they and some of their other friends call themselves ‘earth mothers’). They also believe that a mix of essential oils are far more powerful than medicines (which is believed is a conspiracy between government and pharmaceutical companies, just like vaccinations). These essential oils are dolled out when someone in the family get sick with a cold/flu or other ailments. When they get better (which a healthy person would do naturally in most cases), this seems to support their theories about the power of natural (unproven) remedies.
We used to sometime talk about such things we we caught up for a BBQ, but now the topic is so sensitive, that we and other friends avoid it like the plague.
To me is is a belief system and not based on facts…and it is a little like challenging a christian the over the existence of god.
I just hope that their children, when they grow up, have the foresight like to the brother and sister in the article, to reconsider vaccinations against commonly preventable disease. As many Australian’s travel overseas (which they plan to do in the future), it is imperative that one has taken all the necessary steps to protect ones health. Disease don’t discriminate, but vaccinations and medicines can reduce the risks.
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And now for today’s episode of “You just can;t help stupid”.
They say that money can’t buy happiness.
It appears that it can’t buy intelligence either.
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I found this TED talk interesting, the link is to the transcript tab so you can read or watch …
Interesting for a couple of reasons, including that Ethan worked this stuff out and sought out the jabs despite the family position, which is brave, also how he was treated by other spectators and the media, which seemed very hard and in some cases grossly misrepresenting the true story …
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And today’s episode of “You just can’t help stupid”.
Fortunately, the baby’s parents are more responsible.
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An article regarding a British mother who found out the hard way regarding anti-vaxxer stupidity and now wants everyone vaccinated.
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I don’t know that you could blame her at the time as the articles she based her decision on, at least one of them was published in the Lancet in 1995, & the other was published in 1998 (not sure from the article if this was also in the Lancet). That would have seemed to many to be authoritative evidence. It took a further 12 years (2010) before the Lancet one was formally retracted in the Lancet and another 3 months after that before the Dr was banned from practicing Medicine in Britain. Further damning evidence about the studies did not come until 2011. Would a parent even be thinking about the risks to a teenager/young adult by that time??
The terrible studies though still are much of the basis for the MMR anti-vaxxers opposition, and maybe they think it they were only retracted due to coercion of some type on the Lancet etc…you know conspiracy theories often abound.
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The state’s Health Department revealed yesterday there had been five cases of measles in the Rockingham area in Perth’s southern suburbs over the past week.
They included a baby under 12 months old who was too young to be vaccinated.
A further three cases have now been confirmed.
Don’t know what vac policy is in NZ but looks like it needs addressing. Maybe a stronghold for anti vaxers.
There have been more than 1,300 cases of measles in New Zealand recently, and the deaths of two foetuses in pregnant women are believed to be related to measles.
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This article claims that the majority of unvaccinated children are not the product of Anti Vaxer parents and we should show empathy to those in the other category (not Anti Vaxers with non vaccinated children)
Ok the journo goes on to say it happens because people are too busy, forget, don’t have good logistical options or believe medical people told them not to vaccinate. Would have been good if the journo shed some light on the current systems in place ie infant health tracking, clinics for remote families or followup counselling etc for people in this category to give a more balanced view. (My view alas the ABC moving further from objective journalism to opinions with one sided stories, rant over).
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These seem excuses rather than genuine reasons. It takes no time at all to have a child vaccinated and also there are many ways one is reminded of an upcoming vaccination (some GPs notify parents, government have apps to remind parents etc).
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For what it’s worth:
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