Another blow to anti vaxers

Xeyn

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X14006367

Large meta analysis study involving over 1.25 million kids.
Abstract methodology seems sound.
Highlighted is no relationship between vaccines and autism. What may further aggravate the other side is the study also showed no relationship between mercury and autism.

Having said that the anti vaccine crowd have never been interested in science or facts.

studentforever

The anti vaxxer mentality is difficult to argue with. I'm not saying they're right or their argument has any merit but many just aren't open to plain and simple facts. I've heard everything from 'big pharma sponsors these studies' and the more ridiculous 'doctors just want us sick to get our money'. My facebook feed is full of these ridiculous infographics stating the dangers of vaccinations. These people aren't religious, don't have any bias one way or the other, they just repost whatever shīte pops up. Because we all know if it's on the internet then it's definitely fact...

If they understood the rise in drug resistance, they might have an appreciation for preventing illness rather than treating it. I'm on my phone and it won't let me paste a link but google 'WHO Antimicrobial Resistance 2014 Report'. Sobering stuff.

echo beach

studentforever wrote: »

The anti vaxxer mentality is difficult to argue with. I'm not saying they're right or their argument has any merit but many just aren't open to plain and simple facts.

A lot of the problem is that we, as scientists, try to counter what is a reaction based on emotion with the facts and that doesn't work. It isn't that these people aren't open to facts but they their focus isn't on the big picture. They aren't concerned about 1.25 million children; they are concerned about ONE child, their own.
When there is a local measles outbreak and they see a risk to their own child they will queue up for vaccination. My parents generation who were familiar with how serious diseases like measles and whooping cough are had no hesitation in getting us vaccinated but most parents today have never seen a child suffer in this way so they conclude (correctly) that the risk to their own children is low.

You can't counter emotion with facts so maybe it is time to start using emotions like fear and guilt to persuade parents to do what facts haven't always succeeded in persuading them to do.

Alun

There was a program on BBC last night about polio and the search for a vaccine.

The program really brought it home to me how recently diseases such as this were commonplace and regularly killed people both young and old. It seems that the vaccine wasn't widely administered in the UK, where I was born, until as late as 1959, when I was already 2 years old.

studentforever

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but was it the old pertussis vaccine that got blamed for encephalitis when it was actually undiagnosed mitochondrial and developmental disorders?

Measles can result in SSPE, I can't remember the % but it's higher than the side effects of the vaccine. I said this before in another thread but parents aren't concerned with infectious disease because we don't have the same levels as 50 years ago. They can't see what the devastating effects are. But these are the same parents who will demand drugs for little timmys cold? It boggles my mind!

Look at the situation in Syria now. They did actually have a pretty robust vaccination schedule but conflict put an end to that. Now children presenting with acute flaccid paralysis are being treated, but others who have it are presenting without AFP so now a complete mop up is underway, with the burden put on the kids under 3. Very sad and just so needless.

the_syco

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0529-measles.html

Two hundred and eighty-eight cases of measles were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States between Jan. 1 and May 23, 2014. This is the largest number of measles cases in the United States reported in the first five months of a year since 1994. Nearly all of the measles cases this year have been associated with international travel by unvaccinated people.
“The current increase in measles cases is being driven by unvaccinated people, primarily U.S. residents, who got measles in other countries, brought the virus back to the United States and spread to others in communities where many people are not vaccinated,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general and director of CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases. “Many of the clusters in the U.S. began following travel to the Philippines where a large outbreak has been occurring since October 2013.”

The anti-vax are the ones with the blood on their hands, imho.