Anti-vaxxers in power

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 10:56 pm

Another, albeit indirect, negative link:

Long-term Risk of Neuropsychiatric Disease After Exposure to Infection In Utero

Key Points

Question Does exposure to maternal infection during pregnancy increase the long-term risk for major psychiatric disorders in the child?

Findings In this Swedish population-based cohort study of children born between 1973 and 2014, exposure to infection in pregnancy significantly increased the risk for autism spectrum disorder and depression.

Meaning Maternal infection during pregnancy may be responsible for some portion of autism and depression in childhood and adulthood among the exposed offspring.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaps ... ct/2727135

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:00 am

Seems the Italians had a change of mind:

Italy bans unvaccinated children from school

Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated.

The deadline follows months of national debate over compulsory vaccination.

Parents risk being fined up to €500 (£425; $560) if they send their unvaccinated children to school. Children under six can be turned away.

The new law came amid a surge in measles cases - but Italian officials say vaccination rates have improved since it was introduced.

Under Italy's so-called Lorenzin law - named after the former health minister who introduced it - children must receive a range of mandatory immunisations before attending school. They include vaccinations for chickenpox, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella.

Children up to the age of six years will be excluded from nursery and kindergarten without proof of vaccination under the new rules.

Those aged between six and 16 cannot be banned from attending school, but their parents face fines if they do not complete the mandatory course of immunisations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47536981

Nothing like a good epidemic to get your mind right. :mrgreen:

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:58 am

20 states have introduced anti-vaccination bills

At least 20 states have introduced bills this year that, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, would (a) broaden the reasons why parents can exempt kids from getting vaccines even if there isn't a medical need and (b) require doctors to provide more information on the risks of vaccines. [Lou M. Griggs B. Even with measles outbreaks across the US, at least 20 states have proposed anti-vaccination bills. CNN. Mar 6, 2019] These misguided legislative efforts coincide with reports of 206 individual cases of measles confirmed in 11 states during the first two months of 2019. The majority of those cases were among nonvaccinated people. [Measles cases and outbreaks. CDC. Mar 4, 2019] The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is very safe. Thanks to a highly effective vaccination program in the United States and improved measles control in the Americas region, measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000.

QuackWatch

--J.D.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 12:42 am

Anti-vax parents sue to keep unvaccinated kids in school during outbreak

County fiercely defends restrictions amid measles outbreak that has sickened 145.

As New York’s Rockland County grapples with a large and lengthy outbreak of measles, a group of anti-vaccine parents sued officials for temporarily barring their unvaccinated children from school—and the county is not having it.

In a fiery response, Rockland County Attorney Thomas Humbach forcefully defended the legality of the county’s move, which was intended to thwart the spread of disease. He also went so far as to cast doubt on the validity of the religious exemptions the parents had used to opt their children out of required vaccinations.

“The [Rockland County Health] Commissioner, Dr. Patricia Ruppert, has every legal right, under New York State's Public Health Law and the County's Sanitary Code, to take every necessary step to stop the outbreak of measles in this county,” Humbach said in a statement released to the press.

“[T]he right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death,” Humbach wrote. Moreover, he added, “[t]hese religious exemptions run the gamut from references to organized Christian doctrine to a generalized spirituality. As the case progresses, we expect several of the exemptions to be challenged as not evincing a sincere religious belief against vaccination.”

Rockland’s battle with measles began late last September, when an international traveler arrived with a suspected case. Since then, other international travelers have arrived in the county with the extremely infectious, sometimes-fatal disease.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03 ... -outbreak/

Vaccines interfere with the radiations of my health crystals. :evil:

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:13 am

https://i.imgur.com/VKnIml4.jpg

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 3:29 am

One never emerges from The Eternal Pit of Stupid.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:00 pm

Poor baby. Stupid parent.

Is the internet making more people stupid? I don't think so many people questioned vaccines back in the 70s and 80s when I was a kid. Also, "flat earth" was just a joke back then. You might call someone a flat earther as an insult, but nobody really believed it. Now it seems like stupid ideas are spreading thanks to the "democratization" of the media where any idiot can have a blog or a youtube channel or spread their dumbth via Facebook or other means.

It's great that I can usually find the answer to any question I might have on any topic known to man with a google search but it has also allowed lies and terrible ideas to spread too. It just makes it easier to spread information, whether it's good information or not.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:17 pm

Combination of the Dunning-Kruger effect and confirmation bias.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:00 am

There is a whole spectrum of "dumbth", as sparks would say, from flat-earthers and conspiracy "theorists" to PoMos in academia for its "higher" forms. (This last one isn't directly fueled by the media/the Internet, but of course it contributes.)

We all know that the dividing line is that science and logic are hard, and you can fail, but blather is easy, free, makes you feel good, even different or superior, and you can always weasel out if cornered. This is a strong motivation.

My impression is that it all started before the Internet, at least during the sixties and perhaps even earlier, when society's stuffy traditional constraints began to crumble, as did the trust in science/technology/progress. (Cold War, Vietnam War, 68…)
And now we have a jumble of travel buddies – astrology, pop-culture, UFOs, New Age, religions, reconstructed traditions, quackery, &c. – where it isn't ridiculous anymore to pick the tidbits one finds appealing and throw together a soothing Weltanschauung.

:oldman:

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:47 am

It will get better.

https://beta-static.photobucket.com/ima ... rttg7n.gif

--J.D.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:23 am

https://i.imgur.com/stAF68i.png

Anti-vaxx expert is an expert and expertly detects non-experts.

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:17 am

Anti-vax fuckwit is a fuckwit.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 12:57 am

https://i.imgur.com/2dQlP6U.jpg

An article, if need be: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... reddit.com

:lmao:

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:28 am

Karma's a bitch.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:36 am

I don't think I've ever been vaccinated for chicken pox. Instead, I had it as a child.

I was born in 1970; the vaccine was approved in the US in 1995, but I'd already had the pox itself by then.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:25 am

Anaxagoras wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:36 am I had it as a child.

Watch out:

Shingles is due to a reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) within a person's body. The disease chickenpox is caused by the initial infection with VZV. Once chickenpox has resolved, the virus may remain inactive in nerve cells. When it reactivates, it travels from the nerve body to the endings in the skin, producing blisters. Risk factors for reactivation include old age, poor immune function, and having had chickenpox before 18 months of age.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:28 am

I've been on a waiting list for the new shingles vaccine for months.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:32 am

Is the shingles vaccine the same as the chickenpox vaccine? Since they're the same virus?

To the best of my memory I had the chickenpox around 4 or 5 years old, not less than 18 months.

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:39 am

I don't know. My wife had shingles on her lower torso a few years ago, and it was two months of hell for her. I too was about 5 when I had chickenpox, but I don't want to risk it.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 5:54 am

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved Shingrix, a new shingles vaccine that contains a lone protein isolated from the shell of the varicella zoster virus.

This protein acts as an ID tag, enabling the immune system to recognize all future varicella zoster viruses it encounters.

The existing chickenpox vaccine, Zostavax, contains a whole, live virus, but weakened varicella zoster virus.

But live viruses, even weakened in a vaccine, can pose problems for people whose immune systems are weak due to age or disease.

Precision Vaccinations

the source reads like a drug advertisement; however, the information is accurate. This is hardly a "paradigm shift."

--J.D.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:02 am

So if your immune system isn't weak, a regular chickenpox vaccine could provide the same protection against shingles, I assume.

ETA: after reading the article, I see that it is not the same protection, although it would offer some protection.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 6:42 am

Probably not necessary since the virus is intracellular.

--J.D.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:14 pm

https://i.imgur.com/fJVYBAy.png
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/loca ... 84989.html

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:29 am

Abdul Alhazred wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:23 am widow dressing

And I'm here trying to learn some slang. :x

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 2:29 am

Witness wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:14 pm https://i.imgur.com/fJVYBAy.png
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/loca ... 84989.html

But Jesus didn't get hit by a falling piano on the cross, so I guess that could still happen to this fucking shit-eating cunt her. Gives me something to hope for.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:31 pm

Kentucky governor says he exposed his children to chickenpox

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:48 pm

Chickenpox parties were common before the vaccine. The thinking was to get the inevitable over with early. Chickenpox in teens and adults is far worse and more dangerous.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:53 am

https://i.imgur.com/wlL3Urf.jpg

:roll:

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:40 pm

American family with four children suspected of having measles

The couple has five other children. The children were not vaccinated or attended any school in the country, reported the Ministry of Health

The office of the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI) – Costa Rica’s child welfare service – in Cóbano, Puntarenas, says it will intervene in the case of the American couple with four children suspected of having measles – sarampión in Spanish.

The parents of these children, who have five other children, did not have them vaccinated and did not enroll them in any school in the Costa Rica.

The family of eleven is in strict isolation in Cabuya de Cóbano, where they reside, to prevent them from infecting other people in their community.
[…]
If the virus infection is confirmed, it would be the first autochthonous cases in Costa Rica since 2006, when the last patient was registered.

https://qcostarica.com/american-family- ... g-measles/

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:35 pm

Measles outbreaks in America are getting harder to contain

The biggest have occurred among insular religious or immigrant groups

IN 2000 AMERICA declared measles “eliminated”, meaning that the virus was no longer indigenous and any new infections were linked to strains brought in from abroad. In the following decade measles in America remained rare. Now cases are on the rise again. There were 372 in 2018, the second highest number since 1996. Over 200 were reported in the first two months of this year. Though the disease is rarely deadly, it often requires hospitalisation.

Most recent large outbreaks have been in insular religious or immigrant groups, such as the Amish, Orthodox Jews and Somali-Americans. Some had been lectured or leafleted by crackpots who claim that vaccines are harmful. They are easy prey for such conspiracy theories because language and cultural barriers keep them at a distance from mainstream health care. Low vaccination rates have made them hotspots for outbreaks, often ignited by measles picked up on visits to relatives in countries where the disease is widespread.
[…]
Containing outbreaks is becoming harder. The number of measles cases contracted in America for each imported case is increasing. A tally in 43 states in 2014-15 found that in nearly half of counties the rate of measles vaccination of children entering kindergarten was below the 95% needed to prevent an outbreak. Things may have got worse since. Almost all states allow parents to exempt their children from jabs by declaring a religious objection to vaccines; 17 states allow “philosophical” objections, too. In 2017-18 such non-medical exemptions were used for 2.2% of schoolchildren, double the rate in 2010-11.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... to-contain

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 11:50 pm

Link:

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 11:23 pm

https://i.imgur.com/Cm7KKQo.jpg

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Mar 29, 2019 12:26 am

B.C. government granted $428K to group that spreads anti-vaccine claims

Minister orders review of annual grants to Vancouver's Health Action Network Society

Over the last 12 years, a Vancouver group has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the B.C. government, while screening anti-vaccination movies, sharing content from anti-vaccination websites and complaining about "censorship" from a social media company that blocked anti-vaccination propaganda.

Federal records show about one-third of the Health Action Network Society's revenue last year came from the B.C. government — a $40,000 Community Gaming Grant taken from provincial gambling revenues.

Since 2007, the group has received $428,500 worth of these grants.
[…]
Vaccines are just one area of concern for HANS, which also advocates for wider use of homeopathy, campaigns for labelling of genetically modified foods and pushes for more action on climate change.

The president of HANS's board is Ted Kuntz. He did not respond to requests for comment from CBC, but has described himself as "vaccine risk aware," and is the author of a book about immunization called Dare to Question: One Parent to Another.

The back cover of Kuntz's book says: "We've been, dare I say, indoctrinated into the belief that vaccines are safe and effective."

He's also vice-president of Vaccine Choice Canada, a non-profit that claims vaccines are inherently risky and that recently paid for 50 digital billboards across Toronto suggesting vaccines are unsafe for children.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.5074369

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Fri Mar 29, 2019 1:33 am

Ted Kuntz? How appropriate.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:34 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Apr 02, 2019 1:53 am

The Italians are back at it:

Italy may scrap vaccine certificates for young children

Move by Five Star and League senators follows intervention by Matteo Salvini

Italy may scrap its requirement for parents to provide proof that their children have been vaccinated before they start nursery.

The senate’s health committee is expected to pass an amendment dropping the obligation next week, sparking further controversy over the populist coalition government’s ambiguous vaccine policy. The measure would then be put to parliament.

The amendment was signed by Pierpaolo Sileri, the committee’s president and a senator with the Five Star Movement (M5S), and the vice-president, Maria Cristina Cantù, a senator with the far-right League.

The change to the current law, which denies unvaccinated children access to nurseries, was reportedly drafted without the knowledge of Giulia Grillo, the M5S health minister. She is yet to comment publicly on the amendment.
[…]
M5S has long promoted scepticism over vaccines, and has made several U-turns on the policy since coming to power with the League last June. The League has also questioned the safety of vaccines.

“There is a lot of confusion,” said Roberto Burioni, a professor of microbiology at Milan’s Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and prominent pro-vaccination campaigner. “For once there is a law that is working; vaccination coverage in all regions has increased dramatically, and it would be a pity to dismantle it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... eo-salvini

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Apr 12, 2019 10:54 pm

NYC Parents Are Throwing Measles Parties Amid Outbreak

In light of a growing crisis, New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot warned against parents throwing “measles parties” to purposefully infect their children. “Back in the day people were having parties to expose their kids to chicken pox,” said Barbot. “We live in a different world now ... there are serious consequences to that.” Measles parties are dangerous and can lead to serious illness—and even death—for infected children.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/measles-o ... es-parties

Forward to the past! :crusader:

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Sat Apr 13, 2019 2:41 am

Brooklyn measles outbreak: How a glossy booklet spread anti-vaccine messages in Orthodox Jewish communities

As New York officials declared a public health emergency in parts of Brooklyn this week, establishing mandatory vaccinations in an effort to stop the city’s worst measles outbreak in almost 30 years, health advocates pointed to what they believe is a major source of vaccine misinformation in the affected neighborhoods.

The false messages that they say convinced hundreds of New Yorkers not to vaccinate their children weren’t spread in a Facebook group or on YouTube, but through a glossy magazine written by and for Orthodox Jewish parents. Copies of the magazine were shared in a way that seems old-fashioned in the age of misinformation — through family, friends and neighbors.

“The Vaccine Safety Handbook” looks legitimate but is filled with wild conspiracy theories and inaccurate data. Published by an anonymously led group called Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health, or PEACH, the handbook disputes the well-established dangers of illnesses like measles and polio, challenges the effectiveness of vaccines in eradicating those illnesses, and likens the U.S. government's promotion of vaccines to the medical atrocities of Nazi Germany.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sun Apr 14, 2019 12:47 am

Link:

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Apr 14, 2019 1:28 am

https://i.imgur.com/bJz5waR.jpg