12th May 2008
Don’t infect my kids with your diseases
I read an article this morning about an outbreak of pertussis in a California school which resulted in closing school to try to control the epidemic. Apparently, it’s a school where only about half the students have the normal required round of vaccinations; most parents had opted-out (presumably due to fears of autism).
This drives me up the wall. Autism is not caused by vaccines. The thimerasol (mercury-based preservative), which was initially blamed, has been out of vaccines for years now; multiple scientific studies show that the rate of autism has risen since then. Now anti-vaccinationists rely on the bugaboo of “toxins” without bothering to define them — no science, just fearmongering. Thus whooping cough is able to spread.
Pertussis isn’t just a “bad cough”, it’s agonizing. Similarly, chicken pox isn’t just a week of itching, it’s a ticket to shingles (agonizing pain, again). Polio is crippling (FDR wasn’t in a wheelchair for fun). Rubella causes dreadful complications in pregnant women. Diphtheria kills. Smallpox kills. I’m not a fan of putting all sorts of weird stuff in my kids bodies — I buy organic food, for example — but fuck, letting them die instead? Kinda defeats the purpose.
Modern medicine works. Let it. And in the meantime, keep your “wholesome” unvaccinated children the hell away from me and my family.
Posted by cleanser under load of hooey, science & medicine | No Comments »


Most interesting, Grandpa asserts that, when safety rules are followed, “these modern cars are a lot safer than slower cars of yesterday.” Try to back THAT one up with some statistics. If Fast New Car A and Slow Old Car B are driven by the same person, the fast one is safer? (Maybe if you’re being chased by a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex. Remember Ian Malcolm muttering, “Must go faster!” in the back of that Jeep? If he’d been in a 1935 Chevy, he wouldn’t have been worried at all!)