By: exogenous
Several years ago I worked in a legal clinic that helped people through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which is an interesting arrangement that encourages the manufacture of vaccines...
View ArticleBy: jenkinsEar
Here's part 3 of the series, which seems to be blaming the Lancet for initially carrying out a coverup. I had assumed that when I finished Horton would say that an investigation was needed to untangle...
View ArticleBy: jeather
Part two of the series, about how the MMR crisis had financial motives, is now available.
View ArticleBy: harriet vane
In Australia, Meryl Dorey has been the leader of the Anti-Vaccination Network. Recently her group came under fire from the state Health Care Complaints Commission, and had it's charitable status...
View ArticleBy: epersonae
kristi: I read that too when it first came out and had a similar reaction. That, along with stuff like dw's Alabama experience (did you tell me about that before?) resparked the idea.
View ArticleBy: jenkinsEar
The second part of the series is now online; it details how Wakefield et al. expected to make money from the study. Trading was to be fronted by Carmel Healthcare Ltd—named after Wakefield's wife....
View ArticleBy: scody
if you choose not to vaccinate your child, you are telling the children with cancer, the children with allergies, the children for whom the vaccine fails, the babies who are too young to be vaccinated,...
View ArticleBy: homunculus
Jenny McCarthy weighs in about Andrew Wakefield--with predictable results
View ArticleBy: the young rope-rider
Since it hasn't been mentioned, a grave disservice was done to children with autism and their families. How much time, money, energy wasted to debunk this study? How many treatments sold to parents...
View ArticleBy: harriet vane
These parents would never have even heard of Wakefield's study if it weren't for the tabloids putting it front and centre. I'd be interested to know which 'journalists' were responsible for creating...
View ArticleBy: kristi
epersonae: I've daydreamed about organizing tours of old cemeteries, focusing on headstones of children killed by vaccine-preventable diseases, for precisely this reason. I was surprised at how moved I...
View ArticleBy: Kid Charlemagne
So for example my friend firmly believes that Hep B is a useless vaccine. That Hep B is only for those who are drug users and her son will never be a drug user. Ask them who they think blood borne...
View ArticleBy: Blasdelb
"I had a certain sympathy for the parents when the Wakefield study first came out. But it isn't just now being discredited. The Lancet paper came out in 1998. But wakefield's coauthors began retracting...
View ArticleBy: dw
I've daydreamed about organizing tours of old cemeteries, focusing on headstones of children killed by vaccine-preventable diseases, for precisely this reason. A few years ago we walked around the...
View ArticleBy: rodgerd
Since when is it a fault to be ignorant, or fearful, or fearfully ignorant when you are not the expert and the "experts" all seem to be telling you different things about a very serious issue? As a...
View ArticleBy: epersonae
the anti-vaxxers have no personal experience of what it is like to routinely lose children to measles, diptheria, polio, etc. I've daydreamed about organizing tours of old cemeteries, focusing on...
View ArticleBy: scody
What might bring the anti-vaccine crowd around is a genuine epidemic, I'm talking babies dying in Oprah's arms. Unfortunately because of the lack of herd immunity everyone kid could be at risk. Sadly,...
View ArticleBy: Eyebrows McGee
Gotcha. Yeah, it talks about smallpox being gone due to vaccination, as well as other diseases that have become very uncommon, and things like that. But yes, my doctor did say it was always a "relief"...
View ArticleBy: Talez
Exactly. I'm talking about the irony of stupid people that would no doubt attempt to dismiss your point simply because the disease doesn't exist anymore mostly due to mass vaccination.
View ArticleBy: KathrynT
Smallpox isn't around any more because widespread vaccination helped eradicate it.
View ArticleBy: Eyebrows McGee
Talez, I'm not getting your tone, but the letter, which is fairly long, talks about smallpox having since been eradicated.
View ArticleBy: Talez
The awesomeness level of both addressing parents head-on about the importance of vaccinating AND of quoting Ben Franklin on the topic made me feel very good about their practice. So how hard exactly do...
View ArticleBy: Biblio
I have been sick with a terrible hacking breathless cough for 4 weeks. At times I have coughed so long and so hard that I have vomited. My sleep is compromised and I have difficulty doing my story...
View ArticleBy: anigbrowl
So how many of you have gotten your flu shot this season? I'm not sure it's fear (although that's a factor) so much as poor communications. Although I am pro-vaccine and anti-woo, and know all about...
View ArticleBy: spitbull
occasionally our chiropractor (who makes a big fucking difference when you're in the middle of a bad bout of asthma) And you wonder why some of us here might not entirely trust your anecdotal claims...
View ArticleBy: dw
I used to not get my flu shot, but then a series of colds led to pneumonia, and after I recovered I found I'd get sick -- and badly sick -- any time I was exposed to any cold. So I get my flu shot out...
View ArticleBy: Pope Guilty
the small-pox, taken in the common way What a remarkable turn of phrase.
View ArticleBy: epersonae
Justinian, I had the same experience with the flu -- ye gods I don't think I've ever been that sick. Got my flu shot both last year and this year, mostly by happenstance: "oh, you're here for something...
View ArticleBy: infinitywaltz
I never got a flu vaccine until about 5 years ago. Not because I don't think vaccines are awesome but because, well, I'm kind of lazy and it's just the flu and so forth. And then I manage to acquire...
View ArticleBy: Eyebrows McGee
"So how many of you have gotten your flu shot this season? ... But I had to get over an uneasy feeling" I'm so unworried that I got mine this year while 12 1/2 weeks pregnant. Shortly after having my...
View ArticleBy: Justinian
I get mine every year like clockwork. So do I... now. I never got a flu vaccine until about 5 years ago. Not because I don't think vaccines are awesome but because, well, I'm kind of lazy and it's just...
View ArticleBy: dw
I know why; it's because kids are involved, and when that happens, we lose our minds. It's more than that: You can't do a lot of direct research on children. For instance, you can't shoot half of the...
View ArticleBy: dw
There are also numerous cases of the conventional wisdom being challenged by brilliant critical thinkers, who are subsequently castigated by the scientific community. The Australian doctors (Warren and...
View ArticleBy: jedicus
So how many of you have gotten your flu shot this season? I get mine every year like clockwork. It's safe and effective, and I do it as much for myself as for people I know who are immunocompromised....
View ArticleBy: knoyers
Wakefield was God's gift to hysterical borderline Munchausen cases, and to those who wanted to hear that their intuition or personal feelings about medicine were "righter" than evidence-based medicine...
View ArticleBy: gyusan
Just this morning on BART I saw a public-service-announcement type poster giving tips for avoiding the flu this season. The last tip was "Get a flu vaccine", which someone had crossed out with a marker.
View ArticleBy: jonp72
By the way, some props should go to Amanda Peet on this issue. She's not only been the anti-Jenny McCarthy for the reality-based pro-vaccination side, but she has also been consistent in encouraging...
View ArticleBy: storybored
So how many of you have gotten your flu shot this season? I did for the first time in many years because I'll be traveling a lot this season. But I had to get over an uneasy feeling and I'm the one in...
View ArticleBy: Decani
Is there not enough room in our righteous outrage for some compassion for parents who, like liza, were dealing with a terrifying prospect, i.e., that they might actually be damaging their kids...
View ArticleBy: Llama-Lime
btw, I meant to agree with you vigorously Xoebe, but it accidentally came across as counter-point.
View ArticleBy: Decani
Why did he do this? posted by jbickers at 1:16 PM on January 7 Money, and bull-necked hubris.
View ArticleBy: Llama-Lime
But honestly, the mythical "big pharma" and the cohort of avaricious corporations, consortiums and hegemonic interests share a big part of the blame.This is like when right-wingers blame the government...
View ArticleBy: hal_c_on
So people listened because Jenny McCarthy endorsed a doctor's viewpoint. MAYBE (but probably not), people will think twice before listening to a celebrity who has absolutely no academic background....
View ArticleBy: dhens
When I consider the fact that science and medicine have a hard time in the public discussions on this topic, I remember this article: "And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing...
View ArticleBy: Sidhedevil
The Australian doctors (Warren and Marshall) who found that ulcers are primarily caused by bacterial infection were the laughingstock of the medical and scientific communities for years before they...
View ArticleBy: Sidhedevil
Amen to what Pope Guilty says. If kids who can get vaccinated without risk got vaccinated, liza's kids and others like them would be at less risk for measles, mumps, and rubella.
View ArticleBy: Xoebe
I am with emjaybee on this one. I am as angry and frustrated as anyone at the irresponsible to criminal con job that Wakefield pulled. But honestly, the mythical "big pharma" and the cohort of...
View ArticleBy: Pope Guilty
liza's kids- kids whose allergies make vaccination difficult or impossible- are who we're trying to protect by going after the anti-vax assholes. That some people can't get vaccinated is part of why...
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