Spread measles to own the libs (and the apostates)!
I have had this battle several times with someone at church. She says that she is really only opposing Gardisil, and is just using the existing anti-vaccine people as a means of promoting her message, although she is, perhaps unintentionally, promoting theirs as well. My point is that you cannot buy stolen goods from the Mob and then wash your hands of their other illegal activities. There is no cause so inherently virtuous that it justifies association with people so ignorant and badly motivated as the anti-vaccine movement in general.
When I’m no expert in something -say, bio-chemistry- my default position is to consider what the overwhelming majority of experts have to say on the subject.
Anti-vaxxers are like climate change deniers. They want to think they are experts in something because their own lives are too complicated or unfulfilling or something. I suppose it’s a sign of the times we live in.
While there is some humor here, not everyone can get the vaccines (for various legitimate reasons) and they are not always effective. Herd immunization is crucial for overall effectiveness. Anti-vaxxers aren’t just hurting themselves, unfortunately.
This should help the roofing industry’s shingles shortage.
But that implies paying attention to statistics, and they willfully ignore stats that don’t support their preconceptions.
And the Russians are helping to spread the anti-vaxxer conspiracy as well. Putin is doing a great job of destroying our society (with the help of a lot of people in our own government). You have to give Putin credit. He knows how to spot weakness and exploit the hell out of it.
What truly gets me is that we’re supposed to find ways to appeal to these idiots; and using facts and data is out. So something as simple as asking where small pox could’ve gone is insulting. I had an anti-vaxxer tell me that I was insulting her by bringing up facts and empirical evidence. This is when Darwinism needs to kick in.
“Roughly three-quarters of this year’s illnesses in the U.S. have been in New York state, mainly in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and suburban Rockland County. Most of those cases have been in unvaccinated people.”
So, sort of an upside-down Pesach for these parents, who willingly let the Angel of Death at their children?
Indeed, my older daughter does not develop immunity after a measles vaccination. And she’s an infection prevention specialist for WA Dept. Of Public Health. She has to work on, you guessed it, measles outbreaks. Fortunately she’s protected from direct contact. Herd immunity is vital.
As a scientist, things like this are chilling…vaccinations are a simple thing and hugely effective, without them thousands of people (at least) would die every year due to diseases. All you have to do is go through an old graveyard and see all the headstones for children to understand how big of a difference they made. With all of that evidence, and all of the BS the antivax movement is based on shown to be wrong (or even faked) research, it’s frightening to see how easily people (and not just conservatives) have fallen for this. It gives little confidence that we can get the real facts about so many important scientific things (like climate change) past the propaganda and to the people so they understand them.
If anyone has read The Three Body Problem trilogy (starting the 3rd volume tonight), they’d get an idea how far that desire to ‘hook up’ with an enemy can go.
We have reached peak stupid; to wit, Trump is president and people have stopped believing in one of the greatest advancements in medical science.
I suppose we have to make some initial effort to appeal to them with facts and data, and once that proves ineffective (as it does all too often) we just have to do what we can to make sure that they aren’t relevant to the outcomes required.
Then she worked on this year’s outbreak in SW Washington State. 74 contracted measles here and most were not vaccinated. This session of the WA state legislature passed a bill limiting vaccine exemptions to religious and medical reasons. It is seen as a rebuke to antivaxxers as personal reasons are no longer exempt.
of course, they will deny responsibility for ANYTHING.
I tend to blame fargo116 for everything. Makes things easier.
Tribalism.
“Look at me! I’m with the anti-vaxxers!”
“That just shows you’re ignorant.”
“Well, at least everyone’s looking at me!”