Vaccines, Autism, and Organics
So I listen to a wonderful program call "This American Life", which is produced Public Radio International and today I listened to one called "Ruining It for the Rest of Us" which had a segment on parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. This is an issue that drives me crazy. I understand that people are scared and they don't trust the "system" and that they may not have all the facts. I have a very easy solution for those people. GET. THE. FACTS. Yes, doctors may give a one sided view of vaccines, but so do the people who are spreading rumors that the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine causes autism. The one study that I have ever personally seen that "proved" that the vaccine caused autism has been RETRACTED. Measles is DEADLY.
By making the decision to not vaccinate their child against it, they are not only putting their children in danger, but other people's children as well. When considering the Public Health impact of a vaccine one must look at Herd Immunity. This is the idea that as long as a certain percentage of the population or "herd" is vaccinated, the entire population is protected. When the percentage of people vaccinated falls below that required for herd immunity, epidemics happen. I really don't think that people consider Public Health safety when making vaccine decisions, they only think about their child and the negligible chance that the vaccine may cause autism or other diseases. They hear people talking about autism and vaccines and danger and they immediately trust rumors ahead of the "system", which is obviously out to get them and their children. The only thing that I have heard that is in a vaccine that has been a proven medical danger is aluminum, which is a proven neurotoxin. So why do people use aluminum foil to cover their children's food? It doesn't make any sense to me.
These parents are probably the same parents who insist that their families only eat organic. And yes, eating organic is good to a degree, many of the nasty pesticides are avoided, but there are also negatives. All plants have natural inseticides to kill predators and to stop them from continuing to feed on them. Well, by using pesticides, we save the plants the trouble of developing and manufaturing these natural toxins. Why, you might ask, does this matter to humans? Because many of the these natural plant insecticides are deadly to humans, neurotoxins, carcinogens, allergens, you name it. We don't have a lot of information on a lot of them, either, whereas in many places that our food is grown (in the US andd Europe in particular) pessticides are closely monitored and regulated. Natural plant toxins are not.
It seems as though people see "natural" things as healthy things, and in actuality, some the most poisonous, deadly things we know of are natural. Botulism, for example, is a natural product of the bacteria clostridium botulinum, Anthrax is also a natural product of the species anthracis when infected with certain bacteriophages. Natural by no means is healthy. Keep that in mind at the grocery store.
Moral of the story: Take everything with a grain of salt, don't listen to what people around you are saying. Do some research for yourself...you might be suprised at what you find.
By making the decision to not vaccinate their child against it, they are not only putting their children in danger, but other people's children as well. When considering the Public Health impact of a vaccine one must look at Herd Immunity. This is the idea that as long as a certain percentage of the population or "herd" is vaccinated, the entire population is protected. When the percentage of people vaccinated falls below that required for herd immunity, epidemics happen. I really don't think that people consider Public Health safety when making vaccine decisions, they only think about their child and the negligible chance that the vaccine may cause autism or other diseases. They hear people talking about autism and vaccines and danger and they immediately trust rumors ahead of the "system", which is obviously out to get them and their children. The only thing that I have heard that is in a vaccine that has been a proven medical danger is aluminum, which is a proven neurotoxin. So why do people use aluminum foil to cover their children's food? It doesn't make any sense to me.
These parents are probably the same parents who insist that their families only eat organic. And yes, eating organic is good to a degree, many of the nasty pesticides are avoided, but there are also negatives. All plants have natural inseticides to kill predators and to stop them from continuing to feed on them. Well, by using pesticides, we save the plants the trouble of developing and manufaturing these natural toxins. Why, you might ask, does this matter to humans? Because many of the these natural plant insecticides are deadly to humans, neurotoxins, carcinogens, allergens, you name it. We don't have a lot of information on a lot of them, either, whereas in many places that our food is grown (in the US andd Europe in particular) pessticides are closely monitored and regulated. Natural plant toxins are not.
It seems as though people see "natural" things as healthy things, and in actuality, some the most poisonous, deadly things we know of are natural. Botulism, for example, is a natural product of the bacteria clostridium botulinum, Anthrax is also a natural product of the species anthracis when infected with certain bacteriophages. Natural by no means is healthy. Keep that in mind at the grocery store.
Moral of the story: Take everything with a grain of salt, don't listen to what people around you are saying. Do some research for yourself...you might be suprised at what you find.