The Anti-Vaccine Movement
Apparently those who believe vaccinations cause autism, and refuse to have their children vaccinated for fear of their children developing autism, can't think and have no memories.
There's a short set of questions that they should be asked that might wake anti-vacciners up, but apparently so far no one's asked them those questions. The questions are:
1) Were you vaccinated as a child?
2) Were your parents vaccinated as children?
3) Were your grandparents vaccinated as children?
4) As far as you know, were your great-grandparents vaccinated as children?
If the answer to any of these is "Yes," then question (5) is: So how come you/they have never shown signs of autism?
It just might wake some of them up.
Thanks to the anti-vaccination movement, we've lost herd immunity to all sorts of potentially dangerous viral diseases, from measles and mumps to smallpox and a host of others. Those of us who have, as individuals, been vaccinated against such diseases (or had them as children) are lucky: we're not so likely to contract those diseases now. But immunologically naive people, who have never been vaccinated against such diseases, are vulnerable to them, because more and more people are carrying the damn viruses and can pass them on to unaware, immunologically naive bystanders. And that's why, lately, children and even adults are starting to die of preventable diseases such as measles.
There's one more question I'd like to ask the antivacciners: If you or your child were bitten by a rabid animal, would you refuse the anti-rabies vaccine needed to save your and/or or their lives? Rabies is virtually 100% fatal. Out of the human population who have contracted rabies and were not given the vaccine to prevent its manifestation, something like .01% or less have survived. In other words, the untreated disease is virtually always fatal -- and the victim dies in horrible agony unless euthanized by one method or another before that can occur. Unless that's what you want to happen, I strongly suggest you get the anti-rabies vaccine in such a case.
There's a short set of questions that they should be asked that might wake anti-vacciners up, but apparently so far no one's asked them those questions. The questions are:
1) Were you vaccinated as a child?
2) Were your parents vaccinated as children?
3) Were your grandparents vaccinated as children?
4) As far as you know, were your great-grandparents vaccinated as children?
If the answer to any of these is "Yes," then question (5) is: So how come you/they have never shown signs of autism?
It just might wake some of them up.
Thanks to the anti-vaccination movement, we've lost herd immunity to all sorts of potentially dangerous viral diseases, from measles and mumps to smallpox and a host of others. Those of us who have, as individuals, been vaccinated against such diseases (or had them as children) are lucky: we're not so likely to contract those diseases now. But immunologically naive people, who have never been vaccinated against such diseases, are vulnerable to them, because more and more people are carrying the damn viruses and can pass them on to unaware, immunologically naive bystanders. And that's why, lately, children and even adults are starting to die of preventable diseases such as measles.
There's one more question I'd like to ask the antivacciners: If you or your child were bitten by a rabid animal, would you refuse the anti-rabies vaccine needed to save your and/or or their lives? Rabies is virtually 100% fatal. Out of the human population who have contracted rabies and were not given the vaccine to prevent its manifestation, something like .01% or less have survived. In other words, the untreated disease is virtually always fatal -- and the victim dies in horrible agony unless euthanized by one method or another before that can occur. Unless that's what you want to happen, I strongly suggest you get the anti-rabies vaccine in such a case.