Despite the statistical absurdity of the idea, people here on Gather continue to promote the idea that vaccinations do nothing to prevent illness; are a government plot to implant er-r-r-r-r... um-m-m-m-m... wel-l-l-l-l... SOMEthing in us; will kill us with the mercuric preservative used in some multidoses to prevent bacterial contamination; and on, and on, and on, and....
IT'S ALL NONSENSE!
By any statistical measure, vaccinations work to prevent, or at least severely limit, the spread of disease. In some cases, vaccination has actually eradicated a disease (smallpox comes to mind), or could have if fools like these hadn't gotten control of the process in some countries ("Vaccines are against Islam!" cries the Taliban, and Polio melitus resurges).
Allowing people, communities or states to opt out is incredibly short-sighted and foolish. We allow outbreaks, and we treat the victims, and we create super-germ versions of these diseases. We destroy the continuity of immunity, and we expose ourselves to economic disaster (millions off work sick and tens of thousands dead IS TOO an economic disaster).
Bac
k in the day, we kids would be marched into the gym, where a young lady in a starched white uniform would stand on the stage with a container full of syringes and needles. This woman, in my schools, was invariably my mother (imagine my humiliation - especially on the day every year when it was sugar-check day... MY MOTHER asking all my friends to pee in a cup).
But I digress... We got our Gamma globulin to boost our immune systems, which filled the gym with sobbing, screaming children - those shots HURT! We got our polio shots or oral doses, our tetanus shots, our diptheria shots. There were NO "permission slips," no groups of parents marching in circles outside the school, no fools demanding that it be stopped, no one idiotically screaming that it was a "gummint takeover!" The Health Department ordered up the shots and we got 'em.
The upshot of all this? Is THAT your question, Bunky? Did you want to know what GOOD it all did?
IT STOPPED KIDS DYING - THAT'S WHAT IT DID!!!
Now, STOP being damfool idjits and GO GET YOUR FREAKIN' SHOTS!
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 274
Gosh, if you lived in that environment - which surely sounds like a Nazi camp to me - it's no wonder you're willing to continue in that route.
Not me. I've researched this and the risks outweigh the benefits. But you are certainly free to roll up your sleeve. Just don't mandate that I do as well.
One other thing... your research must've been from the journal "Medical Info for Gullibles," because your statement that "... the risks outweigh the benefits." is not supported by ANY statistical analysis, or published in ANY reputable medical journal.
Marilyn, you are invited to join the reality-based community.
I thought it was a great article. I havent gotten the shot yet but if it gets to that point where I live I will hop in line for the shot.
And, no, I'm not lying about not lining up for shots like you did. Guess what. The world is not always just like it is in your backyard. Wish people would learn that.
In Jamaica, the only people who died from it are those who were too sick to recover from any infection of any kind.
Bullshit, David! The "risky business" consists in refusing the flu shots in the face of overwhelming evidence of its efficacy to the individual and its absolutely necessity to protect society. This modern Luddite/Know Nothing approach to medicine is just moonbat nutz.
Just down the street, a perfectly healthy 25 year old died last Sunday from complications of Swine flu. The parents are upset because no vaccine is available still to save another person's child.
Marilyn and others of her ilk are basically volunteering to get out of the gene pool by refusing the vaccine.
Thanks for your sacrifice, Marilyn. My descendants appreciate your making more room for them on this overburdened planet.
Polio, the black plague etc. this vaccine out now, this is not.
It is fine and dandy not to question anything, and just do as one is told. Get in line, spend all your time doing what you are told. What is wrong with questioning authority. Is this so hard for some people to grasp??
Back when this strain of the flu came out, no one was made to get the vaccine or they would loose there jobs or whatever. How many people died then??
It is choice of those who do not want this vaccine, no name calling, no nothing needs to be. This is a choice thing. The media has made every one paranoid. Shall we start building bomb shelters again too?
I do not get why people have to name call?? I do not know anyone who has this form of flu, or has died from it. If it is such a epidemic should we not all have a family member with it??
So lets all stand in long lines as we are told. Get something put in our body like good little girls and boys and not question those in authority one bit. We all know "they" are just looking out for all of us and we all know there is no such thing as chemical warfare. We no that no one taints our food, and we know no one is out to murder and kill anyone.
Again this is not polio, small pox or the black plague. Lets put this in perspective shall we?
Though Spencer does too, though we have had experience with this strain of flu in the past, it was not this big of deal. Oh wait is this not said everyday in the news or something??
I just hate to hear and see all the paranoia, fighting, name calling over this kind of thing.
Then putting labels and comparing other such things as cancer (which is scary enough), to get there point across. Fact is the pollution is causing lung cancer, do people not read these days??
Scaring people does not mean it is fact based.
Oh I like hearing others opinions, if they can keep the name calling, scare tactics, propaganda and there own paranoia down to a minimal.
People are funny to me, when people disagree with what they say, emotions take over and the conversation is lost. Emotions equals name calling and everything else.....
A person might or might not get H1N1 but if there is a chance of preventing it and possibly preventing sickness maybe death and heartache why not get it. Of course i dont condone forced immunizations, but to say a person didnt die of the flu but of pneumonia they got because of the flu is bad in itself because the direct cause of said pneumonia was the flu which might have been prevented if a person had taken the shot.
So I will shut up about it in this post. Take it or dont take it. Its up to each individual.
Don't under estimate the power of a flu bug, they can become world killers.
Aids doesn't kill, but the illnesses it lets others get because of what it does to your body kills you.( the same as the flu) So maybe scientests shouldn't be looking for a vacine against aids?
Did you ever know any kids who died from measles or chicken pox growing up? I never did. So why the vaccines to keep them from getting those?
I wish Hattie was still with us. I'd interview her and post the video. If you think I'm a hardcase on vaccination...
As regards the current polio, I urge caution. I only let the family pediatrician administer it when he was sure that it was safe. Also, him, not an assistant, not a nurse. As for the others, my readings have raised no concern.
It appears to me that public sanitation is a greater factor than lack of vaccine.
Dammit, Marilyn... that's just a remarkably stupid statement. Building p immune systems is what vaccine is FOR. It's true that you can "build up immunity" by getting these diseases. You can also just get sick and maybe die.
So far as childhood diseases are concerned (and whether anyone died of them)... I haven't seen so much pernicious misinformation in one place in a long time. Measles causes blindness, and extreme birth defects in fetuses, mumps causes sterility in males, Chicken pox shows up as shingles in adults and may be a leading cause of Parkinson's disease.
You need to stop the nonsense. Some of these fools think you know what you're talking about
Oh HELL no, Dennis. Were that true, you'd see eidemic polio in nearly all of Africa and much of South America, among other places. What you're looking at is a map of religious irrationality.
If you want flu vaccines go ahead and get them but don't infringe on my right not to.
Neither do vaccines, BTW. They protect ONLY against the strains fed into the eggs that produce the vaccines.
THEREFORE if you receive the injection and develop flu-like symptoms within a couple of weeks of receving the vaccine, you were exposed to the virus prior to receiving the vaccine or you were exposed to another strain of the flu virus which was not included in that year's vaccine.
Chuck is ENTIRELY CORRECT.
And Sunaura, your 'right to not' is endangering the rest of us. VIRUSES ARE NO RESPECTERS OF POLITICAL BELIEFS and mandatory vaccination laws have been in effect in this country since 1802. Unless you were born prior to that time, YOU NEVER HAD THE RIGHT TO REFUSE. And you STILL don't have the right to endanger me or anyone else in this country by serving as a human incubator and vector for the virus.
Linda B says: "serving as a human incubator and vector for the virus." So you are telling me that I am an immune carrier? Good, because I am not worried about getting it. I really wish you people would not frighten others with misinformation.
What viagra has to do with this discussion I'm at a loss to even guess. However, the rest of that statement is just entirely nonsense. We DO get a new strain of flu every year. Usually it's a predictable variant of the previous year's flu, but this year we're getting a special, unrelated strain... IN ADDITION TO the regular strain.
Dim-aura-of-the-sun also says, "I really wish you people would not frighten others with misinformation. "
Pretty much ALL the misinformation in this thread is coming from you and Marilyn. Oh, yeah... and Jack e.
No. I'm telling you that your susceptibility to the virus is JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE and that your refusal to take the vaccine for any other reason than a proven medical disqualification endangers all those healthy Americans who have to wait the longest in order to receive it.
MY information comes from virology and microbiology professors and the state epidemiologist's office, not some quack-brained insular 'my rights are being violated' Republican fear monger.
This is not a "victimless" crime!
I had my H1N1 yesterday.
-- vaccinations should not be forced on anyone
~~~
~~~
-- if it comes down to it, I will choose quarantine in order to ensure the health and safety of my friends, family and neighbors
~~~
Actually, Dennis, it likely does. The United States, as is the case for ANY nation on the dirtball, has the ability under its constitution to suspend certain rights in times of national emergency. Those times are left up to the government in place at the time to define. And nobody EXCEPT governmental entities gets a vote.
MANDATORY VACCINATION LAWS WERE FIRST ENACTED IN THIS COUNTRY IN 1802. UNLESS YOU WERE BORN PRIOR TO THAT, YOU NEVER HAD THE RIGHT TO REFUSE.
I simply do NOT understand where people get this crap "I have the right" when they haven't actually looked it up. In case of national emergency, the government likely won't make you take the shot, but when you exercise your right to conscientiously object, the government will exercise its right and power to protect the public health by quarantining you. Viruses are no respecters of political belief systems.
For all those who wish to get out of the gene pool by refusing vaccination, line up over here. Towels to your left, exit to quarantine on your right. Don't let the gate hit you on the bicep on your way out.
*splash. Does the breast stroke*
I think we all have to use our intelligence and investigate these things ourselves before making a decision that can be detrimental to our lives and our families lives. Don't just read these stupid links that people send us - read what the CDC and other health groups are saying and the most intelligent of news folk. They know what they are talking about. It has nothing to do with the government making us take this vaccine. It has to be with doing something good for our health.
When I was a child, in the 1960's, we all got innoculated. There was no one telling us that it was bad for our health. No one asked the doctors if there was something in it that was bad for us - it wasn't that we were ill informed, it was that it was good for you so you did it. The family doctor was believed to be truthful, he knew that without it you could get ill. He didn't want you to get ill. He wanted you to stay healthy so you wouldn't need his help. I loved Dr. Fisher, he rocked! I know he wanted what was best for us. SO do the doctors these days.
Also, your immune system must be functioning properly for the vaccine to work.
I distrust only the flu vaccine. Not that I think it is harmful, just that it appears to either be useless or unnecessary.
How, exactly do you do that? To how many medical or immunology journals do you subscribe? In which study groups on the subject do you participate? Where are you going to do this "investigating?"
My apologies for this late reply. You are correct about the children. That has happened here in Jamaica also, but our healthy adult population is quite safe. Our health authorities require a rigorous response only for the sick and the very young. But no mass vaccinations for this flu. The need has not been demonstrated.
Good points here Chuck~ I won't disagree with you but will I'll refrain from getting it myself~
In the '50s in California school children received smallpox vaccination, polio vaccine, and TB tests. I believe Christian Scientists and others with a religious exception to medical treatment were exempted.
I also don't put anything in the false messages Linda is spewing on Gather either.
I hope anyone who loses a family member because of deliberate falsehoods propagated by irresponsible media and individuals will sue the very pants off the perpetrators. They may have been stupid to follow the advice, but it was criminal to give it.
Or both.
I find it highly ironic that the conservative right is now using this argument against mandatory vaccination when they have argued against the 'unreasonableness' of it when used by pro-choice Democrats on the subject of abortion.
Yawn....what goes around, comes around.
Deliciously ironic and hypocritical.
Just pointing out that the pro-choice people have been arguing for the value of life-already-present for years...and the desire to make choices about their bodies without restriction. Looks remarkably like a giraffe painted in stripes and called a leopard to me.
But, I have to say that even though the government says there is no proof that vaccinations hurt you..
There is some people that are allergic to shots or have bad reactions.
I truly believe that getting too many doses at one time can cause you get Autism or damage your heart..
One day, there will be proof.
Therein lieth the problem. All evidence to the contrary, you "truly believe."
Not smart, Angela; not smart at all.
Yours is a foolish Luddite position, and has no merit. As Isaac Assimov quoted someone (No - NOT Senator Moynahan( as saying, "Everyone IS entitled to his own opinion. NO one is entitled to his own facts."