Hey everybody! MEASLES PARTY!!!

[substitute]

Looks like that "no vaccination" strategy is working out great for you.

1st Measles Case In 6 Years Reported In LA County

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is confirming a young child in the area has the measles. The case is the first since 2002.

Officials said Monday they did not know the source of the disease, but added that the child had not been vaccinated. Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a virus, with symptoms of rash, high fever, cough, runny nose and red watery eyes. In about one in five cases they can lead to complications including diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia and sometimes death.

Earlier this year nearly a dozen children contracted measles during an outbreak in San Diego County. Health officials say such outbreaks can be prevented if children are vaccinated.

Comments

[miss-education.livejournal.com]

This is about where my fascist tendencies arise.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__procession/]

all aboard the train to antiquated diseases!

NEXT STOP: CONSUMPTION.

[eyeteeth.livejournal.com]

Change here for dropsy, vapors, and the king's evil!

[judgefudge.livejournal.com]

BUT HEY AT LEAST MY SPECIAL INDIGO CHILD WILL NEVER HAVE AUTISM FROM ALL THAT NASTY MERCURY

[nosrialleon.livejournal.com]

I won't be happy until polio walks hobbles around the Earth again...

[jonpants.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see a version of American Gladiators where everyone has either rickets or polio.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the new chicken pox vaccine, your kids might be able to experience rickets! How exciting!

[blulibrarian.livejournal.com]

Yup, we have four cases over here in Milwaukee County. Three of them were babies at the same day care. Fun stuff.

[brianenigma.livejournal.com]

no vaccine + death = Darwin at work

Oh, except there's no such thing as evolution, right? So it must be part of the intelligent design at work.

[switchstatement.livejournal.com]

i agree! there should be no vaccines at all. let nature eat the weak! in but five generations we will realize the uber mensch and probably be able to fly to the moon. also, puberty should mean a trip to the gladiatorial pits.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Except for the killing everyone else part.

Also, hush you with the social Darwinism. You know that's not how it works.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

A bunch of the kids that got the measles were actually vaccinated though. :( Vaccines have a pretty decent failure rate, not surprisingly.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

The vaccine for measles covers most measles variants but not all. It is still possible to get measles if you're vaccinated, but very unlikely.

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

There's a measles party in my pants, and everyone is invited.

...

Oh wait, that's not measles.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

I want to respond to each and every comment on this post. The comments make me sad because they are not educated or made by people who actually have to consider the alternatives. I've read this subject so far and deep and wide. I would never, ever, put my kids at risk before researching every study available.

I think my anger here comes from the idea that people who don't vaccinate are the uneducated folks. Personally, I see that there is a mix of people on both sides of the fence. Lots of parents blindly injecting their kids with poison and disease without considering options, people who make educated decisions one way or the other, and then idiots who just don't "do" medical interventions of any kind. I would never say that either is right or wrong, but that you have to do what is best for your child, after much research and heart searching.

My fear of vaccination is based on the opinions of medical professionals and science. I do not believe so much in the "facts" provided to me by studies conducted by pharamceutical companies. The information is buried, and it's a challenge to figure out what is truth and what is (this is a scientific term I learned) HOOPLA.

Babies have reactions to vaccines and they die. Far more than is reported, and far more than the measles will kill. I promise.

[jakeinhartsel.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I just disagree. The world before vaccines was a terrifying place. The entire community of epidemiologists is not the pharmaceutical companies. And I feel strongly that the refusal to vaccinate endangers all of us.

Certainly you can refuse to vaccinate a child, and the risk to that child will be very small. But that's only until enough people decide they'd like to do that too. And then we all get sick.

I have yet to see any anti-vaccination material that was based on more than fear and bad math.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

Don't be sorry! It's something I'm very used to and even agreed with until very recently. ;)

Until you are faced with the choice of either possibly killing your infant, brain damaging them, or filling their bodies with triple the advised limit of things like aluminum, or chancing that someone might get sick from the measles, I just don't see room for personal debate. Having babies makes you crazy, in case you haven't noticed. Every single thing is about your child and how it will survive the longest with the best possible odds for thriving well ito old age. Throw some words like dementia, arthritis, even shingles, into the mix and it becomes a scary thing to give them a job in the arm.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

typo mayhem, bouncing baby on lap.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I would agree absolutely if I thought the evidence justified it.

[hotelsamurai.livejournal.com]

That sounds reasonable. But the problem seems to be this:

If everyone on your block vaccinates, and you don't, then you get a significant benefit: you eliminate the risks associated with vaccination, with no increased risk of measles (because everyone else is vaccinated, risk of an outbreak is low).

But that's not how it is. Other people on your block have thought it through the same way, and decided against vaccination, too. If a large number of people on your block now decide NOT to vaccinate, then the whole population, including your child, is now at risk. As evidenced by the above story.

[kasheri.livejournal.com]

"Having babies makes you crazy"

That is so true!

Like you I read far, deep and wide on the subject when the time came to make the choice for my children. My sister has autistic twins, so the question was particularly crazy-making. Ultimately, I chose to go with vaccinating. Vaccines carry dangers of their own, to be sure, but my girls are in day care full time. I felt the odds were too good that they would run into these nasty bugs if they were not vaccinated against them.

I appreciate your open attitude. Too many of my friends who have chosen not to vaccinate respond to their own choice by behaving as though to choose differently is practically child abuse. This is also crazy-making.

[taiganaut.livejournal.com]

"Babies have reactions to vaccines and they die. Far more than is reported, and far more than the measles will kill. I promise."

So what do I get in compensation for you being wrong? A plague-infected cookie?

[handstil.livejournal.com]

Hopefully!

[gynocide.livejournal.com]

That's because OMG VACCINATIONS MIGHT GIVE LITTLE TIMMY AUTISM and OMG EVERYONE HAS AUTISM NOW. It has nothing to do with the fact that people don't speak to or read to or play with their kids and merely park their asses in front of the tv and video games. It's the vaccinations. Really.

[hebisner.livejournal.com]

On the autism issue, the claim that therimisol was behind a rise in autism was proved to be not true. In no small measure because after they stopped using it, autism rates still increased. There is no relationship between them. Also, I don't know what "causes" autism, but I sincerely doubt it's television or lack of attention paid to your kids. I know families with autistic kids that were very attentive and eschewed the television.

Vaccines are simply the best defense against the spread of a wide range of terrible diseases. I don't know what the risk factor for vaccines is, but I do know how diseases like Polio and measles were scourges that had to be stamped out. And they were, with vaccines. That isn't to downplay any potential negative side effects, but I certainly don't want to see an outbreak of Polio, that's for sure.

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile...