Maggie's Farm

I think there is a mindset or maybe even a mental illness that allows someone to be an anti-vaxer. I don't think their anti-vax position is their ONLY "anti" position. They reject science and are convinced there is a conspiracy around every corner.
Vaccines work. It is such an obvious statement one wonders what could possibly happen to cause the need to state that "vaccines work". 100 years ago half of children would die before reaching the age of 18 and most of them died before the age of 5 from diseases we now prevent through vaccination. It is all to easy to have an anti-vax position while you are simultaneously enjoying the benefit of vaccinations. If you are a parent yu children most likely lived to bring you grandchildren. That was vaccinations that brought you that great joy and it sure as hell wasn't the anti-vax movement. Quite simply the anti-vax movement is the indulgence of spoiled anti-science, anti-logic people. It is not based in reality but in conspiracy theories and ignorance. There is one last point to this issue; that is that for many of the diseases that vaccines have prevented it is essential that a large majority of the people get vaccinated. Unless almost everyone has the immunity the total effectiveness of the vaccine is reduced. This fact alone is reason enough to require vaccinations for pre-schoolers. Just as we pass and obey laws that protect us all vaccinations are essential toprotect us all. To choose to not vaccinate your children is not so different from running redlights and stopsigns with total disregard for anyone else.

The warning labels are to prevent massive law suits. Everythng is dangerous. The medication that has caused more deaths then any other is aspirin followed by acetaminophen. Either one of these causes more deaths in the U.S. every year then all of the vaccines that are administered in the same year. In fact death or serious side effects from vaccines is rare.

So what is the truth about Merck's MMR vaccine? We don't know. Isn't it odd that it is only reported on the anti-vax sites and the quack sites. The lawyers offer a reward for someone to become a whistle blower. They conduct a trial usually focusing on some minor legal point. The objective is to provide some legal basis of a class action lawsuit with big bucks for the law firm. Every year the lawyers go after some medication because there is big bucks there. They will usually try a class action lawsuit in some backwoods Mississippi county to make sure they have a lot of ignorant people for the jury pool. It's generally a lawyer scam and it certainly isn't a case of the lawyers valiantly protecting us al from big pharma. As for the MMR vaccine; there is zero doubt that it is effectve and saves a lot of lives and even more sufferring. But who cares about that when there is money to be made?

Yes there is a case in court and courthouse is reporting on it. Can you find that reporting anywhere else? Yes, oddly every quack site is reporting it. That is my point. At this time we, the public, do not know what if anything is true about this case but all the quacks are busy stirring up the crazies.

Yes the law suits are ONLY for buck, period. They have never been for patient safety or truth. They have always been about more BMWs and MacMansions for lawyers.

Yes sometime people who are vaccinated for a disease they can catch the disease. This is why we talk about the herd immunity. There is some level of vaccination immunity that must be obtained so that the particular disease cannot run through the herd infecting all or most. In most cases if 90-95% are vaccinated then the disease cannot get a foothold. Of course this becomes academic if your president chooses to intentionally import 100,000 sick children from countries that do not vaccinate and then sends them to live amongst the public in 1000 different cities.
There are many strains of flu but ony a few specific types of flue. The strain is determined by the type of protein molecule that attaches itself to the influenza. So if the flu is a different strain the flu shot is not as effective. STILL effective but not as effective. The problem is the lead time to create the flu vaccine is about 6-9 months so the scientists have to make a best guess with limited information. Someday this lead time may be reduced and the flu vaccine will be more effective.

I agree that the MSM does not do a good job of reporting on important issues. If they did they would shut down the law firms that cater to ambulance chasing class action suits that have seriously harmed our health care system. They would report the truth about people like Mercola and Dr Oz and run them out of town on a rail.

I appreciate your concern for my "shut in" lifestyle. I am concerned that you might be overly susceptable to the whacky lifestyle. I do not believe our doctors and scientists have conspired to fool us and that vaccines are intentionally useless or worse dangerous. I believe that they are doing the best they can especially considering the blood sucking lawyer class that is all over them and the luddite army that believe and encourage the quacks who do us all a disservice. It saddens me when I see sufferring and deaths as a result of some innocent, perhaps naive person taking this deadly quack advice and pay the price for it. Science and medicine isn't perfect! It is, however, better then any other method for discovering the truth and finding ways to improve our health outcomes. SUperstition based systes are NOT an option.