Congratulations Anti-vaxers. Measles spreading in California

[Hauldren Collider]

The right to refuse medical treatment isn't a constitutional one? Guess that means forced sterilization isn't unconstitutional either?

The reason this is different is that the people getting vaccinated are minors. Minors are exempt from quite a few constitutional and other rights enjoyed by adults.

[DaShi]

Get with the program, HC. Republicans are anti-vaxers:

In 2008, Barack Obama called science on vaccines ‘inconclusive’
By KENDALL BREITMAN 2/2/15 3:56 PM EST Updated 2/2/15 6:12 PM EST
President Barack Obama called the science behind vaccinations “indisputable” on Monday, but he was not always such a staunch believer in getting children vaccinated.
In 2008, as a senator and presidential candidate, Obama discussed the possible link between vaccines and autism.
“We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate,” Obama said in April 2008 at a rally in Pennsylvania. “Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. This person included.”
(Shortly after the comments, Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor supplied a video showing that Obama had pointed to a member of the audience when he said “this person included.”)
Obama continued, “The science is right now inconclusive, but we have to research it.”
The purported vaccine-autism link has sparked an anti-vaccination movement across the U.S. for years. So-called anti-vaxxers believe that ingredients in vaccines, such as thimerosal, cause autism in children — and their suspicions have spilled over into other types of diseases.
In 2012, the anti-vaccination movement was blamed for an outbreak of the whooping cough. Today, anti-vaxxers are being blamed for an outbreak of measles in the United States. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported on Sunday that at least 102 cases of measles have been recorded in 14 states this year.
By April 2008, when Obama was claiming research was inconclusive, scientists had already overwhelmingly rejected any causal relationship between vaccinations and autism.
In 2001, thimerosal was “removed or reduced to trace amounts” in all childhood vaccines except for one type that treats the flu. In May 2004 — almost four years before Obama claimed that the science was “inconclusive” — the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, released a report rejecting any “causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.” The CDC strongly supported the results.
“Besides thimerosal, some people have had concerns about other vaccine ingredients in relation to autism as well. However, no links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and autism,” the CDC added.
When Obama made his vaccine remark, the U.S. was just ending another measles outbreak.
From Jan. 1 through April 2008, the CDC reported the highest number of measles cases since 2001, with 64 recorded cases. Of those, the CDC reported that 63 were not vaccinated.
Now, the U.S. faces a new outbreak of measles, due in part to the refusal of some parents to vaccinate their children. According to Frieden, the outbreak can be stopped “if we vaccinate well” and “increase those vaccination rates” so that fewer Americans are left “vulnerable.”
This time, Obama is speaking out in favor of vaccination in general — though it’s not clear whether he’s changed his mind about the link between vaccines and autism specifically. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)
“The science is, you know, pretty indisputable,” Obama told the “Today Show.” “We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/0...#ixzz3QdLraJN5

[pchang]

This is what we need to be publicizing: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05...nes/index.html

A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.

An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."

Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the medical profession," BMJ states in an editorial accompanying the work.

Speaking to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Wakefield said his work has been "grossly distorted" and that he was the target of "a ruthless, pragmatic attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns."

The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years.

In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.

"But perhaps as important as the scare's effect on infectious disease is the energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families who live with it," the BMJ editorial states.

Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose. After years on controversy, the Lancet, the prestigious journal that originally published the research, retracted Wakefield's paper last February.

The series of articles launched Wednesday are investigative journalism, not results of a clinical study. The writer, Brian Deer, said Wakefield "chiseled" the data before him, "falsifying medical histories of children and essentially concocting a picture, which was the picture he was contracted to find by lawyers hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers and to create a vaccine scare."
Unfortunately, (Wakefield's) core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism.
--Dr. Max Wiznitzer, pediatric neurologist

According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000) from the lawyers. Godlee said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and three never had autism.

"It's always hard to explain fraud and where it affects people to lie in science," Godlee said. "But it does seem a financial motive was underlying this, both in terms of payments by lawyers and through legal aid grants that he received but also through financial schemes that he hoped would benefit him through diagnostic and other tests for autism and MMR-related issues."

But Wakefield told CNN that claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism "came from the parents, not me," and that his paper had "nothing to do with the litigation."

"These children were seen on the basis of their clinical symptoms, for their clinical need, and they were seen by expert clinicians and their disease diagnosed by them, not by me," he said.

Wakefield dismissed Deer as "a hit man who has been brought into take me down" by pharmaceutical interests. Deer has signed a disclosure form stating that he has no financial interest in the business.

Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, said the reporting "represents Wakefield as a person where the ends justified the means." But he said the latest news may have little effect on those families who still blame vaccines for their children's conditions.

"Unfortunately, his core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism," Wiznitzer said. "They need to be open-minded and examine the information as everybody else."

Wakefield's defenders include David Kirby, a journalist who has written extensively on autism. He told CNN that Wakefield not only has denied falsifying data, he has said he had no way to do so.

"I have known him for a number of years. He does not strike me as a charlatan or a liar," Kirby said. If the BMJ allegations are true, then Wakefield "did a terrible thing" -- but he added, "I personally find it hard to believe that he did that."

[Lorizael]

Get with the program, HC. Republicans are anti-vaxers:

Huh? Your article just presents an example of Obama being stupid about vaccines 7 years ago.

[The Mad Monk]

How do vaccines cause autism?

[Berzerker]

Tonight on Hardball Howard Dean declared Rand Paul disqualified for President because he supports parental rights, Dean said Paul should know better because he's a doctor.

Paul actually endorsed vaccinations

Do vaccines harm some children?

[pchang]

Does not getting vaccinated harm way more children?

[Lorizael]

Tonight on Hardball Howard Dean declared Rand Paul disqualified for President because he supports parental rights, Dean said Paul should know better because he's a doctor.

Paul actually endorsed vaccinations

Do vaccines harm some children?

Yes, of course vaccines harm some children. There are basically no modern medical interventions that don't have risks (which, btw, is how you can tell the real medicine from the sham medicine; sham medicine claims to be risk-free). That said, the small number of very rare side effects that vaccines have (beyond things like bruising and soreness) are vastly outweighed by the effectiveness of vaccines. For example, the MMR vaccine is 97% effective (another way to tell real medicine from sham medicine; sham medicine claims to be 100% effective).

[pchang]

And sham intellectuals demand risk free solutions.

[DaShi]

Huh? Your article just presents an example of Obama being stupid about vaccines 7 years ago.

Is that all it really is? Maybe I read too far.

[DaShi]

Tonight on Hardball Howard Dean declared Rand Paul disqualified for President because he supports parental rights, Dean said Paul should know better because he's a doctor.

Paul actually endorsed vaccinations

Do vaccines harm some children?

Paul said it is a parent's choice. Also he added this little gem: "I was annoyed when my kids were born that they wanted them to take Hepatitis B in the neo-natal nursery, and it’s like, that’s a sexually transmitted disease."

[DaShi]

Yes, of course vaccines harm some children. There are basically no modern medical interventions that don't have risks (which, btw, is how you can tell the real medicine from the sham medicine; sham medicine claims to be risk-free). That said, the small number of very rare side effects that vaccines have (beyond things like bruising and soreness) are vastly outweighed by the effectiveness of vaccines. For example, the MMR vaccine is 97% effective (another way to tell real medicine from sham medicine; sham medicine claims to be 100% effective).

I counter with Flintstones vitamins!

[Berzerker]

Does not getting vaccinated harm way more children?

I imagine so, but I cant prove it. I once thought anti-biotics were progress, but we seem to be creating superbugs now.

Yes, of course vaccines harm some children. There are basically no modern medical interventions that don't have risks (which, btw, is how you can tell the real medicine from the sham medicine; sham medicine claims to be risk-free). That said, the small number of very rare side effects that vaccines have (beyond things like bruising and soreness) are vastly outweighed by the effectiveness of vaccines. For example, the MMR vaccine is 97% effective (another way to tell real medicine from sham medicine; sham medicine claims to be 100% effective).

Should we mandate harming children for the greater good?

And sham intellectuals demand risk free solutions.

MSNBC has been leading people to believe vaccinations are risk free all day long, they've been skewering Rand Paul for saying parents have told him of adverse effects following vaccinations. It aint my place to dictate vaccinations for your child, I wont be the one crying over the results.

[DaShi]

I imagine so, but I cant prove it. I once thought anti-biotics were progress, but we seem to be creating superbugs now.

1. Your imagination is just that.

2. Anti-biotics are progress. They have and continue to save millions of lives. However, misuse of them (blame unregulated industry as a major culprit) has been creating superbugs.

[Berzerker]

Paul said it is a parent's choice. Also he added this little gem: "I was annoyed when my kids were born that they wanted them to take Hepatitis B in the neo-natal nursery, and it’s like, that’s a sexually transmitted disease."

It is a parent's choice, that doesn't make him anti-vax. He went on to say his children received multiple vaccinations staggered over time.