Facts, Not Fantasy!

Stupidest Weapon Ever

2012-01-20T07:49:00.001-06:00

We medical business types have unleashed our latest weapon against the puny humans who inhabit the USA. The Rabies Bomb!

I don't even know where to start about the fears over this nonsense from usual suspect Mike Adams the health ranger.

Health Rangers are no match for my
swarthy tan and luchadore skills!

The article is a fine collection of anti-vax lunacy at it's finest. All the right ingredients are there, there is the conspiracy theory of the medical industry producing weird and wonderful weapons to defeat it's enemy. There is the collusion of a shadowy cabal. And there is the plan which is frankly insane.

The weaponization of vaccines just took another leap forward in America with the recent air-dropping of rabies vaccines by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Using a battery of small planes based out of Del Rio, Texas recently dropped 1.8 million edible vaccine packets over 7,700 square miles of rural Texas. The packets contain edible rabies vaccines dipped in fish oil and coated with fish meal to entice foxes and coyotes to eat them. Once consumed, the animal is "vaccinated" against rabies, researchers claim. Of course, what these researchers don't yet understand in their scientific ignorance (and arrogance) is that they are also engaged in a rabies DNA / RNA bombardment of Texas.

The price of a single vaccine is around $60, the price of a single cluster bomblet is $60... Do you know what's more effective than dropping rabies RNA (there is no rabies DNA on the basis of the virus is an RNA virus)...

In addition the vaccine being used is the V-RG (Recombinant Vaccine) which is often used in wildlife drops to reduce rabid animals in the wild. The virus is vaccinia (spreads cowpox not rabies) with rabies glycoproteins being expressed on their protein coat. Meaning it is harmless to animals and humans and that there is no rabies RNA in the vaccine.

Thus making it the absolute worst weapon ever. Do you know what's more dangerous? Taking 10 dollars worth of 1 cent coins, melting them down into a block and hurling that at people. I am sure we could kill or injure more people that way than burning our money on $60 worth of fancy viruses that don't even kill humans. Since when have we been so incompetent? The only way this could injure someone is if some moron choked on it.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has already conducted bizarre experiments on genetically engineered mosquitoes that carry vaccines to be silently injected into unsuspecting humans. And that same foundation has also invested heavily in covert vaccination technology that could, for example, vaccinate you with a spray mist used at airport security checkpoints

Yeah... I cannot read anymore. I cannot stop laughing.

Who takes this lunatic seriously? Is he seriously one of the major proponents of the anti-vaccine movement? And he believes that we are weaponising mosquitoes to spread vaccines rather than say the three deadly diseases that mosquitoes already spread? Surely this is a drop in deadliness as we are not using Malaria, Dengue fever and Yellow Fever to kill people...

And we are expected to take them seriously.

W.A. whooping cough epidemic: ABC News Breakfast Jan. 2012

2012-01-04T21:39:00.000-06:00

This is Western Australia (not Washington State). As the newspaper there reports:

A whooping cough epidemic is rampant in Western Australia, prompting the Health Department to warn parents about the need to vaccinate against the infectious and potentially fatal respiratory disease.

The recorded infection rate more than doubled from 1458 in 2010 to 3597 by December 23, 2011.

Director of Communicable Disease Control Dr Paul Armstrong said November had the most recorded cases, with 704 people infected.

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/whooping-cough-cases-double-20120103-1pjbn.html#ixzz1iYEhfurW

While I believe Dana McCaffery was from New South Whales, it should be a stark reminder the danger this disease poses to newborns, whether it is in NSW, WA, or even in the US. Death, suffering, and misery are reduced by a simple and safe vaccine. Not only that, this vaccine depends on herd immunity for it to offer that protection to those too young to get the vaccine. As a matter of fact, if you come in contact with infants, or even think you might come into contact with infants, then check with your doctor about a booster.

Here is a video that accompanies the newspaper article.

Scientific American: New Clues for Improving Antibiotics for Tolerant Bacteria

2011-12-13T17:42:00.013-06:00

Bacteria evolve. We know this. Of course, this can cause some problems for those of us who have to deal with them. No, not like in Doonesbury, but real life:

New Clues for Improving Antibiotics for Tolerant Bacteria
Some of the ways bacteria protect themselves from antibiotics might be used against them to strengthen existing drugs
The superbug MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) has provoked fear in doctors and patients alike because it is endowed with genetic characteristics that make it impervious to many antibiotics, and it can be deadly to boot. Less well known, however, is another class of bacteria that also resist antibiotics, but for reasons that have puzzled scientists. These bugs cause stubborn infections in ears and urinary tracts and post-surgical wounds, even though, from their genetic profiles, they should be perfectly good targets for antibiotics.

Researchers are now starting to figure out how these bacteria withstand antibiotic treatment: by exploiting the same traits that have helped them endure environmental stressors. Two new research papers, published Friday in Science, show how bacteria use their ability to withstand prolonged periods without food or exposure to reactive oxygen to also fight off antibiotics. Knowing what these defenses are could lead to new ways of making existing therapies more effective.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

What use is half a wing?

2011-12-09T17:37:00.015-06:00

An oft repeated creationist canard is "What use is half a wing?" or something equally inane. The University of Montana and the BBC shed some light on this that even a creationtard could possibly understand (assuming they got their fingers out of their ears long enough to listen).

Flap-running in birds is key to flight evolution
The ungainly sight of a bird furiously flapping its wings as its spindly legs propel it forward could be a peek at evolutionary history.

"Flap-running", researchers say, may have been a key step in the evolution of flight.

Experiments with pigeons have shown that it helps birds ascend slopes and suggests the earliest flightless birds might have used the same technique.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Brandon Jackson, from the University of Montana, US, who led the study, explained that he and his colleagues wanted to know why birds would flap-run when they were capable of flight.

His co-researcher, Ken Dial, noticed this behaviour when filming a type of partridge known as a chuckar.
As the rotund birds negotiated obstacles, they would run up the objects flapping their wings. When Dr Dial discussed this behaviour with local ranchers and hunters, some reported that adult chukars would flap to run up cliffs, rather than fly.

The birds used far less energy when flap-running than when flying

Dr Jackson and his team decided to find out if the birds might be using the technique to save energy by measuring the amount of power generated by the flight muscles when birds flew and when they were flap-running.

They surgically implanted electrodes into the flight muscles of pigeons - closely related birds that often flap and run even though they are very good fliers.

The electrodes measured muscle activity in the birds as they flapped and ran up ramps of varying inclines, and as they flew parallel to those same ramps.

The team was most surprised by what they saw when they compared the birds' muscle activity on a ramp with a 65 degree incline.

Running up that ramp, explained Dr Jackson, "required about 10% as much power from the flight muscles" as flying.

"The signal was imperceptible at first, and we actually thought we had a problem with the recording equipment. But when we zoomed in, there it was, about a tenth the magnitude that it was during flight," he said.

"The birds seemed to be using hardly any power to flap their wings as they ran up the slopes."

The method, the researchers say, is also an essential learning step for fledging chicks.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

Scientific American: Autism in Another Ape

2011-12-07T17:30:00.006-06:00

Every time I hear anyone proclaim how unique humans are, I want to correct them. We are animals just like any other animal. And we have some very close cousins out there that demonstrate this all the time. It's just that most of us are in our own little worlds that we don't ever notice.

Autism in Another Ape
Rambunctious one-year-old Teco, a third-generation captive-born bonobo at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, has an ape’s usual fondness for games and grapes. But perhaps because of trauma from a difficult birth (his mother was in labor for 60 hours) or a genetic predisposition, Teco is different from his bonobo peers in ways that resemble autism in young children. He could not cling to his mother or nurse the way healthy young apes do instinctively, mimicking the aversion to physical contact seen in children with autism. Teco also tends to fixate on shiny objects and avoids eye contact, and he has trouble coordinating his four limbs. A genetic analysis of bonobos, already under way, may shed light on Teco’s condition and offer new perspectives on autism’s genetic roots in humans.

AIDS Vaccine?

2011-12-05T17:24:00.014-06:00

I'd like to present two papers without too much comment. These speak to trials and tests on the progress of an HIV vaccine.

MVA-B phase I

MVA-B phase I JVirol

Opting Out of Vaccinations...

2011-12-03T12:14:00.000-06:00

Again, Todd W. has the pulse on this issue.

As he also notes

The only quibble I really have is that the quote from Jennifer Margulis went unaddressed:,
Many of the vaccines are unnecessary and public health officials don't honestly know what the effect of giving so many vaccines to such small children really are...

Most, if not all, of the vaccines are necessary for public health and prevention of disease. And the effects of the vaccine schedule can be seen from the long history of safe use.

Technical Difficulties

2011-12-03T10:57:00.000-06:00

If you follow this blog and have been expecting updates, my apologies. I had a busy month lined up for November as far as my personal life, so I queued up a bunch of posts and then let them go on autopilot. Sadly, instead of setting them up to publish automatically, they saved as drafts and never made it to published status. I am about to rectify that situation, so bear with me as a bunch of posts pop up rather suddenly.

Whooping Cough in New York

2011-12-02T11:50:00.001-06:00

Many people assume that people dying from preventable diseases only happens in third world countries, and places where public health is in the dark ages. Well, I suppose if the anti-vax pro-disease nutters have their way, the US may become that type of place.

NY whooping cough cases highest since 1999

New York - Early this year, 13 diagnosed cases of whooping cough were in Smithtown, New York. As the year progressed, that number would increase drastically to 216 cases throughout the entire Suffolk County.

This is the highest number of whooping cough cases reported in the area since 1999. Also called pertussis, whooping cough is highly contagious and can cause serious illness in infants who are too young to be vaccinated with the five required shots. Families with newborns should have teenagers and adults vaccinated.

For Infants and Children: In the US, the recommended pertussis vaccine for children is called DTaP. This is a safe and effective combination vaccine that protects children against three diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. For maximum protection against pertussis, children need five DTaP shots. The first three shots are given at 2, 4, and 6 months of age. The fourth shot is given between 15 and 18 months of age, and a fifth shot is given when a child enters school, at 4–6 years of age. If a 7-10 year old is not up-to-date with DTaP vaccines, a dose of Tdap should be given before the 11-12 year old check up.(CDC)

Whooping cough is caused by bacteria called Bordetella pertussis, and is one of the most common of all vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States. If not properly vaccinated with the DTaP vaccinations, over half of infants under one year of age will end up in the hospital with lung infection; one out of 100 will develop convulsions from the disease; and another one out of 100 will die.

A Photon in the Darkness: “Latex causes autism”

2011-12-02T10:57:00.000-06:00

Well, I hope that this is actually a sign that the anti-vax pro-disease loonies are finally running out of steam, and are grasping at straws like a drowning man grabs at anything in their death throes... A Photon in the Darkness has this to say about this crazy idea:

Let the Nonsense begin!:

Before May of this year, I was in blissfiul ignorance of the “hypothesis” that latex - specifically, latex in vaccines (of course) - was the cause (or a cause) of regressive autism. But then Orac (of the Respectful Insolence ‘blog) posted a short notice (here) of a press release for the book Vaccine Delivery and Autism (The Latex Connection), by Dochiak and Dunn. It was a small post, with only a minimum of “respectful insolence” added, since the premise of the book seemed laughable enough. The press release described the authors thusly:
“Michael J. Dochniak and Denise H. Dunn are leading experts in the etiology of allergy-induced regressive autism and have previously authored a book for Nova Science, entitled ‘Allergies and Autism.’ Dochniak is a scientific researcher in the field of Hevea brasiliensis natural-latex induced autism. Dunn is an early childhood educator who works closely with autistic children and adults, and has been teaching for more than 15 years.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t too hard to check on Mr. Dochniak’s credentials as a “scientific researcher in the field of Hevea brasiliensis natural-latex-induced autism”. In reality, he has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and psychology (both awarded in 1985) and has published - apart from the two books - one article in Medical Hypotheses. That article - needless to say - had no data. In fact, Mr. Dochniak’s only “research” into autism has been in the library and on the Internet, although he has written a few articles on latex for adhesive and sealant trade newsletters and is on a number of patents and patent applications, including one for a “Method to affect the development of autism spectrum disorders” (#20070034214).

A day after the post, the lead author, Mr. Michael Dochniak, appeared in the comment thread and - as they say - hilarity ensued.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

Harpocrates Speaks: Varicella Vaccination Among Older Kids Protects Infants

2011-11-29T12:07:00.002-06:00

Another timely article from Todd W.

Varicella Vaccination Among Older Kids Protects Infants
Turning on the news this morning, I was greeted with a story that caught my ear. Published online, ahead of print, a new study in the journal Pediatrics, "Varicella in Infants After Implementation of the US Varicella Vaccination Program", looked at the incidence of varicella (chickenpox) among infants under 12 months of age.

The varicella vaccine was approved in 1995 and is recommended for all children aged 12 months to 12 years. It is a "live" virus vaccine, meaning that the vaccine uses intact, though weakened, virus particles that grant immunity without causing full-blown disease. Vaccines of this sort are generally more effective than "killed" virus vaccines, which only use part of the virus. Because of the approved age range for the vaccine, it does not provide direct protection to infants under 12 months of age, but it can provide protection through herd immunity.

So what did the researchers find?

In the observational study, the authors looked at chickenpox incidence among infants under 12 months of age from 1995 to 2008. The population was broken up into 0-5 months and 6-11 months. They found that incidence among the total infant population fell 89.7% over the period examined. They also noted that complications and severity of disease was lower in the younger age group vs. the older group. The authors speculate that this may have been due to maternal antibodies (which generally provide some protection to infants for about 6 months).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

Dr Bob is only looking out for you (or himself)

2011-11-28T11:16:00.000-06:00

The Sears' website has been modified again, and here is Dr. Bob himself, explaining the origin of his alternative vaccination schedule. It is really all about parental concerns (not about his own flirtations with the anti-vaccine crowd, or the fact that his "alternative" schedule almost doubles the number of office visits for vaccine purposes at $75 to $200 dollar a pop). Good to know, right?

Death due to lack of immunity

2011-11-26T11:14:00.004-06:00

I don't think I can, or need to say anything else about this video:

Harpocrates Speaks: The Sequelae of Pox

2011-11-19T12:04:00.007-06:00

A follow up to a post by Todd W. And I am recovering beautifully from my surgery thank you.

The Sequelae of Pox
A couple weekends ago, something of a firestorm erupted among skeptical bloggers. Namely, the news about parents sending pox-laden lollipops through the mail. It was covered by Mike the Mad Biologist, Emily Willingham, Reuben, Tara Smith, Orac and Phil Plait. Largely, the various bloggers, myself included, condemned the parents in the original story because they were knowingly sending infectious material in the mail.

Some folks in the comments of the various articles made the observation that every day, people lick envelopes, handle packages in perhaps less than sterile conditions and so, perhaps unwittingly, leave unintended presents for the recipients, not to mention the delivery personnel. How is that any different from what these parents have done?

First off, I will readily admit that what the parents were doing probably would not lead to anyone contracting chicken pox. Since the virus does not remain viable for very long at all in the environment, it would most likely be rendered harmless given the amount of time it takes the package to be mailed. Even if the pox package managed to reach its target quickly, fomites like lollipops and spit-soaked rags also are unlikely to cause an infection, as the virus is primarily spread via the respiratory system. The oral route is a bit rough on the bug, and it would likely be destroyed before it could actually cause an infection.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

The Vaccine Times: Why Kids Need the Chickenpox Vaccine

2011-11-12T11:43:00.003-06:00

The Vaccine Times pointed me at this article, so I am doing the same as they are.

Dr. Mallika's 5 Fast Facts: Why Kids Need the Chickenpox Vaccine
A new trend finds some parents giving their children candy coated with chickenpox germs in an attempt to build their immunity without a chickenpox vaccine. Here, Everyday Health's medical director explains why that's not a good idea — and why it's so important to vaccinate your kids.
By Mallika Marshall, MD

FRIDAY, Nov. 11, 2011 — You may have heard about a disturbing new trend making headlines these days — one that involves parents who buy and sell contaminated items meant to intentionally sicken their kids. Parents who don’t want to give their children the varicella vaccine for chickenpox are purchasing mail-order lollipops that have been sucked by children with chickenpox, hoping to build their kids’ immunity against the disease “naturally.” Besides being illegal, this is incredibly dangerous. First, there’s no telling what other germs or bacteria are being spread through these “pox pops.” And second, exposing your kids to the varicella virus — assuming it can even survive on the candy, which isn’t clear at this point — puts them at risk for developing chickenpox, which can be serious or, in some cases, even deadly.

The pox pops trend is a variation on the decades-old tradition of “pox parties,” where healthy kids are invited to play with infected kids to expose them to the virus. Invitations to such events have been posted on Craigslist, Facebook, and even designated pox party Web sites. The idea is certainly popular — but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

The best and safest way to protect your kids and build their immunity is to give them the chickenpox vaccine, which the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for all young people ages 12 months to 12 years. Some 6 percent of parents choose not to vaccinate their children against chickenpox out of either fear or principle, according to a recent study in Pediatrics, but research shows that’s a risky decision.

Here, five reasons to skip the pox pops and parties and get your kids vaccinated:

1. Getting the chickenpox vaccine is much safer than getting the disease. Many parents wonder whether it’s better for their child to get infected with chickenpox or to get the vaccine, and there really should be no question. The vaccine, which is given in two doses at least three months apart, usually around age 1, is made up of a weakened version of the virus that cannot cause full-blown disease. Adverse reactions are the exception, not the rule — and when they do occur, they’re generally very mild. About 20 percent will have temporary soreness or redness at the injection site, and 10 percent will have a slight fever. More serious problems like seizures are exceedingly rare: Less than .1 percent of kids who get the vaccine experience such a response, compared with 10 percent of kids who don’t get the vaccine and require medical attention for serious complications associated with chickenpox.

2. Chickenpox is no picnic — for you or your child. Even mild cases are uncomfortable and inconvenient. Most children with chickenpox first develop cold-like symptoms, followed by a fever and then as many as 500 itchy, fluid-filled blisters that begin on the head or chest and quickly spread to the rest of the body. Some unlucky kids may also experience vomiting or diarrhea. This can last for up to 10 days, during which time your child will be unable to attend school and will need to be cared for and watched for signs of infection. About 1 in 10 children will develop a complication such as pneumonia, secondary skin lesions, dehydration, or, in rare cases, encephalitis (swelling of the brain). A few may even die.

3. Not vaccinating your children puts other children at risk, too.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE LIST.

Doctor aghast as lollipops used to spread chickenpox (ctv.ca)
Some parents are idiots (bio230fall2010.wordpress.com)
Vaccine Drastically Cut Chickenpox Deaths: CDC (huffingtonpost.com)
Parents Warned Not to Give Children Chickenpox Lollipops (shoppingblog.com)
Chickenpox Lollipops? Vaccination Fears Lead to Pox Parties (inquisitr.com)

World Health Day

2011-11-11T11:11:00.010-06:00

Just a quick post for world health day:

Flu Hits 90 Million Children Under 5 Each Year
Global tally also includes 20 million kids with flu who develop potentially deadly pneumonia

FRIDAY, Nov. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Although it can be prevented with a vaccine, roughly 90 million children worlwide who are younger than 5 get the flu each year, resulting in about 1 million hospital admissions, a new study indicates.

Published in the Nov. 11 online edition of The Lancet, the research also revealed that flu-related pneumonia claimed the lives of up to 111,500 children in 2008. According to the report, 99 percent of these deaths occurred in developing countries.

CLICK HERE TO READ REST OF STORY.
Rather depressing, isn't it?

Just the Vax: Angelina is Dying

2011-11-08T11:20:00.002-06:00

An incredibly sad story that could easily have been prevented!

And another SSPE case: Angelina is dying

I had seen girl previously on a board, but the parents had not gone public until now, after Natalie's death.

Angelina caught measles in 2006 from an adult, when she was 7 months old. She recovered well - this is her before SSPE broke out:

This is her now:

Gina, Angelina's mum says (my translation):

"In February of this year, we noticed pronounced problems with our daughter. She kept falling off her bike, and had speech blockades. When this was getting worse, we went to the clinic. The diagnosis SSPE was a shock for us. Our child became dependent on care within 8 weeks. She cannot walk nor speak and needs to be tube fed. She would have entered school this year. This blow of fate is very hard for us all."

According to Sean Monks, spokesperson of the German Association of Pediatricians, this is the third case of SSPE from measles infection in infants in 2006 - in 2006 a total of 313 infants with measles were reported to the RKI (German CDC equivalent) in Berlin. One of these children died in 2007, another has been suffering from SSPE since 2009, and now Angelina is the third victim from that year.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY.

WTF?! Pox by Mail

2011-11-07T11:59:00.000-06:00

I have restrained from overtly using profanity on this site (unlike my personal site), but upon hearing about this, I was flabbergasted! And I am not the only one. Again, I am going to turn to Todd W because he said it most in alignment with how I would have said it if I had not been having surgery for removing my palm from my face...

Pox by Post
Something came to light today that made me despair for the human race. I first read it at Mike the Mad Biologist's blog. It was also covered by Emily over at The Biology Files, where Emily took a look at just who the people were that were involved. Reuben wrote about it at The Poxes Blog and Tara discussed it at Aetiology.

What could have gotten the medical and skeptical blogosphere in such an uproar? This story.

You may have heard of pox parties. These little bits of idiocy involve parents bringing their children who have not had the chickenpox over to the house of another family whose child is currently sick with chickenpox. The intent is to purposefully infect their little darlings with a disease that can become quite serious, with hospitalization rates that could be as high as 2-3 per 1,000 cases among healthy children. The reason they do this is because they have an irrational distrust of vaccines and the mistaken belief that natural infection is actually better, because, y'know, actually getting the disease and risking all the very real complications is better than a shot that makes you immune without getting ill or suffering the much more common secondary nastiness from the wild virus.

Well, the recklessness of people like this has gone up a notch. You see, thanks to vaccines, the rate of infection with the varicella virus has declined dramatically, so that it is much more difficult today to find a child with the chickenpox. This makes pox parties a bit harder to find. These paragons of wisdom (that's sarcasm, in case you missed it) have decided to mail the virus to each other. That's right. They're sending lollipops, spit, toys and other contaminated crap to each other. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, they're breaking the law. Varicella is classified in biosafety risk group 2, meaning the those working with it must be trained in how to handle it and follow certain protocols to prevent inadvertently letting it out into the environment. In order to ship material like this, the sender must be trained in proper packaging and handling of the material, and trained carriers with a permit can transport the package. Clearly, though, the law does not matter to these twits, since in response to someone pointing out that it was a Federal offense, one woman answered:
"Tuck it inside a zip lock baggy and then put the baggy in the envelope :) Don't put anything identifying it as pox."
But it isn't just the law about which they are clueless. They have absolutely no thought to the risk involved. These items may be carrying more than just the varicella virus. Hepatitis A and B viruses, meningococcal bacteria and other baddies may also be lurking on that tempting lolli they just received. They are putting their children at significant risk of very serious injury or, yes, even death, all because they think they know better than people who have spent their lives studying biology, immunology and infectious diseases.

But it isn't just their kids that they are putting at risk. They are also jeopardizing the mail carrier who picks up the package, the postal workers sorting things to the right trucks, the drivers that transport the packages, the mail carriers at the receiving end--in short, everyone who handles it along the way. Should any of their ziplock baggies fail, so much for containing the contagion. And what about the external packaging? I'm guessing these people are not practicing the best of sterile handling techniques. They have no clue whether the people who handle their mail may be immune compromised. If they have HIV, are on immunosuppressants due to receiving a transplant or have suppressed immune systems due to age or cancer treatment, they are at very high risk of serious complications from being infected. Even worse, these nitwits aren't content to leave it at just chickenpox; there are some who are even looking to get measles, mumps or rubella samples by mail.

The sheer arrogant ignorance of these people enrages me, to the point that I'm going to do something that I try to avoid, at least on the blog. I try to keep my language clean, but these assholes have no clue what the hell they're doing and the kind of shitstorm they could potentially unleash. For anyone that thinks that this is a good idea, I have just one question for you:

[This bit redacted, now that I've had a little bit of time to cool down. Just imagine a cursing, slug-related insult here, with apologies to slugs.]

I seriously hope that the police and FBI are investigating this issue and will bring the full force of law to bear on these sad wastes of human intellect. And who do we have to thank for thinking like this? People like Jenny McCarthy, Barbara Loe Fisher and the NVIC, Generation Rescue and Age of Autism and all the other anti-vaccine activists out there who advocate for natural infection and preach fear of vaccines. Any harm that comes of this idiocy can be laid at your feet.

Harpocrates Speaks: A Little Bit of Poison in a Sweet, Inviting Wrapper

2011-11-05T11:55:00.000-05:00

I will avoid Delta Airlines if I can from now on. They may be entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts, and they get a lot of facts wrong as Todd W. outlines in this post:

A Little Bit of Poison in a Sweet, Inviting Wrapper
If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't, why aren't you?), you have likely already heard about a PSA put out by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) and Mercola.com, two slick anti-vaccine organizations. The PSA is being run on Delta Airlines flight. You can read more about it at Skepchick and Respectful Insolence. The Skepchick article includes steps you can take to combat the propaganda, including a link to a petition to get Delta to stop showing it on their flights.

The video is available on YouTube (Update: It looks like NVIC removed the video at that link, but it is still up here and here [Update: looks like it has been removed from Facebook, now, too]), but cannot be embedded. Comments have also been turned off, perhaps to avoid inconvenient critiques from science-minded individuals. On the surface, it appears to be pretty good advice, so why all the fuss?

Because the PSA includes some iffy information and, more importantly, directs people to the NVIC web site, which is rife with misinformation and distortions of fact.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE POST.

The Vaccine Times: Herd Immunity

2011-11-01T11:35:00.000-05:00

This is a BRILLIANT article at The Vaccine Times. It does a great job of explaining what herd immunity is, and why it is important. I can't just copy part of it here and call it good, this is just too important. I urge you to go over to The Vaccine Times and support them in any way you can.

The term “herd immunity” elicits strong responses from some in the anti-vaccine camp. Perhaps some do not like the use of the word “herd” because of its association with sheep, or other such animals that do the bidding of their herders. Or perhaps, and this is my belief, it is because the very idea of herd immunity rests upon the premise that vaccines are effective at stopping disease progression, and vaccine efficacy is one of the major things anti-vaxers deny.

Many times they demand proof that herd immunity exists. In and of itself, that request is not unreasonable. After all, scientific proof is the standard by which we measure claims; so what sort of support is there for the idea of herd immunity?

What is herd immunity?

First and foremost let us quickly define what herd immunity is. Basically the idea of herd immunity says that in large groups of individuals, in regards to contagious diseases (those that spread from individual to individual), if a large enough number of individuals is immune to the disease, the chances that a chain of disease transmission will be interrupted are very high, resulting in self-contained, small outbreaks that will die out quickly. Thus, even individuals that are not immune will be protected by the wall that is set up by the vaccinated ones. The herd’s immunity shields those that have no individual immunity.

The herd immunity threshold (the number of immune individuals in a herd at which level the disease cannot persist) varies depending on how contagious the disease in question is, how efficacious the vaccine is, the exposure rates etc. For example, the herd immunity threshold for pertussis is 92-94%, whereas for diphtheria it is 85%.

Here is a nice infographic from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showing the concept of herd immunity at work:

Credit: NIAID

The Idea of Herd Immunity Makes Sense

Let us think of two extreme scenarios.

Scenario 1 – No One is Immune

If 100% of the population has no immunity, the disease will spread rapidly. Everyone who is exposed will get sick, and besides those individuals who are completely isolated from society, everyone will get sick.

Scenario 2 – Everyone is Immune

If 100% of the population is immune, the disease will not spread and it will die off quickly. Every person who is exposed to it will be safe and no one will get sick.

Reality

In reality, the level of immunity in a given population, a.k.a herd, will be somewhere in between 0% and 100%, and the level of disease spread will be somewhere in between “everyone will get sick” and “no one will get sick”. In other words some will get sick. The closer you are to either extreme scenario the closer the “some” will be to that extreme’s outcome. Therefore the less people are vaccinated, the more the disease will spread. Vice-versa, the more people are vaccinated the less the disease will spread.

So from a logical point of view, if you accept that vaccines are efficacious in protecting against disease, you must reach the conclusion that herd immunity must exist, to some extend.

But what kind of proof do we have that in reality such protective effects do exist whenever we vaccinate large numbers of individuals?

The Math of Herd Immunity

Now, some folks can doubt the idea of herd immunity, but I think they will not doubt math. We can infact use math to come up with a formula for herd immunity. Here are the details:

R0 (The Basic Reproduction Number of the disease) - The average number of other individuals each infected individual will infect in a population that has no immunity to the disease. (for example, each infected individual on average will infect 13 others)

S - The proportion of the population who are susceptible to the disease, i.e. neither immune nor infected (for example, 15 % of the population)

In order for a disease not to die off, at the very least each infected individual should infect another individual. Now, R0 tells us the number of people that our infected person would infect, if everyone he came in contact with had no immunity. However in real life some of his contacts will be immune, and only S of those contacts will have no immunity. So our infected individual will come in contact with S vulnerable people, of which only R0 will get infected. Since we said that we need at least 1 new infection to keep the disease spread alive that means that:

R0 x S = 1

Anything above 1 and the disease will grow and become an epidemic; anything below 1 it will eventually die off.

Remember, what we’re trying to calculate is the herd immunity threshold. Let us denote that by HI. Keep in mind that HI denotes the percentage of the population that is immune to the disease (for example 78% or 0.78). Also keep in mind that S denoted the percentage of the population that is not immune to the disease (for example 22% or 0.22). Therefore, if we add HI and S up we get the full population, which in percentage terms is 1.

HI + S = 1

Or, alternatively:

S = 1 – HI

Substituting (1-HI) for S in our first equation you get:

R0 x ( 1 – HI ) = 1

Solving for HI in this equation give us:

HI = 1 – 1/R0

So let’s assume that for disease X, R0 = 10. In other words if everyone was not immunized, an infected person could be expected to infect another 10 people. This formula would tell us that the Herd Immunity threshold would have to be:

HI = 1 – 1/10 = 0.9 or alternatively 90%

If we assume that vaccine efficacy is 95%, this would mean that we would have to vaccinate at least 95% of the population to reach the required herd immunity threshold (because 0.95 * 0.95 = 0.90).

And there you have it, an admittedly over-simplified, bare bones, dirty calculation of the herd immunity threshold, and how it depends on the reproduction number of the given disease. In real life, scientists must take many more variables into account, things such as Average Age at which the disease is contracted, Average Life Expectancy etc, but this gives you a good idea of the general way in which those herd immunity levels are calculated. The numbers are calculated based on existing statistical information; they are not pulled out of thin air.

So far we’ve shown that the concept of Herd Immunity makes sense and can be derived mathematically. But we still need to show that it works in the real world. Do we have examples, studies showing the herd immunity at work?

The Scientific Evidence

Infant Rotavirus Vaccination May Provide Indirect Protection to Older Children and Adults in the United States, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2011. DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jir492

This is a study which looked at rotavirus discharge and cause-unspecified gastroenteritis hospital data from a sample of 1,000 hospitals in 42 states in the U.S. Pre-vaccine era (2000-2006) discharge numbers were compared with the first full vaccination year (2008) data. Here are some of the key findings, but keep in mind that, as of that time, the only age group with any significant vaccine coverage was the < 1 years old. Coverage for older children was negligible, a.k.a the other age groups were unvaccinated, thus providing an excellent test sample for herd immunity.

Rotavirus discharges saw significant reductions. Specifically by age group:

0-4 – 78% reduction
5-14 – 71% reduction
15-24 – 65% reduction

Cause-unspecified gastroenteritis discharges also saw a statistically significant reduction. Specifically by age group:

0-4 – 39% reduction
5-14 – 29% redictopm
14-24 – 8% reduction

How do we interpret these results? This study suggests that vaccinating children aged 1 year or less against rotavirus, provides indirect protection to other age groups not only towards rotavirus itself but also towards all-cause gastroenteritis. It appears that vaccinating young children reduced disease spread in the other, non-vaccinated groups, therefore this study provides direct support to the idea of herd immunity.

Of course, since they had only one full year of vaccination data to work with (2008) it is possible that it could have been a fluke year, an unusually low rotavirus activity year to begin with, so we must be careful not to say that this study proved the protective effects of herd immunity. As we know, one study never proves anything, and these results will need to be replicated (with respect to the rotavirus vaccine). Readers are welcome to leave links in the comments to other studies that have looked at herd immunity.

Conclusion

So how do we know that herd immunity exists?

First and foremost, if one accepts that vaccines are effective in stopping disease, it is an inevitable logical conclusion. If many, many people are immune the disease will not spread too far. Those that are not vaccinated, and are surrounded by a wall of immune people, will most likely not be exposed to the virus as the spread will stop before reaching them.

Secondly, we can show mathematically how to calculate the herd immunity threshold, by taking into account well established concepts such as the basic reproduction number of the disease.

Lastly, a study was presented that showed increased protection on unvaccinated populations after introduction of the rotavirus vaccine.

To sum it up the idea of herd immunity is biologically plausible, makes sense logically, can be mathematically modeled based on uncontroversial factors and simple algebra, and is supported by scientific observations and studies.

In other words, to deny herd immunity is to deny biology, logic, common sense, math and science, all in one swoop.

Harpocrates Speaks: Just Answer the Question

2011-11-01T11:04:00.016-05:00

Todd W. (yes, that Todd W.) runs a site called Harpocrates Speaks, and he has a brilliant entry that starts of in a manner that I myslef find a great deal of confusion on. Hexactly how deluded are these people, and do they even realize that they are that deluded!

Just Answer the Question
There are times that I am truly amazed at just how seemingly clueless a person can be. Often, in dealing with alternative medicine or other pseudoscientific belief systems, individuals go to great lengths to avoid answering questions that are asked. The honest believers give it a good go, doing their best to support their beliefs with what they think are legitimate sources. Sometimes, reason breaks through and plants a little seed of critical thinking, and the believer realizes that they've fallen for a lie. On the other hand, the dishonest (and by that I mean the ones who outright lie or misrepresent things) go to great lengths to dodge direct questions. They build straw men, answering questions that were never asked. They deny and obfuscate facts. They work so incredibly hard to convince everyone that the naked emperor over there is actually clothed. Generally, they have some financial stake in it, and when push comes to shove, they quietly slink away, only to trot out their erroneous claims another day.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

I found particularly amusing Todd W.'s summation of quakery arguments as:

X causes Y
Some people with autism have Y
Therefore Y causes autism
Buy my book

And I went with just generic X and Y arguments, because they do seem to come out of the woodwork with all sorts of crackpot ideas.

Medical News Today: Flu Vaccine Protects Pregnant Woman's Baby And Does Not Cause Miscarriage

2011-10-25T11:32:00.000-05:00

I would suppose that this should go in the "Well, of course" column to rational people grounded in reality, however there has been some legitimately confusing studies that should be addressed. I for one am glad they they were studied in a rigorous and methodical manner instead of whatever quackery and woo woo the anti-vax pro-disease nutters seem intent on.

Apart from protecting a newborn infant from flu for four months, the flu vaccine does not raise the risk of miscarriage, Kathleen Neuzil, MD, member of the Infectious Disease Society of America's Pandemic Influenza Task Force explained at their 49th Annual Meeting. Various presentations at the meeting are showing that pregnant mothers are getting the message not only about the flu shot's importance, but also its safety.

A newborn whose mother was not vaccinated is particularly vulnerable to flu because he/she is more likely not to be born with protective immunity and cannot be vaccinated for at least six months. A newborn who becomes infected with influenza is at a higher risk of complications, and even death, compared to older humans.

Dr. Neuzil, MD, who is also clinical professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, said:

"Pregnant women are understandably concerned about protecting their unborn babies, which makes it all the more important for them to understand that getting a flu shot during pregnancy is an important way to protect the baby, as well as themselves. These new data on the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines is reassuring, and the increasing number of pregnant women receiving the vaccine affirms that women are hearing the message about the vaccine's benefits."

CLICK HERE TO READ REST OF ARTICLE.

Just the Vax: Follow up on my post about Natalie and SSPE

2011-10-24T17:50:00.005-05:00

One thing you gotta hand the anti-vax pro-disease nutters is their predictability...

There were two reactions to my post about Natalie's entirely preventable death from SSPE that I had put up yesterday.

One that invariably came from pro-vaccine minded parents, which was "oh, how horrible, the poor child/parents" and sometimes included "can we go after those vaccine-refusing parents"

and one that invariably came from anti-vaccine minded parents, which was "oh, how horrible, how can you call our children potential murder weapons" and sometimes included "you must be paid to post this" pharmashill accusations.

So here are some clarifications:

I don't know much about the parents who took their unvaccinated 11 year old to that pediatrician's practice. I can say with some conviction that neither Andrew Wakefield nor Jenny McCarthy had anything to do with their decision, since this happened in Germany in 1999 and their son was 11 then, so their anti-vaccine decision must have happened 10 years earlier, when neither Wakefield nor McCarthy were a topic (and they never really became one in Germany anyway). We don't know what made them not vaccinate. I am pretty sure they did not intend this to happen.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

Just the Vax: So predictable - so sad, Natalie dies of SSPE

2011-10-22T17:46:00.000-05:00

This is part 1 of a post (which actually seems to be part 1.5 even). Again, this is the ever predictable and incredibly sad story of someone dying as a result of the anti-vax pro-disease nutters... Yes, I lay this blame at their feet. Read on, and then await the next post...

We had previously reported the case of Natalie, one of the children who contracted measles from an unvaccinated preteen in their pediatrician's practice in 2000. Natalie was 11 months old at the time. She came down with SSPE in 2007 (that is actually the average time lag between measles infection in infancy and the development of this fatal measles complication), she deteriorated, fell into a "wake coma" and now passed away due to organ failure.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST AND SEE THE VIDEO.

Delaying Vaccines cause death

2011-10-20T11:27:00.000-05:00

A usual anti-vax claim is that governments are too quick to addvaccines to the schedule, usually hinting at some nefarious connections to "big pharma" or some equally wacky conspiracy position. Well, it seems that vaccines are the cheapest and most cost effective way to prevent disease and suffering, yet the anti-vax pro-disease nutters would rather have this scene repeat itself I guess:

Govt delay over vaccine led to deaths
Government delays in introducing a vaccine against meningococcal B during an epidemic in the 1990s led to "unnecessary and potentially avoidable deaths", new research says.

Research led by the University of Auckland says although the Health Ministry was fully briefed from 1996, it took another eight years for the MeNZB immunisation campaign to begin - at a point when the epidemic was already declining.

The effectiveness of the campaign was also not monitored properly, meaning it was impossible to know how much it contributed to the epidemic's end, the researchers said.

The research has been released weeks after a catch-up campaign was launched in Northland to vaccinate people against meningococcal C, which has killed three people in the region.

Two Wellington teenagers have also died of meningococcal C but a vaccination campaign in the region has been ruled out so far by health officials.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

Another One Bites the Dust

2011-10-19T00:24:00.000-05:00

Malaria has a vaccine which is reported to drop malaria infection rates by around 50%, which is cause for immense celebration.

The malaria vaccine is the first vaccine produced against a parasite rather than a pathogen and if the efficiency rate is to hold this would result in a massive drop in cases and in mortality. Roughly 800,000 people a year die from Malaria per year and a 50% infection drop would halve that.

This is without the countless man hours and pain caused by this disease, remembering that there are roughly 225 million cases of malaria per year and that malaria is a serious disease. The sheer amount of money saved in medication and treatment will be astounding particularly since the people this will benefit the most will be the poorest nations of the world who normally don't have access to the best medication.

It will be a few more years before the vaccine is released but clinical trials are promising. This is 30 years of hard work that have come to fruition even if the immunity doesn't last long.

Greg Laden's Blog: What are the adverse effects of vaccines?

2011-10-12T17:39:00.027-05:00

12,000 peer reviewed studies. I think that should say it all right there, but that still probably won't silence the liars from the anti-vax pro-disease movement... Greg goes into a lot of details on his blog post, but I wanted to pull a couple of pertinent details from his post. Again, I urge you to read his entire post on the subject, or even go to the report itself when it comes out. Amazingly (well, not really), all the adverse effects are not at all what the anti-vax pro-disease nutters would have you think. Here is a list of them (enmphasis mine):

Convincingly supported links are:

Varicella Vaccine:
Disseminated Oka VZV without other organ involvement (got chicken pox)
Disseminated OK VZV with subsequent infection resulting in Pneumonia, Menningitis, or Hepatitis (got chickenbox, bad)
Vaccine strain viral reactivation without other organ involvement
Vaccine Strain viral reactivation with subsequent infection resulting in menningitis or encephalitis
Anaphylaxis (a multi-system immune reaction, very variable but considered dangerous)

MMR Vaccine:
Measles Inclusion Body encaphalitis
Ferbile seizures
Anaphylaxis

Influenza Vaccine:
Anaphylaxis

Hepatitis A Vaccine
Nothing Noted

Hepatitis B Vaccine:
Anaphylaxis

HPV Vaccine:
Nothing noted

DT-IT and aP containing vaccines:
Anaphylaxis
Meningococcal Vaccine:
Anaphylaxis

Injection-related events:
Deltoid Bursitis (arm hurts)
Syncope (fainting)

Keep in mind that most of these effects are rare and many are minor. The main effect linked to these vaccines is immunity to a potentially deadly disease.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE.

Suffice it to say, there is no connection with autism. Again, will that stop the lies? Of course not, lies are not supported by any facts, whereas science is.

Keep in mind, the adverse effects from vaccines runs at about 1 or 2 per MILLION. Whereas the adverse effects for a disease is in the neighborhood of 1 in 500 to 1 in 10,000 (depending on the disease).

The Vaccine Times: American Academy of Pediatrics Updates Pertussis Booster Vaccine Guidelines

2011-10-10T17:49:00.020-05:00

The post I put up the other day about Pertussis, while it may seem related, isn't to this story. The AAP and CDC do not just rush out and willy nnilly change their schedules and recommendations. It is a methodical and well thought out process with great rigor and good reasons behind it. The CDC even tries to reassure folks about this, as does the AAP, but it's an uphill battle against the lies and distortions of the anti-vax pro-disease nutters. Anyway, the AAP wants to prevent Pertussis (my emphasis):

Pertussis, a.k.a. whooping cough is a nasty disease. It is particularly merciless with our youngest. Last year in California 10 babies died, of which 9 were under 2 months of age and were thus too young to be vaccinated with the first of the 5 doses of the DTaP vaccine. Thus, it is imperative that we do all we can to protect the youngest in our midst from this deadly disease.

In line with this need for extra protection for our children, the American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its guidelines about the use of the pertussis booster (Tdap) vaccine. In light of the recent news that immunity from the vaccine might wane sooner than previously thought, these updated recommendations become that much more important.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

The Vaccine Times: Whooping Cough Vaccine Protection Might Wane Sooner Than Previously Thought

2011-10-08T17:43:00.014-05:00

Science is about examining, and re-examining information and data. That is why it is dynamic (and not static and dogmatic despite the claims of denialists of all sorts). As of late, Pertussis (or Whooping Cough as it is also know) has had a serious resurgence amongst numerous populations. In part it is due to the anti-vax pro-disease nutters spreading their lies, but there may be some other factors that play into it. So a paper has been presented that I found out about at The Vaccine Times:

According to new research by Dr. David Witt, presented at the American Society for Microbiology conference in Chicago on Monday, the protection conferred by the whooping cough vaccine, as currently administered might wane quicker than previously thought. His study suggests that the vaccine’s protection might considerably wane as soon as 3 years after receipt of the last dose.

The study looked at 15,000 children in Marin County, California, including 132 who got whooping cough last year. It found that children who had gone three years or more since the last of their five original shots were up to 20 times more likely to become infected than children who had been more recently vaccinated. The biggest number of cases was in children 8 to 12 years old. The CDC’s own studies also show a drop off in protection, however not as steep as Dr. Witt’s drop.

So what does all this mean? Given that this study is relatively small, even its authors agree that it needs further confirmation. If the results hold however, it might mean that the time between booster shots may need to be reduced. Alternatively, a more effective vaccine might be developed, although I cannot say how realistic that scenario might be. Or it may not lead to any changes. Although protection wanes, generally speaking vaccinated children have less severe cases of illness than unvaccinated kids, so the waning protection might not justify a change in the booster shot timing or frequency. It is simply too early to say at this point.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE!

I must note, the study took place in a region of the world where the anti-vax pro-disease nutters have a great deal of sway. I wonder if their actions also contributed to this particular study results?

Stat Girl: Educated otherwise smart people are immune to logic!

2011-10-06T17:37:00.014-05:00

I found this blog to be particularly entertaining and worthwhile, so I wanted to popularize one of her posts. Her style is refreshing, forthright, honest, and she pulls no punches. As an example, she has this gem (emphasis mine):

I understand the counties with a lower population of English speakers who may have difficulty accessing vaccines, but then we have places that are basically where "rich white people" live. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/08/vaccine_exemptions_in_california_threate.php

They commit crimes against logic and science everyday that they send their unimmunized petri-dish spawn to schools where children with compromised immune systems and newborn siblings attend.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE POST! (Trust me, it's worth it!)

Just the Vax: Polio in China

2011-10-04T17:20:00.002-05:00

So I am a little behind in getting some of this news out, but I figured that it's important to repeat it, even if the news isn't fresh or new. As many are probably aware, because of the vaccination program throughout the world, smallpox has been considered eliminated. Polio was nearly to that status. Sadly, it is not yet. Currently there is an outbreak in China.

As of 13 September 2011, nine cases of polio have been reported in the Xinjiang region. There has been one death. All of the cases had wild-type polio 1 (WPV-1) which originated from Pakistan. Xinjiang shares a border with Pakistan where polio is endemic, along with other neighbouring countries, India, Afghanistan and Tajikistan that are also polio-endemic.

Four children between the ages of four months and 2 years were infected in July, data for the other five are unknown but appear to be all infants, including the one fatality. This is the first outbreak of polio in China since 1999, when an importation from India was identified. The last indigenous case was in 1994. An intense surveillance and vaccination programme has been launched in the region in hopes that the spread can be contained. However, given that paralytic polio occurs in ~1% of polio cases and of that, 5-10% result in death and there were at least four cases of paralysis and one death, it is more than likely that hundreds, if not thousands of cases have gone undetected.

Now, there are some countries where the WHO does consider polio eliminated. Most countries throughout the world as a matter of fact. Sadly the United States is NOT such a country (along with China, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan)! I had been, but now we are facing the public health danger of anti-vax pro-disease propaganda, and we are having our public health standards dragged back to the last century.

Harpocrates Speaks: Speaking of Flu

2011-10-02T17:15:00.010-05:00

So yesterday I made a post about a CDC re-evaluation of their flu model. It seems that Harpocrates Speaks also covered this story. But as usual, Todd went into a bit more detail, and I wanted to get that info out there (although I find it funny that both he and I keyed on very similar ideas in that post. Almost as if the anti-vax pro-disease nutters are predictable in their lies). From his post on this, if you scroll down a bit, he starts:

Speaking of the Flu

While we're on the subject, as temperatures drop, the air becomes drier and people start to congregate indoors more frequently, flu season starts to ramp up. Conditions are becoming ripe for transmission of the virus, and hospitals are places where we really cannot afford to spread the flu. There are a lot of individuals whose immune systems are less able to cope with infection, so even illnesses that might be mild in a healthy individual may become life-threatening. Whether the patients are walk-ins or in for long term care, children, adults or the elderly, it is vital for hospital employees to be vaccinated against the flu.

I'm not just talking about the doctors and nurses, here. I mean everyone that works in the hospital. At the very least, anyone who spends any amount of time in a patient area (waiting room, exam room, elevators, hallways, stairwells, lobbies) should be immunized if they have no medical reasons to the contrary. Hospitals and their employees should take steps to protect the health and well-being of their patients, and that includes taking measures to reduce the risk of infection.

I decided to take a look online to see if I could find any recent reports of vaccine rates among hospital employees and stumbled upon a survey of Maryland Hospital Healthcare Worker Influenza Vaccination (PDF). This was a self-reported, web-based survey of Maryland hospitals looking at total number of employees who received a vaccine, number that exempted out for medical reasons, number that exempted out for religious reasons and number that declined immunization but did not provide a reason, compared to the total number of employees at the hospital. Some hospitals had mandatory immunization policies with consequences for non-compliance (such as loss of privileges or even being fired), some had mandatory policies but no consequences for non-compliance and still others had no vaccination policy.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE!
Good charts, graphs, and actual data there as opposed to simple assertions.

CDC Actually Follows Scientific Methods

2011-10-01T12:14:00.000-05:00

The CDC has released a correction to one of their reports. Granted, it is a post hoc release, but the thing about it is that the CDC has actually revised the estimate because they realized their mistake, and they are honest about it. This is really the greatest strength of science. To refine things and get better results as information, methods, and knowledge evolves (see what I did there?). I have never seen an anti-vax pro-disease nutter actually re-evaluate their position, no matter how much data is actually presented to them.

So here is the CDC Press release (emphasis mine):

Notice to Readers: Revised Estimates of the Public Health Impact of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Vaccination
In the May 20, 2011, report, "Ten Great Public Health Achievements --- United States, 2001--2010," on page 621, preliminary estimates of the impact of public health interventions during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic were presented as follows: "These public health interventions prevented an estimated 5--10 million cases, 30,000 hospitalizations, and 1,500 deaths (1)." These estimates were derived using combined data from two sources: 1) an unpublished CDC model for estimating the impact of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine on averting cases, hospitalizations, and deaths during the 2009--10 influenza season and 2) a model for estimating the impact of antiviral treatment in averting hospitalizations and deaths during the 2009--10 season (2). As a result of a programming error, the model used to estimate the impact of vaccination did not adequately adjust for the decreasing risk for disease as the pandemic progressed, and thus the impact of vaccination was overestimated.

The corrected estimates for the combined impact from vaccine and antiviral treatment are as follows: 713,000 to 1.5 million cases, 12,300 to 23,000 hospitalizations, and 620 to 1,160 deaths averted. Of these, 713,000 to 1.5 million cases, 3,900 to 10,400 hospitalizations, and 200 to 520 deaths were averted as a result of the vaccination campaign (CDC, unpublished data, 2011), whereas the use of influenza antiviral medications is estimated to have prevented another 8,400 to 12,600 hospitalizations and another 420 to 640 deaths (2).

It is important to note that the error does not involve nor pertain to the effectiveness of the 2009 H1N1 vaccine, nor to estimates of the burden of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which resulted in approximately 43 million to 89 million cases, 195,000 to 403,000 hospitalizations, and 8,900 to 18,300 deaths, including 910 to 1,880 deaths among children aged <18 years, during April 2009--April 2010 (3). CDC-supported evaluations have shown that the vaccine was effective in preventing influenza medical visits during the pandemic (4). However, because there was early widespread circulation of the 2009 H1N1 virus, many persons in the United States became ill before vaccine was available.

CDC continues to work on developing and evaluating statistical models for estimating the impact of influenza vaccination in order to develop better programs and ways to monitor the impact of those programs. CDC expects this work might lead to future publications that provide additional impact estimates.
References
CDC. Ten great public health achievements---United States, 2001--2010, MMWR 2011;60:619--23.
Atkins CY, Patel A, Taylor TH Jr, et al. Estimating effect of antiviral drug use during pandemic (H1N1) 2009 outbreak, United States. Emerg Infect Dis 2011;17:1591--8.
Shrestha SS, Swerdlow DL, Borse RH, et al. Estimating the burden of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) in the United States (April 2009---April, 2010). Clin Infect Dis 2011;52:S75--82.
Griffin MR, Monto AS, Belongia EA, et al. Effectiveness of non-adjuvanted pandemic influenza A vaccines for preventing pandemic influenza acute respiratory illness visits in 4 U.S. communities. PLoS One 2011;6:e23085.

It's refreshing to see that there is a scientific method being adhered to. If nothing else, that should be a reason for you to actually listen to the CDC over the dogmatic denialists of the anti-vax pro-disease movement.

Who wants Smallpox Back?

2011-09-18T17:27:00.008-05:00

Anyone manage to recall that smallpox has been declared "eradicated" in the world? Is this such a bad thing? I still have a smallpox scar since I was born in Sweden shortly after the smalpox scare in Stockholm. Again, I think too many people have forgotten what life was like before vaccines. That is to say, these diseases killed and disfigured millions, and we still had autism (they just called those people "difficult", retarded, anti-social, etc.)...

I take it you'd like to keep this disease eradicated, and possibly get rid of a few more? The advocate the responsible and reality based approach of real medicine which includes vaccines.

NBC Today: Doctors will refuse to see unvaccinated?

2011-09-16T17:23:00.007-05:00

Some doctors are taking a stand. While viscerally I agree with this policy, keep in mind that there are some people who just can't get vaccines for health reasons (which is why everyone else should ensure herd immunity, a fact that escapes the pro-disease nutters). I hope that instead of taking a black and white approach, there is some common sense applied to this policy.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Harpocrates Speaks: A Parent's Story of Vaccine Reaction

2011-09-14T17:15:00.002-05:00

I am only going to provide the link to this story and urge you to read the entire post as well as the comments! I also speak as a parent that has a child diagnosed on the autism spectrum, but still had her vaccinated as per the schedule. Thankfully, she had no reactions!

A Parent's Story of Vaccine Reaction

Please share more of your stories with Todd W. if you would. Thank you.

7.1 Percent Of Marin Parents Refuse To Inoculate Their Children

2011-09-12T17:03:00.009-05:00

This will not turn out well for these residents in the long run. Purell^(R) has no effect on measles and pretty much all the rest of the diseases that vaccines actually provide real protection against.

LARKSPUR, Calif. -- When a Larkspur woman’s healthy two-year-old heads off to pre-school she’ll do so without any vaccinations, a decision that has been viewed as controversial by many parents and health officials.

“I decided that I did not want to vaccinate her,” Sondra Kleghorn said. “I believe that vaccinations can cause more harm than good.”

Kleghorn said she doesn't talk about her decision with many people because like religion and politics, it's personal and controversial.

Kleghorn is just one of many Marin residents who have said no to vaccines for their children.

According to the Marin County Health Department, two percent of parents in California opted out of having their children vaccinated.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE!

It's sad to see this sort of ignorance endanger someone who is too young to defend themselves from the bad decisions of an adult that is frankly just plain wrong. And because so many adults use Purell^(R) incorrectly, in the end it will probably do more harm than good for their families... The misguided in-expert opinions of the masses are not a rational approach to issues like these...

Chicken Pox? Not a threat, right?

2011-09-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

So I'm sure many of you have heard of those "Catch the Pox" parties, or even attended them in your younger days. Of course,science has made advances. Things change. People don't need to go to these parties and catch the disease. And this young lady could probably tell you that she would much rather have her hand back!

The National Institute of Health lists these possible complications:

Newborns are at risk for severe infection, if they are exposed and their mothers are not immune.
Women who get chickenpox during pregnancy are at risk for congenital infection of the fetus.
A secondary infection of the blisters may occur.
Encephalitis is a serious, but rare complication.
Reye's syndrome, pneumonia, myocarditis, and transient arthritis are other possible complications of chickenpox.
Cerebellar ataxia may appear during the recovery phase or later. This is characterized by a very unsteady walk.

Just keep this list in mind. Again, we so readily forget what things were like 50-60 years ago when people actually worried about these diseases, and you were reminded of the terrible penalties in schools, at the shopping centers, etc. I would much rather have these things be memories and historical documents, but the anti-vax pro-disease nutters seem to want to bring these things back in actuality. I wonder if they own stock in the manufacture of iron lungs, crutches, and the like?

Measles in Minnesota

2011-09-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

The Health Department in Minnesota is busy it seems. They recently reported:

Three cases of measles in Minnesota have been confirmed during the month of August. The first case was an unvaccinated 12-month-old who acquired infection in Kenya. The second case was an unvaccinated 15-month-old who was exposed to the first case. Both cases were unvaccinated. A third case was confirmed on August 25 in a 43-year-old adult female with unknown vaccination history who was exposed to the first case in a health care setting. The third case was identified through public health follow-up of exposed persons. All three cases are residents of Dakota County. These cases are not related to the recent outbreak in Hennepin County.

So of course, now I am wondering about what is going on in Hennepin County.

Outbreak included 20 cases of measles linked to an individual who acquired infection in Kenya.

And just in case anyone thinks that Measles is a nuisance disease, here is a list of complications that come along with it (oh how soon we forget!):

Complications with measles are relatively common, ranging from relatively mild and less serious diarrhea, to pneumonia, Otitis media and acute encephalitis (and rarely subacute sclerosing panencephalitis); corneal ulceration leading to corneal scarring. Complications are usually more severe in adults who catch the virus. While the vast majority of patients survive measles, complications occur fairly frequently, and may include bronchitis, and panencephalitis which is potentially fatal.

Mortality in developed countries is ~1/1000. In sub-Saharan Africa, mortality is ~10%. In cases with complications, the rate may rise to 20–30%. On average, ~450 children die every day from measles.

Evilution II - Caveman Boogaloo

2011-08-30T02:17:00.000-05:00

Bryan Fischer joins the three pronged attack on Evilution where he has four points that disprove evolution and thus prove Governor Rick Perry as awesome and on the ball, not a backward hick with no knowledge of science.

Bryan Fischer is normally a hate filled sorry excuse for a human being whose crusade to deny homosexuals basic rights is well known. But here he dabbles his feet in the murky waters of creationism to defend Rick Perry which just is pathetic. He parrots out old hackneyed defences of creationism that simply don't even stand up to the mildest of scrutiny.

That makes me a Sad Panda.

Perry’s answer will help him, not hurt him, with the electorate. Even after almost a century of brainwashing and indoctrination in the government re-education camps called “schools,” only 19 percent of the general public believes that life developed without any assistance or direction from a Creator. That number drops to just eight percent among Republicans. That eight percent can happily throw their vote away on Mr. Huntsman, which will quadruple his total.

Again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record... "Are Americans Seriously Proud that Just 20% of them believe in the science of biology? This is like saying "After 100 years of education our public still don't understand basic science. It's like being proud of believing in witchcraft. It's vile and its parasitical and it ensures that the average american has no basic understanding of science.

It helps that we rewarded Darwin by putting him on
our Money.

And this plugs into something I have always said. Science education should be compulsory and should be part of the SATS. The SATS focus on Verbal/Non Verbal reasoning is fine but frankly its not enough. Mathematics is all fine but frankly the really useful piece of education that our schools do is Science. A basic understanding of how our world works so that people like Mr. Bryan Fischer cannot say things such as "Only 1 out of 5 people believe in biology, the rest believe in magic".

If Bryan Fischer tried that in the UK, politicians would be lining up to tear apart the candidate he gave support to because we do teach biology at our GCSEs (the equivalent of the SATS) and there is even the choice of doing biology as an individual GCSE as opposed to a collated science GCSE (worth 2 other subjects). And it shows not in the belief of people vis a vis atheism but the understanding that biology works. Our quacks have to work harder to pretend to be scientists. I find it shocking but it figures, Mr. Fischer's faith believes that the original sin is the acquisition of knowledge. It's only fair that he revels in ignorance and drags down others to his level.

With that in mind let's demolish ignorance with the 2x4 of knowledge.

The 2X4 of Knowledge looks like a regular 2X4.
(from the very excellent Basic Instructions)

Before we start we need to correct one little thing that Mr. Fischer says...

Before we even start, we ought to notice that, if evolution is true, there would be no way to know it. Because evolution teaches that everything that exists is the product of the random collision of atoms, this logically includes the thoughts I am thinking about evolution. But if my thoughts are the product of the random collision of atoms, there is no reason to think that any of them are true — they just are.

Yes, your thoughts are actually due to the random motion of particles. See when you have a thought a series of neurons along a neural pathway depolarise. The nerves themselves are products of random particle movement harnessed in specific ways. The walls are rigid but the particles that make up the walls actually move around in a liquid way similar to how a droplet of oil is made up of moving oil particles yet it can sit inside a discrete area if surrounded by water. For instance in this case the neuron has more calcium ions inside the cell than outside via an active transport system that uses energy (in a molecular currency called ATP), when triggered the cell depolarises by opening channels to calcium only. The ions randomly move but since there is more inside the cell than outside, more calcium moves outside.

This simple experiment can be done by taking a lump of sugar and dropping it inside a glass of water and not stirring it in. Eventually the sugar lump will dissolve and the entire glass will be sweet because of the random movement of water and diffusion of dissolved sugar from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration.

To explain it in an even simpler format, you have one pile of coins inside the box. You flip each coin. Every coin that hits a heads is taken and placed outside the box. Then you flip all the coins again, anything that says tails goes into the box and those that say heads go outside the box. I guarantee you that you will eventually get a 50:50 split. However a new rule comes in, the channels for coins that say heads to go outside the box close, but the channels that say tails can enter the box stays open. So we flip the coins outside and every tails coin goes inside the box. Similarily if we add a whole bunch of new coins inside the box and continue flipping with the rule that heads goes outside the box and tails goes inside or stays inside the box then the new set of coins will quickly go to the same 50:50 equilibrium.

The coins are random the mechanism that controls them uses that randomness to power itself and effect change. And we aren't the only creature that uses this technique, even a simple fire uses the random movement of molecules that distributes air around us roughly evenly to work by combining burning fuel in the presence of oxygen. This causes a dearth of oxygen which causes more to diffuse to the flame by the same principle.

First Law of Thermodynamics. This law (note: not a theory but a scientific law) teaches us that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. In other words, an honest scientist will tell you that there is nothing in the observable universe that can explain either the origin of energy or matter. By logical extension, then, matter and energy had to come into being by some force outside the universe. What this means, then, is that science simply has no explanation for the most basic question that could possibly be asked: why is there something rather than nothing? Creationists and Intelligent Design advocates have an answer to this question; evolutionists do not.

This has nothing to do with the Theory of Evolution which is the explanation of how diversity in organisms occurred particularly considering many creatures seem to have varying degrees of similarity between them. Evolution is the process by which diversity arose in organisms. The theory is the explanation of that process, there is no doubt in the fact of evolution since Genetics is an empirical piece of evidence. This is the origins of the cosmos or Cosmology.

Relativity states that energy and mass can be transferred between each other and the proof of relativity is the Atomic Bomb which works under the principle of rapidly translating unstable matter into energy and releasing it. It's how atomic reactors work. Logically there must be a way of converting that energy back into matter and we do see that in the atomic furnace of the sun where the incredible temperatures cause the formation of matter which is the source of a lot of our elemental diversity.

We are all made of Stars!

Not having an answer is actually a valid standpoint particularly if you "don't know". The Creationist and ID state that God Did It but they say so from a stance of ignorance.

But the problem here is this... How do you know this being did it? How did it do it? Proof please? How did this being circumvent the laws of thermodynamics which would apply to itself anyway. Where did it come from? What was there before it? Is it sentient or sapient? How did it get there? How can we get there? Are there others like it? What purpose does it serve to build a universe? And if we are so complex and god is more complex than us and the logic dictates that complexity requires a creator... who created God? And I can think of more, but these are what I want to know of the top of my head.

None of these are answered by creationists and certainly not by the ID crowd who are pretend scientists. All I hear is religious explanations which don't come with any proof of this. So it's simple, firstly you have to prove that a god exists. Next you have to prove how he works to circumvent the laws of the universe and prove his nature. The koran, veda or bible isn't proof, its just literature.

Proof means that the stuff stated in those books is replicable. There is a big difference between saying "I don't know" and "I am going to make stuff up". One is an acceptable standpoint, the other is called making stuff up. An example is this, you go to a hospital with a disease. It's an unknown disease that has never been seen before and while you are stable it causes intense pain. The two doctors give two answers, the first says that he doesn't know. The other says it is Unicornitis and it's because of unicorns galloping in your bloodstream killing haemogoblins. One of these answers is honest, the other is made up. Even if the idea gives you comfort it does not make it the truth. The doctor who doesn't know but goes and does the tests to find out is the one who is doing things to make you feel better. The one telling you about unicorns is the one who is making things up. And that is the difference between science and creation/ID. The honest truth is we don't know how the universe was formed, we have a few theories but nothing solid. We cannot tell because our current existence came about due to the formation of the universe and the energies released would have been on an unfathomable scale which made sure there was no trace of what happened before.

Neither of us know what was there, but only one of us is honest and sane enough to admit it.

Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law (note: not a theory but a law) teaches us that in every chemical or heat reaction, there is a loss of energy that never again is available for another heat reaction. This is why things break down if left to themselves, and why scientists tell us that the universe is headed toward a heat death. This law teaches us, then, that the universe is headed toward increasing randomness and decay.
But what does the theory of evolution teach us? The exact opposite, that the universe is headed toward increasing complexity and order. You put up a scientific theory against my scientific law, I'm going to settle for the law every time, thank you very much.
Plus, this teaches us that the universe had to have a beginning. If you see a watch winding down, one thing you know with absolute certainty is that somebody wound it up.

Yes, I do look like this...
Now get out of my shower...

The Second Law of Thermodynamics applies to a closed system. Mr. Fischer would be correct here, the net nature of the universe is towards entropy. What Mr. Fischer is implying is that in order for all this to work there must be a source of energy (enthalpy) to the system, or indeed a transfer of energy from something undergoing entropy to us which we can use to increase complexity on a small scale...

This is so easy to defeat that I will give you the proof of it right now. Look at your watch, is the time between 7AM and 5PM? If so then go outside. Can you see? Is it dark? Where is all that light coming from? And isn't it warm? Look up at the sun! You feel great and you can work on your tan so you can look like me. Sadly you aren't me but if you read a lot of science you can be just as smart as me. I am on a horse.

The Sun is a ball of nuclear fire so large that it causes the earth to orbit around it. It's size is massive in the traditional sense of having enormous mass. The sun's energy output is so colossal that if we took all our nuclear weapons and exploded them simultaneously we wouldn't be able to match the sun's power output.

All of that is entropy and energy from the Sun is transmitted to us via light which is what we use to power life. Life utilises photosynthesis which drives the food chain. Plants are the key converter of light energy into chemical energy which we use for food. Then net complexity and enthalpy is counteracted by the enormous entropy of the sun which is part of the closed system that we are in (Let us assume that the energy donated to the earth by other stars is insufficent to be considered). Thus in our closed system, we are actually increasing entropy as by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

We are also powered by a giant nuclear explosion,
one so big that it's been going for billions of years.

I am surprised that Mr. Fischer doesn't think too much of evolution which is a law or a fact like gravity too (Gravity is the force that holds us to the earth, the theory of gravity explains how the force works). The Law/Fact of evolution is that we have evolved over roughly 3 billion years of life on this planet to the varied forms we see today. The evidence of this is seen in a variety of places and primarily in the method of inheritance which is DNA/RNA mechanism. The Theory of Evolution explains the mechanism by which this occurred. In summary, we know we evolved we are just hammering out the precise mechanism of how exactly it happened. Suffice to say "magic sky wizard intervention" doesn't come out too well as a possible mechanism.

Interestingly enough not all life uses the entropy of the sun as a power source. There are ecosystems based on the utilisation of the earth's heat and even chemical energy of reactants in the earth itself. But we as human beings are reliant on the sun for the energy to power us.

Fossils. Realize that the fossil record is the only tangible, physical evidence for the theory of evolution that exists. The fossil record is it. There is absolutely nothing else Darwinians have they can show you. As Yale University's Carl Dunbar says, "Fossils provide the only historical, documentary evidence that life has evolved from simpler to more and more complex forms." But if Darwin's theory is correct, that increasingly complex life forms developed in tiny little incremental and transitional steps, then the fossil record should by littered with an enormous number of transitional fossils. Darwin himself said, "The number of intermediate and transitional links must have been inconceivably great."...

How very quaint. I am afraid that this argument was used in Darwinian times mainly because Darwin made his argument from the observation of living species of finches in the Galapagos Islands. The fragmentation of the Islands produced slightly different ecosystems with different ecological pressures on the finches which are small flying birds. Flight across open ocean is fraught with danger (if you notice, most ocean going birds are rather big powerful creatures while finches are smaller than pigeon). The drive for tropical birds to cross large distances is also not there. The islands do show volcanic activity so the division of a single large island is a good reason for the fragmentation seen there.

These finches look the same but possess wildly varying beaks, behaviours and food sources, and many cannot crossbreed viably indicating different species. In addition genetic research confirms Darwin's observation that these are related species but for important sections of DNA.

It's half dinosaur! Half Bird!

And the problem here is what Mr. Fischer wants is a Crocoduck. A fossil that is blatantly half and half. All fossils are technically transitional. Each a snapshot of an individual creature that had the fortune to die in a specific way. What Mr. Bryan Fischer wants is a "Complete" fossil record. A record of every single individual from start to finish one after another to show evolution in much the same way as an animated flipbook, each next stage a bit more transitional than the other.

All species are transitional, those that are not are extinct (they couldn't evolve to fit the pressure so they died out). Every one of us is transitional but it doesn't show as much with humans as we don't evolve to solve our problems, we just build tools. Every single hominid fossil showing the descent of man is a transitional species too. And this is without the infamous Archeopteryx which is a "transitional fossil" of the creationist description (It is a reptilian bird) showing the transformation between dinosaur to flying bird not to mention the various confirmations that dinosaurs may have had feathers for display or as insulation (not to mention the various evidence that they may have been warm blooded.

And Darwin had no idea about Genetics but he did have an idea about comparative anatomy which he used to draw conclusions. Two species from the same area that had similar anatomies probably had a similar ancestor which was found in the fossil record... Thus producing a rough guide of ancestors and a time line.Bryan Fischer also misrepresents punctuated equilibrium which is a process by which rapid changes in the environment cause a rapid shift in what defines "fitness to survive" causing rapid jumps in evolution as selection pressure changes.
Now bacteria also compete back versus fungi by building a chemical that digests Beta Lactam (A Beta-Lactamase if you will!). Other bacteria also have mutations that reduce (indeed retard) their ability to take up the Beta Lactam ring. Our body's bacteria and pathogens were not in contact with the selective pressure of fungi. So when they initially were subject to beta lactams they died, however as mutations took place a few mutants arose who were a bit more resilient. They either had lower absorption or produced enzymes that could affect the ring structure (different species evolved different mechanisms) and the problem was people had a habit of stopping their meds when they felt better rather than finishing their Antibiotics Course. This allowed bacteria to survive and breed producing strains that were more and more resistant. Antibiotic resistance is not a binary thing but a spectrum of resistances. We actually check it by growing a lawn of bacteria and inserting tabs into the agar. The antibiotics diffuse outwards and lyse bacteria until bacteria can tolerate living in that specific concentration forming a ring which we can measure to plot resistances. So you could have a 3 cm ring in one species and just a 1 cm ring in another species to indicate the differences in mechanism.

You may get lucky and roll wolverine, but chances
are you will get unlucky and score Cancer.

To combat this we developed multi-drug therapy as it reduces the chance of a mutation and tell patients to finish their courses to ensure the complete death of organisms even if they do develop a mild resistance.

We don't hear about successful mutations in human beings because for the most part mutations are silent. If a mutation is beneficial it only shows itself when the benefit is "involved in survival". However the deleterious mutants simply die off. We don't see how many bacterial mutants die off because "they are bacteria" but we do see them when they sucker punch someone despite a wall of antibiotics and antiseptics forgetting that for each successful mutant there are probably thousands of failures that we just didn't see. It's just that in humans we are more interested in the unsuccessful mutants than the successful mutants since mutants don't come with any actual superpowers since there is no evolutionary pressure on us bar "sedentary lifestyles".

Genes. The only mechanism — don't miss this — the only mechanism evolutionists have to explain the development of increasingly complex life forms is genetic mutation. Mutations alter DNA, and these alterations can be passed on to descendants. The problem: naturally occurring genetic mutations are invariably harmful if not fatal to the organism. Rather than improve an organism's capacity to survive, they invariably weaken it. That's why the phrase we most often use to refer to genetic mutations is "birth defects." If scientists are some day able to engineer beneficial genetic mutations in the lab, that will simply prove our point: we told you it takes intelligence and design.

We also have epigenetics which is the control of expression of genes in specific ways and indeed the expression of mechanisms in different ways. And there is also allele frequencies and genetic drift.

Not all mutations are deletrious a good example is bacterial resistances. We use them a lot because we can go through thousands of generations of bacteria rapidly. Bacteria evolve rapidly. We used a drug called penicillin which is a class of drug called a Beta Lactam which works by something called a beta lactam ring which inhibits cell wall formation in bacteria causing them to literally "Leak". It's produced in nature in fungi which compete with bacteria as saprophytes.

Bottom line: the easiest verse in the Bible to believe is the very first one of all: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Explains a lot really...

Prove it. Even if Evolution were false and you disproved it, it doesn't mean your world view is true. It would be like saying "I have disproved the theory of neurology which means your psychosis is not caused by neural chemical imbalances but by the dreams of C'thullu. Ia ia!".

But sadly evolution is true, whether you believe in it or not. It's your choice to do so, however it's not your choice to dictate what science is and what it isn't.

Ultimately the Creationist Movement is a religious movement primarily made up of proponents of the three Abrahamic Faiths because their religions require canon to work. If you disprove one single part of their religious faith then all manner of madness occurs such as Gays marrying and Women having equal rights. Knowing you are ignorant is a virtue. I am ignorant about Physics, I cannot explain cosmological theory because it is out of my understanding no more than Dr. Stephen Hawkings could explain how a beta-lactam ring functions. Understanding your limits is no sin but a virtue.

Creationism!!!

He doesn't understand biology, to him it is a big box with a question mark on it. It may as well be magic...

Which he does understand. To him biology is magic because he cannot understand how it works and that it is a threat to his own magic and so he fights to preserve his magic lest it "run out and abandon him leaving him powerless" without realising that his magic is a catch all phrase to explain the function of the universe. Bryan Fischer has without irony become a Warhammer 40K character or a Cargo Cultist whose faith in the almighty superscedes any actual understanding of the motions he goes through. To him biology would be the same processes except we would have to chant bible verses as we do things to beseech god to give us the right answer of which holy antibiotic will succeed in repelling this bacteria rather than understand the principles that lie beneath it.

He doesn't see biology as real, he sees it as magic on a similar scale to his own. As something that is seeking to replace his god rather than explain how the world works.

Avicenna

Evilution I - The Dawkinator

2011-08-30T02:16:00.000-05:00

All Power to the Hypno-Dawkins

Part one of today's posts consists of wailing on the Washington Post's very own Jordan Sekulow, Lawyer and someone who Just Does Not Get Atheism. Which is perfectly fine, not everyone gets it. It's a choice to not get it, just like it is a choice to correct his misconceptions with how atheism, evolution and the world works.

I do realise that none of the lovely people who agree with Jordan Sekulow will ever read this, the very nature of my work will cause them to close the tab or post irate complaints but a few may realise what nonsense and hate this man spreads.

Put your opposable thumbs
in the air
And waggle them around like you
just don't care!

Richard Dawkins is a high priest worshipping at the feet of Charles Darwin.

Oh my no! Richard Dawkins is what we in the real world call a scientist. A biologist to be precise, his training is to understand life in a scientific framework. The actual truth is he is part of an establishment that disproved the Darwinism concept of evolution explaining it through the molecular method of genetics and providing mechanisms and theories that explain how we evolved.

There is no worship, not even hero worship. I disagree with Dawkins and Darwin on many issues. Darwin's idea of biology is actually very mild compared to mine. The average high school student knows things that would boggle his mind. I roundly criticised Dawkins over his handling of the whole Rebecca - Elevator incident (I refuse to call it Elevatorgate! It's a stupid name!). In short, no atheist worships anything in the same way that you do, be it a god, Dawkins, Darwin or Satan or whatever.

“uneducated fools” who question the theory of evolution. He finds people like us, “in every country and every period of history,” and warns “we are not unknown in higher offices.” Dawkins and his contemporaries are trying to beat religion at what religion does best, conversion.

I have no knowledge about law. Its a big field that requires people to study for long periods to become a lawyer. I accept that, I however know my field requires a lot of study and science to understand that.

We aren't converting, I don't wish to convert you. I wish for science to be left the hell alone to be science without being tarnished under the auspices of applied theology. I wish for my kids (when and If I have them) to be educated properly without the bias of people who assume that "magic" is an appropriate answer to anything.

You see, we cannot convert you. It's impossible, we are arguing from an empirical standpoint and the religious person is arguing from the standpoint of unassailable faith. No, what we do is offer you an alternative. When you are lonely, when you have doubt and when you start thinking... That's where our work comes in. We don't want you to think like us. I would loathe it if someone said that they wished to think like me.

What we want is for you to think for yourself. To use your brain, to learn science and to realise the limitations of your own knowledge. I want you to admit that "You Don't Know" and to realise that not knowing isn't a position of weakness, making things up to explain the unknown is.

If you didn't get it, its a reference to
The Wizard of Oz

Option 1: There is no God; your life is relatively meaningless; pain and suffering is the norm; then you die (Dawkins).

Option 2: God loves you; every single part of your life is meaningful; pain and suffering is temporary; there is a path to eternal life (Christianity and other faiths).

It doesn’t take a degree from Oxford to figure out why “Option 2” is more appealing to mankind.

That's only because Option 1 is what we call a Straw Man. In fact this argument is so filled with straw that it's not only flammable but it's also brainless and the only thing that can grant it any hope of standing up is a wizard.

Option 1 should read as -

There is no God, pain and suffering do exist, but you don't ignore it. It is a part of life and it is because of many reasons. Some in our control some outside our control. But we have life, just one life. Each second is precious and each minute even more. Oh when you have years to live then those minutes don't mean anything. But ask a sprinter what a millisecond means? Ask a starving man what a day means? Ask a dying mother holding her baby what a single second means?

The time we have is far more precious than eternity simply because we don't have much of it. What we have is the ability to take responsibility for our actions and change the way our world works. It is we who are responsible for our world and it is we who are responsible for a lot of human suffering. And it is we who will stop suffering. Not God, Not Jesus, Not Ra, Not Odin, Quetzacoatl, Shiva or the umpteen millions of gods. It is just ordinary men who make the difference. The world was not built by heroes or by gods, it was built by nameless faceless men who did things.

The Smoking Mirror will stop suffering if you
get him a snackrifice!

We have one world, one life and we are our brother's keeper. We can chose to be greedy and selfish and live it for ourselves, or we can chose to make something of ourselves and we can chose to share our life with others. Friends, Family, Lovers, Parents or just some random stranger who we smile at to make them feel better. That is what life is about.

God's love? It doesn't exist, its human love that exists. We don't live forever, we die and that's that. Pain and Suffering is not temporary, it is for life. The people who say that pain and suffering are temporary tend to be the people who aren't in pain or are suffering. It isn't god who stops suffering, it is human beings and our compassion and our own humanity. You can thank god for it but it doesn't change the fact that it is man who does things to make the world a better place, not any God.

Would you rather be blind or would you rather see the truth and do something to change the world rather than pray until someone else does it? Would you rather live your life like each second is precious or think that eternal life is the only true goal? Isn't friends, family, lovers and children more valuable than mere heaven? If you classify the world through it's worst then you will never do anything. Why do anything because you may fail? Why love when you can suffer heartbreak? You do it because life is amazing when its good. You live for the good things.

There is no Kingdom of God, only a Republic of Man and you can either live or exist. The choice is yours. I chose to live.

A recent Gallup poll found that 92 percent of Americans believe in God. That’s right Mr. Dawkins, 92 percent of the citizens of the most powerful country in the world reject the atheism that lies at the heart of your Darwinian worldview.

That doesn't make them right. Roughly 4 billion people don't believe in Jesus, perhaps they are right? And evolution doesn't require your belief to work in the same way that Gravity doesn't require your faith to function. And atheism has nothing to do with evolution, biology has.

To make matters worse for Dawkins, only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution (and that includes religious people who see no conflict with evolution - the kind that doesn’t require rejection of a creator - and their faith).

And this is a good thing? People are proud that roughly 60% of people believe in magic? It's not making matters worse for Dawkins, it is making it worse for your future and your children's future and America's future.

It's sad, it is a testament to the failure of your education system that 60% of people simply don't understand the very basis of biology which leaves them open to all sorts of nonsense, be it religion or pseudo-science. It's like admitting that 60% of your nation believe that the earth is the centre of the universe or that disease is spread by bad air. It would be a joke if it weren't so serious.

That short diatribe by an elitist Brit underscores the importance of America’s victory in the Revolutionary War. Although Dawkins despises 76 percent of Americans because they are Christians, he shares King George III’s disdain for the ordinary citizen, and declares that, “there is surely something wrong with a system of choosing a leader when,” the “uneducated fools” choose an “uneducated ignoramus” as their Commander in Chief.

The UK is a democracy. I don't think people realise it but the queen doesn't do any actual ruling. Bush is NOT an ordinary citizen, he is a scion of a rich and powerful family, a family so rich and powerful that he got into an Ivy league college despite being an uneducated ignoramus. He isn't the everyman he is everything wrong in the USA. Stupid and Rich and Privileged, he was so out of touch with the common man and so incompetent he was a puppet for his "friends" who used him to make a quick buck at the "average american's expense".

And do you really think you should be proud of your leaders when they are uneducated? Corrupt? Religiously bigoted?

The simplicity of (the Bible), then, is a virtue for three reasons. First, and most important, it is the signature of its immense power as a theory, when compared with the mass of disparate facts that it explains - everything about life including our own existence. Second, it makes it easy for children to understand (in addition to the obvious virtue of being true!), which means that it could be taught in the early years of school. And finally, it makes it extremely beautiful, one of the most beautiful ideas anyone ever had as well as arguably the most powerful. To die in ignorance of its elegance, and power to explain our own existence, is a tragic loss, comparable to dying without ever having experienced great music, great literature, or a beautiful sunset.

This doesn't even make sense. It has no power as a theory, a theory is verifiable and God by his very nature is magic and therefore not Testable and not repeatable. It doesn't explain anything, its basically a big cup of "shut the hell up". It isn't true, not if you seriously and honestly suggest that the Egyptians managed to build a civilisation that build pyramids and had a million man city before the invention of basic law and we all originate from Crazy Incest courtesy of Noah's family and some serious wall to wall fucking and somehow we had modern death rates back then which is just so much magical bullshit that is unprovable mainly because its not true.

It is not a beautiful and elegant idea, an elegant idea is one that is simple and explains how things work without requiring people to make things up all over the place. It's simple "there is a mechanism in genetics that causes variations and these variations and allele drifts cause the formation of new species". There are mountains of proof for this, there is none for the bible that cannot be dissected under the the most cursory of glances.

It is a book and allegory at that, it is meant to teach and guide you by example rather than by canon. If you live your life by fiction then you are no different from the Taliban who do so too. Jordan Sekulow and people like him are parasites, who happily utilise the fruits of evolutionary research and science while encouraging their own luddite world view. And it's a crying shame, the death of America is not at the hands of liberals or communists but will be at the hands of the people who don't know the difference between reality and fiction.

Avicenna

They are at it again!

2011-08-23T19:18:00.000-05:00

Ah the usual quacks at Natural News are upto their old denials again.

See the problem is Natural News is a relatively large site so it gets hits quite easily from scared parents who want to find out more about this whole "vaccine bruhaha" so they find the site and quickly are scared into not vaccinating their child.

People assume that their child is ill because of the vaccine assuming that children before vaccination were healthy and hale, not prone to dying from disease. They think Tom Sayer was the norm, not Tiny Tim.

Big Pharma, the CDC and other public health organizations tell the mainstream media (MSM) what to report about outbreaks and epidemics. So you may have the impression that recent measles outbreaks are occurring because of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination refusals.

According to official public health documents kept from public attention, the opposite is true. Many stricken with measles have had the full array of three MMR vaccinations.

Really? Where does it say that? I seem to have missed out on the whole MMR vaccination doesn't work. Apparently our immune systems don't function when it comes down to Measles, Mumps and Rubella antigens unless we actually contract the disease. Apparently it will work with polio, smallpox and other diseases but not these three. And naturally P. F Louis here has proof?

Right?

Wrong! Unfortunately he doesn't once give any actual proof. In his information the one sole piece of actual scientific stats is regarding the single Measles killed vaccine, not the MMR vaccine. The entire source material list reads like a who's who of quackery including a link back to themselves. Their actual statement includes the "because I say it's so!" argument.

If you're old enough, you may remember that measles and mumps were common childhood diseases that came and went. The incidence of death or permanent damage was very small. Once you recovered from measles, you were immunized for life.

Prior to the invention of the measles vaccine the USA had roughly an average of 500,000 cases of measles a year. In that a small handful of cases ended up dying. It wasn't that bad a disease mainly because the USA had good healthcare available to ensure your child didn't die.

But that's the thing, the disease is dire enough to require special medical attention and medical attention costs money.

Not to mention it doesn't mention the permanent side effects of measles. Mental Retardation and Death. You see a small proportion of measles cases end up in something called Measles Encephalitis which results in you having a good chance becoming mentally retarded or dying as the disease infects your brain. There are no drugs that can reach it and we cannot give the anti-fever medication to children as that is toxic too (Asprin is poisonous to children).

In the USA the mortality rate for measles is 0.3% (remember you are paying for people to treat your child). Out of a 1000 measles cases 3 will die. In a poorer nation the mortality rate is often as high as 28%. AKA out of a 1000 cases 280 will die.

Not so mild now is it?

The rate of measles outbreaks began declining during the 1970s. This may be attributed to increased immunity by those who had measles and recovered, or a decline in the virulence of measles.

But of course, the medical establishment wants you to believe all infectious disease declines are from vaccines. The opposite is usually factual. It has been documented and graphed that measles had diminished greatly before vaccinations were administered.

1.2 million people is the population of Dallas

How interesting? In both cases the rate of infection goes down after the vaccine is introduced. The USA had a mass vaccination program that causes a massive drop in infection so much so that in 20 years after the vaccination program started an estimated 52 million cases were prevented, the rate of mental retardation dropped by nearly 17,400 and 5,200 deaths were prevented.

In 1999 this was applied to the world stage, and between 1999 to 2004 aggressive vaccination has lead to a worldwide drop in mortality to the estimated tune of 1.2 MILLION people.

Apparently we simply keep getting lucky with all those vaccines releasing them just as diseases get incredibly polite and stop killing us. To the anti-vaccine crowd the drop in mortality isn't due to improvements in healthcare but the loss of virulence. To them the drop in incidence post vaccination is merely coincidental.

A simple test is this, I have taken the MMR vaccine. I have worked in an infectious disease ward with measles sufferers before. Measles has a 90% transmission rate and I didn't catch it. Neither did any other student in there with me. IF the MMR vaccine was not taken then 9/10 of us would be ill.

The three in one MMR shot was developed during that decade for convenience. Prior to that, there was one vaccination for every disease. But the three in one MMR is inoculated on three separate occasions within a few months, usually before 15 months of age. Preteens and teenagers are often subjected to this risky business as well if they missed the early schedule.

Actually the MMR vaccine is shown to have superior efficiency. During the period of 1992-97, the UK had no cases of Measles, Mumps or Rubella deaths. Japan on the other hand used individual vaccines and had 72 deaths before they swapped to the superior vaccine. The reason is that the MMR has better coverage.

It's not risky business, less than 0.4% suffer from fever and a rash after the vaccine but atleast they aren't likely to have their brain fried by a disease that is preventable.

There have been many, and the various public health organizations, including the CDC, are well aware of them. Yet, pediatricians convince and school boards coerce parents into making sure their children get three MMR vaccinations in short succession. Obviously, not enough know of measles breakouts among the vaccinated.

Medical authorities eager to vaccinate maintain it takes a population vaccination rate of 90% to ensure an "immunized" disease will not break out within that community. This high percentage was contrived as necessary for "herd immunity," which would prevent any outbreak from occurring.

That has been proven false. Basic logic begs the question: Why do so many have to be vaccinated if those who are vaccinated are immune? Could it be that the vaccinated are not really immune. One thing is for certain, vaccinating 90% of all populations creates more revenue.

Every link provided to back this up mentions the single dose KILLED vaccine being used rather than the live (attenuated vaccine). An attenuated virus is superior because it causes a mild infection (hence the 0.4% immune reaction rate) where the body responds properly and has a stronger antigenic quality than a bunch of non infective particles. It's like learning to fight versus a sparring partner rather than a dummy. The dummy is good but a sparring partner is better.

Vaccination does not make doctors money. Do you know what makes doctors money? Charging you for life saving medication and treatment when your child has measles. The cost of a single course (all three doses) of MMR is $8 (let's thrown in paraphenilia costs shall we?). The cost of medical care for a single measles sufferer is around $40 for antibiotics (that prevent that 28% mortality rate), $5 for acetomenophen, And goddamn $100 from your physician. And this is without the instances of mental retardation which will FOREVER be a drain on you. To the tune of a lot higher than $8 a day.

Take a hint, $8 for the entire course is NOTHING compared to the tragedy of seeing someone succumb to something preventable.

However if we are discussing cold hard money then the skinny is this. Do you think $8 is expensive when compared to how much money you will lose if your kid contracts measles? Your child has to stay off school and requires you at the very least to stay at home. There will be a loss of earnings and an overall economic loss of productivity losing more than $8 in an HOUR let alone a day.

It's just an appalling thing to do. It's a bunch of people with no medical qualification, sprouting nonsense on how amazing it was when we suffered from measles completely forgetting that people still do suffer from measles and people still die distressingly easily from it.

It is a movement of privilege which fails to see the medical effort that goes into ensuring people do not die from measles and assuming that there is none.

There is no big medical conspiracy to take your money, because you know what? Every doctor worth his initials will swear this upon his degree, his stethoscope and his white coat that Medicine is the only field in the world that actively seeks to destroy it's livelihood. That we don't like people getting sick.

Ultimately it boils down to this. There are people with no idea about medicine giving medical advice and there are scared people out there who listen to them. Any failings they have aren't due to their incompetence or lack of knowledge but due to the supposed machinations of doctors and the supposed all powerful medical establishment that does things for no adequately sensible reason. It's just that ludicrous a concept that the people at Natural News bandy around.

The Vaccine Times: Universal Flu Vaccine Another Step Closer, But Still Far

2011-08-16T17:12:00.000-05:00

This is exciting news, even though we still have a long way to go. I suppose that even though this aligns with one of the goals of the anti-vax pro-disease nutters (i.e. fewer vaccines), I bet they will still find a fault in this line of research as well. One of the hallmarks of their irrational thinking and poor logic is that nothing will ever make them happy. I think one of the cool things about this research is that our understanding of molecular level evolution led us down this path. Here we consistently hit on two of the most irrational denialisms on the planet in one post!

On the Apr-Jun 2011 issue of The Vaccine Times we reported on a new flu shot being tested which could do away with our need for yearly flu shots. The vaccine candidate, called VAX102 is based on an antibody called F16 which can target a common protein shared by all Influenza A viruses which are the most virulent and the most prone to mutation influenza viruses.

Recently U.S. scientists are reporting the finding of a new antibody which can tackle 30 of the 36 known strains of H1N1 (a virus of the A type) flu virus. The newly discovered antibody, called CH65, can stick to the surface part of the flu virus known as hemagglutinin which mutates every season, forcing the formulation of a new vaccine every year.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

Meningitis Angels

2011-08-15T17:01:00.014-05:00

I was on a business trip to Texas, and I heard about this on the radio as I was driving to a meeting. Apparently it is a Texas Law that all incoming college freshmen be immunized against meningitis. They also encourage kids entering Jr. High or High School to get the shots as well. Generally I make a lot of fun of Texas for their otherwise positively bronze age outlook on things, but in this case I support them. An organization that is very active in Texas is Meningitis Angels. Give their website a look and of course support their efforts as best as you can.

P.S. It being Texas and all, I realize this group probably has very strong religious overtones. However, I cannot find fault in what they do, since their actions are to prevent disease with evidenced based medicine. That is why I encourage you support them.

Vaccine Prevemntable Death - Gavin Norton

2011-08-13T17:54:00.004-05:00

Another heartbreaking story that shouldn't really have happened! It is for children like this that we insist on herd immunity. It's a wonder that this is even a debate in this day and age. It takes a deranged type of sicko to intentionally put the smallest and defenseless of us at risk like this. And why the anti-vax pro-disease nutters may not think that this is what they are doing, it really is. They are equally as responsible for these deaths as if they had coughed on this young child themselves. Their misinformation and lies is what leads to these deaths.

Age at death – 10 weeks
Cause of death – Pertussis (whooping cough)
Vaccination status – Unvaccinated due to young age
What happened – When Gavin was born his parents felt “absolute joy — just elation.” Unfortunately that was not meant to last. Gavin was taken away from them by the dreaded killer, whooping cough.
When Gavin was 2 months old, the Nortons planned a vacation to celebrate Christmas with family in Utah. To be safe, Gavin’s mom, Natalie, took him to his doctor for a general check up. Gavin was given the green light for the trip.
About a week into their Utah trip, Gavin developed a cough. Concerned, the Nortons took Gavin to a doctor who told them it was respiratory syncytial virus — a virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. The pediatrician said the baby would be sick for about a week, recover for another week and then get well, but the parents were told to watch out for rapid breathing, increased heart rate and a decrease in appetite.
However, Gavin’s condition quickly declined. He was rushed to the emergency room at Primary Children’s Medical Center.
“It was horrifying and very scary,” Richie Norton described. “But at the same time, we just had all the faith in the world that he was going to be fine … but that’s not the way it happened.”
At 8 weeks of age, little Gavin was diagnosed with whooping cough. At 10 weeks his littel body gave up the fight. Gavin was born on Oct. 24, 2009, and passed away Jan. 7, 2010.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST!

Vaccine Times: The Greater Good debunked

2011-08-12T20:02:00.010-05:00

The Vaccine Times has taken on "The Greater Good" propaganda piece. And trust me, it IS propaganda. It is so full of lies and distortions that just in the trailer The Vaccine Times had 17 points that they had to debunk. Not to mention that once you look into this blatant propaganda, you find out that the shills promoting this garbage are clearly anti-vax pro-disease nutters. Just go to The Vaccine Times article on this. It's enough to make you sick!

Vaccine Times: Over 1100 children KILLED by measels

2011-08-11T17:03:00.000-05:00

Again, a disease that has mothers getting together to intentionally spread it around has KILLED over one THOUSAND children... And the anti-vax pro-disease folks seem to want to bring this level of ravaging of life back, because they feel that "natural" immunity is better, and that any incidental "suffering" isn't as bad as the (incredibly LOW) risk of vaccines... That's why I run this site!

In some cultures, there used to be a time when parents were instructed not to count their children, or in some cases not to name them, until they caught, and survived, certain childhood diseases. Parents used to have 8, 9, or 10 children with the hopes that a few would survive to adulthood. Nowadays, modern medicine, and modern living conditions, have made it so that most of us can have just two children and be reasonably assured that they will not die needlessly from a preventable disease. It is undeniable that vaccines played a major role in that.

However, even in today’s world we are constantly reminded just how deadly these diseases can be, none more tragic than the news coming out of The Republic of Congo, where measles has killed at least 1,145 children, and sickened over 115,600 between January and June, 2011. In 2010, 5,407 cases and 82 deaths were reported; in 2009 there were only 899 cases and 26 deaths. I could comment on how tragically horrible this is, but I think the numbers speak for themselves.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST!

Imagine playing soccer if you had Polio!

2011-08-10T17:01:00.001-05:00

A video from the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Just imagine playing football (soccer) if you had polio!

Vaccine Times: Why vaccinate against Hep B if it's sexually transimtted?

2011-08-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

This is a very good question. And I think it's a valid one by all means. However, I think too many people dismiss the real risks associated with Hep B. Furthermore, ensuring immunity while young may get more people, since in general, vaccination rates fall off for the general public as they get older.

A common question about vaccines has to do with Hep B and goes like this: Heb B is a sexually transmitted disease. Why am I vaccinating my newborn for it? This is not a question without merit, and a very good question to ask. Parents should always be encouraged to seek more information. So, in this entry I will try my best to scour the web for information and come up with a good answer.

It is true that Hep B can be transmitted sexually, however it is not transmitted ONLY sexually. The virus passes from one individual to the other through various bodily fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal fluids, saliva, and other body fluids. Here are some ways in which the disease can spread:
Blood transfusions
Contact with blood in health care settings
Had direct contact with the blood of an infected person by touching an open wound or being stuck with a needle
Had unprotected sex with an infected person
Received a tattoo or acupuncture with contaminated instruments
Shared needles during drug use
Shared personal items (such as toothbrushes, razors, and nail clippers) with an infected person
Furthermore, a baby can get the virus from the mother during childbirth, if the mother is infected.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE.

Vaccine Times: What's in that vaccine?

2011-08-08T17:57:00.002-05:00

To go along with Avicenna's post the other day, I think this one should compliment it. The three most important parts of that post are:

Again, The Vaccine Times has these as well for you.

One of the things that worries parents more than anything else about vaccines is what exactly is in the vaccine. Generally speaking a vaccine contains the antigen, the part of the virus or bacteria that is meant to induce the immune response, a solution in which it is suspended, generally a saline solution, and “other stuff”. The antigen could be a dead germ, part of a germ, a protein from the germ etc. The other stuff is generally what the “green our vaccines” crowd worry about.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE.

The Vaccine Tinmes: The worst misconceptions parents of some unvaccinated children hold

2011-08-07T17:08:00.000-05:00

The whole reason I put this blog and this web page together is to combat many of the myths (do I dare say outright lies) that are out there. While it is easy to try to polarize the issues, there are some fundamental flaws in reasoning amongst the anti-vaxers that taint the entire viewpoint from the outset. The Vaccine Times has a good article on this. Just a quick intro, and the conclusions:

The other day, as I was catching up on my vaccines Google Alert, I ran across a blog entry titled The Worst Things People Say About Unvaccinated Kids over at a website called Babble. In this article, the author lists what she considers to be the 5 worst things other people, presumably parents of vaccinated children, say about unvaccinated children, and she provides rebuttals to these assertions.

I am a bit torn about how to properly respond to this entry, as there is some truth to what the author says. For example , she points out that being told that ” I’m a bad parent, I will not be persuaded to see things your way.” This is true. Most parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids, whom I have had a chance to have any sort of meaningful interaction with, are not bad parents, but precisely the opposite is true. It is out of what they consider justified caution that they choose not to vaccinate. They are wrong in their analysis of the pros and cons of vaccines, but that does no make them bad parents. And, if your goal is to persuade them to analyze the issue properly, offending them by calling them stupid, idiots, or bad parents is not the way to go. Everyone makes wrong decisions, you and I included. So a little bit of civility and giving the other person the benefit of the doubt is called for, I think.

Having said that, let us look at her list in detail, as these thoughts, in my opinion, are something that a lot of anti-vaccine parents share.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE. And now here is the conclusion:

Conclusion
The article I reviewed here gives us a glimpse into the anti-vaxxer’s mind. It is my opinion that most anti-vaccine proponents share a few charachteristics which include the following:
They have convinced themselves that the diseases are harmless, or at the very least that the risk from the disease is much less than the risk from the vaccines.
They believe their children are no more likely to catch and spread a disease than vaccinated children.
They believe incidence has decreased independent of vaccines.
They think that the statistics about the dangers presented by vaccine-preventable diseases are nothing more than fear-mongering.
They believe vaccines do not work at preventing these diseases.
These beliefs are wrong and not supported by evidence, however it is clear to see that once one accepts these premises as true, the decision not to vaccinate does follow logically. Their conclusion is wrong, as they are starting with the wrong premises, but they are not stupid or idiots, at least the majority aren’t. They are in most cases just as intelligent, if not more intelligent and educated, than the average person. The only difference between anti-vaccine proponents and pro-healthers is the required standard of evidence. If you really look at it, all disagreements boil down to one question: “What is to be considered acceptable evidence?”

This unfortunately means that it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, to change the mind of an anti-vaccine believer, since in order to do that, you’d have to completely change how they assign weight to evidence, akin to trying to convince a religious person to become an atheist on the basis of rational arguments.

And that is something you and I may not be able to do in the vast majority of cases.

Everything you need to know about Immunity but were too afraid to ask!

2011-08-06T14:33:00.003-05:00

But not Donkeys!

One of the major problems with the whole vaccination movement is that most people cannot understand how vaccines are meant to work. Many anti-vaccine advocates simply think that injecting someone with a disease is a good way to make someone sick rather than someone immune to a disease.

With that in mind, I have produced this primer on immunity and how vaccination works. There are pretty pictures and analogies.

An immune system in a human being is a series of defences designed to deal with an infection by a foreign organism. It is a multi layered defence system which reduces infection as well as actively combats germs and parasites. Like onions, ogres and parfait.

It's both a physical and a biological entity and it's responsible for a lot of medicine, from vaccinations to blood transfusions and organ transplantation. It's also involved in diseases such as auto immune disorders which are increasingly common.

Basically, immunity is this amazing system that keeps most of us healthy. It can be summarised as

Parts of the Immune System

Innate -

This is the cell's innate ability to detect foreign material and eliminate them without the bodies own specific response. It is a generic quick response to disease causing organisms (Pathogens) which invade our body to either prevent an infection or slow it doen sufficiently for the slower but more effective and selective Adaptive Immune system to activate. It consists of

Anatomical barriers -
These consist of physical barriers. The skin itself is impermeable to pathogens providing defences like a solid wall. Our nasal passage is lined with mucous that is constantly moved into the stomach catching pathogens and killing them. Our eyes are covered in caustic tears and our mouths in saliva which contains a variety of enzymes. all these ensure that the vast majority of pathogens are killed before they can even enter an area where they can cause harm.

Inflammation -
This is not a bad thing but the symptoms we associate with inflammation are due to the localised response to the presence of a foreign body or pathogen. It's main purpose is to provide a physical barrier to control the spread of infection and to heal damaged tissue in the region.

Damaged cells give out a bunch of chemical factors which cause pain and blood vessels to become more permeable. This attracts phagocytes and alerts you to the injury allowing you to cover it to prevent further infections. Phagocytes are "cells that eat", they recognise foreign or dead tissue and physically consume it and digest it.

The inflammation is simply noted by the moniker of rubor, calor, tumor et dolor (red, hot, swollen and painful). Normally inflammation is a good thing (it's what makes insect bites itch) but its bad in auto immune diseases such as arthritis.

Complement System -
This is a biochemical cascade that once activated causes the influx of phagocytic cells from blood into the tissue. The thing to remember is that our blood vessels are actually permeable and the phagocytes can actively squeeze through to get into the tissue area.

It is via this system foreign cells are recognised and either "eaten and digested" by the White Blood Cells or are lysed by general antibodies. The complement pathway has a long evolutionary history with parts of it even seen in plants.

Cells Involved -
The white blood cells (WBC) involved are

Mast Cells - A cell associated with allergy and anaphylaxis. A mediator of inflammation response.

Mast cells, the pink dots
are histamine which causes hayfever.

Phagocytes - Large cells that move like amoeba. They "eat" other cells by surrounding them with their plasma membranes producing "bubbles" in which they can release enzymes safely without damaging other cells. They have a role in normal development as our normal cells do "commit suicide" in specific ways to produce our shape. These help with clean up.

Macrophages - Large Phagocytic cells that efficiently consume multiple pathogens. Heavily motile and actively cross from the blood stream into tissue to hunt down pathogens. They kill by the use of free radical oxygen.

Macrophage "om nom noming"
on pathogens

Neutr/Eosin/Basophils - A series of similar cells that target a variety of different pathogens non specifically. Have "granules" similar to ground coffee that have specific actions.

The big pink cell with all the weird
purple nucleus is a eosinophil

Natural Killer Cells - These are interesting, they don't target pathogens but cells infected by viruses or cancerous cells. They recognise these and induce controlled cell death halting the spread of cancerous tissue or viruses.

Dendritic Cells and Gamma/Delta T Cells - These are the bridge between the innate and adaptive systems and their main role is antigen presentation. They harvest proteins from damaged pathogens and present them to T-Cells.

Adaptive -

The dendritic cells activate our adaptive immune system. It's a series of specialised cells that produce antibodies which "mark" out pathogens for destruction with greater specificity. It basically any cell marked with an antibody gets destroyed. Evolutionarily speaking it's quite elegant utilising mutations (somatic hypermutation) to produce endless varieties of "antigen receptors". When an antigen matches a receptor, antibodies are produced specific to that antigen.

The antibodies are the main weapon of our body to fight disease. It is a larger response than innate immunity and once sensitised the adaptive immune system often fights of diseases even before we can manifest the signs of disease.

Cells involved -
These are called Lymphocytes mainly as they are found circulating in lymph more than in blood, their role is determined by the cell itself.

T - Lymphocytes - The main role of the cell is to recognise cells infected by viruses and trigger the apoptotic pathway destroying the cell and its viral load. Since viruses only replicate inside cells this kills them enmasse as phagocytes consume the destroyed cell debris and digest the contents. The antigen of the viral cell is recognised by surface antibodies on the T-Lymphocyte. There are also helper T-Lymphocytes whose role is control and organisation of the response.

B - Lymphocytes - The main role of these is to produce humoral (free floating) antibodies that recognise pathogens and mark them for destruction by activating the complement system and by causing the pathogen to become "sticky" but only with other pathogens. This causes them to clump together and make them easier to kill.

Memory Cells - After the infection has passed, most of these cells die. However a few are maintained in circulation as "memory cells". In future infections these are rapidly activated to produce a humoral response which quickly destroys any new infections even before they produce any symptoms.

In Infants, there is a version of this system called passive immunity. Certain classes of antibodies can cross the placental barrier and can be absorbed through milk particularly the colostrum (first milk). These give the new born baby the same range of protection as the mother.

This is how our natural system works. It doesn't recognise our own cells as self recognising antibodies are actively destroyed. However in cases of organ transplant, blood donation or foetal blood incompatibility the body can target itself. In autoimmune diseases we can see a pathological breakdown of this system targeting the self rather than pathogens.

Hacking the System -

All of this sounds pretty damn awesome, but it's not infallible. Remember the pathogens themselves have their own tricks to avoid being caught and killed while remaining long enough to survive and spread. The range of tricks is colossal from lysogeny (the ability of a virus to integrate it's DNA into ours. Herpes does this! The common cold sore is a form of this ability.) to shuffling antigens (the common cold does this.)

So what we need is a way of beating diseases at their own game. A way of acquiring immunity to diseases without the disease itself.

That way is vaccination. The idea is simple, you take known antigens and inject them into the body. The body's cells recognise these "bits and pieces" and produce an immune response as if there were a real threat maintaining a population of "memory cells" to deal with subsequent infections. Every infection you stop actually increases your immune response. So there are a variety of different responses. The response to just an antigen mix is less than a dead/killed cell which is less than a severely weakened cell. However as long as we are under a vaccinated period we should be able to fight off an infection. It isn't 100% fool proof but it means that the vast majority of people are immune to a particular disease preventing it's spread in general.

Vaccination is merely a trick, to trick our bodies into thinking that it has fought of a disease when in reality it has not. At worst you save time and money that would have been wasted in treating the sick and at best you save lives out of it.

A Photon in the Darkness: Dr. “Know-it-all”*

2011-07-31T16:59:00.024-05:00

I have often said that the most powerful words in the English language are "I don't know." They are hard to say, and infuriating to admit to, but they are more often than not, true compared to the stuff that comes out of most people's mouths. As human beings, we don't like not knowing something, and that's where the practitioners of woo step in. The unethical approach is that instead of saying "I don't know.", they will just make stuff up and give people a false sense of having gotten an "answer". Even if the answer is wrong. As people have often said, "Reality and science is hindered by the fact that they simply cannot just make stuff up." So, when Prometheus posted this story, was reminded of that saying. As well as reminding me that folks need to check out What's The Harm to see the effects of many of these ill founded and unethicaly promoted ideas.

Dr. “Know-it-all”*
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with the mother of an autistic child that highlighted both the appeal and the danger of ”alternative” autism therapy. This mother, who is a bright and well-read person, is not medically or scientifically sophisticated, like most of the population, including most parents of autistic children.

During our conversation, this woman mentioned that she was having concerns about her child’s “DAN! doctor” (her term), specifically the expensive medications and “supplements” he was prescribing. In addition, although this practitioner described himself as a “holistic” physician, treating the “whole patient”, he refused to treat the boy’s seizure disorder or his asthma. Apparently, “holistic” doesn’t include the brain or lungs.

What struck me, however, was her comparison between their “DAN! doctor” and the neurologist who is treating their son’s seizures. She felt an uncomfortable lack of confidence in the neurologist because she stated, in the first visit, that she didn’t know what was causing the boy’s seizures and needed to do some tests. In fact, this neurologist went so far as to admit that they might never discover a cause for the seizures, even after extensive testing. In contrast, their “DAN! doctor” always has an answer and uses tests to merely confirm his “clinical impression”.

Therein lies the appeal and the danger of “alternative” practitioners.

To recap - the neurologist admitted to this parent that she - the neurologist - couldn’t tell what was causing the seizures and needed to do further testing. The “DAN! doctor”, on the other hand, could tell that her son was suffering from “mercury toxicity” on the first visit and only did the $1400 worth of blood, urine and stool testing in order to confirm his diagnosis.

At this point, I asked my friend if she would look at the situation from a slightly different angle. Instead of seeing the neurologist’s lack of certainty as a flaw, maybe it was simply honesty. After all, how could anyone be sure what was causing the seizures without some testing? For that matter, how could her “DAN! doctor” be so certain that her son had “mercury toxicity” before any of the tests were done? And why - if the diagnosis was so obvious - did he need to do $1400 in tests (all done at expensive mail-order labs)?

Another curious point is that this “DAN! doctor”, while he has never wavered in his assessment of “mercury toxicity”, has been all over the map in terms of therapies. He started out with chelation, which he assured my friend would “recover” her son “in a matter of months”. When the boy’s behavior worsened, the doctor said it was “the toxins being mobilised” and when she commented after a year of chelation that her son seemed no better, the doctor said “It’s because you are too close - I see tremendous improvement!”. Funny thing, the boy’s teachers, who had no knowledge of the chelation, didn’t see much improvement, either.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ENTRY!

Bad Astronomy: More good and bad news about measles and vaccinations

2011-07-30T16:44:00.014-05:00

I don't think I can expand any more on Dr. Plait's article... I am reprinting it in its entirety here so that I can catch the full list of related links. And yes, I realize this is an old post of his, but it is worth it for me to catch up on posting and put this one up! Also, if you care at all about public health, this should be a call to action for you. Write to Representative Keenan and ask him to withdraw his support for this.

More good and bad news about measles and vaccinations

Reporting on the latest news about vaccinations is frustrating. For every step forward we take a step back.

1) First, the good: vaccination rate for measles in the UK has risen to its highest level in 13 years according to the UK Health Protection Agency. The rate — 90% among two-year-olds — is pretty good. I’ll note that this is for the first of two vaccinations needed; for the second dose the uptake is lower, 85%.

One bit of bad news about this is the reason behind the rate increase is thought to be due to a series of measles outbreaks in Europe. It’s an irony of life that vaccines are a victim of their own success: inoculations have been so successful in eliminating some diseases that people take for granted the diseases are gone. But they’re not gone, they’re waiting. When vaccination rates drop low enough, we see more measles. And pertussis. And the flu, and polio.

And when this happens, people get sick, and some die. A teenager in the UK recently died of measles. He had a compromised immune system, which means he relied on us, the rest of the population, to keep up herd immunity.

We failed him.

2) In Massachusetts, it is a requirement by law that children be vaccinated to enter public school. The only exceptions are due to health reasons (for example, an allergy to ingredients of vaccines) or for religious reasons. I disagree with religious exemptions when it comes to medicine — as I’ve said here and here and here– but the Massachusetts legislature is about to consider a bill that will make things much worse. The bill, if passed, will amend the previously existing law. In its entirety, the bill says:

Notwithstanding the provisions of this section a child shall, upon written request of a parent to the school, be admitted to school.

What this means is that if a parent has decided for whatever reason not to vaccinate their child, all they have to do is write a letter and the kid must be allowed to attend school. I expect the reasoning behind this bill is to allow parents more freedom, but what it will actually do is greatly increase the risk of other children at Massachusetts schools for contracting serious and potentially life-threatening diseases.

The sponsor, John Keenan (D-Salem), appears to be a public safety-conscious man, having sponsored many bills to increase public safety. Going over his record I find myself agreeing with many of his policies. But this one strikes me as a bad idea.

Harpocrates Speaks has much more on this. If you live in Massachusetts, I suggest you read his article and contact your local representative about this issue.

Tip o’ the syringe to J Thomas and Todd W.

Related posts:
- Confirmed measles cases in US tops 150
- Pertussis can kill and you can stop it
- How to be inoculated against antivax conventions
- The Panic Virus

Genetic Switch for Limbs and Digits Found in Primitive Fish

2011-07-29T09:36:00.015-05:00

The fact that genetics time and again supports evolution at the molecular level amazes me. Not because the support is amazing, but because here is a field of science that came around more than 100 years after Darwin wrote his book, and it matches up! If evolution was somehow a fraud or in danger of being overturned, the level of fraud to have Darwin's book and ideas be supported at this level of science would be simply mind-boggling. He would have had to have had a time machine or something to pull it off. Either that, or he was simply correct, and the molecular genetics is yet one more prediction made by science that was in the end supported. Isn't it great when science actually works?

Genetic Switch for Limbs and Digits Found in Primitive Fish: Before Animals First Walked On Land, Fish Carried Gene Program for Limbs
Genetic instructions for developing limbs and digits were present in primitive fish millions of years before their descendants first crawled on to land, researchers have discovered.

Genetic switches control the timing and location of gene activity. When a particular switch taken from fish DNA is placed into mouse embryos, the segment can activate genes in the developing limb region of embryos, University of Chicago researchers report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The successful swap suggests that the recipe for limb development is conserved in species separated by 400 million years of evolution.

"The genetic switches that drive the expression of genes in the digits of mice are not only present in fish, but the fish sequence can actually activate the expression in mice," said Igor Schneider, PhD, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago and lead author on the paper. "This tells us how the antecedents of the limb go back in time at every level, from fossils to genes."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Book Makes Case For Using Evolution In Everyday Life

2011-07-28T17:31:00.017-05:00

I have always stated that the theory of evolution is so ingrained in everyday life, that to deny it is incredibly hypocritical, unless you sequester yourself off in a cave somewhere. Pretty much EVERY advance in modern medicine comes from our understanding of evolution. In the best of my fantasy worlds, all deniers of evolution would be denied the benefits we have learned from its understanding.

Now, I don't agree 100% with this particular author (I find him too accommodating to creationists and IDiots), but he has a very good point.

Book Makes Case For Using Evolution In Everyday Life
Evolution is not just about human origins, dinosaurs and fossils, says Binghamton University evolutionist David Sloan Wilson. It can also be applied to almost every aspect of human life, as he demonstrates in his first book for a general audience, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (Bantam Press 2007).

Using witty, straightforward language and compelling anecdotes, Wilson outlines the basic principles of evolution in a way that can be easily understood by non-experts. He then uses the principles to explain phenomena as diverse as why beetles commit infanticide, why dogs have curly tails, and why people laugh and make art.

Wilson, a distinguished professor of biological sciences with a joint appointment in anthropology at Binghamton University, is convinced that evolution can become more widely accepted once its consequences for human welfare are appropriately understood.

"When evolution is presented as unthreatening, explanatory, and useful, it can be easily grasped and appreciated by most people, regardless of their religious or political beliefs and without previous training," says Wilson.

Butterfly Study Sheds Light On Convergent Evolution

2011-07-27T17:22:00.015-05:00

A classic creationist canard is to find something that science may not have figured out yet, and proclaim, "therefore my supernatural entity did it!" That is just plain wrong. Not having an answer yet is no reason to substitute in a totally unfounded and unsupportable answer of "magic" in its place. Especially when eventually science does figure it out! Then the unnecessary "magic" answer seems really silly (which it was all along to people who subscribe to reality).

One of the stumper questions was Convergent Evolution. It just seemed like a weird thing that happened in nature, and whe knew that it provided a benefit (the why), but the how was puzzling. So this article is all part of replacing the magic with an actual how explanation.

Butterfly Study Sheds Light On Convergent Evolution: Single Gene Controls Mimicry Across Different Species

For 150 years scientists have been trying to explain convergent evolution. One of the best-known examples of this is how poisonous butterflies from different species evolve to mimic each other's color patterns -- in effect joining forces to warn predators, "Don't eat us," while spreading the cost of this lesson.

Now an international team of researchers led by Robert Reed, UC Irvine assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, has solved part of the mystery by identifying a single gene called optix responsible for red wing color patterns in a wide variety of passion vine butterfly species. The result of 10 years of work, the finding is detailed in a paper that appears online July 21 in the journal Science.

"This is our first peek into how mimicry and convergent evolution happen at a genetic level," Reed said. "We discovered that the same gene controls the evolution of red color patterns across remotely related butterflies.
"This is in line with emerging evidence from various animal species that evolution generally is governed by a relatively small number of genes. Out of the tens of thousands in a typical genome, it seems that only a handful tend to drive major evolutionary change over and over again."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

FDA: Flu Vaccine

2011-07-26T17:15:00.005-05:00

The FDA has approved the 2011-2012 flu vaccine. Here is the complete release:

Influenza Virus Vaccine for the 2011 - 2012 Season

Cumulative 2011/2012 Season Lot Release Status (Updated 7/21/2011)
Flu vaccine lots that have been released by FDA and are available for distribution by the manufacturers. For information on flu vaccine distribution schedules, please contact the manufacturers directly.

Vaccine & Manufacturer	Total number of Lots Released by FDA
AFLURIA CSL Limited	0
Fluarix GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals	11
FluLaval ID Biomedical Corp. of Quebec	15
FluMist MedImmune, LLC	5
Fluvirin Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited	3
Fluzone Sanofi Pasteur, Inc.	27

FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met in Bethesda, Maryland, on February 25, 2011, to select the influenza viruses for the composition of the influenza vaccine for the 2011-2012 U.S. influenza season. During this meeting, the advisory committee reviewed and evaluated the surveillance data related to epidemiology and antigenic characteristics of recent influenza isolates, serological responses to 2010-2011 vaccines, and the availability of candidate strains and reagents.

The committee recommended that vaccines to be used in the 2011-2012 influenza season in the U.S. contain the following:

an A/California/7/09 (H1N1)-like virus; *
an A/Perth /16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus;
a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.

*A/California/7/09 (H1N1)-like virus is the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus.

This year’s vaccine for the United States includes the same viruses that were used for the 2010-2011 influenza season and the influenza vaccine composition is identical to that recommended by the World Health Organization on February 17, 2011, for the Northern Hemisphere's 2011-2012 influenza season.

Vaccine Times: Argumentum ad TVum

2011-07-25T17:10:00.001-05:00

On Saturday's post, I may have made some statements about the anti-vax pro-disease crowd that may have seemed mean, and been an insult at their integrity. Well, I stand by them! And just to go into how incredibly out there their arguments can be, I present a new logical fallacy coined by the Vaccine Times: Argumentum ad TVum... Yes, it really is what it sounds like! If they saw it on a TV show (a sitcom no less), it must apply to real life! Just imagine the hilarity that will ensue.

Argumentum ad TVum
One of the stranger arguments made by vaccine critics over the years references an episode of the television sitcom The Brady Bunch where the kids came down with measles. The argument goes that because measles was treated as just a minor inconvenience for the family and not a life and death struggle on the show, it demonstrates medical authorities warning the public of serious risks from measles are nothing but alarmists using fear-mongering to increase vaccine sales for Big Pharma.

This Brady Bunch argument seems to originate with a tweet from leading vaccine critic Jay Gordon and has been repeated everywhere from random internet forums to Age of Autism, sometimes citing variations including different television shows and different vaccine-preventable diseases.

The most recent version, posted on Age of Autism, refers to a clip from a children’s cartoon called Arthur in which parents reassure their child that chickenpox is not serious. Nobody seemed to panic on the TV show and health authorities weren’t quick to condemn the show’s irresponsibility, so that must mean these diseases aren’t serious…right?

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST.

Darryl Cunningham: Evolution

2011-07-24T16:00:00.016-05:00

I was a bit reluctant to post this link, only because no matter how simple you make it to someone who denies evolution, they will try to discount it. And then you get trapped in trying to make it more simple, until it finally degenerates the very complex process into a caricature, which is really what the denialists already had in their mind. Also, this particular link also ends up dealing with the "poo flinging ape" problem. I find that all too often, creationists and evolution deniers will demand that every single mechanism be explained to them, and no matter how many explanations are provided, they only remember the final instance when they finally managed to ask about a process the explainer was not familiar with. A very specific item I even deal with at the main Facts, not Fantasy Evolution page (see the last item).

Evolution

Here then is the beta version of my strip about evolution. This is a chapter of the book Science Stories which will be out from Myriad Editions next spring. I'm sure there'll be mistakes here, so do feel free to point them out, so that I can make the necessary changes. Thank you.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST!

A Photon in the Darkness: Another worthless autism-vaccine study

2011-07-23T15:51:00.017-05:00

Here is my first catch up post. As is so often the case with people who hold anti-reality views, lying is one of their most cherished recourses. They get so good at it, and do it so often, that they don't even realize they are doing it! And that statement is supported by a great deal of neurological research (I suggest Dr. Shermer's books on belief for an introduction). So it is no surprise that a sketchy journal with an anti-vax pro-disease nutter at its helm publishes a poorly researched paper.

Another worthless autism-vaccine study
In May of this year (2011), the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A published an article by Dr. Gayle DeLong, professor of economics and finance at Baruch College, that claims to show a correlation between vaccines and autism:
DeLong G. A Positive Association found between Autism Prevalence and Childhood Vaccination uptake across the U.S. Population. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A. 2011 74(14):903-916
To readers who are curious why this article would appear in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, recall that this is the same journal that has published (thoroughly debunked) articles on autism causation by Mark Geier (four, by my count), and James Adams (two). Clearly, someone on the editorial board of this journal has a “soft spot” for autism research that wouldn’t get published anywhere else.

Getting back to DeLong (2011) - the premise of Dr. DeLong’s study is that the increase in vaccination, specifically the hepatitis B vaccine, has been associated with a corresponding rise in autism diagnosis (from IDEA data). Curiously, Dr. DeLong doesn’t explicitly mention that her study is looking at the impact of the hepatitis B vaccine, although the rise in vaccination rate she follows is due to the addition of infant hepatitis B vaccination to the recommended schedule. Figure 1 clearly shows that, in the period 1995 - 2001 (the period Dr. DeLong covers), the US uptake of DPT, polio, measles and Haemophilus influenzae B (HiB) vaccine (the line marked 4:3:1:3) were relatively constant, while the hepatitis B vaccine coverage (included in the line marked 4:3:1:3:3) showed an increase during that period. I have taken the liberty of showing the data on vaccine uptake after 2001 to show the later trend.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ENTRY!

Sorry About the Silence

2011-07-22T16:15:00.007-05:00

Dear reader,

My apologies for the sudden silence and lack of posts. Due to numerous unforseen circumstances, I have neglected to pass along news and updates. I am just writing this entry to let you know that I shall endeavour to update this page with a few more entries and updates in the near future. There has been quite a bit of news that needs to be covered, as well as some upcoming web page updates that I need to accomplish. Please bear with me as I get these incorporated and taken care of.

Also, while Avicenna and I are the primary bloggers here, I am always looking for more people to help out. There are many team members listed on this blog, however I have not heard much from them. I am leaving them on the blog since I owe a certian amount of allegiance to them, but I am always looking for more people. Please feel free to drop me a line at Larian@LarianLeQuella.com if you are interested in contributing. Thank you.

60 Minutes on the impact of antivaccination lobbying

2011-06-21T16:22:00.010-05:00

60 Minutes Australia gets the point! If you go to the YouTube page, there is naturally a deluded anti-vax nutter there that is posting all sorts of nonsense. Sadly, babies die because of the likes of them.

Dr. Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has also covered this. Only reason his is dated for earlier in the week is because I wrote this over the weekend, and set it up to automatically publish later. I am doing a lot of travelling for work (and yes, all my vaccines are up to date, so at least I am not being a danger to anyone). At least we aren't alone in knowing and understanding these dangers.

The Vaccine Times: Doctors Without Borders embark on massive vaccination campaign in Zambia

2011-06-20T18:08:00.011-05:00

Nigeria, Zambia, the UK, the US. The list goes on where measles is having a major resurgence.I just can't help but wonder if this is actually the goal of some of these people. I know that most of us have forgotten the horrors of watching these diseases ravage our communities, but I would think that would be a good thing. Why do these anti-vax nutters struggle so hard to bring these diseases back?

A measles epidemic affecting thousands of Zambian children has prompted Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in collaboration with Zambian health authorities, to embark in a massive vaccination campaign aiming to reach 600,000 children between the ages of 6 months to 15 years.

Teams began work early in May in two provinces that have suffered the most cases, 3,043 and 4,670 respectively. During the first two weeks of the campaign, nearly 270,000 were vaccinated. The campaign which was supposed to take about 3 weeks should have concluded, or be in its winding stages, as you read this.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

Vaccine Times: Russell Blaylock MD - The new Wakefield?

2011-06-19T18:04:00.013-05:00

Is anyone taking bets on when this charlatan will be on some credulous TV show spouting off his nonsense?

The anti-vaxers’ ability to find real doctors to support their particular brand of quackery is admirable: think Dr. Jay Gordon, Andrew Wakefield and countless others. Someone I was not previously aware off joins the illustrious ranks; we are introduced to Dr. Russell Blaylock M.D. In a recent tweet, Meryl “I’m not anti-vaccine I’m pro-safe-vaccine even though vaccines=rape” Dorey linked to an article ominously titled “If You Are In Support of Vaccinations, Read This If You Dare“, published at thehealthy- economist.com. Now, how could I be expected to resist a dare from thehealthy- economist? I had to read.

As the first sentence of the article shows, we’re in for quite a spectacle:
If you are in support of vaccinations, this well written, concise and compelling letter by world renowned neurologist Dr. Russell Blaylock MD will dismantle every single argument used to support this inhumane, barbaric practice.
Wow, he’s world-renowned and is going to dismantle every single argument supporting vaccinations in one letter. What could possibly go wrong with that? I’m sure a world-renowned neurologist won’t stoop to the tired, old, already debunked anti-vaccine talking points. No, this guy will present earth-shattering evidence, unassailable arguments that will just leave the rest of us in the pro-health community flabbergasted and speechless. Did I mention he’s a world-renowned neurologist?

Who is Russell Blaylock MD?
He’s not new to the pseudo-scientific world according to the Skeptics Dictionary. He’s been around for a while apparently dabbling in pseudo-scientific endeavors with regards to vaccines, cancer, and other woo lovers topics such as water fluoridation, teeth fillings, aspartame etc.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE. It's a long one, but forewarned is forearmed. And this nutter needs to be shown for what he is!

Rachel's Story

2011-06-18T17:59:00.004-05:00

This is the story of a child that is now deaf as the result of measles. The poor mother of this child thought that herd immunity would protect her child. Sadly it didn't. Herd immunity is no substitute for vaccines. For more similar stories, visit shotbyshot.org

GAVI and me

2011-06-18T14:54:00.001-05:00

There are some causes worth fighting for and recently Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation had a conference to drum up funding for vaccination schemes across Africa where vaccine uptakes are low.

It doesn't matter if you give money or give time or merely spread the word to those who can give money. Please donate. Vaccination is the most cost effective way of halting the spread of disease and improving the lives of people in the developing world.

Some of that money comes down to where I study and helps fund the various vaccination schemes I support out here, so please help your fellow simians out.

The magic of vaccines

Vaccination in Liberia

Viera Scheibner's Quick Points - A Rebuttal

2011-06-18T10:17:00.001-05:00

Viera Schiebner at her non-muggle job.

I find this woman odious, a genuine harpy. Twisting the misery and suffering of countless children across the world to fit her world view of anti-vaccination and anti-medicine. Her work has recently begun to resurface courtesy of outbreaks of measles across Europe. It's not sufficient that she misrepresents her "speciality" as a micro-paleontologist and uses her doctrate to make people assume that she is a medical doctor. Her work has routinely been called to question and is responsible for the idea that the whooping cough vaccine is responsible for SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). She has also linked Shaken Baby Syndrome to vaccination and claimed that childhood diseases such as mumps, measles, whooping cough and german measles are vital for development and only cause fatalities under medical mismanagement. Her work forms the foundation of all sorts of moronic anti-vaccine ideology based out of Australia. In response to the previous Measles outbreak in the UK immediately post Andrew Wakefield's shoddy research she produced her own Quick Points about the Measles Outbreak.

1. Peter Flegg failed to respond/refute that The Amish who claim religious exemption to vaccination had not reported a single case of measles for 18 years (between 1970 and December 1987). He ignored my quoting Hedrich (1933), who is credited with coining the term “herd immunity”, and showing that measles have dynamics of 2-3 years and up to 18 years. Not just 2 years as plainly asserted by Dr Flegg.

Racism was also more
acceptable black then.
I mean back then!

Amish Herd Immunity comes from the General population who surround them having herd immunity due to our vaccinations. They are a tiny population that cannot move very far and is rarely in contact with other humans bar visitors who view them as a curiosity and a throwback to a simpler time of barn dances, buggy rides, simple home improvement and dying in childbirth.

And her data fails to understand how Measles spreads and stops at 1987 because there was a mass outbreak in the Amish community courtesy of two school kids who developed the measles rash starting on the 21st of March 1988. The disease cut through the amish like wildfire causing 142 cases of which one child died of measles meningitis. The ensuing fear of the measles caused an increase of vaccination in the Amish community which is normally around 20% to 70% due to fear of the disease.

In addition for the same period multiple other communities acquired the disease due to the practices of the amish of not following quarantine. Many amish children survived solely due to medical intervention from the US government.

Hedrich's paper is a bag of useless in this day and age because back then roughly 4 million cases of measles were seen per year with nearly 15,000 to 20,000 complications resulting in roughly 450 deaths a year. Now in the west combined we don't even have 450 cases of measles. It's a testament to how effective vaccination is.

Not a feasible modern living arrangement here.

2. It is a documented fact that measles vaccine was introduced in the US, and used in mass proportions coincidentally with the beginning of an 18-year cycle of no incidence of measles. During that time, the vaccines kept measles epidemics occurring every 2-3 years in the non-Amish US communities at the time when the unvaccinated Amish had no cases.

The current outbreaks of measles are directly linked to the idiocy of Andrew Wakefield's research and the people who were conned into not taking the MMR vaccine. There is a direct correlation to the increase in measles post reduction in vaccination. Also if measles had a 18 year cycle then we would have seen a lot more outbreaks rather than these piddly numbers of 100 to 200 (sad cases but still piffling) considering the USA was once home to 4 million cases per year.

3. As far as the herd immunity and vaccination is concerned, there is no positive relationship there. The vaccines do not even protect the individual recipients, notwithstanding protecting the community. I quoted Rauh and Schmidt (1965. Measles immunization with killed virus vaccine. Am J Dis Childhood; 109: 232-237) who described a 1963 epidemic of measles in Cincinnati and wrote “It is obvious that three injections of killed vaccine had not protected a large percentage of children against measles when exposed within a period of two-and-a-half years after immunization”. Actually, Dr Flegg unwittingly provided similar evidence for the ineffectiveness of measles vaccines by writing “full measles vaccination”. It was precisely the failure of one jab of measles vaccines to prevent their recipients getting measles that prompted the introduction of further doses of the same (ineffective) vaccine.

1963 vaccines have been improved on. Vaccines do not produce a total immunity but they produce a resistance. It's like saying that people still die despite wearing bullet proof armour so we should not give our soldiers armour ignoring those who are saved.

The 1963 killed vaccine was not efficient. After the first dose only 25% had immunity after a year. After the booster only 60% and after the third dose.

The modern Measles vaccine is the MMR and is a live vaccine which has excellent protection.

4. Dr Flegg is plainly inaccurate, if not wrong, in stating that it was only the recipients of the killed measles virus vaccine revaccinated with the live virus measles vaccine that developed atypical measles. I quote Krause et al (1980. Measles-specific lymphocyte reactivity and serum antibody in subjects with different measles histories. Am J Dis Childhood; 134: 567-571) who wrote “Since in the past, occasional cases of atypical measles have been noted in persons who as far as could be discerned had received only live vaccines, it has occurred to us that under certain abnormal circumstances, measles-specific lymphocyte sensitization can happen in individuals other than recipients of killed vaccine. Recent trends have led to situations where children have received multiple doses of live vaccine. ” And further “…, we have wondered about the possibility of exaggerated measles-specific lymphocyte reactivity in some multiply vaccinated persons.” One is tempted here to ask, if multiple doses of live measles virus vaccines cause such abnormal circumstances why then administer multiple doses to start with? Cherry (1980. The ‘New’ epidemiology of measles and rubella. Hospital Practice; July: 49-57) wrote “What about the possibility of waning immunity in those who had been vaccinated? In the 1970-71 epidemic, studies in the St Louis area indicated that about one half of 10,000 cases of measles [now that’s a substantial epidemic at the time when the unvaccinated Amish reported no cases!] occurred in vaccinees and about half had been less than one year old at the time of immunization. Some of the affected children in St Louis had mild, apparently modified, disease. About one third of the vaccine failures showed only secondary specific antibody (IgG) response, that is evidence of prior immunologic stimulation to measles without subsequent protection. Similar data for Cincinnati were reported by C.C. Linnemann Jr et al. and for New Haven by A. Schluederberg et al. both of whom noted a large number of “vaccine failures” in patients whose IgG was responsive but whose IgM was not...In short, since these studies indicated that vaccine failure rates increase with time, one could make a case for evidence of waning immunity: however, the influence of improper immunization in these “failures” could not be discounted”. And there is more: “In short, the data suggested that a booster dose might not have any lasting effect on waning immunity.” I am impressed that such a staunch proponent of vaccination as Dr Cherry so honestly reported on the observed fundamental problems with measles vaccination.

Okay. However there is no need for booster doses when using live vaccines as the low virulence but high antigenicity of the live vaccine allows you to give just a single MMR shot and gain life long resistance.

Also statistics!

5. Having mild measles is not such a good thing, as Ronne (1985) demonstrated in his landmark article, aptly titled “Measles virus infection without rash in childhood is related to disease in adult life” Lancet; 5 Jan: 1-5). He demonstrated that those adults who did not have measles in childhood, and, when having measles, did not develop proper rash, had substantially increased incidence of degenerative diseases of bone and cartilage, sebaceous skin disease, immunoreactive disease and some tumours. These were only the four diseases he looked into, there may be other conditions which are prevented by having natural measles. West (1969. Epidemiologic studies of malignancies of the ovaries. Cancer; July: 1001-1007) demonstrated that having mumps prevents ovarian cancer.

Those can be withstood and cured. Measles based complication kills children. Pneumonia, Otitis media, Acute Encephalitis, Corneal ulceration. With greater effects in adults than in children. In the west where technology is available the death rate is around 0.3%.

In rural parts of the third world the mortality rate for measles is 28%. The fewer the hospitals the greater the fatality rate. Measles is one of the biggest slayers of children across the developing world. In immunodeficient patients measles has a 30% fatality rate.

6. It is a wishful thinking of provaccinators that measles epidemics only occur in the unvaccinated: quite to the contrary. Outbreaks in even 100% vaccinated populations in the US (and elsewhere) have continued unabated (thanks for highlighting my typing error, showing Peter Flegg’s potential to be a good editor) to this day. Hedrich (1933) talked about temporary herd immunity when about 63% of suceptibles get measles, which stops the epidemic until there is again similar percentage of susceptibles. When 100% vaccination rate does not prevent epidemics, then, sorry folks, the vaccine is ineffective; moreover, the example of the above-mentioned 18-year cycle of low or no incidence of natural measles, but still characterised by regular 2-3 year epidemics of measles in the vaccinated, in fact means that the vaccine kept measles live and kicking. Just like the polio and whooping cough vaccines. Hutchins et al. (1988) reported on the Current epidemiology of pertussis in the United States (Tokai J Exp Clin Med; 13 (Suppl): 103-109 ) and demonstrated on their figure 1 that when the individual states in the US gradually one after another mandated vaccination around 1978, the incidence of pertussis increased almost three-fold, with the highest annual incidence in infants less than 12 months of age. “Children 1-4 years of age accounted for 25% of all cases but had an average annual incidence only 1/7th that of infants…Rates of hospitalization and complications such as pneumonia, seizures and encephalopathy associated with pertussis were highest in children less than 6 months of age and declined progressively with increasing age. In addition, the mortality ratio was highest in the same age group. Among children with pertussis aged 7 months to 4 years, about 3 of 5 had not received at least 3 doses of DTP (the minimum considered necessary for optimal protection)”. Taken in isolation, this statement is meaningless: it is a well-documented fact that most cases of pertussis and polio (as an example) occur after the first dose. Similar contemporary increase was observed with polio: Figure 1 in Schonberger et al. (1984. Control of paralytic poliomyelitis in the United States. Rev Infec Dis; 6, Suppl 2: S424-S426) shows exactly the same as Figure 1 of Hutchins et al. (1988): a sudden significant and sustained increase in poliomyelitis between 1975-1979, obviously coinciding with increasing numbers of small babies being vaccinated within a short period of time. This also illustrates the so called provocation nature of poliomyelitis, i.e. paralysis caused by other vaccine injections (such as DPT in this case) and vaccine-caused poliomyelitis. Indeed, earlier authors, such McCloskey 1950 (The relation of prophylactic inoculations to the onset of poliomyelitis. Lancet; 18 April: 659-663) reported on polio cases as provocation poliomyelitis, a paralysis caused by DPT injections. More recently, Romania reported on an unusually high (14 times that reported in the USA) incidence of provocation poliomyelitis ( Strebel et al. 1994. Paralytic poliomyelitis in Romania, 1984-1992. Am J Epidemiology; 140 (12): 1111-1124) after a variety of injections, and including DPT.

There are many things wrong with this pile of waffle. First and foremost is the complete disregard to prior rates of infection of these diseases and the old mortality rates with newer ones. What consists of a modern epidemic and a 1950s epidemic are two different things. At one point polio was a fact of life. It was a case of "Jimmy has polio and needs his lessons in an iron lung" (or more likely Mtumbi has polio and is going to die because he is poor and lives in Africa where there are no iron lungs). It is also believed by the WHO and CDC that the Pertusis aspect of the DPT vaccine saved roughly half a million lives every year and countless hours of medical care. Prevention is better than the cure and the disease still affects 48.5 million people a year and kills around 285,000 people a year mostly in the developing world where the DPT vaccine is having difficulty being rolled out. This is due to infrastructure issues as vaccines must be transported at a specific temperature making it difficult to transport to areas with bad roads and poor links. It's the same with all vaccines.

Post immunisation rates of Diptheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (all three diseases are deadly and fearsome in their own right.) are much much lower. Roughly 85% lower. The Pertussis vaccine is not for life and is stopped after the danger zone. Adults do not get the disease as fatally as children.

Polio still exists in the world. And it's fearsome crippling effect still has a legacy across the globe for taking healthy young children and confining them to braces and crutches for life. Romania's Dictatorial era wasn't exactly famed for producing unbiased medical records and shouldn't be used without proper research.

7. I can quote hundreds of articles describing serious reactions to measles and other vaccines.

I can quote millions of cases of people whose children's brains got fried by measles leaving them shadows of their former selves. I can show you patients who once ran but now limp on crutches thanks to polio. I can show you children dying because of whooping cough. I can shock you with the death caused by tetanus and show you visual representations of the mountains of dead babies due to the Rotavirus.

It has been proved without a shadow of a doubt that vaccination works and that while there are side effects of vaccination the risks are worth it. All it took for the current outbreak in Europe was a handful of selfish people who didn't vaccinate their children and ultimately it was their children who suffered.

8. The causal link between vaccination with live measles virus vaccine and SSPE was also described by Modlin et al. (1977) who wrote “Histories obtained in 350 of 375 clinically confirmed cases of subacute sclerosing encephalitis (SSPE) reported to a national registry showed that 292 had measles and 58 had no history of measles. Forty of the latter patients received live, attenuated measles virus vaccine. In patients with a history of measles, measles illness occurred before the age of 2 years in 46% and a mean 7.0 years before the onset of SSPE. In contrast, there was no relationship of SSPE with age at vaccination in 35 of the 40 patients historically associated with measles vaccine, and SSPE occurred a mean 3.3 years after vaccination.” Clearly the vaccine speeded up the development of SSPE.

Clearly it did not as there is a line stating "In Contrast, there was no relationship with SSPE with age at vaccination in 35 of the 40 patients historically associated with the measles vaccine.". No what we have here is an incidence of quote mining. I transcribe for you from the actual article (Modlin et al; 1977)

In contrast, there was no relationship of SSPE with age at vaccination in 35 of the 40 patients historically associated with measles vaccine, and SSPE occurred a mean of 3.3 years after vaccination. Based on estimated national measles morbidity data and national measles vaccine distribution data, the risk of SSPE following measles vaccination (0.5 to 1.1 cases/106) appears to be less than the risk following measles (5.2 to 9.7 cases/106). Because live measles vaccine is highly effective in preventing measles illness and a high proportion of children in the United States have received measles vaccine, these data are consistent with the observed downward trend in SSPE incidence since 1969.

This is a gross misrepresentation of research and elimination of an important line to enable the wacky theories of Viera.

9. As far as the relevance of older publications is concerned: the relevance and validity of original research and especially description of case histories has never been challenged, it is still widely quoted; moreover, much of the older research is honest as I pointed out in the case of Cherry (198O). Research into a variety of subjects, vaccines being no exception, was conducted intensely at a certain time (atypical measles in the late sixties and early seventies) and is not replicated every year. Even more ‘modern’ research has not proved vaccines effective (the glaring example being the abysmally failed recent testing of HIV vaccine: a number of volunteers contracted AIDS infection from it) and a number of malaria vaccines failed one after another. Quite recently, BMJ published Ufe Ravenskov’s letter “Should medical science ignore the past?” (BMJ.com 2008; 337: a1681) critical of an article on hypercholesterolaemia whose authors selected only reviews if they included “extensive recent references” thereby missing important knowledge from the past.

Atypical Measles Syndrome? That mainly occurred in people with the older vaccine or if the cold chain is compromised with the modern vaccine.

It's insanely rare in the west because we have all sorts of controls that indicate the breakdown of the cold chain. Ufe Ravenskov's letter fails to realise that there the level of excess cholesterol at death is not as important as the period during which cholesterol was high. One day of high cholesterol may be due to you having eaten a fat laden meal. What is important is cholesterol over a month.

Many of these papers quoted by Viera Scheibner are proved wrong or are incorrectly quoted and have nothing to do with statin based research. This is like posting a paper on elephant mating at a conference for particle physics.

10. Dr Flegg, just as other vaccinators, begrudges valid and relevant research published in the sixties and seventies, however, he still subscribes to the idea of vaccination developed by Edward Jenner more than two hundred years ago, when, evidently, he had no knowledge of the immune system.

Edward Jenner's small pox vaccine saved millions of lives across the globe and smallpox is itself extinct due to his simple casual observation and understanding of disease. Milkmaids seldom contracted small pox (hence the notion of the comely milk maid. They were attractive simply because they didn't get the small pox scars that made other women ugly). He found a disease that had small pox like conditions and indeed experimented with chicken pox as well without success (that's more related to herpes) before stumbling on this idea.

He genuinely did not have any idea about how his mechanism worked bar the observation. So he simply infected people with cow pox noting that the actual virulence of cow pox was further reduced when taken from a living human with the disease (much like the eastern practice of variolation where actual fluid from small pox victims was used as a precursor to this to grant people immunity in the local community but with some risk (you could catch a less virulent form of smallpox).

The idea was not developed by him. The idea is simple. Our body's immune system functions NOT by getting the disease but by T/B lymphocytes being sensitised to a specific antigen of the disease. If we could provide antigens without the actual disease then we would sensitise the patient against the disease and prevent the spread of the disease. This was pasteur's work. We confirmed these theories by various antibody/antigen testing in labs. It's an easily demonstrable principle and is actually the principle by which pregnancy tests work.

11. Dr Flegg commits worse omissions than I by not revealing the vaccination states of those ‘victims of measles’ who had to be hospitalized and died etc. his sweeping statements ring hollow.

The current measles vaccine is believed to possess an 85 to 90% efficiency. Some people WILL get the disease when exposed to it but sufficient amounts of people will have resistance to prevent it from spreading as easily. Added to which partial resistances of those innoculted will produce a higher survival rate. It's part of the reason that measles is so survivable in the west as the people themselves possess a faster response. The problem occurs when you stop vaccinating children resulting in a sufficient pool of people to allow the spread of the disease. A population of non vaccinated people sitting around away from the vaccinated people are safe UNTIL someone gets the disease. However if they are spread out evenly in a larger vaccinated population then there is no one to give them the disease, and even if one contracts the disease there is no one to spread it to so the outbreaks are small and contained.

12. Last but not least: I like vaccines to be administered to provaccinators. I can quote many examples of provaccinators refusing vaccines for themselves, such as: the medical director of the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories at the time, was quoted in The Age (newspaper) on 18.4.1976 as not having had a ‘flu shot’ in ten years. “I regard myself as a healthy-middle aged man and I think that I can withstand a bout of flu if I get it”. The same article quoted a doctor from the Fairfield Hospital in Melbourne saying that studies of immunity imparted by flu vaccines showed effectiveness levels down as low as 30%. Orenstein et al. (1981. Rubella vaccine and susceptible hospital employees. Poor physicians participation. JAMA; 245 (7): 711-713 ) reported on a vaccination non-compliance by physicians. I am also asking how come so many doctors like to administer vaccines to others when orthodox medical research (by provaccinators) demonstrated (whether consciously or unconsciously) that vaccines are ineffective to prevent diseases and the dangers are real.

I have had the polio, HiB, DPT, Tetanus Boosters, VZ, MMR and Yellow Fever vaccine. Most doctors have. Doctors do not like taking the flu vaccine because it will leave you ill for a few days and it's hard to work with the mild flu like symptoms. Most of us healthy adults could fight off the flu and the flu vaccine is mainly administered to the elderly because they are prone to suffering the most.

13. It is the orthodox immunological research that demonstrated right ab initio that vaccines by their very nature sensitise, ie. increase susceptibility to the diseases which the vaccines are supposed to prevent and also to related and unrelated bacterial and viral infections (Craighead 1975. Report of a workshop: disease accentuation after immunization with inactivated microbial vaccines. I Infect Dis; 1312 (6): 749-754).

No it does not. It's blatantly obvious that in the antibody/antigen system of immunology that antigen recognition sensitises you to disease and lets you fight it better the second time. Antigen recognition sans disease is what a vaccination is. It's all the benefits of getting a disease with none of the side effects.

What is there to like in vaccines?
Why not let Nature do its own thing when it does it so well? Nature knows what to do, people often do not (calling human species homo sapiens is a misnomer). Medical errors and changing opinions are well-documented. The benefits of natural, well-managed measles (meaning, not suppressing fever and not administering antibiotics and other drugs), or any other infectious disease of childhood, are amply documented in orthodox medical literature. I suggest that Peter Flegg also reads those ‘dreaded’ historic medical papers. The way he writes suggests to me that he does not seem to have learnt enough from “experience”, either. Doesn’t he see scores of babies with ear infections right after their first dose of vaccines at 2 months? Doesn’t he see babies dying after their vaccinations? Doesn’t he see children with behavioural and learning problems?

Because nature prefers if humans do not live past 45 and places a intense mortality rate on humans while Viera Scheibner lives in a first world nation where medicine has worked to make all those diseases a thing of legend rather than a fact of life to the point where morons like Viera can say such nonsensical things.

Orthodox medicine also lists the sheer numbers of children who are deaf, blind and mentally retarded due to measles (The ultimate irony was that Measles was more likely to make your child mentally regress than the MMR vaccine). No one gives out anti-biotics for measles (a viral disease) and in any case most antibiotics are given for actual bacterial diseases.

And I am surprised Viera does not see scores of babies with cradle cap linking that to vaccination. Babies get ear infections, and it is noted that HiB vaccinated babies have a 7% decrease in related ear infections.

The behaviour and learning problem link is heavily disproved, while the actual learning problems caused by weeks off from school, money wasted and permanent effects of disease are not mentioned.

Vaccine Times: Flu kills 602 Britons in 2010

2011-06-17T17:56:00.007-05:00

Just a straight copy/paste from Vaccine Times. I have highlighted the item of interest though. Again, this is not some ignored nation in Africa, but one that is supposedly modern!

The 2010 flu season has left quite a mark in the United Kingdom. The UKs Health Protection Agency (HPA) reports that 602 Britons have died of it this past season. That makes it deadlier than the 2009 swine flu pandemic which claimed the lives of 474 Britons. However, the swine flu claimed the most lives this year as well, with a total of 562 deaths due to it. That lead to the majority of victims (415) being in the age group of 15-64. Forty-five of those that died were children under 14, and 9 were pregnant women.

Information on vaccination history was available for about half of the fatal cases and almost 75 % (229/307) had not received the flu vaccine this year. Among children, there were 25 reported deaths in those aged five to 14 years, 16 in children aged between one and four and nine in children less than a year old. A further 91 probable cases are still under investigation to confirm flu as the cause of death.

Hopefully you and your loved ones will keep in mind all these individuals as you have an opportunity to get a flu vaccine this year.

Vaccine Times: US Measles Update

2011-06-16T17:50:00.016-05:00

Did someone mention that only third world countries have outbreaks of these "unclean" diseases like measles? Well, the US is rapidly gaining the reputation of a nation with a third rate health-care system, and it would seem that quite a bit of data does not help the cause for the US to tout itself ans first rate. The main thing to note when looking at this data is the vaccination status of all the people getting measles.

The U.S. is experiencing the highest numbers of measles in 15 years, according to a recent report by the CDC. During 2001-2008 the median number of cases has been 56 per year. So far, through May 20, 2011 that number has more than doubled. Here is a summary of the latest numbers:
118 cases reported (105 lab confirmed), the highest number reported for this period since 1996
105 (89%) associated with importation from other countries
105 (89%) patients were unvaccinated
47 (40%) patients were hospitalized and nine had pneumonia, no one had encephalitis and no one died
All but one hospitalized patients were unvaccinated
Patients ranged in age from 3 months to 68 years
18 (15%) were aged <12 months
24 (20%) were aged 1–4 years
23 (19%) were aged 5–19 years
53 (45%) were aged ≥20 years

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

Vaccine Times: Meningitis and measles kill 41 in Nigeria

2011-06-15T17:44:00.015-05:00

So yesterday there was a post about measles affecting people in the US. I made the flip comment about the US not being a third world nation. Sadly, the way the anti-vax movement has taken hold I don't see it being very much longer before I see headlines like this, except it saying Nigeria or any other country, it will be in your home state.

Meningitis and measles have killed 41 people in Yobe State, Nigeria in the past 18 months. In 2010, 322 cases of Cerebrospinal Meningitis were recorded with 22 fatalities. This year, through May, another 51 cases and 4 more deaths were reported, for a total toll of 26 deaths.

Measles caused 7 deaths out of 464 cases in 2010, whereas in the current year it caused 3,022 cases and 8 deaths so far, for a total of 15 measles deaths.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

This is not some fear mongering dire warning, but rather a reality that we seem to be blindly stumbling towards because of all the misinformation is impacting parent's ability to make informed decisions. If you have ever sat and talked to a doctor, and mentioned you read something on the internet, watch their eyes. If they don't actually roll their eyes, you have a doctor that has nerves of steel, or is no longer surprised that the average citizen thinks that Google gives them an M.D.

Vaccine Times: Measles outbreaks dont' come cheap

2011-06-14T17:38:00.020-05:00

Sometimes the canard that "Big Pharma" is making money hand over fist from vaccines. That assertion is incredibly silly for so many reasons, least of all is that it costs a great deal less to prevent a disease than it does to treat it. Vaccines prevent disease, and pharmaceutical companies and hospitals would make so much more by just allowing people to catch these diseases, and then treating the myriad of (potentially fatal) symptoms. So if anything, distributing vaccines acts against their financial interest to make money, although it does act in the ethical and humane manner of preventing suffering. Something that the anti-vax nutters never seem to get into their heads. So putting actual numbers to some of the cost, here is a quick article:

On top of all the other problems that measles outbreaks cause, monetary costs can also be quite significant. As the recent outbreak in Utah shows, relatively small outbreaks (in terms of overall numbers) can cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to deal with. The Utah measles outbreak cost $130,000 and 3,000 work hours to contain. At the end 9 people were infected, 184 were put in voluntary quarantine for up to 21 days.

As bad as that is, it pales in comparison to the 2008 Arizona outbreak. That outbreak started when an infected Swiss traveler visited one hospital. By the end 14 people were infected, involving two different hospitals with total costs of almost $800,000. For a detailed description of how that specific outbreak unfolded read this article at Wired.com.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

And all this isn't from some third world country (only one with a third world like health-care system).

Vaccine Times: Vaccine Preventable Suffering Kailis Smith

2011-06-13T17:33:00.016-05:00

Unimaginable heartbreak in the wake of a vaccine preventable death. Not a vaccine directly administered to the poor child who is now dead, but rather a vaccine that goes to all those around the child, and helps preserve Herd Immunity, which is one of the greatest benefits of vaccines. Instead, the anti-vax nutters would rather endanger those too young to have a say in this battle for public health.

Age at death – 9 weeks

Cause of death – Whooping cough

Vaccination status – Unvaccinated due to young age

What happened – Little Kailis was taken to the doctor with cold-like symptoms, sometime towards the middle/end of March 2011. He was sent home; his parents were told he had a cold. However, things got worse and within a couple of days he had to be rushed back to the hospital. He had stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated twice on his way back to hospital.
Kailis was put on life support on March 31st; he was given only a 10% chance of survival. He fought bravely, however his little body gave up the fight on April 22, 2011. He was not vaccinated due to his young age. His parents, sibling and their friends were all vaccinated. They do not know how Kailis was exposed to the virus; the most likely culprit would be someone in the public who was infected. His distraught parents are pleading with everyone to get vaccinated.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE!

Just the Vax: Vaccine Exemption and Disease: Rubella

2011-06-12T17:25:00.007-05:00

Sometimes irony just screams at you. I think this particular notice from Just the Vax is one such instance.

The CDC published the Vaccination Coverage Among Children in Kindergarten United States, 2009/10 School Year in the June 3 issue of its MMRW today. Some media outlets picked up the news that Washington has highest vaccine opt-out rate in country. Over 6% of Kindergartners have an exemption for one or more vaccines. While that doesn't seem much at first glance, it does push vaccination coverage at an age where kids are very likely to spread disease under the level that is assumed to be needed for herd immunity. Ironically, in the same issue of the MMWR, the CDC reports two cases of rubella in Washington, one imported, one indigenous.

Rubella?!
Honestly? I wonder what sort of false eco-nostalgic ideals Washingtonians are striving for, but is it really those times when hundreds (thousands in epidemic years) of babies per year contracted rubella in the womb and died in utero, or were born with horrendous malformations, deaf, blind, with heart defects?!

Vaccine exemptions lead to disease outbreaks - this is a small example. I wonder how many larger and much more catastrophic examples it will need for some parents to clue in?

I think the thing that truly makes this ironic is that congenital rubella syndrome is one known cause of autism. See, it just screams at you!

Anti-Vax Nutters Show the Weakness of their Position

2011-06-11T15:01:00.000-05:00

The anti-vax crowd likes to get together and mentally masturbate over their position. One such venue is the Autism One convention. By now, I'm sure you've heard about Jamie Bernstein, and her treatment at that convention. Especially considering that she registered for it, and was adhering to all the rules. I think it highlights the weakness of the anti-vax crowd when they go to such lengths to silence any dissent to their position. And in such an over the top way!

The Bad Astronomer has a good take on the article, with plenty of links to follow up with on the whole story. I will add in my own musing on this whole issue. What I find particularly ironic about these alt-med woo peddlers is that they are up in arms about some faceless “Big Pharma” selling medicine (THAT ACTUALLY WORKS), but when some unqualified quack tries to sell them twigs and berries that do nothing, they gladly fork over their money…

There’s a grand irony about skepticism and alt-med groups that I suspect most people don’t know. Skeptics are commonly seen as curmudgeonly cynics, poopooing new ideas and excluding anyone not in their club. Alt-med people are seen as warm, open, willing to try new things, and welcoming anyone to their group.

But that’s not the way it really works. In fact, skeptical groups welcome people who believe in various things we don’t (we’ve had them come to various TAMs; the effort we make in outreach could be improved, of course, but we certainly don’t turn them away — an important point, as you’ll see in a moment), and alt-med groups… well, they talk a good game, but when it comes down to a skeptic actually showing up at their meetings, their actions speak much louder than words.

But don’t take my word for it. You can read all about what happened to my pal and active supporter of real medicine Jamie Bernstein when she attended the antivax Autism One convention. She wrote up her experience in two parts: the first on Skepchick, and the second on Friendly Atheist.

The upshot? Despite behaving herself, obeying the rules, and being very polite, she was escorted out of the meeting by three security guards and four armed police officers, ejected on clearly trumped-up charges.

As Orac points out, does this sound like an open and honest movement? Or does it sound like people who are terrified of different opinions and quash dissent, even before it happens?

Yep, she looks downright criminally dangerous, doesn't she!

The Human Cost of Andrew Wakefield

2011-06-01T09:17:00.003-05:00

For those who are unaware of this fine example of humanity, Andrew Wakefield was the doctor who was responsible for the shoddy piece of research that lead to the rumour that measles vaccines can cause autism.

The MMR vaccine was the primary focus of the anti-vaccine stance since this was the vaccine that people believed PROVED a link between vaccination and illness. Turns out it did not.

This has caused a rise in outbreaks across Europe and America particularly when measles sufferers have travelled from reservoirs of disease in the east. And this has come to haunt us.

Currently there are 6500 cases across Europe, far higher than the national average. For instance in 2010 France has had 5090 cases. While between January to March this year there have been 4937 cases and rising. The same is seen in the UK with the sudden boom in cases reaching 330 cases.

The fault lies in the lack of vaccination. It is clear and simple. Money that could have been saved by vaccination is now being spent ensuring these kids survive their disease without the harm that it can cause. Post Wakefield fewer children were vaccinated at one point dropping to nearly 50%, and more and more cases were seen until the current epidemic. 85% of the people are vaccinated but the disease is highly contagious with an infection rate of 90%. If you are un-vaccinated and run into a measles sufferer in the same area or having passed through the same area, then there is a 90% chance of catching the disease.

The price people paid for measles was a high one. Modern technology has softened the blow but the blow is still there. Fewer people will be deaf or blind or have developmental disorders but this is a disease preventable by vaccination. The number and cost would have been a lot cheaper.

The attitude of the anti-vaccine movement was like encouraging people to not wear seatbelts. Now the car has crashed. The question remains is whether we can contain the spread of a disease that is airborne or not before it costs us more lives.

We need vaccination, and we need it now, before we pay the price in bodies rather than in Pounds and Euros.

BBC News: Measles in the UK

2011-05-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

IVAN3MAN sent me this link about measles in the UK. The thing to note here is that the UK is not some third world country here, but one of the more modern nations on earth. Yet people are needlessly suffering due to the lies of one person. Some basic facts for you before I present the article (emphasis mine):

Measles cases in Europe
Jan-April 2011
France - 7321*
Spain - 657
Switzerland - 390
UK - 345
Germany - 276*
*Jan-March figure / Source: EUvac
Measles Q&A
How safe is it to take children to mainland Europe who have had two doses of the MMR vaccine?
It gives 99% protection against the measles virus.
What if they have had only one dose of MMR?
One dose is better than none, but two doses is better than one. If you are concerned about travelling to an outbreak area you can bring forward the second MMR dose. Speak to your GP about it.
What if my children are not vaccinated at all?
The advice is to go to your GP and arrange for them to be immunised as soon as possible before you travel. Measles is a dangerous viral illness which can be fatal.
BBC Health - Measle
MEASLES FACTS
It is a highly infectious viral illness
It causes a fever, coughing and distinctive red-brown spots on the skin
Measles is contracted by breathing in tiny droplets created when an infected person coughs or sneezes
Possible complications include pneumonia, ear and eye infections and croup
Serious complications include inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), which can be fatal
Measles in pregnancy can cause miscarriage, premature labour or a baby with low birth weight
The most effective way of preventing measles is the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine
There is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism
Measles outbreak prompts plea to vaccinate children
By Philippa Roxby Health reporter, BBC News
Parents in England and Wales are being urged to have their children vaccinated after a tenfold rise in measles cases in the first four months of the year.

The Health Protection Agency reported 334 cases compared with 33 in the similar period last year.
The outbreak is thought to be linked to an epidemic in France, where 7,000 cases have been reported since January - more than in the whole of 2010.

The HPA says it is "crucial" that those at risk are fully immunised.

It says the latest cases are mainly among unvaccinated people under 25 years old and are centred on "small clusters in universities, schools or families or associated with travel abroad".

Worst-hit are London and the South East, with 104 and 102 confirmed cases respectively in the first quarter of this year.

Recently the Health Protection Agency sent out letters to some primary schools and further education colleges in London warning of the risks of taking children who are not fully immunised to mainland Europe.

'Potentially dangerous'

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the Health Protection Agency, warned parents and young adults of the importance of immunisation.

"Although MMR coverage has improved over the last few years, we cannot stress enough that measles is serious and in some cases it can be fatal.

CLICK HERE TO READ REST OF STORY.

Science Daily: Errors in Protein Structure Sparked Evolution of Biological Complexity

2011-05-23T17:04:00.014-05:00

A common refrain from theists about evolution and why they don't believe it is because they can't accept that humans are the end product of "chance" (i.e. following just laws of biology, physics, chemistry, etc. without any guidance). The idea that we're all some sort of cosmic mistake seems to insult their sense of worth or importance. So I read this article with a certain sense of amusement.

Errors in Protein Structure Sparked Evolution of Biological Complexity
ScienceDaily (May 21, 2011) — Over four billion years of evolution, plants and animals grew far more complex than their single-celled ancestors. But a new comparison of proteins shared across species finds that complex organisms, including humans, have accumulated structural weaknesses that may have actually launched the long journey from microbe to man.

The study, published in Nature, suggests that the random introduction of errors into proteins, rather than traditional natural selection, may have boosted the evolution of biological complexity. Flaws in the "packing" of proteins that make them more unstable in water could have promoted protein interactions and intracellular teamwork, expanding the possibilities of life.

"Everybody wants to say that evolution is equivalent to natural selection and that things that are sophisticated and complex have been absolutely selected for," said study co-author Ariel Fernández, PhD, a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago and senior researcher at the Mathematics Institute of Argentina (IAM) in Buenos Aires. "What we are claiming here is that inefficient selection creates a niche or an opportunity to evolve complexity."

"This is a novel bridge between protein chemistry and evolutionary biology," said co-author Michael Lynch, PhD, professor of biology at Indiana University. "I hope that it causes us to pause and think about how evolution operates in new ways that we haven't thought about before."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

Just the Vax: Still no independent confirmation of Wakefield's claims

2011-05-22T16:32:00.015-05:00

Sometimes people will not accept being wrong. No matter how often they are told they are wrong, or how poorly they came up with their information. It's well known that Wakefield not only lied and fabricated his data, but he also had a serious conflict of interest. Yet people insist on saying that he was somehow right. So a lot of people are spending a great deal of effort to continue to prove him wrong. And a lot of other misguided folks think he was somehow right despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary...

Still no independent confirmation of Wakefield's claims
One of the things that anti-vaccines groups desperately want to have, is the scientific support for their claims. A lot of parents know that rigorous studies, peer reviewed, published in scientific journals and indexed on Pubmed are the standard in discussions about medical care. Therefore, the anti-vaccine brigade are trying to maintain that, really, countless scientific studies across the globe have shown that vaccines are bad for you.

The anti-vaccine, pro-any-conspiracy theory website Whale.to (the citation of which automatically invokes Skopie's Law), provides a neat shopping list that staunch supporters of the long debunked “MMR causes inflammation of the gut which somehow causes autism and Andrew Wakefield is really a hero” notion can use to spam evidence based discussions, as recently seen on the Shot of Prevention blog where Marsha McClelland of the “We the People United for Vaccine ~~Education~~ Misinformation” Yahoo group copied and pasted in support for Andrew Wakefield.

CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF PAPERS THAT SHOW WAKEFIELD WAS AND IS STILL WRONG.

Don't Panic!

2011-05-22T04:51:00.000-05:00

Natural News encourages you to Panic!

When you are more paranoid than this android then you need to take it down a notch.

No seriously, do not panic. These guys are quacks and tools who are spreading a lunatic mistrust in medicine solely to encourage the sale of their own snake oil.

Their latest gripe is about how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is encouraging the vaccination of children across the globe. Which is a lofty goal.

The infamous Bill Gates is on a crusade to vaccinate the entire world. In a recent speech, the Microsoft guru-turned-humanitarian put pressure on the governments of the world to "prevent four million deaths by 2015, [and] ... ten million deaths" by 2020. He believes this will happen by vaccinating at least 90 percent of the world's population.

A very lofty goal. And they have the money and the clout to do this. I mean what can you say is wrong with this plan?

In order to find fault with this plan you must either be a morally bankrupt neo-luddite who would doom people to a horrible death by preventable diseases solely to fuel his world view. Or you must be so grossly incompetent that you cannot recognise how really incompetent you are. That the real reason for such a belief is a gross level of incompetence coupled with utter belief that they are right despite all evidence to the contrary.

I don't know which is more terrifying.

Among his many speeches, however, Gates has given conflicting information concerning the agenda behind his vaccination push. In his most recent speech, he claims vaccines will save lives. But in a speech he gave at a TED conference last year, Gates clearly stated that vaccines and health care were part of an equation to reduce the world's population by 15 percent

Yes, this seems like a sensible plan. The problem in most of the developing world is massive overcrowding. You would have to be some sort of blind moron to think people across the world have the same kind of lifestyle as we do (or indeed, I did) in "The West". Even our poorest families are well fed and have access to education and healthcare and housing that is absent in most of the developing world.

A lot of the problems world wide in India and China stem from having obscenely large populations (One in six people are chinese, one in six people are indian. 1/3 people are from "Asia". There are more people in India than there are people in the ENTIRE CONTINENT of Africa while possessing a lot less natural resources. Literally 60% of children show signs of stunted growth and development because there is simply not enough resources for them. This means they are forever stuck in a loop of sub mediocrity as they "end up with no future". Why educate your kids when they are going to be labourers, why should they learn anything bar their future trade? Why should they study or play when they can work and earn money?

If your having girl problems, I feel jealous of you son!
I got 99 problems and insufficient food is one!

The population must be controlled. The reason we have so many resources in the west is because our population is under our own control. Laissez faire, we agree to not procreate like rabbits and thus our society remains relatively resource abundant. Where I live in India a bath tub is a luxury because water is so scarce.

"The world today has 6.8 billion people ... that's headed up to about nine billion," he said to his audience. "Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps ten or 15 percent."

It is. India's population is rocketing up as is Africa's. All attempts to fight the rise have been like trying to put out a bonfire with a super soaker. And the plan makes sense. If you reduce the number of children who die, parents will place a premium on their child's health rather than rely on quantity for children to survive. Teaching people about contraception can reduce the population to a more feasible amount.

No plan involving vaccination involves killing people. Because then we wouldn't vaccinate.

So which is it? Do vaccines help to save lives or end lives? When considering that vaccines are loaded with toxic adjuvants and chemical preservatives, many of which are known to cause serious health problems, sterility, and even death, the latter conclusion makes a lot more sense

Obviously these individuals have not read their own statement properly. Vaccines Save Lives (The adjuvants are not toxic. Carbon Nitrogen and Hydrogen are present in proteins. They are also present in Cyanide. Chemical formulas matter!).

Yes they do cause some serious health problems. They have not been known to cause sterility and even death. But you know what also is a serious health problem?

Measles. Do you know kids die from it in India? It's the second biggest killer of children after diarrhoea. Mumps? It's one of the leading causes of sterility and deafness (oh yes! They don't tell you that eh?). Rotavirus? It is officially the biggest killer of children worldwide causing untold deaths particularly in conjunction with HIV.

Rotavirus is not so bad right?
This is the butcher of children and it can be cured by a week of IV,
or prevented by vaccination.

I would put up a picture of orchitis but imagine your testicles dying.
Oh also there is a good chance you will go deaf in the ear next to that salivary gland.
I sound over-dramatic but that's what orchitis leads to.

The conclusion doesn't make sense because these morons didn't read their own quote. Reproductive services include education, contraception and availability of abortion so that women can control numbers of children. That is how we plan to control the population.

If we wanted these people dead we wouldn't give them vaccines or our healthcare. The problem is we have given them healthcare without the education that they need not have as many kids as before because a lot more survive growing up.

The anti-vaccine stance has a real toll. Polio still exists because of anti-vaccine stances and lest we forget, Polio freaking sucks. You may not die but you may never walk again.

This is a common site in a lot of the world. We have to deal with this.

Each of the cases is an iron lung to breath for a polio patient.
This was our grandparent's reality.

This fights the above two outcomes.

It cannot get any simpler than this. People's lives are improved by vaccination. We have forgotten these diseases so we don't fear them. The names of these diseases no longer strikes fear into us because they have become legends. We fear them as much as dragons forgetting that they are very real and very deadly threats that can come back because the anti-vaccine movement is spreading across the world.

Nigeria's outbreak of Polio is linked to anti-vaccine stances. Resurgence in India and Pakistan are from this source. A new generation of sufferers exist solely because someone believed in the same things as the anti-vaccine movement.

Just the Vax: Infant Mortality and Vaccines

2011-05-20T16:26:00.013-05:00

Sadly, most people can't tell the difference between good science, and bad science. So when a study shows up that seems to support an idea that has been debunked already, alarm bells should go off. Catherina at Just the Vax has found one such article and tears it apart.

Sadly, the debunking of this study will not travel anywhere near as fast as the lies this article spreads. This sort of irresponsible reporting will further lead to many preventable deaths by people who are not armed with a good background in science. After all, this paper could be used to support the Stork Theory of human reproduction after all!

Infant mortality and vaccines

Oh goodness, here I wanted to go to bed early and then I stumbled over this latest "peer reviewed" paper in a journal "indexed by the National Library of Medicine" (see the anti-vaccine faction gloating at those fantastic quality indicators) and "proving" with an correlation co-efficient of 0.992 and a p of 0.0009 (so "sciencey") that:

Nations requiring the most vaccines tend to have the worst infant mortality rates

Authors of this little gem, in the journal Human & Experimental Toxicology, with the impressive impact factor of 1.307 and a proud ranking of 58th of 77 in the area of Toxicology (yes, that would put them into the bottom quarter) are Think Twice's own Neil Z. Miller and Medical Veritas' Gary S. Goldman. I wonder why Miller and Goldman didn't publish their paper in Medical Veritas (here is the link to the journal, please don't go blind), seeing that item 7 in their mission is: "Create a movement to address the adverse vaccine reactions and vaccine-related injuries afflicting children and adults". I guess that is because parents have clued in that "peer review" and being indexed on PubMed is a quality measure (although very obviously no guarantee for quality).

In any case - Miller and Goldman took a list of countries and looked at the number of vaccines they schedule for infants and they also looked at infant mortality. And then they correlated one with the other, a fail safe way to find causal relationships: Storks deliver babies p=0.008.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.

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References

Who wants Smallpox Back?

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