pharyngula post - News from the other side of the world

[davo]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/news_from_the_other_side_of_th.php

PZ Myers has posted on an Aussie blog post (http://scepticsbook.com/2009/04/26/meryl-dorey-endorses-homeopathy-for-treatment-of-whooping-cough/), about Dana McCaffrey, a 4-week-old girl who died of whooping cough, and the anti-vaccination crusader Meryl Dorey treating her own children with homeopathy.

[Podblack]

The most recent Skeptic Zone podcast (www.skepticzone.tv) has an interview with the producer of that episode - and there's a follow up on Friday, this week! :)

[Xeno]

An ABC news item today anticipates a Health Care Complaints Commission report damning the Australian Vaccine Network and demanding they state clearly on their web site that they oppose vaccination. The AVN denies the HCCC has any jurisdiction. Information on harassment by, and misleading information from, the AVN is included in the story. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/12/2951629.htm)

[Seamus]

The Australain Skeptic Magazine has had a lot to say about the anti vaccination nutters. The December 2009 issue is a beauty.

I was born in 1947. Even antiibiotics were not availlable when I was younger.Our family doctor gave me sulphur tablets for tonsilitis.. Mothers lived in fear of their children contracting whooping cough; the child would often die.

Growing up I knew several kids crippled by polio. Vaccinations for smallpox and cholera weres standard if one went overseas.

The anti vacciantion lobbyists make me livid. I think they should be charged with manslaughter if anyone dies as a result of their ignorant advice.

[Praxis]

I think they should be charged with manslaughter if anyone dies as a result of their ignorant advice.
+1 - well said.

[Worldslaziestbusker]

I know three polio survivors. They get about on their wasted legs and live full, rich lives, but I can't help imagining the people I might have met had they survived the epidemic, and those gaps in my circle of friends that might exist had we not bettered the disease. The whooping cough story is heartbreaking and frightening.
It spurred me to write an open letter to my workplace encouraging everyone to keep on the case of deniers to vaccinate their children, using facts and persistence. The anti-vacc groups might have the best of intentions, but they are wrong and are putting their children and community at risk. Without the low infant mortality vaccination grants us (which is still endured in the poorer parts of the world) all other medicine is window dressing.
I'm receiving rigorous feedback from some staff with unusual ideas. This is sometimes a strange and frustrating workplace in which to be attempting science.
WLB