Vaccination skepticism is becoming the new public health threat

[EvilDRMike]

Originally Posted by wibble

I don't. "Choice" in parenting is over rated. Many parents are morons. Their poor kids will already have enough genetic and cultural baggage if their parents are stupid, without actually being exposed to dangerous pathogens for no good reason.



Absolutely. In fact, if it is a public health issue, adults shouldn't get the choice either. Same as seat belts, drink driving and any number of other public health issues.

Economic disincentives (higher medicare costs for example) should apply to stupid behaviour that costs society to fix (like smoking).

Legal disincentives should apply to behaviour that puts us all at risk.

Oh me too I agree. I really don't want my kids put at risk because someone is too stupid to understand very basic science. I hate that I have to hold my tongue in work environments where these f'd up woo mongers spread their vial stupidity with impunity but I cannot respond as responding is infringing their rights. And yes I have been bitten on this.

EDM

[Praxis]

Speaking of moronic parents, at least this Judge knew what was going on and ordered the child be vaccinated.

The idiot mother is lodging an appeal. She will lose.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/healt...a5uo.html#poll

Also, do the poll!

[Sieveboy]

Originally Posted by Praxis

Speaking of moronic parents, at least this Judge knew what was going on and ordered the child be vaccinated.

The idiot mother is lodging an appeal. She will lose.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/healt...a5uo.html#poll

Also, do the poll!

Voted in the poll. I would troll in the comments, but most wooists are getting roundly spanked by those who wish to share nothing more than opinions.

[Aldaron]

I just reposted that SMH article to my FB page...now watch me get blasted by some lunatic family members who think homeopathy is a valid science *sigh*

I don't *really* care, to be honest, but it does make things less comfortable at Christmas dinner.

[rayne]

Originally Posted by wibble

I don't. "Choice" in parenting is over rated. Many parents are morons. Their poor kids will already have enough genetic and cultural baggage if their parents are stupid, without actually being exposed to dangerous pathogens for no good reason

Absolutely. In fact, if it is a public health issue, adults shouldn't get the choice either. Same as seat belts, drink driving and any number of other public health issues.

Economic disincentives (higher medicare costs for example) should apply to stupid behaviour that costs society to fix (like smoking).

Legal disincentives should apply to behaviour that puts us all at risk.

If the government introduced mandatory vaccines for public health - how quickly do you think it will take the slippery slopers to come out of the woodwork?

[Praxis]

I have had a tiler here all afternoon, doing the laundry. Lovely guy, he's done work for us before. Talks a blue streak, too.

Imagine my horror when the conversation (somehow) turned to things woo. I made a disparaging comment about anti-vaxxers (is there any other kind?) and he casually says "oh, we don't vaccinate our kids. My wife's a nurse. We're not stupid".

Well I'm sorry mate, but you are. And I told him so. And then I had to shut myself in my office for the rest of the afternoon in case I went right off because I really needed that tiling done!

A nurse who's an anti-vax nut. That's some scary shit right there, people

[rayne]

Originally Posted by Praxis

A nurse who's an anti-vax nut. That's some scary shit right there, people

I had one a few weeks back when I was in hospital. She spdnt ages telling me all about how she cured her kids of autism through a detox diet and got all the "toxins" out (couldn't tell me specifically what diet) and how she won't vaccinate kids and tells mothers not too after one of her kjds apparently developed autism through a vaccine. How anyone can do research on vaccine science and still believe anti-vax BS is beyond me.

[loubert]

I don't think this has been posted.
A opinion piece from the drum.

Former midwife.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4396794.html

On my phone. Bit hard to cut paste etc.

[rayne]

Originally Posted by loubert

I don't think this has been posted.
A opinion piece from the drum.

Former midwife.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4396794.html

On my phone. Bit hard to cut paste etc.

Great article. Thanks. I have never ending arguments with the husband of an old school friend who isn't vaccinating their kid and it's suspected the kid has something on the autism spectrum, however the father doesn't want to address it because in his eyes it would mean that he has failed as a parent (also a kid having autism without being vaccinated tanks his "vaccines are a global conspiracy to make money and we really don't need to vaccinate because everyone around my kid is healthy and the rate of getting diseases in Australia is low" theories).

[Ces]

I do not advocate compulsory vaccination because there are risks associated with it. They are small, and I understand them to be smaller than the risks associated with not being vaccinated, but they exist. Like, um, another thread, the parents are charged with weighing the risks and making the choice.

The fact that the risks of not being vaccinated are so much higher than the risks of the jab seems to me to be so obvious and so important that there must be something else at work. Parents are not seeing the facts clearly. The rise of the internet and the easy dissemination of pseudo-science, mistrust of the power the big pharmaceutical companies are perceived to have, even the fact that you hate needles and you have to stick a big one into your little bundle of joy and make them cry, whatever it is, it is clouding the facts and some parents are making poor choices.

I like what someone said regarding slugging the parents of non-vaccinated children via the medicare rebate. Couple that with increased education about the risks of letting your children actually contract xyz and let the carrot and the stick do its work.

As an aside, I was cranky this morning about people not vaccinating their children and the kids asked me about it. I said my piece but cautioned them that my opinion was nothing more than that - opinion. This led to a detour about spotting false arguments and I said that when someone uses emotive language ("high modality" pipes up one kiddo) it should be a red flag and to check the facts carefully. I then read a nurse advocating vaccination in an opinion piece and using every bit of hyperbole she could muster. Groan. If you want to point to the science, then don't sound like a hysteric; it looks like your argument alone is not enough to convince.