The Return of Vintage DI S E A S E S

[scotrace]

A county next to mine in Ohio is setting up emergency vaccination clinics due to an outbreak of measles. In Clevelend, they ave a problem with TB. Polio cases are on the rise.

http://www.tuscbargainhunter.com/article/20140424/NEWS/704249993/-1/tbh

This is a return of something from the 20th Century we could do without.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a big hand for the anti-vaccination cult: proof positive that believing everything you read on the Internet *can* hurt you.

 

[Feraud]

Yesterday I read a great opinion piece on the NYT.
Autism and the Agitator

What do you call someone who sows misinformation, stokes fear, abets behavior that endangers people’s health, extracts enormous visibility from doing so and then says the equivalent of “Who? Me?”

I’m not aware of any common noun for a bad actor of this sort. But there’s a proper noun: Jenny McCarthy.

 

[scotrace]

Schools are releasing early today so kids can get the info to their parents immediately. Teachers are being vaccinated.

 

[Feraud]

I hope they curb this potential outbreak asap!

 

[3fingers]

We have had a few things pop up here in the Amish community. It's unsettling to say the least. I remember what was supposed to be the end of some of these things and we have no need of seeing them again.

 

[Diamondback]

Oh, don't wind me up about that twit McCarthy... I have an autism-spectrum neuropathology myself, and the whole subject is a frequent rant for me.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a big hand for the anti-vaccination cult: proof positive that believing everything you read on the Internet *can* hurt you.

This is a regular topic of discussion in our home. My wife is a Master's degree prepared Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and occasionally she and others in her practice encounter these misguided zealots. If a parent refuses to have their child inoculated, there is an attempt to provide education in the area through the services of a nurse educator. If the parent is still adamant about not vaccinating, they are then told to find another practice or provider for pediatric care needs.

I am amazed that someone like Jenny McCarthy has any influence as to any medical decisions. Dropping out of one's freshman year at a secondary tier state university, to pose nude for Playboy, doesn't really look all that impressive on the curriculum vitae of any would-be immunology expert.

 

[Foxer55]

CTS,

This is a regular topic of discussion in our home. My wife is a Master's degree prepared Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and occasionally she and others in her practice encounter these misguided zealots. If a parent refuses to have their child inoculated, there is an attempt to provide education in the area through the services of a nurse educator. If the parent is still adamant about not vaccinating, they are then told to find another practice or provider for pediatric care needs.

I am amazed that someone like Jenny McCarthy has any influence as to any medical decisions. Dropping out of one's freshman year at a secondary tier state university, to pose nude for Playboy, doesn't really look all that impressive on the curriculum vitae of any would-be immunology expert.

People will do strange things to try to rationalize what they don't understand. Obviously no one understands autism for now, and probably won't for a long time, so people will concoct theories to to make it something understandable to be able to tolerate their frustration with something unknowable. Like Rummy said; the known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns. That observation is a perfect generalization of all human knowledge. Autism is at least a known unknown and may be or may be comprised of unknown unknowns.

 

[Tomasso]

CTS,



People will do strange things to try to rationalize what they don't understand. Obviously no one understands autism for now, and probably won't for a long time, so people will concoct theories to to make it something understandable to be able to tolerate their frustration with something unknowable. Like Rummy said; the known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns. That observation is a perfect generalization of all human knowledge. Autism is at least a known unknown and may be or may be comprised of unknown unknowns.

Yep, fear and insecurity are at the base and it's been a constant human reaction of the uneducated and educated alike, from time immemorial.

 

[sheeplady]

I hate the anti-vaxxing movement with a passion. Because I'm kind of a crunchy mother (cloth diapered my daugher) I've met a lot of people who don't vaccinate and they assume my daughter is unvaccinated. The people I've met come from all sorts of backgrounds- I even know an MD who does delayed scheduled vaxxing for his kids.

I simply cannot comprehend why someone would not vaccinate their child (given a healthy kid who can take vaccinations, of course). Vaxxing my child doesn't necessarily protect her from getting the disease, but it makes it so much less likely that she would be a carrier or infect someone who can't get vaxxed. I understand that there are risks to vaccines, but those are risks we take to be a part of society.

 

[Sharpsburg]

I never cease to be amazed by people's irrationality and ignorance. The anti-vaxxers are just another wing of the nutters like Cliven Bundy and his camo clothed buddies. We seem to be getting worse, not better. Scary.

 

[Big Man]

I never cease to be amazed by people's irrationality and ignorance. The anti-vaxxers are just another wing of the nutters like Cliven Bundy and his camo clothed buddies. We seem to be getting worse, not better. Scary.

Amen to that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Internet makes it easier than ever to spread this kind of nonsense. No matter what stupid, self-destructive behavior you can imagine there are fanatical advocates for it on the web. One screwball quickly becomes a million.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The Internet makes it easier than ever to spread this kind of nonsense. No matter what stupid, self-destructive behavior you can imagine there are fanatical advocates for it on the web. One screwball quickly becomes a million.

It's been said before, but bears repeating: the best thing about life before the internet was that at least the village idiot stayed in his own village.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The Internet makes it easier than ever to spread this kind of nonsense. No matter what stupid, self-destructive behavior you can imagine there are fanatical advocates for it on the web. One screwball quickly becomes a million.

There is, of course, a silver lining to that dark cloud. The net also permits the vetting of self-anointed "experts."

Occupational hazard, I confess, but I place stock in the first phase of qualifying a witness as an expert in any area. That demands looking at their background: education, work experiences, articles or books published, etc. Now, I am the first to admit that there are legitimately educated nitwits drawing oxygen in the world (Remember Morton Downey Jr., Ph.D.?). However, if, for example, I see a self proclaimed "expert" on economic issues whose education consists of an associate degree from a backwater community college, or an "expert" on the Bible whose major accomplishment as to education is a diploma from the School of the Bible and Muffler Installation of East Abscess, Arkansas, I know that I'm dealing with someone who is, as the saying goes, a few bricks shy of a load as to expert status.

 

[gear-guy]

There is, of course, a silver lining to that dark cloud. The net also permits the vetting of self-anointed "experts."

Occupational hazard, I confess, but I place stock in the first phase of qualifying a witness as an expert in any area. That demands looking at their background: education, work experiences, articles or books published, etc. Now, I am the first to admit that there are legitimately educated nitwits drawing oxygen in the world (Remember Morton Downey Jr., Ph.D.?). However, if, for example, I see a self proclaimed "expert" on economic issues whose education consists of an associate degree from a backwater community college, or an "expert" on the Bible whose major accomplishment as to education is a diploma from the School of the Bible and Muffler Installation of East Abscess, Arkansas, I know that I'm dealing with someone who is, as the saying goes, a few bricks shy of a load as to expert status.

Sounds like an attorney, we just say dummer that a sack of rocks!

 

[vintage.vendeuse]

It's been said before, but bears repeating: the best thing about life before the internet was that at least the village idiot stayed in his own village.

:rofl:

 

[3fingers]

My wife has a cousin who has jumped on this bandwagon. She did not like my opinion that the only reason that she may get by with this foolishness is that the majority of people still have the good sense to take care of their children, thus creating a barrier for these diseases to regain a wide spread foothold. If this continues to gain followers there will eventually be a disaster, and people, especially children will die because of it. My wife and I were discussing this yesterday as we were out putting flowers on graves of my family. My great great grandparents and great grandparents both lost children to various diseases that are no longer common. The anti people need to be taken on an old cemetery tour to see what the genie that they are letting out of the bottle looks like.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There is, of course, a silver lining to that dark cloud. The net also permits the vetting of self-anointed "experts."

Occupational hazard, I confess, but I place stock in the first phase of qualifying a witness as an expert in any area. That demands looking at their background: education, work experiences, articles or books published, etc. Now, I am the first to admit that there are legitimately educated nitwits drawing oxygen in the world (Remember Morton Downey Jr., Ph.D.?). However, if, for example, I see a self proclaimed "expert" on economic issues whose education consists of an associate degree from a backwater community college, or an "expert" on the Bible whose major accomplishment as to education is a diploma from the School of the Bible and Muffler Installation of East Abscess, Arkansas, I know that I'm dealing with someone who is, as the saying goes, a few bricks shy of a load as to expert status.

I think a big part of the problem today, though, is the Internet-fueled tendency to distrust and reject legitimate experts as being representative of The Man, The MSM, The Lame-Stream, or whatever other name they have for it. The cult of "alternative" dominates the net, and if you have actual qualifications and real knowledge of a topic, there's a pretty good chance they'll see you as an elitist enemy, not as a resource. Nowadays it's the wisdom of the mob that counts, and truth is what the most people on any particular website say it is. All hail the great god Wiki.