Blind Faith Leads To…Measles

*hums to self* Let’s see what’s going on in Texas today. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised or…

texas

Image shows the Rage Guy rage face screaming “Fuuuuuuu-” overlapping an outline of Texas.

Or maybe not.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting “Health alert issued as measles suddenly spreads near Dallas“.

Fucking measles. You know what prevents measles? A super easy, minimally invasive medical procedure called the fucking measles vaccine. But some people don’t want to give their kiddos the measles vaccine because fucking Andrew Wakefield fucking lied about his fucked up research and made all these fucking vaccine conspiracy nuts think that the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine causes autism. And now there’s all this misinformation out in the public mind about potential links between autism and vaccines.

And do you know what’s even more frightening than reading scare stories from wackaloons in anti-vax internet forums and listening to Jenny McCarthy spout fucking rumors and beliefs about how vaccines might cause your baby to develop autism? When your fucking pastor – your religious and spiritual leader – is a firm believer in this anti-science crapola and encourages you not to vaccinate your kids. It’s your holy, wise pastor – your link to the omnipotent guy in the sky. Surely your pastor surely knows what’s best, right?

From Gawker:

Terri Pearsons, the daughter of prominent televangelist Kenneth Copeland, and the leader of Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas, has long warned followers to stay away from vaccines, promoting the idea that they cause autism. The un-vaccinated congregation was recently put in danger when a member left the country and came in contact with measles. They then returned to Texas, where they interacted with the congregation, as well as handled children in the church’s on-site day-care center.

Nine children and six adults have been infected with the disease, twelve of whom were not fully vaccinated.

Fuck.

Well hey – at least the non-vaccinated masses are standing by their convictions. That’s worth something even if a few kids get sick, right? Again, from Gawker:

Following the outbreak, Pearsons has called on all congregants to become vaccinated.

“Our children and even adults of all ages need to be immunized now to stop the spread of measles and prevent those potential complications,” She said. “The disease is only shut down when all are immunized.”

*headdesk*

Blind Faith Leads To…Measles
{advertisement}

Anti-Vax Action Alert: VaxCBS

This advertisement by the Mercola and National Vaccine Information Center is set to run in New York City’s Time Square on the CBS Outdoor JumboTron on 42nd street.

Both of the groups behind this “PSA” are well-known for their anti-vaccination efforts. They want people to question the safety and efficacy of vaccines, to believe that it may be safer for your child to not vaccinate, that vaccines cause more injury than not vaccinating.

Forget that.

This is a dangerous advertisement, and while the ad might seem mild, what it implies is a lie that has been debunked time and time again by science-based medicine. What they want their viewers to believe has the potential to harm.

Elyse from Skepchick and Women Thinking Free Foundation is organizing an effort to make this ad not happen. From her post on skepchick.org:

Mercola and the NVIC are determined to convince Americans that vaccines are dangerous and optional, that more harm is done by administering vaccines than by letting infectious disease ravage a population.

And that message needs to be stopped. Especially right now.

Right now:

Right now we need to be promoting vaccines. Right now real people are at risk because of unfounded vaccine fears. Right now measles should be eradicated in the US.

If you feel that Mercola/NVIC’s deceptive advertisement should not air to hundreds of thousands of people on CBS’s JumboTron, here’s how you can make your voice heard:

As one commenter on change.org put it “This is not a case of two opposing but valid sides of a disagreement – this is a seriously damaging misinformation campaign that misrepresents established knowledge with speculation based on already-rejected nonsense masquerading as science.”

Let’s help make sure that we don’t give credence to this dinkus-ness, okay?

Anti-Vax Action Alert: VaxCBS

Reader Vax Rant

Blogs are a good place to rant. I LOVE that one of my regular visitors, Noelle, thought of Biodork and the First World Problems Poll (which ended months ago!) when she needed a place to express her frustrations over parents who chose not to vaccinate their children.

I know this contest is long over but I think that first world problems keep coming up and I want to vent! Refusing to vaccinate your children is a first world problem!

Third world problem: “I can’t get my kid vaccinated so there’s a good chance they will contract, and perhaps die from a preventable disease.”

First world problem: “there is a minute chance that my child may have an adverse reaction so I wont vaccinate and I’ll rely on herd immunity to keep my child safe. Plus I heard they cause autism and that stresses me out.”

Sing it, girl! Wanting and not having access to vaccines (or not having knowledge of vaccines) is a travesty that causes death and suffering around the world. Choosing not to vaccinate is an unfortunate by-product of some people having easy access to bits and pieces of information about vaccination – some of it supported by science, some of it not – and then drawing incorrect (or unsupported) conclusions about the risks of vaccination.

And some people fail to understand the consequences of falling vaccination rates. Vaccines have removed or significantly minimized the damage caused by so many vaccine-preventable illnesses, so much so that we are beginning to think that they have disappeared or are are no longer a risk.  And then we get punched in the face with something like California’s whooping cough resurgence, which has been linked to a drop in vaccination against whooping cough. I don’t like getting punched in the face. We should do everything in our power to not get punched in the face again.

Hey…

And that’s why I don’t do graphic design.

Thanks for putting thoughts to “paper”, Noelle.

Reader Vax Rant

Anti-Vax Action Alert

Elyse over at the Skepchicks posted a notice about anti-vaccination advertisements being aired in several AMC movie theaters across the country.  And guess what – one of them is happening right here in Roseville, Minnesota.  Here’s the ad they’re planning to play:

One Minnesota pediatrician has written an concise response to the advertisement, and has made it SUPER EASY for your to add your voice to the cause, as well. If you visit AMC Corporate Customer Service and you agree with Dr. Jacobsen, you can simply click a button that says “I have this problem too” to speak out against fallacious anti-vaccination rhetoric.  There is also a place to add comments to share your own thoughts with AMC. 

This is not a free speech issue; no one is saying that AMC doesn’t have a right to air these ads. This is a misinformation issue.  This is a Let’s Scare The Crap Out of Pregnant Women issue. As one commenter wrote:

AMC has every right to run these ads. I; however, will go out of my way to not support any company that runs anti-vax campaigns.

As with any controversial topic, take a minute to critically consider the arguments. I happen to believe that not vaccinating against the flu is selfish, dangerous decision. If not for you personally, then for the vunerable people around you (old people, immunosuppressed people, babies too young to receive the vaccine) who may catch flu from you. The flu isn’t just an inconvenient achy, sick-feeling cold thing from which everyone can bounce right back  – people die of the flu, and encouraging fear of vaccinations is a public health danger that we should not condone.

***********

Quick update from the road: AMC will NOT be running the anti-vax advertisement AMC will not be running the anti-vax advertisements!. 2344 people have weighed in at last check. Skeptical activism at work, well done!

Anti-Vax Action Alert