Vaccines work?
This is not hard.
At all.
And I've been trying to be non-controversial in these blog posts and, seriously, explaining the simple brilliant idea of vaccination shouldn’t be controversial any more than explaining the fact that the earth is round (IT IS TOO! SHUT UP!).
It only became controversial because some non-science types glommed onto a faulty study linking vaccinations with autism. The retraction of that study due to shoddy science work, fraud and the inability of anyone to duplicate the results has not stopped people from actually not vaccinating their own kids. (Seems like once you go over to believing something from some famous person you cannot go back on that even when the process that produced the result is shown to be flawed and false).
Not only is this dangerous to the kid, it's dangerous to the rest of the herd.
How they work
When your body gets attacked by a disease it rallies the troops and delivers a counter attack. During this struggle is when you are sick. When you come out on the other side (hopefully) your body has beaten the disease and has created anti-bodies that are now ready to go in the future to quickly attack the same disease should you encounter it again. This time you wouldn’t even know anything was happening. Disease doesn’t even get past the bouncer. Vaccination gives you the anti-bodies for a particular disease without sending you through the battle. Brilliant! The fact that we've been vaccinating our population for decades now is why you don't hear people calling in work sick with whooping cough, or polio, or measles, or diphtheria, ...I could go on.
Why it’s good for the rest of the herd
The kind of diseases we're talking about are spread from person to person. So when enough people get vaccinated the disease can’t take hold on the population. Some diseases have been virtually wiped out this way - Polio - and I stood in a long line for my polio shot in the 50's. Thanks Jonas!
Also, children are not vaccinated until a certain age. If they get in contact with un-vaccinated children who may be carrying the disease, they are at risk of contracting the disease. When they are so young they have a hard time fighting the disease on their own. Their young bodies may not have yet built up a strong army to fight off the attack. Again, when a large percentage of the herd is vaccinated the odds of even coming into contact with an infected human approach zero.
So how did this get started?
One guy. Andrew Wakefield. He published a paper claiming to link autism and vaccination in some cases. But a key part of the process of science (which IS my main mission in this blog) is that your results have to be reproducible. Other scientists have to be able to do your experiment and get the same results. Here is some of the upshot of Wakefield’s work upon further investigation.
From CNN
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the medical profession
Most damning to me is this:
Wakefield had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose.
What does Jenny McCarthy have to do with all this?
Jennifer Ann McCarthy (born November 1, 1972), credited as Jenny McCarthy and Jenny Wahlberg, is an American actress, model, television host, author, screenwriter, and anti-vaccine activist. She began her career in 1993 as a nude model for Playboy magazine and was later named their Playmate of the Year.
I don’t know!
Finally a great demonstration by the awesome Penn and Teller
BUT when you research anything for yourself consider the source. Take a look at the list at the bottom of this link. See any Playboy models mentioned?
At all.
And I've been trying to be non-controversial in these blog posts and, seriously, explaining the simple brilliant idea of vaccination shouldn’t be controversial any more than explaining the fact that the earth is round (IT IS TOO! SHUT UP!).
It only became controversial because some non-science types glommed onto a faulty study linking vaccinations with autism. The retraction of that study due to shoddy science work, fraud and the inability of anyone to duplicate the results has not stopped people from actually not vaccinating their own kids. (Seems like once you go over to believing something from some famous person you cannot go back on that even when the process that produced the result is shown to be flawed and false).
Not only is this dangerous to the kid, it's dangerous to the rest of the herd.
How they work
When your body gets attacked by a disease it rallies the troops and delivers a counter attack. During this struggle is when you are sick. When you come out on the other side (hopefully) your body has beaten the disease and has created anti-bodies that are now ready to go in the future to quickly attack the same disease should you encounter it again. This time you wouldn’t even know anything was happening. Disease doesn’t even get past the bouncer. Vaccination gives you the anti-bodies for a particular disease without sending you through the battle. Brilliant! The fact that we've been vaccinating our population for decades now is why you don't hear people calling in work sick with whooping cough, or polio, or measles, or diphtheria, ...I could go on.
Why it’s good for the rest of the herd
The kind of diseases we're talking about are spread from person to person. So when enough people get vaccinated the disease can’t take hold on the population. Some diseases have been virtually wiped out this way - Polio - and I stood in a long line for my polio shot in the 50's. Thanks Jonas!
Also, children are not vaccinated until a certain age. If they get in contact with un-vaccinated children who may be carrying the disease, they are at risk of contracting the disease. When they are so young they have a hard time fighting the disease on their own. Their young bodies may not have yet built up a strong army to fight off the attack. Again, when a large percentage of the herd is vaccinated the odds of even coming into contact with an infected human approach zero.
So how did this get started?
One guy. Andrew Wakefield. He published a paper claiming to link autism and vaccination in some cases. But a key part of the process of science (which IS my main mission in this blog) is that your results have to be reproducible. Other scientists have to be able to do your experiment and get the same results. Here is some of the upshot of Wakefield’s work upon further investigation.
From CNN
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the medical profession
Most damning to me is this:
Wakefield had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose.
What does Jenny McCarthy have to do with all this?
Jennifer Ann McCarthy (born November 1, 1972), credited as Jenny McCarthy and Jenny Wahlberg, is an American actress, model, television host, author, screenwriter, and anti-vaccine activist. She began her career in 1993 as a nude model for Playboy magazine and was later named their Playmate of the Year.I don’t know!
Finally a great demonstration by the awesome Penn and Teller
BUT when you research anything for yourself consider the source. Take a look at the list at the bottom of this link. See any Playboy models mentioned?
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