Anti-Vax Movement

[Ravenor]

The whole alternative medicine quackery thing makes me sad. You see more and more victims of it these days. A notable victim/peddler of woo is The Wellness Warrior, who passed away last month after spending 7 years advertising some of the most bullshit woo cancer 'cures' imaginable. Her mother developed breast cancer and tried the same methods and died a year before the Wellness Warrior herself.

New age medicine is a fucking plague on the medical establishment, I know a doctor quite well who has told me in no uncertain terms that if he is ever forced to seriously consider alternative medicine for seriously ill people he will leave the country and he is not alone in feeling that way it come up because of some patients rights group campaigning for homoeopathy an christal heeling to be offered on the NHS. Instead of you know thing's that are proven to work like surgery and drugs.

 

[Dr. Boe Jangles Esq.]

Figured I'd pop in with my two cents:
My father actually runs a pediatric practice, so this is a somewhat personal topic, as I've spent years listening to him rant about this crap. He, like many other doctors, refuses to see kids from anti-vax families as a precaution to protect the health of his other patients.
The anti-vax people fucking hate this.
He's been yelled at for "discriminating" against these patients, and criticized by well-meaning, but ignorant, friends about how he shouldn't punish the children for having crazy parents. People don't seem to grasp that the kids, while unquestionably the ultimate victims here, pose a threat to everyone they come into contact with. We develop vaccine programs so that we as a society don't have to deal with shit like polio or measles, because that shit sucks. If you fall out of that program, you are a walking pathogen farm actively contributing to the suck we are trying to prevent. It's very sad, but the fact is that this kind of quarantine measure is necessary to protect the people who don't miss the days of seeing young kids in wheelchairs from polio.
Personally, I think that this should be treated similarly to emergencies with minors from religious families who are forbidden to get blood transfusions. In this case, the children are temporarily made wards of the state so that they can receive the life-saving treatments they need. This ensures that children aren't forced to pay the price just because their parents are morons.

 

[For The Internet]

New age medicine is a fucking plague on the medical establishment, I know a doctor quite well who has told me in no uncertain terms that if he is ever forced to seriously consider alternative medicine for seriously ill people he will leave the country and he is not alone in feeling that way it come up because of some patients rights group campaigning for homoeopathy an christal heeling to be offered on the NHS. Instead of you know thing's that are proven to work like surgery and drugs.

Sounds like a good doctor. This is an article about the alternative health community and the Wellness Warrior's death, it's a sad but very interesting read about the dangers of 'alternative medicine':

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2...nt-learn-anything-from-jess-ainscoughs-death/

 

[Ravenor]

Sounds like a good doctor. This is an article about the alternative health community and the Wellness Warrior's death, it's a sad but very interesting read about the dangers of 'alternative medicine':

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2...nt-learn-anything-from-jess-ainscoughs-death/

Cheers for that dude, I'll give it a read.

 

[Stratomsk]

People still believe in this unsubstantiated fringe theory? This isn't anything new, but it surprises me this idea still has a notable following.

I can see parents who are uninformed buying into this nonsense as a way to "protect" their child. I can't necessarily blame them for thinking that way. Autism has often been speculated as being caused by many things, including vaccinations. Parents are usually given few options to help their child overcome it and desperation can get the better of them.

These Tumblr users that latch onto these ideas, fringe websites, and book publishers are not parents though. I can only guess the reason for at least some of the "Anti-Vax movement" is that many of them are trying to profit from these parents by giving them a 'magic cure' for some incredible way to 'fix' their child.

Its a despicable cycle of victims (the parents) being taken advantage of to profit and gain notoriety by people that would probably do the same exact thing somewhere else.

It makes me angry to see this happen to parents with good intentions get misled like this.

 

[Ravenor]

People still believe in this unsubstantiated fringe theory?

Sadly yes, it's mostly the yummy mummy class of new agers an militant religious groups.

I can only guess the reason for at least some of the "Anti-Vax movement" is that many of them are trying to profit from these parents by giving them a 'magic cure' for some incredible way to 'fix' their child.

Yep no matter how reprehensible the act is there is always some one willing to profit from it.

 

[Olhelm]

Truly evil people. Undoubtedly, this is what happens when you're so paranoid about the world that you'd risk the life of you, your children, and every child around you because of an Appeal to Nature fallacy.

As a medical student, I desire to say "Burn them. It's time for a firm petroleum handwashing." But that isn't right. They're still people. Stupid, stupid, ignorant fools who will believe anything they hear that allows them to cling to a bandwagon.

So I say instead, we go the route of Poveglia. Exile them to an island far away from everyone else and check back in a century to see how their health is.

 

[Ravenor]

Truly evil people. Undoubtedly, this is what happens when you're so paranoid about the world that you'd risk the life of you, your children, and every child around you because of an Appeal to Nature fallacy.

As a medical student, I desire to say "Burn them. It's time for a firm petroleum handwashing." But that isn't right. They're still people. Stupid, stupid, ignorant fools who will believe anything they hear that allows them to cling to a bandwagon.

So I say instead, we go the route of Poveglia. Exile them to an island far away from everyone else and check back in a century to see how their health is.

I genuinely feel sorry for you, as a medical student this whole movement must be particularly gauling.

The thing is I feel there is a gradual mistrust growing towards science in general and I think that needs to be addressed (partly through the growth of pseudo science like the antivax movement pro ported as fact).

 

[Vitriol]

So I'd thought I'd share one of my favorite debunking channels as he has a few videos addressing the depressing mess that is the antivax movement. Like any quality production they feature inexplicable disco lights and arcade background music: great stuff.

Spoiler: Miles power

 

[Olhelm]

I genuinely feel sorry for you, as a medical student this whole movement must be particularly gauling.

It makes me want to hit things, is what it does. I'm fighting against the urge to A-Log.

 

[Ravenor]

It makes me want to hit things, is what it does. I'm fighting against the urge to A-Log.

Oh no please Alog away. This group is not just harming themselfs they are harming us as whole and it hit's home a little to me on a personal level I have one friend expecting and his fiancée is worrying over vaccinations, and another friend who's two children didn't get vaccinated because of his ex (he now has full custody and are both now vaccinated).

 

[Marvin]

The thing is I feel there is a gradual mistrust growing towards science in general and I think that needs to be addressed (partly through the growth of pseudo science like the antivax movement pro ported as fact).

Oh god, this. Neo-luddites are the worst.

 

[Stratomsk]

Oh god, this. Neo-luddites are the worst.

Its one thing to question the application and function of technology, but to outright dismiss its proven advantages? They tend to express they want technology that is "local in scale and promote social and political freedom" without defining why modern technology inhibits it in the first place. Ridiculous.

Compared to the amount of crazies preaching about alternative medicine, Neo-Luddism is small time. At least these guys keep their spaghetti in their pockets instead of trying to go on a crusade that invariably tries to cripple modern society.

 

[Marvin]

Its one thing to question the application and function of technology, but to outright dismiss its proven advantages? They tend to express they want technology that is "local in scale and promote social and political freedom" without defining why modern technology inhibits it in the first place. Ridiculous.

Compared to the amount of crazies preaching about alternative medicine, Neo-Luddism is small time. At least these guys keep their spaghetti in their pockets instead of trying to go on a crusade that invariably tries to cripple modern society.

When I say neo-luddite, I mean it more as a slur, instead of as a reference to any particular group of people. I usually mean it to refer to people who have strong opinions against science, but who aren't actually educated on science that much.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

A common cold vaccine would be awesome.

Also, I wouldn't worry about smallpox; I think that one's been completely eradicated. Polio, on the other hand, is still around, so I would worry about that instead (and I should probably be a bit worried too now that I'm on an immunomodulator).

Rhinovirus is too unstable to create a vacine against at this time. And yeah, the only example of smallpox in existence is a lab in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

[Picklechu]

Rhinovirus is too unstable to create a vacine against at this time. And yeah, the only example of smallpox in existence is a lab in Atlanta, Georgia.

And in Koltsovo, Russia.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

And in Koltsovo, Russia.

I was not aware of that. Thank you.

 

[HG 400]

Posting this without comment.

lel

 

[Trombonista]

Posting this without comment.

lel

This is either a troll or tumblr user sexselector.

 

[Coldgrip]

Posting this without comment.

lel

...I'm really hoping that whoever made that was just trolling.