Ready for her jabs
Mark Zuckerberg took the baby to the doctor.
Doctor’s visit — time for vaccines!
See what he did there?
The Washington Post reports on the reactions:
The nearly 70,000 comments on Zuckerberg’s post run the gamut of pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine arguments. On the one hand, users have pointed out, scientists credit vaccines with eliminating formerly widespread diseases such as smallpox, and severe allergic reactions to vaccinations are rare.
Yet, many Americans, including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, doubt the medical efficacy of vaccines and have pointed to their potential dangers. During a September 2015 GOP debate, Trump recounted that the 2-year-old child of one of his employees “got a tremendous fever” and “now is autistic” after getting vaccinated.
People just have no clue. It’s like feminism – most people now have no clue how bad it was before the renaissance of feminism in the late 60s. Most people now have no clue how bad it was before vaccinations, so they freak out about statistically tiny risks while ignoring the massive risks of skipping vaccinations. No clue.
Wish there were some vaccine against that kind of stupidity.
Ooorr, waitaminute — could that be why stupid, because they already took a shot?
How can we ever know? (Now where did I put that missing?)
I’d _like_ to say on the bright side there’s little chance that near total disaster of a human being can win a general election anyway…
But I get edgy, saying such stuff. As I thought that about Dubya, once, too.
On vaccines: I had my flu vaccine a few weeks ago. No autism as yet* (or so far as I can tell, anyway). I’ll try to keep people updated.
(*There are folk who’ve occasionally opined I must be on the spectrum, mind. However, as their expert diagnosis mostly seems based on a view I was being a bigger jerk than them–and this I expect it’s almost gratuitous to mention, I would also describe as debatable at the very least–I’m not sure how solid this assessment is. Either way, however, vis à vis vaccines, I guess I can at least say I do not seem any _further_ on said spectrum–nor especially more (or less) a jerk, for that matter–post jab. Again, will update as necessary.)
I know the press needs to be and should be impartial but “On the one hand, .., scientists credit vaccines with eliminating formerly widespread diseases” balanced with “many Americans,…, doubt the medical efficacy of vaccines and have pointed to their potential dangers”? Really? *Must* we give the two statements equal credence? Really?
On the point of equal time for the purpose of appearing to be balanced: Dara O’Briain.
For the last couple of years my wife and I have been caring for her 60-year-old brother, who has congenital rubella syndrome, leading to significant intellectual disability (basically, he thinks well enough, but very slowly), small stature and various forms of incomplete development, notably a cleft palate which was never repaired properly, affecting his ability to form speech sounds. He has missed out on so much of life that we take for granted.
Congenital rubella syndrome means his mother suffered rubella (German measles, it used to be called) while he was in utero. He was born before the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine. Rubella was usually a mild disease, but devastating when caught by a pregnant woman.
People forget the enormous toll that infectious diseases used to take.
Ouch.
Yes, exactly, they do.
My older sister had a bad case of polio at age 10. She recovered but was left with a paralyzed lower leg. You’d better believe we had a high opinion of the Salk vaccine in my family.
As a youngster I recall seeing people walking with leg irons (frames to assist walking for those who had ‘mild’ polio), people with faces permanently and terribly scarred and pocked, not by acne but smallpox. I also had relatives affected by Rubella and Tuberculosis. Now? Nothing. Nada. Zip. It is just so rare to see people my generation and younger who have suffered permanent harm from infectious diseases.
I often feel like our generations have lived in the (medical) golden age where the combination of effective antibiotics, vaccines and social policy have resulted in some of the healthiest (though sadly not fittest) people ever. Now we’ve squandered antibiotics and irrational fuck wits are doing their best to ruin vaccine effectiveness.
I had rubella at 12, while my mother was pregnant with my half-brother. I recall the dread that whispered through the house. Nothing went amiss with him though, but that was the mid-60s. It was NOT all that long ago that this kind of fear was part of every child, or parent’s life.
Measles, mumps, rubella, scarlet fever, chicken pox…I had all of them.