TNR's Ioffe: "Thanks Jenny McCarthy" (or "Welcome back Whooping Cough!")
 

New Republic's Ioffe with a funny (but not so funny) take on idiotic McCarthy and her myopic anti-vaccine fellow travelers...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...gn=mostpopular

There’s a reason that we associate the whooping cough with the Dickensian: It is. The illness has, since the introduction of a pertussis vaccine in 1940, been conquered in the developed world. For two or three generations, we’ve come to think of it as an ailment suffered in sub-Saharan Africa or in Brontë novels. And for two or three generations, it was.

Until, that is, the anti-vaccination movement really got going in the last few years. Led by discredited doctors and, incredibly, a former Playmate, the movement has frightened new parents with claptrap about autism, Alzheimer’s, aluminum, and formaldehyde. The movement that was once a fringe freak show has become a menace, with foot soldiers whose main weapon is their self-righteousness. For them, vaccinating their children is merely a consumer choice, like joining an organic food co-op or sending their kids to a Montessori school or drinking coconut water.

Eye-opening:


Measles outbreaks (purple) worldwide and whooping cough (green) in the U.S., thanks in part to the anti-vaccination movement. (Council on Foreign Relations)

Full story was found in the LA Times - http://www.latimes.com/business/hilt...#ixzz2rLn5R6a2

Nobody can force anyone to vaccinate. I have no problem with either decision.

amazing that people will listen to a woman like her, with no medical training...and not doctors and scientists with knowledge who KNOW about this stuff.
unreal.
she must have been educated in texas, who still has people teaching creationism in science class.

when steve jobs was diagnosed, he did other treatments instead of listening to his doctors. later, he admitted he screwed up by doing so. too late then.

no, she went to an all girl catholic school in Chicago, I bet they taught creationism there :p, so dont slight Texas because she is an idiot :D

18 deaths last year...

;)

and the explanation of where she went tells me that she probably is very lacking in any science ed.

So we should force everyone to vaccinate their kids? They wanted to give Hep B vaccine, a sexually transmitted disease, the same day my kids were born....Completely ludicrous. I'm not against vaccines, I'm surely against anybody deciding when other people should do things with their kids. How about you worry about your kids America, and I'll worry about mine. And guess what, if your kids get every vaccine they have nothing to worry about, right? And this liberal pansy who can't deal with his cough can go to hell....And on the subject of Jenny McCarthy, this woman shouldn't be vilified for her point of view anymore than anyone else. Yes, she has a forum, but so do idiots I hear on TV and radio everyday about a myriad of topics. Adults can and should decide what is best, who cares what she says.

Thirty to forty percent of people infected with Hep B acquired it in childhood, prior to becoming sexually active. The virus can live on surfaces for up to seven days. So a kid can scrape his knee on a surface where the virus is hanging out, and pick it up.

It's also asymptomatic in almost one third of adults who have it- many people are infected and don't know. So a mother may have Hep B and not know it, and then give it to her child, if not during birth, then during breastfeeding. And the younger an infected person is when he or she got the virus, the more likely he or she is to suffer serious health problems later. Seeing as how 90 percent of infants who contract it will go on to suffer chronic health problems later in life, why on earth would parents want to take any risk at all with their child's health, when they can protect their child against Hep B in the first weeks of life? Completely ludicrous.

But my son is already vaccinated against it, so I know I've protected him.

It's attitudes like that that give parents who have children with serious immune issues even more to worry about. As someone blessed with a healthy child, I will vaccinate him both for his future health and to help protect kids who cannot be vaccinated because their immune systems are compromised.

And I'll make sure my own vaccines are up to date.

:tro:

Randall is spot on. If he doesn't want to vaccinate his kids, it is his choice. However my choice is that unvaccinated kids should not be allowed in public schools.

Interesting you bring that up. If my kids had to be in day care they would have gotten some vaccines already....My pediatrician is 75. Been a doctor 50 years and we discussed all this with him. Ironically the people not getting vaccines tend to be the Volvo driving hippy libs that most mimic the politics Nicole speaks of. Always funny that we can agree that women have the right to choose but as soon as that baby comes out, suddenly they seem to have less choice.

it's too bad that people can put their kids at risk because they think they know better than the people who actually know or knew better. how many diseases have been eradicated in this country, or worldwide, due to vaccines?

LOL, I'm over here honey. What a distasteful post. Yes, I'm trying to keep the wheel chair companies in business with my future FDR children. Some day I hope to be as self-absorbed as you. Till then.

She just had to blame something for her son's autism and with the crap being told out there these days people are falling for it.

I just revert to this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo