Letters to the Editor
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Mothering Magazine
Agreed, galanolwe, you don't have to go all the way to YouTube to get bad info on vaccines. My favorite Mothering magazine article is the one about the dangers of ultrasound. The thesis amounted to, "Well, it IS a kind of radiation, you know." That said, we didn't get whimsical ultrasounds - not because we thought it would directly harm our babies but because the medical profession is inclined to base life-altering decisions on small bits of overanalyzed, micromanaged information. And as other posters have pointed out, the medical-industrial complex isn't exactly a bastion of purity and goodness. Perhaps if the industry didn't have the stench of blood money about it, we'd be less likely to listen to quacks.
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anmazing
how otherwise sane, rational people become tinfoil-wearing conspiracy theorists over this issue. I've had countless discussions (with women I "know" long-term chats on members-only lists, as well as with women I know and interact with in person), and it's like talking to someone in a religious cult.
Any information from "Big Pharma" - or anyone "tainted by big Pharma, including the AAP, the CDC, the WHO, JAMA, Lancet, or established physicians - is not only suspect, but outright fraudulent, while anything from any anti-Pharma group is trustworthy (even if their claims defy chemistry, physiology, and base 10 math!) Plenty claim that "Big Pharma" is purposely injecting children with toxins, knowing the vaccines are ineffective (s well as the cause of everything from autism to excema to peanut allergies to low SAT scores), and the government is complicit because the lawsuits would be bad for the economy.
What worries me most is how ignorant there people are about the diseases that vaccines have eradicated from most of the world: they seem to think measles, diptheria, polio, whooping cough, etc., are "no big deal" in countries with good sanitation, or "were in decline anyway" and would have died out without vaccine use.
I've learned that you can't reason with them, you can't change their minds, and you simply have to hope that enough people retain enough common sense - and knowledge of history - to keep the "herd" protected from these childhood killer diseases until they go the way of smallpox.
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Science takes a beating
I have to wonder if the Republican "war on science" could have set some people up to believe this stuff. Recall that with the younger Bush there was a shift toward handling scientifically inconvenient information such as global warming, evolution, ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education by finding fault with studies, denying that there was enough evidence to make a conclusion and so on. Now that people may have "learned" that science is not near-sacred but just something else to manipulate to make a point, they may not trust science. Not only are they more likely to be scientifically illiterate but for some people that may even be a point of pride.
And oh yeah, I've read some howlers from Mothering magazine in the occasional drafts of papers (these disappear when the writer is reminded of the standard for research). For instance among the autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger's is reportedly ADHD and bipolar disorder and of course these are caused by vaccinations too.
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If it were only true that vaccines were safe or thimerosal gone.
Part of my comment is in response to psychprof:
That happens to be my favorite link to illustrate how we are being lied to. The top of that table states it was last updated in 2005. "Table 1. Thimerosal Content of Vaccines Routinely Recommended for Children 6 Years of Age and Younger - (updated 7/18/2005*)"
Well, unless the FDA employs psychics to update their charts, the following references make it a lie:
DTaP-HepB-IPV, Pediarix (GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals)
"Never contained more than a Trace of Thimerosal, approval date for thimerosal-free formulation 1/29/2007"
Hepatitis B, Engerix B(GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals)
"03/28/00, approval date for thimerosal-free formulation 1/30/2007"
We all know vaccines have never been recalled for thimerosal content, they get used until the supply is gone. An approval date of January 2007 means those infant shots have had it all along, and what is on the shelf at the pediatrican very likely still does...and will for the next several years until the stock is depleted.
I am amazed that so much attention is being paid to UTube traffic on anti-vaccine listings. I'm mildly curious why Mr Leonard, and the purveyors of the study and medical community assocations aren't spending more time watching the videos of recovering children with autism to see if there is a clue to the condition so they can emerge triumphant with a way to stop it...because, quite frankly, the constant line about vaccine safety is getting old...as is the line about thimerosal having been removed from children's vaccines and thimerosal free versions of the flu vaccine being readily available.
On two occasions within the last month, both involving flu shots, it was clearly stated to be present in the package insert while the medical person ready to administer it was making the statement that the shots either did not contain thimerosal or that the thimerosal free version was the only one "they" were giving this year.
If thimerosal were ping-pong balls and the person juggling them was claiming they had disappeared, it would be a comedy act.
When it is mercury about to be jabbed into the arm of an infant it certainly is not.
Perhaps the place to begin dispelling inaccurate information is from the mouths of those who are supposed to be looking out for our (and our children's) best interests.
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The power of emotions
The attraction of uninformed folks holding forth on a topic is not the correctness of their information, but the fact they are speaking passionately. If more public service announcements said things like, "I was uncomfortable getting the flu vaccine at first, but since I started, I've had far fewer colds! I think it's great!" there'd be more interest in them.