Jenny McCarthy, Vaccinations, and Autism

[werepossum]

There are at least three fundamental principles of medicine.

1) First do no harm.

2) When doing nothing causes harm, and the therapy may do so as well, one needs to evaluate the risk vs. benefit of a treatment.

3) If it ain't broke don't fix it.


Doing nothing has the very real potential of reintroducing past horrors to a world that has all but forgotten them.

That being the case, it's hard to make an argument against vaccination (excepting special circumstances of course). Yes, there are potential problems, but if you were to travel to other nations where disease still runs rampant, you'd understand the reason why the medical profession wants to avoid the old diseases.

Vaccination works, there's no good alternative, and it ain't broke.

Those kids (and adults) at Michael Dunn are heartbreaking, though. But nothing man does is without its casualties. Some of these diseases (like polio, thanks to largely Rotary) may one day be eliminated and vaccines rendered unnecessary, but others are endemic to animals or even soil particles. For those we can only hope for better, safer vaccines and that, one day, treatment will progress to the point of making vaccines unnecessary.

 

[RoloMather]

She probably killed more kids from diseases that are vaccinated for than she saved from autism.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Those kids (and adults) at Michael Dunn are heartbreaking, though. But nothing man does is without its casualties. Some of these diseases (like polio, thanks to largely Rotary) may one day be eliminated and vaccines rendered unnecessary, but others are endemic to animals or even soil particles. For those we can only hope for better, safer vaccines and that, one day, treatment will progress to the point of making vaccines unnecessary.

I'm not unsympathetic by any means, but there are times when life sucks and you do the best you can. Would people have withheld a treatment if they could know in advance that it would in fact be detrimental? Of course. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world, and everything must be taken in context. When I say that "vaccinations ain't broke", I mean that it's a proven way to keep people from getting the disease in the majority of cases. Yes, more work needs to be done to eliminate the sad failures of medicine you witness. To accept something as effective is not saying that it's perfect.

That's something that makes the diagnosis and treatment of disease qualitatively different than something like accounting or engineering. It isn't something which goes according to a formula. To practice medicine is to fail at times, and then you have and others have to live with it. There isn't anyone who takes care of those kids you mention who would not change what happened if they could, but then again they have to think of the suffering of those if the diseases they tried to prevent became widespread. Sometimes you can't win.

 

[actuarial]

Really, you want to imply that our food supply can't possibly be making people sick with the current state it's in? Read your damn food labels sometime and tell me that shit, especially kid-centric food, is healthy.

So is the solution not to feed your kids ANYTHING?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

So is the solution not to feed your kids ANYTHING?

Yes, clearly I am saying everyone should starve our kids to death. But only if you don't beat them to death when they misbehave first.

 

[werepossum]

I'm not unsympathetic by any means, but there are times when life sucks and you do the best you can. Would people have withheld a treatment if they could know in advance that it would in fact be detrimental? Of course. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world, and everything must be taken in context. When I say that "vaccinations ain't broke", I mean that it's a proven way to keep people from getting the disease in the majority of cases. Yes, more work needs to be done to eliminate the sad failures of medicine you witness. To accept something as effective is not saying that it's perfect.

That's something that makes the diagnosis and treatment of disease qualitatively different than something like accounting or engineering. It isn't something which goes according to a formula. To practice medicine is to fail at times, and then you have and others have to live with it. There isn't anyone who takes care of those kids you mention who would not change what happened if they could, but then again they have to think of the suffering of those if the diseases they tried to prevent became widespread. Sometimes you can't win.

Agreed. I doubt the practice of medicine will ever reach the level of a science. When ten thousand people take a vaccine and one kid gets his brain fried, how could you ever isolate the reason? Something genetic? Some virus in his blood that particular day? Some virus five years ago, that caused antibodies in his blood to go ape over the perceived infection? A bacterium that rode in on the needle? How can you know? Still, huge strides have been made. Remember the thousands of people who got polio from defective polio vaccines? That never happens today, it's just isolated reactions to the vaccines rather than accidentally getting the disease from the virus.

Someone needs to tell G-d that life needs an undo button. That would not only take care of vaccine reactions, but think of all the things we could do that we can't risk now? <VBEG>

 

[Paratus]

Arguing against using vaccines because of the side effects is like arguing against using seat belts because you might get trapped in a crash.

/thread