Congratulations on your decision Romani!
It’s amazing to me that there are so many anti-vaxxers who are nurses. This statement was made on my nursing forum by someone who claims to be a nurse:
This is someone who could be taking care of your family member.
That had to be a very young nurse…Bill Gates? I must have missed him when I was lined up getting my polio vaccination. But then, he would have been 5 also…
Hoping it’s not really a nurse!
Yes, because as we all know Bill Gates was born in the 18th century.
:-?
And we all know if we found on the internet it must be true.
When I was studying World History, I noticed that America has a penchant to go against what science says. Even though we don’t believe in Superstition as much, we still end up going directly against science.
Examples:
4/10 Americans today don’t believe in Evolution.
Less than half believe in Climate Change
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/04/climate-polling-burnout/523881/
and of course “vaccines cause autism”
Maybe that “nurse” person is citing Bill Gates because his charity, (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), helps provide routine vaccines in developing countries?
I think we tend to believe in science that confirms our preexisting biases and soothes our emotions. Thus Andrew Wakefield’s “study” must be right because I’m nervous about autism and I don’t want to accept that it might involve a complicated mixture of genetic and environmental causes as well as a sharp increase in diagnosis of what wouldn’t have been considered a medical condition in prior generations.
I believe a “study” refuting the consensus among the scientific community that climate change exists because if climate change was real I’d have to change my consumption habits.
Evolution feels like it threatens my long-held belief in a higher power so I’m going to chuck that out the window as well. It’s too hard to consider that I might be wrong or to find a way to reconcile both a biblical and scientific view of man’s origin.
Claims to have years of experience. It’s unbelievable what people who have allegedly studied science choose to believe in spite of much evidence to the contrary.
Even if this person is bogus, there are all kinds of threads on the forum where nurses are posting anti-vaccine sentiments.
Also very troubling is that 1/3 of Americans believe universities/colleges are bad for the country. However it’s a very particular demographic which holds that view, it doesn’t span everyone. It’s a very small step from thinking college is actually bad for the country, to thinking science and knowledge is also bad.
Could it be because measles, polio, etc. are rare enough that there are too few anecdotal experiences or observations of the positive aspects of vaccines (“I’m glad I had my measles, polio, etc. vaccines because I have to deal with patients with measles, polio, etc. and do not want to catch those diseases.”) compared to the anecdotal experiences or observations of the negative effects of vaccines (coincident diagnoses of autism, occasional rare bad reactions to vaccine ingredients)?
Yes, these may be uncommon anecdotes, but most people seem to believe anecdotal experiences and observations more than they believe actual data.
Well, colleges and universities are clearly the cause of unvaccinated children!
Really, there are far more anti-vaccers in or near college communities like Boulder, Berkeley, Boston (maybe it’s a B thing?) than there are in places where the population is lower income and less educated. The states where the highest percentage of children are vaccinated are in the south - Mississippi, Florida, Alabama. When we moved to Florida, it took me an entire day to get the certification that my kids had been fully vaccinated (and they were). They couldn’t go to school or enter a rec center until they had proof. No waivers, no exceptions.
It’s the damn intellectuals who question vaccines.
Actually, according to http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/02/02/vast-majority-of-americans-say-benefits-of-childhood-vaccines-outweigh-risks/ , opinions have shifted to where less educated people are now more skeptical of vaccines than more educated people.
However, more educated people are more likely to be in a position to act upon vaccine skepticism, in terms of knowing how and being able to use existing religious or personal belief exemptions to vaccine requirements, finding physicians who would more easily write them medical exemptions, or finding venues to broadcast their opinions.
State laws on vaccine exemptions are shown here: http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/school-immunization-exemption-state-laws.aspx . Note that California changed from being very lenient to very strict (only medical exemptions) recently. Other states with only medical exemptions are Mississippi and West Virginia.
It’s both. It’s low information people as well as those just educated enough to think they know more than doctors.
It’s also at the poles of the political spectrum
Oh and thank you, @greenwitch !!
Lasker prize awarded to scientists who developed HPV vaccine, interesting read - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/health/lasker-prizes-planned-parenthood.html?_r=1
Wow, a Michigan mother has been jailed for refusing to honor her agreement to vaccinate her child:
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/detroit-area_mom.html
That’s great. I hope parents start to understand that their decisions not to vaccinate have consequences.
I’ve been following this story.
Good. This should be more common. The only time courts will really interfere is like this- in a custody dispute.
It should be more widespread and there is precedent for it:
and it should be expanded to everyone voluntarily not vaccinating their children.
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html
Apparently in Michigan, the philosophical exceptions rule can only be applied if both parents agree. The case of the mother jailed involves a divorced couple who are not in agreement. The judge told the mother “you seem to be ignoring the fact that your child has two parents and he has the right to have a say.”