It turns out that measles, doesn’t just compromise your immune system for a few weeks, it can actually cause your body to lose immunity to diseases you had previously. This makes it doubly important to get the measles vaccine.
I’m pretty sure this has been posted before, but I love this parody of House of Cards by Dr. Z on his YouTube channel about MMR and antivaxxers.
Longer article on the 18-year-old who is the focus of many of the news articles on teenagers getting vaccines against their parents’ wishes:
I haven’t read every post on this thread since it’s now 242 pages long, so forgive me if what I say as already been said. However, one of the problems I had with the “vaccines cause autism” debate (other than the fact that vaccines do NOT cause autism) is that these parents who refused to vaccinate based on this would rather their children catch a possibly fatal disease than have autism. As if being autistic was a worse fate than death. Anyways, I absolutely detest anti-vaxxers (and I believe TN colleges have laws about those enrolled having certain vaccines)
The teens are bringing up an interesting philosophical question in addition to the obvious legal one. If parents are avoiding vaccines on the basis that they cause autism, why not start vaccinating the kids when they’re older? There is no such thing as acquiring autism at age 10, much less 17.
Not only should they start vaccinating them at age 5 or 10 because the autism danger has pass, the danger in having an 18 year old child who is not vaccinated is really high. At least one person who got measles in my city was 50 years old, probably just missed the vaccine or parents thought she had had it and didn’t have her vaccinated.
Are there any stats on how many of the anti-vax parents are actually vaccinated themselves?
I recently found out that my favorite cousin is an anti vaxxer and I’m really upset about it.
Even more upsetting is that he asked to use my medical records (the lupus and RA) as part of his exemption application. (They live in California)
I explained to him that herd immunity is one of the reasons that I’m still alive…
Or (perhaps a little older than 50 years) may have gotten the killed measles vaccine in 1963-1967 that was less effective than later ones.
I don’t hear the autism argument much anymore. I’m hearing that one’s immune system is supposed to be better after one has had the disease and recovered, including hearing this year that those who have had measles and recovered are much less likely to get cancer in their older age.
I’ll admit I haven’t researched this - nor do the kids at school have sources for me - this is just what those who are opposed to vaccines say. Mostly they use it with the flu vaccine as that comes up every year, but the cancer one is directly tied to measles and has been recent - coming from the measles outbreak and a conversation I had in a Bio class.
I countered with the latest studies showing measles destroys a bit of the immune system and appears to take years to recover from - then there are those who don’t totally recover. I don’t know if I’ve managed to change any opinions though. If we don’t get another snow day and I don’t end up going up to be with my mom (who’s going through a rough spell), I’m supposed to be with those Bio kids Monday and can probably bring up the subject again regardless of what we’re technically doing that day since vaccinations are Bio material.
Because it’s not just autism, you Big Pharma shill. Vaccines cause all manner of horrors. It’s the toxins!
@Nrdsb4: You are causing me to waiver in my longstanding viewpoint that everyone should be well-vaccinated. I’ll encourage you to stay vaccine-free throughout the remainder of your shortened lifespan.
I had never heard of “measles encephalitis” (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis) until recently. It’s a brain inflammation caused by the measles virus which occurs after the patient seems to have recovered from measles (according to the CDC, from 1 month until 27 years later). https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/meas.html#complications It’s been rare, thankfully, but just the possibility is a compelling reason to vaccinate.
This may be an odd thought, but do anti-vaxxers immunize their pets against rabies? If so, is it because they realize that rabies must be controlled for the good of the community, as well as because they don’t want their animals to contract a fatal disease?
No data from peer reviewed and published scientific studies, in the US or the world, support this statement.
@Mwfan1921, @Nrdsb4 was being sarcastic.
I don’t believe you can change the minds of anti-vaxxers with facts and studies. I’ve seen psychological studies that strongly held beliefs aren’t easily changed, and facts and figures in particular have little influence. What does work is direct personal stories, e.g. if an anti-vaxxer’s child gets gravely ill, then their mind changes pretty quickly. And if that person has anti-vax friends, then those people are influenced by the experience. You can see this phenomenon at work in Clark County, WA, where vaccination rates for measles is up 600% in the past month.
We see this in plenty of aspects of life - it’s just human nature, really. Frustrating for sure, but if we all take a moment for self-reflection I’m sure we can each come up with at least one irrational belief of our own. Unfortunately I believe it’ll either take some political will at the legislative level to improve vaccination rates, or further outbreaks. All the reasoned arguments in the world aren’t going to help a bit.
The story of teens getting vaccinated against their parents’ wishes is encouraging though, as they can be that personal influence among their peer group.
Wow, someone’s sarcasm meters need tuning up!
@MinnesotaDadof3 and @Mwfan1921, just for the record, I happen to be a RN who is very pro vaccine and the poster to whom I responded is likely well aware.
Sarcasm sometimes doesn’t translate well in written words!
@frazzled1, the author Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal lost a daughter to measles encephalitis. Of course, they never got over it, but tried to educate people about it.
https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/timeline/1960s/november-1962