Christie clarifies comments on measles vaccine, calls for ‘balance’

[Jacob]

Looks like Rand Paul has decided to step up and catch the voters who were dissatisfied with Christie's back-pedalling: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-vaccines-voluntary

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-vaccines-mental-disorders

"While I think it's a good idea to take the vaccine, I think that's a personal decision for individuals to take and when they take it," he said.

"I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines," Paul said.

...

CNBC host Kelly Evans asked Paul, a potential 2016 candidate, about his previous statement that vaccines "ought to be voluntary," and he seemed confused as to why his statement was controversial.

"Well I guess being for freedom would be really unusual," he responded. "I guess I don't understand the point that would be controversial."

[Jacob]

... so it looks like it's going to spread to the right-libertarians now too. Great.

[Ed Anger]

Rand has fantastic hair.

[Ideologue]

Civil war soon.

[Sheilbh]

God I hope this doesn't become a thing for the GOP

[garbon]

God I hope this doesn't become a thing for the GOP

THANKS OBAMA!

[Jacob]

God I hope this doesn't become a thing for the GOP

That would be a disaster.

[grumbler]

No...that's a pretty fucking stupid thing to say, man.

TABLE 13–1.
Comparison of Twentieth Century Annual Morbidity* and Current Morbidity of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases of Children in the United States

DISEASE                      TWENTIETH CENTURY ANNUAL MORBIDITY              2000†                     PERCENTAGE  DECREASE
Smallpox                                       48,164                                                 0                           100
Diphtheria                                     175,885                                                4                           99.99
Measles                                        503,282                                                81                          99.98
Mumps                                         152,209                                                323                         99.80
Pertussis                                      147,271                                                6755                       95.40
Polio (paralytic)                              16,316                                                0                              100
Rubella                                          47,745                                                152                          99.70
Congenital rubella syndrome                823                                                7                            99.10
Tetanus                                           1314                                                 26                           98.00
Haemophilus influenzae type b         20,000                                               167                         99.10

________________________________

*Typical average during the 3 years before vaccine licensure.
†Provisional data

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/guides-pubs/downloads/vacc_mandates_chptr13.pdf

Wow, if there was ever a successful policy it must be this. Which other policy has a 99+% success rate? You must be really stupid to be against this.

  Then the US and British health officials must be extremely stupid, as they do not, in fact, immunize against smallpox except for people going to specific overseas destinations.

[grumbler]

No...that's a pretty fucking stupid thing to say, man.

TABLE 13–1.
[See original post]

Wow, if there was ever a successful policy it must be this. Which other policy has a 99+% success rate? You must be really stupid to be against this.

Much of the rationalization comes down to what one blogger referred to as the "Brady Bunch vaccine fallacy".  Under that "logic" the measles wasn't that bad back when "everybody got it", so the vaccine really doesn't accomplish much but making money for the manufacturers, and any risk is not worth the reward.

BTW, the chart he pulled off Wikipedia shows how rapidly the vaccine had an effect.  It is more impressive than just seeing two numbers as a line item.

Yeah, measles was so common that no one paid any attention to the thousands of deaths it caused every year.

[mongers]

I had some stitches put in at a hospital a while backand they gave me a triple-vaccine jab as a matter of course.

Which was useful as I'd been meaning to get around to a having a tetanus booster for like the twenty previous years. 

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Yeah, measles was so common that no one paid any attention to the thousands of deaths it caused every year.

The bigger problem is that the death rate was so low.  Thousands of deaths and cases of brain damage pales in comparison to hundreds of thousands sickened, so the vast majority of people who were alive pre-vaccination are much more likely to remember a complication-free period of sickness rather than one of the cases that led to brain damage or death.

For this latest outbreak, it is highly unlikely that any of the kids who contracted measles will die or suffer any lasting damage.  Unfortunately, the militant anti-vaxxers will then look at it as a case of the government causing more problems than the disease.

[The Minsky Moment]

Looks like Rand Paul has decided to step up and catch the voters who were dissatisfied with Christie's back-pedalling: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-vaccines-voluntary

Gee never would have guessed. 

[Ideologue]

Probably trite to point out, but it seems like folks with autistic kids are just indulging in some magical thinking to place blame somewhere.  It probably makes sense in their minds that "vaccines = autism," since autism generally manifests as a diagnosable condition after vaccination.  But at least I can sort of understand where they're coming from--they're crybabies, certainly, but in genuine pain.  How their contagion spread to people who aren't in a personal crisis is harder to comprehend.

[dps]

Yeah, measles was so common that no one paid any attention to the thousands of deaths it caused every year.

The bigger problem is that the death rate was so low.  Thousands of deaths and cases of brain damage pales in comparison to hundreds of thousands sickened, so the vast majority of people who were alive pre-vaccination are much more likely to remember a complication-free period of sickness rather than one of the cases that led to brain damage or death.

I don't know.  Half a million people were dying each year of measles in the US alone, and nobody noticed?  Fatalities from automobile accidents were roughly 1/10th that in the late 60s/early 70s, and people definitely noticed.

[Zanza]

  Then the US and British health officials must be extremely stupid, as they do not, in fact, immunize against smallpox except for people going to specific overseas destinations.

They must not have gotten the WHO memo that smallpox has been eradicated worldwide thanks to vaccination campaigns then. Nobody had to be vaccinated against smallpox anymore for decades and smallpox is the poster child of all vaccination efforts.