Vaccinations

[sfs]

This writer seems to believe the "importing AIDS" part was nothing but a poorly made joke. In order to have such poor taste, methinks one would need to possess some kind of morbid, Ed Gein sense of humor. It could be that the chortling heard in the background was actually laughter resulting from nervous shock. But then again, I could be wrong...

By the standards of medical humor, that wasn't even in remotely bad taste.

 

[USincognito]

This writer seems to believe the "importing AIDS" part was nothing but a poorly made joke. In order to have such poor taste, methinks one would need to possess some kind of morbid, Ed Gein sense of humor. It could be that the chortling heard in the background was actually laughter resulting from nervous shock. But then again, I could be wrong...

I guess it's easier to critique the tone of an article than the content.

 

[Cabal]

Could you send the link to the study? Im not arguing, I'm actually just curious.


I hope I'm making my point (just my opinion) clear. I dont know if there is a connection or not, but I do want to encourage those who are freaking out about it that until something comes up saying otherwise, that there ARE alternatives to choose instead of just not vaccinating.

I went to the Cochran site, but couldnt find their detailed study. So, if you dont mind sending it, Id appreciate it. I have a co-worker that is absolutely on a tear right now about all of this and Im stating what I have found so far. If there is something out there that is definate to prove absolutely no connection, then Id love to pass it on to them.

Hey bHw, sorry it took me so long to find the actual report in full - if you click on the link labelled "Full" in the column on the left under "PDF", you can get a full report.

Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children

As I understand it, the Cochrane Foundation take all the individual results and attempt to combine them - essentially a way of increasing the overall sample size of a test group. They've found out some pretty interesting things, often they find that a test group that appeared to show a drug was ineffective actually shows the opposite when combined with other studies, the result was simply getting lost in statistical noise. Conversely, they've also found that some smaller studies have negative results cancelled out by statistical noise also - one of their more interesting conclusions iirc was that taking vitamin C actually does nothing much to boost your immune, so drinking it when you have a cold is likely placebo

 

[marlowe007]

I guess it's easier to critique the tone of an article than the content.

I am not critiquing the article. I'm merely claiming that both Horowitz and Keim have equally valid interpretations concerning the Merck doctor's statement about AIDS. The doctor was either serious, or he was joking...

 

[Naraoia]

(...In retrospect, the swine flu vaccine was a mistake.)

Could you elaborate?

 

[sfs]

Could you elaborate?

It was quite appropriate to have developed the swine flu vaccine in 1976, but in retrospect it would have been better to have held off on a mass inoculation program until there was more evidence that a major epidemic was brewing. Instead, tens of millions were inoculated before the program was halted, something like 500 developed Guillain-Barre syndrome as a reaction to the vaccine, and a couple of dozen died. It was also a public relations fiasco, and cast widespread doubt on the utility of flu vaccines. (My barber developed Guillain-Barre after vaccination, and I never saw him again -- he was paralyzed.)

 

[Cabal]

It was quite appropriate to have developed the swine flu vaccine in 1976, but in retrospect it would have been better to have held off on a mass inoculation program until there was more evidence that a major epidemic was brewing. Instead, tens of millions were inoculated before the program was halted, something like 500 developed Guillain-Barre syndrome as a reaction to the vaccine, and a couple of dozen died. It was also a public relations fiasco, and cast widespread doubt on the utility of flu vaccines. (My barber developed Guillain-Barre after vaccination, and I never saw him again -- he was paralyzed.)

What is worth taking note of, however, is that all the people who want to peddle conspiracy theories about vaccines point at this case as some kind of examplar - but they never quote the number of people vaccinated, they always want to give the numbers of deaths without context. That alone SHOULD be enough to get people's alarm bells ringing, but sometimes people just don't twig to the basics of statistics.

After much cajoling I finally managed to get an anti-vaccination person on another board here to post the numbers of vaccinated during the '76 epidemic - I can't recall the exact figure but the incidence of Guillain-Barre was no worse than usual, in fact it may even have been less than that associated with a typical flu shot.

This incident, as far as I'm concerned, is only a "mistake" if you let people make it out to be as such. H1N1 is a highly mutable flu and it is not worth giving it the opportunity to stick around, increasing its chances of changing into something more virulent.

ETA: Additionally, this is over 30 years ago - surely the monitoring and treatment of something like GB would have come along since then?

 

[Steezie]

Mercury in vaccinations

Vaccines contain no elemental mercury

The perservative can be the problem sometimes, or actually the mercury in it, not THE vaccine.

The preservatives for vaccines contain no elemental mercury