Shut up, anti-vaccination idiots

I'm a big believer in science, especially medical science.  That's why I get so worked up when I see people taking their cues in life from idiot celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy, Kristin Cavallari, etc.  This is particularly true when it comes to the subject of vaccinating your children.  Sometimes, there are NOT two sides to every story.  In any case, as the result of the actions of these celebrities spewing their mindless, scientifically-debunked nonsense that vaccination can lead to an increased risk of autism, we now have increasing numbers of people all over the world who are being diagnosed with diseases which had basically become extinct in this country, such the whooping cough, mumps and measles.  Recent stories confirm this fact:  See here and here.  Again, let's keep in mind, these diseases had effectively been eradicated.  They are now back.

Does this mean that a fractional percentage of people aren't at risk of a bad reaction to these vaccinations? No, of course not, but the vast, vast majority of people are protected by them.  As well, and as a species, we benefit from a "herd effect"--in other words, society is protected by the fact that we are all (supposed to be) immunized.  That herd protection is eliminated by those who are not vaccinated.

I'm willing to go one step further than most people--I think that those who peddle these dangerous ideas are guilty of criminal negligence.  At the very least, they should be open to civil suits.

A sad repeat of history

Twenty years ago, the state of New Jersey took a huge hit to its tourism business when medical waste started washing ashore on its beaches. By the estimates of its own government, it took years for the state to recover from the justifiably bad PR it received because of what was happening. Now, history is repeating itself, and medical waste is once again washing ashore in towns in Cape May County, New Jersey: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080830_S__Jersey_towns_cope_with_more_beach_closures.html. I got to see this first hand yesterday--I was IN Ocean City, NJ, when the beaches there were closed.

What I want to know is, why does this only happen in the Garden State? You never hear about this happening in Florida, or Georgia, or the Carolinas, Maryland, etc. In fact, you never hear about it occurring anywhere but here. What is so wonderfully unique about this state that medical waste is constantly being dumped off its shores?

So far, with the recently concluded Democratic National Convention, the nomination by John McCain of Sarah Palin as his lieutenant governor and Tropical Storm/Hurricane Gustav rampaging through the Carribean, this story hasn't received the play it may otherwise have received. That's a lucky break for the New Jersey tourism industry............

Shut up

Michael Savage is the Right's answer to idiots like Michael Moore or Ted Rall. He is a bomb-thrower, and a good chunk of his comments are based on ignorance or idiocy, or both. Such is the case with his latest pronouncements on autism, where he pontificated that autism is nothing more (in 99% 0f the cases) than a child acting up, or a he described it, being a "brat": http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-michael-savage-autism-080721-ht,0,7335653.story.

I don't have any autistic children in my family. I do, however, know such children. They are not brats. They are not acting up or acting out. They DO have mental health issues. Savage should just shut up, because this is a subject about which he obviously knows absolutely nothing.

Well, this is certainly scary

I am an admitted cancer freak. I had a scare with it myself, and have lost both parents, one aunt and one grandfather to the evil disease. So, it's fair to say that I have quite the phobia about it. Stories like this don't help: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_he_me/cell_phone_warning. Of all the forms of cancer that freak me out, brain tumours and pancreatic cancer are the worst, because they are inevitably fatal. And, if you compound that by the fact that I use my cell phone more or less constantly as part of my job, well, that does not make me feel terribly good right now.

Medical Myths

This is fascinating. I talked to a few doctors today, and even they believed some of these: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071221/sc_livescience/7medicalmythsevendoctorsbelieve. I can't even count how many times I was lectured by my mother as I grew up (or tried to, anyway) that I shouldn't read in the dark........................