RE: Pushing Back Against Pro-Vaccination Zealots
I recently got into a bit of a disagreement with a friend and two acquaintances of hers who happened to be morons.
I consider that to be a pretty bad attitude.
The number of people who gets the measles may really be insignificant. I think something of the same i.e. about terrorism - the number of fatalities each year due to terrorism is quite low, still the world is like crazy, we create lots of security theatre to prevent whatever terrorism was happening last year from happening again ... without properly considering if the costs of said security theatre outweights the benefits.
Anyway, the reason why there are so few kids dieing from measles every year is due to the highly successful vaccination program - and we could probably have eradicated measles completely by now (and hence stopped the vaccination program) if it wasn't for the vaccination resistance movement.
They aren't morons because they are pro-vaccinations. ^_^
I consider them morons for the way in which they sought to escallate a simple appeal to spare a thought for the other side of the coin, and frankly looked pretty silly doing so. There is a reason that I do not name names. :c)
However your point is well-taken. I certainly could have used more diplomatic terms than 'zealots' and 'morons' - but I suspect that this post wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as much attention as its gotten so far (which is a continuation of a trend this year).
As an aside, while I mostly agree that deaths due to diseases that could have been prevented is a tragedy, I do feel that laying the blame for measles still being around squarely upon anti-vaxxer's doorsteps is just a little bit off (as measles might still have been around regardless).
I am even more doubtful that pharmaceutical companies backed vaccine initiatives would simply have stopped giving vaccines for eradicated diseases. Has this even occured before?
Thank you for your excellent comment @tobixen. :c)
There exists two eradicated diseases, smallpox and rinderpest. Cattle herds are no longer immunized against RPV, and Smallpox is taken out of the vaccination program long time ago.
I stand corrected. :cP
I am pleasantly surprised to hear that smallpox vaccinations are no longer being given. That eradicated diseases 'can' lead to reduced vaccinations is heartening to me.
Perhaps my suspicion is not as warranted as I had believed.
Thank you also for your upvotes @tobixen.
One possible justification for still vaccinating for smallpox would be to counter biological warfare ... but no, that's unheard of.
It took some few years from the last observed case of smallpox until they officially declared it eradicated, I suppose vaccinations were still given in that period.