An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

[The Straight Story]

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

To hear his enemies talk, you might think Paul Offit is the most hated man in America. A pediatrician in Philadelphia, he is the coinventor of a rotavirus vaccine that could save tens of thousands of lives every year. Yet environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slams Offit as a “biostitute” who whores for the pharmaceutical industry. Actor Jim Carrey calls him a profiteer and distills the doctor’s attitude toward childhood vaccination down to this chilling mantra: “Grab ‘em and stab ‘em.” Recently, Carrey and his girlfriend, Jenny McCarthy, went on CNN’s Larry King Live and singled out Offit’s vaccine, RotaTeq, as one of many unnecessary vaccines, all administered, they said, for just one reason: “Greed.”

Thousands of people revile Offit publicly at rallies, on Web sites, and in books. Type pauloffit.com into your browser and you’ll find not Offit’s official site but an anti-Offit screed “dedicated to exposing the truth about the vaccine industry’s most well-paid spokesperson.” Go to Wikipedia to read his bio and, as often as not, someone will have tampered with the page. The section on Offit’s education was once altered to say that he’d studied on a pig farm in Toad Suck, Arkansas. (He’s a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Maryland School of Medicine).

Then there are the threats. Offit once got an email from a Seattle man that read, “I will hang you by your neck until you are dead!” Other bracing messages include “You have blood on your hands” and “Your day of reckoning will come.” A few years ago, a man on the phone ominously told Offit he knew where the doctor’s two children went to school. At a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an anti-vaccine protester emerged from a crowd of people holding signs that featured Offit’s face emblazoned with the word terrorist and grabbed the unsuspecting, 6-foot-tall physician by the jacket.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience

Some here will wonder why I posted this as they have labeled me an 'anti-vaxxer' - but I am not. Just like with smoking, abortion, etc and so on I am against people limiting choice and forcing others to do things - Your Body, Your choice. It is not just an argument for abortion rights, the right to choose where you drink (or don't), etc, it is an argument for personal freedom.

I don't like it when fundies (of any religion or ideology) want to force their morals and values on me. I don't own a gun, but think you should the right to do so. I can't have an abortion, but if you want to go ahead. I can get a vaccine if I want to (and have over the years) but respect your right not to put something into your don't want.

Oh, and I was one of those panicked parents at one time. My first X had multiple birth defects and was hospitalized after a live vaccine when she was a child. I didn't get my kids vaccinated until much later when they were able to communicate with me and tell me how they were feeling physically. My kids, my choice.

Choice. It is a good thing, except to control freaks :)

[midnight]

1. That is the whole point that seems to be ignored in this crusade-We don't care what you want...

We only care that you do what we say, because we think............ Fill in the blank.

[damntexdem]

4. When it's a matter of public health, what individuals want must take second place.

Actually, in the U.S. most states have the luxury of having religious/philosophical opt outs from vaccinating children before sending them to school. They have this luxury because sufficient kids get vaccinated that there is herd immunity, so the free riders don't have to worry about getting a disease that cannot spread through the inoculated. But this is a LUXURY. If too few kids get vaccinated, if herd immunity is threatened, then vaccination needs to be mandatory for all.

[kestrel91316]

10. Typhoid Mary didn't "believe in" the germ theory of disease and didn't

want to be bothered to take steps to avoid KILLING PEOPLE. Which is why public health officials have so much power now. When what YOU "want" stands to harm or kill others, you're damned right you can't have it.

[notadmblnd]

2. my problem is with the vaccinations that aren't used to protect against mass deaths

Diseases that can spread easily and have a high death toll are just common sense. However, these vaccines that are basically lifestyle choices such as the one for cervical cancer; where out of 150,000,000 women in the US- less than 10,000 die annually, is simply greed by pharmaceutical companies. The decision to partake in the use of those vaccines should be left up to the individual to decide whether or not to inoculate against.

[kestrel91316]

9. Vaccines against infectious disease EXIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF

PREVENTING DEATHS OR SERIOUS HARM. Whether or not we are talking about "mass" deaths depends on the specific disease.

Only 10,000 avoidable deaths isn't a concern??? Try telling that to the survivors of those dead.

I am not aware of any public health departments forcing anyone to get the cervical cancer vaccine. Hell, only NY AFAIK requires certain workers to get the H1N1 vaccine.

And your crack about "lifestyle choice" with respect to cervical cancer is deplorable. Are you aware that a woman can catch HPV from having sex ONCE??? WITHIN MARRIAGE???

Sheesh. Teh stoopid.

[notadmblnd]

11. I didn't say they shouldn't be allowed. I said it should be a choice.

What part of that didn't you get? Are you aware that there are some states that have tried to mandate the vaccine? And you had to make it personal didn't you? You think calling me stupid wins the argument or that it would change my mind? I know that there are over 200 HPV viruses. The current vaccine only protects against four types. That means that there are at least 196 HPV viruses that one is not protected against. Where's your outrage about that? Never mind the fact that they fast tracked the vaccine and attempted to push this on our little girls without knowing what long term effects it will have?

I stand by my lifestyle choice comment. If my partner and I are too stupid to go to a doctor and get checked out before we have sex and/or are married, then I guess we would have to take another look at the relationship. Anyone that has multiple partners, owes it to the current partner to at least get a clean bill of health before having unprotected sex and having unprotected sex is a choice. Or do you disagree?

on edit: I'm not the one that made a judgment on anyone that engages in sex, you did. So it's only a despicable comment in your own judgmental mind.

[Zoeisright]

3. The whole point of vaccines is the good they do outweighs the bad.

Speaking in an epidemiological way, of course.

http://progressivehealth.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/childrens-vaccinations-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

The development of vaccines was a major breakthrough in science's ability to extend human lifespans and has prevented untold amounts of suffering. Yes, a few people will have bad reactions to the vaccines. But compared to the diseases, there is LESS suffering, and certainly less death.

[notadmblnd]

12. Thank you.

[kestrel91316]

5. Everyone who dies of the flu caught it from SOMEONE. Don't let that someone be you.

[blondeatlast]

7. +1. nt

[vadawg]

6. i think the same crazy ideas would be used if this was smallpox we were talking about

we would see a wealth of posts about using dog fur on toast to prevent or cure smallpox and how the vaccination leaves you with the mark of the beast(rightwingnuts) or autism(othernuts)

[uppityperson]

8. Exactly.