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Because of Anti-Vaxxers, 37 People in Europe Have Died of Measles This Year

phands

phands

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Stupid bastards are killing people. Andrew Wakefield needs to be jailed....


An outbreak of measles is rampaging across Europe, taking a huge toll. In the first six months of 2018, there were 41,000 recorded cases of the easily preventable viral infection.


That six-month period saw nearly double the highest number of cases in a year since 2010 - which was 23,927 in the entire 12 months of 2017 - and lost 37 lives to measles. And according to experts in the US, that's what America could be facing too if parents don't vaccinate their children.


"We have a very serious situation," pediatric doctor Alberto Villani of Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital and the president of the Italian Pediatric Society in Italy told NBC.


"People are dying from measles. This was unbelievable five or 10 years ago."


And, yes, unequivocally, the reason for the severity of the outbreak is the fall in vaccination rates. In order to prevent outbreaks, at least 95 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated with two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.


In some parts of Europe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccination coverage is at less than 70 percent.
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https://www.sciencealert.com/measles-deaths-37-in-europe-america-at-risk-anti-vaccination-movement
 
Sadly, you're right. What's more perplexing is that, because vaccination rates were high enough to provide herd immunity until Wakefield committed his crimes, the people who are not getting their kids vaccinated were almost all vaccinated themselves. Lime those stupid xtian idiots who kill thei kids by pretending prayer works over medical treatment, these people should be tried for their crimes.

In order for Herd Immunity to be preserved, for Measles, a 95% vaccination rate is needed...per http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/meetings/2017/october/2._target_immunity_levels_FUNK.pdf and other papers.
 
We should cast them out to perish in the wilderness.

Or else just force the stupid assholes to get vaccinated.
 
A better solution might come from the acceptance that anti-vaxx sentiment is a problem of epistemology, and not willful ignorance.
 
rousseau said:
A better solution might come from the acceptance that anti-vaxx sentiment is a problem of epistemology, and not willful ignorance.
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Sure. But that distinction misses the far more important problem of epidemiology.

Failure to vaccinate your children for any reason is like driving while drunk for any reason - Your reasons are irrelevant, you are putting other people's lives at risk, and you either need to stop doing that, or start having the authorities throw the book at you.
 
bilby said:
rousseau said:
A better solution might come from the acceptance that anti-vaxx sentiment is a problem of epistemology, and not willful ignorance.
Click to expand...

Sure. But that distinction misses the far more important problem of epidemiology.

Failure to vaccinate your children for any reason is like driving while drunk for any reason - Your reasons are irrelevant, you are putting other people's lives at risk, and you either need to stop doing that, or start having the authorities throw the book at you.
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That's sort of what I'm getting at.

Yelling VACCINATION WORKS at people clearly isn't working, and may even be counter-productive, so what's the solution? Possibly shifting policy to accept and legalize scientific fact.

'We can't force you to get a vaccination, but we can disallow you from using [x,y,z] institutions unless you're vaccinated'

Basically shift the conversation and stop validating stupid opinions by acknowledging them as worthy of response, just build policy based on science.
 
Growing up, I was always taught that "freedom ends at the tip of your nose," that is, you no longer have rights to a freedom once it starts impacting the freedom of other citizens.

This definitely qualifies.

Most liberal democracies seem to allow people to choose to opt out of vaccines because up until recently, vaccination rates were high enough that one or two idiots weren't going to have much impact on herd immunity. But now we're getting enough idiots to affect herd immunity, and as a result of this, children are dying from preventable diseases.

The right to not get vaccinated isn't a right because it affects the right to life of other people. End of story. Vaccines should be mandatory and enforced by the government.
 
Underseer said:
Growing up, I was always taught that "freedom ends at the tip of your nose," that is, you no longer have rights to a freedom once it starts impacting the freedom of other citizens.

This definitely qualifies.

Most liberal democracies seem to allow people to choose to opt out of vaccines because up until recently, vaccination rates were high enough that one or two idiots weren't going to have much impact on herd immunity. But now we're getting enough idiots to affect herd immunity, and as a result of this, children are dying from preventable diseases.

The right to not get vaccinated isn't a right because it affects the right to life of other people. End of story. Vaccines should be mandatory and enforced by the government.
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I'm on board, although I stop with physical, bodily autonomy. I don't think we should have a right to forcibly vaccinate you, but I think we should have a right to ban from from certain institutions unless you take part. Basically any type of institution requiring regular contact with other people requires a vaccination. In a sense it's the same thing as forcing you to get one, but eventually you have to decide for yourself to play by the rules.

There may be a bit of pain up front from the scientifically illiterate, but in the long run I think what we want to do is have vaccinations so normalized that they are no longer questioned. Instead of shoving pictures of needles in peoples faces and telling them OMG YOU IDIOT THEY WORK. Just craft policy under the assumption that they do work, and let history play it's course.

By problem of epistemology my meaning is that people aren't rational and are very often resistant to facts, so 'education' programs to solve the problem are basically useless. Calling people idiots is useless too. Some human beings just will not understand certain things until the basic fact has been embedded in a social structure and they no longer know differently.
 
I also wonder how much of this problem can be attributed to people just not liking needles.
 
rousseau said:
I'm on board, although I stop with physical, bodily autonomy. I don't think we should have a right to forcibly vaccinate you, but I think we should have a right to ban from from certain institutions unless you take part. Basically any type of institution requiring regular contact with other people requires a vaccination. In a sense it's the same thing as forcing you to get one, but eventually you have to decide for yourself to play by the rules.
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There is some merit in the preventing of access to services or institutions unless the children are vaccinated.
In Victoria, Australia there is a No jab, No school policy.
 
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