Megachurch in TX is epicenter of Measles outbreak

Sporkbender Join date : 2009-10-22 Age : 40

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Quote :: All of the cases are linked to the Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas, where a visitor who’d traveled to Indonesia became infected with measles – and then returned to the U.S., spreading it to the largely unvaccinated church community, said Russell Jones, the Texas state epidemiologist.

I wonder why.

Quote :: In the wake of the measles outbreak, however, Pearsons has urged followers to get vaccinated and the church has held several vaccination clinics, according to its website. Health officials said the church administration has been very cooperative in the outbreak investigation. Pearsons did not return an email from NBC News seeking comment.

Just, if these people chose to have children and raise them in this faith community and adhere to its likely pro-life values, why not give the child every chance at survival and having a quality life? Even if a vaccination would result in a slightly higher chance of autism, wouldn't any reasonable parent prefer autism to a child suffering and possibly dying and infecting an entire population? If this was even a real risk?

I'm aware that there are good christians in the world. Good people, period. However, times like these make me wonder. There are people in California, atheist, send their children to waldorf schools, socialistic in nature, and don't vaccinate their kids either.

It's understandable that a person would wonder what sort of negative health effects a vaccine would cause. But don't these people know what medication is even for? How vaccines work? Nothing is without risk.

Why not take action, then pray? Not just pray?

This is just sad and I hope that these children get better and that this can be a warning to all the idiot parents out there who didn't get their child vaccinated to get it done asap.

Disco Stu wrote:: This is just sad and I hope that these children get better and that this can be a warning to all the idiot parents out there who didn't get their child vaccinated to get it done asap.

This. Measles (and other diseases for which there is a vaccine) aren't harmless. Most people come through measles okay, but you don't want your child to be the unlucky one who dies (or is blinded, a nasty side-effect of measles). Also, a vaccine hurts for a minute; measles hurts for a week or more (if you survive).

God's way of saying "I GAVE YOU DUMBSHITS MODERN MEDICINE FOR A REASON, SO YOU WOULD STOP BOTHERING ME WITH YOUR SILLY FUCKING PROBLEMS"

Hot and Botherer Join date : 2009-06-10

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:: God's way of saying "I GAVE YOU DUMBSHITS MODERN MEDICINE FOR A REASON, SO YOU WOULD STOP BOTHERING ME WITH YOUR SILLY FUCKING PROBLEMS"

Don't be silly. It's god's way of saying he hates fags. Duh.

e:You know what, I'll try to actually post on topic >.>

People's take on vaccines seems to be almost as faith-based as faith itself. I mean either they're indoctrinated that vaccines are bad mmkay, then they hold on to that their entire lives, or that vaccines are the True Savior, then they won't budge an inch off that. Of course that's something people do (very few people base their vote on actual policy, for example), but it seems kind of extreme with vaccines.

Disco Stu wrote:: Why not take action, then pray? Not just pray?

I think this, more than any of the other assumptions in your post, really bothers me. Because you don't know that they didn't. Obviously they didn't vaccinate, but you have no idea what other measures, beyond prayer, may or may not have been taken. Or what prompted these parents to decide that vaccination was a risk they didn't want to take. After all, as you pointed out, everything has risks. Therefore, everything must be evaluated based on that risk. And since you mentioned autism, of course an autistic child is 1000x better than no child at all. But, when you're talking about doing something that has been linked to a very serious childhood developmental disorder and it's YOUR decision whether or not to expose another person--whose life and well-being rests entirely on your decisions--to that risk, the whole thing becomes a lot more fraught.

You've laid out a very cut-and-dried case. And I agree that, by and large, the evidence says that vaccinating is much better than not. But it's not that simple when someone else's life and well-being could be at risk regardless of which road you choose. And Science Says So has gotten things really, really wrong before. Like how the food pyramid said--until very recently--that everybody should load up on pasta, rice, and bread. Now there's a massive obesity epidemic. Gee, I wonder why.

Could this group have done things to prevent this situation? Given the outcome, probably they could have. But we don't know what they did or didn't do, and assuming that the only step taken was to pray is a pretty massive assumption for which I see no supporting evidence.

There is no link between vaccination and autism.

none

Quote :: The MMR vaccine controversy centered around the 1998 publication of a fraudulent research paper in the medical journal The Lancet that lent support to the subsequently discredited theory that colitis and autism spectrum disorders could be caused by the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The media has been heavily criticized for its naive reporting and for lending undue credibility to the architect of the fraud, Andrew Wakefield.

Quote :: The claims in Wakefield's 1998 The Lancet article were widely reported; vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland dropped sharply, which was followed by significantly increased incidence of measles and mumps, resulting in deaths and severe and permanent injuries.

Quote :: Physicians, medical journals, and editors have described Wakefield's actions as fraudulent and tied them to epidemics and deaths, and a 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".

There have been dozens of studies on this, there is no link between the measles or MMR jabs and autism. NO. LINK.

But people put their kids at terrible risk because they sucked at the teat of one man's fraudulent research paper.

Tl:dr People are stupid. Get your kids inoculated.

I could have sworn that vaccinations are required for international travel? I might be thinking of pets or someshit.

grmblfjx wrote:: People's take on vaccines seems to be almost as faith-based as faith itself.

Well, except for the part where it's been scientifically proven that vaccination actually works.

Sporkbender Join date : 2009-12-09 Location : Planet Clair

Oh holy shit why is Wogglebug not here?!! This is, like, THE thread for him/her.

Eeveegou wrote:: Oh holy shit why is Wogglebug not here?!! This is, like, THE thread for him/her.

It's not her pet obsession. Dracowaltztard is (along with Bugfucker's feelings of persecution).

Cyberwulf wrote:

grmblfjx wrote:: People's take on vaccines seems to be almost as faith-based as faith itself.

Well, except for the part where it's been scientifically proven that vaccination actually works.

Except for the flu vaccine. That one is fucking worthless. Probably because they have to make it anew every year.

The ones for more consistent diseases, like measles, whooping cough, polio, and such, work well.

Hot and Botherer Join date : 2009-06-10

Cyberwulf wrote:

grmblfjx wrote:: People's take on vaccines seems to be almost as faith-based as faith itself.

Well, except for the part where it's been scientifically proven that vaccination actually works.

No, I don't mean vaccines and praying are actually on par in effectiveness. I mean people stick with their stance on vaccines, near-religiously.

I meant that there's actual scientific evidence that vaccines work, whereas there's no proof of either the existence or absence of supernatural beings.

Shitgobbling pissdrinker Join date : 2009-06-10 Age : 37

I feel bad laughing at the suffering of little kids, but really, what did these chucklefucks think was going to happen?

Sheba wrote:: I feel bad laughing at the suffering of little kids, but really, what did these chucklefucks think was going to happen?

They were acting according their beliefs. They believe their deity would never let them get sick like this, or that if they did get sick, it was supposed to happen and they're supposed to let it play out, blindness and death and all. If you believe that, then of course you wouldn't vaccinate your kids.

A lot of people are quick to blame the mass for shit like this, but it's brainwashing. They're being told something works a certain way, and, more importantly, they're told that they're evil/hateful/foolish/whatever for not believing in whatever crazy asshole thing a very charismatic jerk has told them. Personal responsibility is personal responsibility, but the huge cluster of people aren't the source of shit like this.

Inoculations are kind of some crazy shit, I can understand why people are suspicious of them. I mean, how often has some sort of unnatural science abomination that seem too good to be true turned out to actually be too good to be true? Yes, there is a shit ton of history and studies and data in support of vaccines, but I can understand how someone could be talked around all that. There are a lot of modern convinces that are actively killing us, it can be hard to separate the truth from the insane paranoia.