- Joined
- Jan 26, 2003
- Messages
- 22,146
Frankly, the idea of allowing people to contract a highly contagious and dangerous disease that can be easily prevented due to fear mongering and anti-science ramblings is bizarre.
Measles is a serious disease. It can cause deafness. It causes encephalitis in 1 out of every 1000 children infected. This is fatal in many cases, and when it is not fatal, it results in permanent brain damage. It can cause pregnant women to lose their babies. 2 out of every 1000 children infected will die from complications like pneumonia and/or encephalitis. Of those who survive, the virus goes latent (like chickenpox and cold sores, it never entirely goes away once you are infected), and can recur to cause long term complications like subacute sclerosing panencephalitis which is a fatal neurological disease. Caused by having measles earlier in life.
@Ellen, I am so sorry that your baby died of SIDS. I wish we understood it better. Most research these days (yes, I know, from those of us you do not trust, but who truly, really, honestly, are just dedicating our lives to making the world better for everyone else) suggests that it is likely due to a combination of respiratory problems due to a number of possible factors (low birth weight, environmental pollutants, respiratory infections, possible neurological defects in the sleep center of the brain, obstruction due to overly soft sleeping surfaces) and sleeping position, which is why we no longer put babies on their stomachs (we think that for some this may inadvertently make it difficult for them to breathe). The "back to sleep" program that encouraged parents to put babies to sleep on their backs rather than their stomachs the way we were taught to in the 70's and 80's has dramatically reduced the number of SIDS deaths since the 1990's. So fighting for something that will result in many more children dead (because 2 deaths out of every 1000 infected in an airborne, highly contagious disease would result in millions of children dying every year without vaccinations) and latching onto stuff from the internet that is not only not true but designed to fuel this anti-sciences frenzy is not helpful - to you, or to anyone else. Nor will it prevent another mother from suffering the horrific loss of their child to SIDS. The Back to Sleep program has done more on that front than all other efforts combined.
If it helps you to have some trust in the medical field, health care is NOT a for-profit enterprise in any other country but the US. Every other country but the US that has government funded health care is working tirelessly on issues of population health to *prevent* overuse of the system so that we can continue to offer the same quality of healthcare to everyone that people expect and deserve. So this constant accusation that the medical system is just out to make people sick in order to make money is bizarre and simply not true. Large scale epidemiological studies are also generally conducted world wide, and the World Health Organization adopts policies and puts out position papers based on replicated research across places and cultures. So think what you will of your own CDC. They are only one of many organizations in the world who are conducting the kind of research that anti-science, anti-vaccination people don't want to believe.
Thank you for this thoughtful post, cmd.
Deb/AGBF