How to grow a neurotic wuss

[Xiphias]

The parents should let kids play together...the parents who vaccinated their kids can see if  it works and the parents can who didn't can see if the voices in their heads were correct.

[ducatiz]

PSA:

Don't give kids (children under 12) aspirin. It can lead to Rye Syndrome

Reyes Syndrome

The parents should let kids play together...the parents who vaccinated their kids can see if  it works and the parents can who didn't can see if the voices in their heads were correct.

     

[mstevens]

and for x years before vaccines were created the human species thrived.  I'm sure they'll be all right.

Um, no. Until just a couple of generations ago, infant and child mortality was shockingly high. At one point, roughly a third of the total population of Europe died over a 2-3 year period. Diseases that routinely killed large numbers of people are now nearly unheard of. As a species, we have spent most of our time on earth on the verge of extinction and only for a few hundred generations has our basic survival been anywhere near assured.

Vaccinations have saved vast numbers of people at extremely low risk. The only reason anyone worries at all about risks from vaccination is that we have become so complacent that we assume our kids are going to live just fine without needing to worry about life-threatening infections in the first place. The ONLY reason that complacency is even possible is the herd immunity that results from widespread vaccination.

While we're talking about "vaccination," keep in mind that inoculating people with vaccinia (cowpox) to prevent their contracting smallpox is a recent enough idea that we know the name of the guy who introduced it. As a result of adopting this practice worldwide, you and your (unvaccinated) children now have no risk at all (zero, none) of contracting a highly-contagious disease that has killed millions of our species over almost all of recorded history. This could be achieved with a number of other diseases if it weren't for asshats who refuse to be vaccinated or to have their kids vaccinated. Instead, diseases that our parents and grandparents lived in fear of, such as infectious poliomyelitis, are starting to make a comeback.

[Drunken Monkey]

And oddly enough, the one thing in our modern world that correlates to higher numbers of kids being diagnosed with autism is...

Anyone? Bueler? Anyone?
















Cable TV. 

[Grampa]

well duh....watching Dr Phill will retard anything within fifty feet. When the bike's idle was too high.... I parked it in the living room and turned the tv on. instant fix (but I did have to put more air back in the tires)

[ducatiz]

And oddly enough, the one thing in our modern world that correlates to higher numbers of kids being diagnosed with autism is...

Anyone? Bueler? Anyone?

Cable TV. 

Several folks have pointed out the same thing with regard to de-segregation of public schools.

Correlation ≠ Causation

Although, I would lay odds it is the remote control and not the # of channels.

Who ever heard of channel surfing before remotes?  Getting off your ass to change the channel was real work.

[fwtcc]

Um, no. Until just a couple of generations ago, infant and child mortality was shockingly high. At one point, roughly a third of the total population of Europe died over a 2-3 year period. Diseases that routinely killed large numbers of people are now nearly unheard of. As a species, we have spent most of our time on earth on the verge of extinction and only for a few hundred generations has our basic survival been anywhere near assured.

First off, only a few hundred years?  I am going to take a venture to guess that even during biblical times and those before there were as many people on earth as any other mammal, barring rodents.  Especially considering there were enough to have battles and kill hundreds at a time and not deplete their specific sect enough be unable fend off attack from another group of humans.  People are the only creatures to have wars and battles on as huge of a scale and have been doing it for ages.  War requires population.  The only exception is plains Indians who counted coo(sp?) rather than kill because they did not have as strong of numbers.  People have done quite well for themselves, and they began long before the last 400-500 years.
In the last couple of generations a third of Europe died?  Wow, I wonder what circumstance that could have caused that?  Maybe 2 World Wars, or a Holocaust, even further still, the re-emergence of the plague as a result of the dead bodies strewn across the continent.

#2 if you read my post I did not say that I wouldn't vaccinate my child, just that I would wait after, and now I haven't researched it in the 3 years since I left college due to a lack of necessity, the age of most subscetibility of acquiring autism from the shots.  I don't plan on having kids in at least 3-4 years, AT LEAST.  This very well could all be solved by then, then whatever.

All in all, humans may not have been rolling along as comfortably as we are now for too long, but they have outgrown every creature that doesn't feed off of our waste, i.e. rodents and insects at a ridiculously alarming rate and have been doing so for a long time. 

[Triple J]

  People have done quite well for themselves, and they began long before the last 400-500 years.
 

He said few hundred generations...not years.

[fwtcc]

He said few hundred generations...not years.

Well, there are roughly 4-5 generations a century, so 500 would be one hundred generations, at least.  Seeing as children were born to younger parents without the advent of birth control and the longer life spans we now enjoy, that number is likely even smaller.  Even at a couple hundred generations we are still well into civilized humanity, meaning the population was growing well enough to move out of the woods and into cities.

[Grampa]

this guy says...... "yer all a bunch of whiney sissylalas"

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/popup?id=5536783&contentIndex=1&page=1&start=false

[Triple J]

Well, there are roughly 4-5 generations a century, so 500 would be one hundred generations, at least.  Seeing as children were born to younger parents without the advent of birth control and the longer life spans we now enjoy, that number is likely even smaller.  Even at a couple hundred generations we are still well into civilized humanity, meaning the population was growing well enough to move out of the woods and into cities.

I think your math is off.  If there are 5 generations in a century, then each generation spans about a 20 year period, roughly. As such, 100 generations would encompass 2,000 years, not 500 years.

This isn't really the point though.  The point is:

Vaccinations have saved vast numbers of people at extremely low risk. The only reason anyone worries at all about risks from vaccination is that we have become so complacent that we assume our kids are going to live just fine without needing to worry about life-threatening infections in the first place. The ONLY reason that complacency is even possible is the herd immunity that results from widespread vaccination.

The second point is there is no scientific link between vaccinations and autism.

[fwtcc]

Yeah, my math was off.  Thanks.  Even then 2000 years makes the statement a moot point for its premise seeing as vaccination is a relatively new thing.  A couple hundred generations would then mean an arguement for whether or not your children should grow up in civilization or the woods.  I apologize it didn't register, and refused to, since the statement was so inconsequential to the premise. 

[ducatiz]

The second point is there is no scientific link between vaccinations and autism.

I think my point was more useful.

The anti-vaccine people claim mercury causes autism.

All of the vaccines are available without mercury (thimerisol). 
http://www.fda.gov/CBER/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#pres

[ducatiz]

this guy says...... "yer all a bunch of whiney sissylalas"

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/popup?id=5536783&contentIndex=1&page=1&start=false

That's Sir Sissylala, KBE, to you!!!

(Man, I bet that guy wishes he had the HPV vaccine...)

[jdubbs32584]

I think my point was more useful.

The anti-vaccine people claim mercury causes autism.

All of the vaccines are available without mercury (thimerisol). 
http://www.fda.gov/CBER/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#pres

Thank you for pointing this out ducatizzz and triple j. I am so tired of hearing these parents bring that up as a reason to not vaccinate. Buncha sheep that don't know the facts and don't bother to look them up.