There had been some rumbles about this online, and now it looks like the AMA has actually stepped up.
Members of the American Medical Association voted this week to support state policies that would allow minors to override their parents’ objections to vaccinations.
Full article, HERE.
And the whole whodoneit situation down in the Dominican Republic is getting stranger and stranger…
US authorities are scrambling to get to the bottom of a rash of deaths of US tourists in the Dominican Republic, with the number of reported fatalities over the past year now rising to six.
Full article, HERE.
There was an ‘interview’ that floated across my feed yesterday that was some hotel ‘magnate’ in the DR who claimed it was the stupid Americans who drank to much, ate too much, and partied too much. There was nothing wrong with the booze in the hotels… Yeah, right.
It appears from some reports that many of the hotels are all inclusives, and the ‘minibar’ uses full sized bottles that are refilled with ‘unknown’ liquors. That was something we were cautioned about back in the 70s, to NEVER drink from a bottle we didn’t see the seal cracked on. Granted that could be faked too, which is why most of us patronized the Class 6 store.
Oh yeah, and all those ‘beautiful people’ you see in the ads… Not so much. They’re paid actors, sent down to empty resorts to do those videos, and they’re gone the next day.
And from the karma files…
Journalists have traditionally kept an arm’s length relationship with lawmakers, but as news outlets continue to shed jobs and fold, press advocates want members of Congress to step in and save the industry from Google and Facebook.
From the Washington Times, HERE. Snerk… If they actually DID real journalism instead of the current MSM left lean and negative stories about anything that doesn’t fit the corporate agenda, they might not be in the deep s**t they are in…
And it looks like the Smithsonian’s revisionist historians have struck again…
This time, with an exhibit of Justice Clarence Thomas that he didn’t know was there, is wrong, and he was never consulted on… Sigh…
Full article, HERE from the Washington Examiner.
A comment on the Vaxer – Anti Vaxer debate:
If vaccinations protect you from becoming infected from the disease, then why fear anti-vaxers who choose to risk their lives ? The only ones affected are themselves, right ? Any one, including the vaccinated can carry the disease, but becoming affected are only the unprotected.
Maybe I am wrong in assuming this.
The thing called “herd immunity” is not just a protection of the non-vaccinated or those for whom the vaccine didn’t ‘take’. In many cases, the vaccinated immune system is a shield that can be breached. The more active infections, the more ‘arrows’ (or bullets or..) the shield must successfully deflect. Given enough ammunition, the shield fails and even the vaccinated fellow’s immune system isn’t truly protective enough, and then even that person gets an infection.
And even if the shield holds, the herd immunity is sort of random quarantine. The Patient Zero with the infection doesn’t get close enough to infect Patient One (or Two..) because of a bubble of vaccinated people isolating them. When not enough of the ‘herd’ is vaccinated, these people meet and the infection spreads. “Not enough” can be a startlingly high percentage.
It’s not just their lives that those opposing vaccinations are risking. There are people who cannot receive vaccines (particularly the live virus ones such as MMR) due to underlying illnesses or genetic conditions. There are also people whose immune systems are suppressed to help treat their diseases (cancer, autoimmune diseases, etc.). These people are the ones who are protected by herd immunity and are particularly at risk when the level of unvaccinated people rises enough to allow an outbreak.
John Ringo in “The Last Centurion” does a very good job of explaining immunization theory, even going into the reason why some immunizations don’t work (related to binding sites and such.) And also explains modern farming vs organic farming and other topics.
Highly recommend.
And, yes, modern immunization/innoculation is based on percentage of coverage. The higher percentage innoculated near the infected/carrier, the less chance of a breakout.
We see this in the Congo today as health authorities are trying massive immunizations around the center of the Ebola crisis, which, so far, has actually slowed the expansion of that plague. Now if we could keep the idjits from killing health workers and destroying med facilities and vaccine caches…
It varies depending on the disease, but 94% is a good number to start from.
You can be a Vaxer skeptic without being an Anti-Vaxer. For instance, each component of MMR has been studied but no studies, that I know of, when the three are combined. Lack of independent testing for quality control is an issue. The information sheet that accompanies each batch is rarely read or discussed with the parent/patient by the health care provider (per my late son, the Army Medic).
I cannot accept multiple injections at the same time isn’t risky, especially with young children whose immune systems may not be fully developed.
Finally, not all the conclusions Alex Wakefield and associates published in 1998 have been shown invalid. What has been shown is the power of the British press to destroy the reputation and livelihood of those who challenge entrenched interests, IMO.
The study of MMR has been noticing the lack of mass deaths from it over the last 50 years of the vaccine’s use.
I’m really torn on this issue, Old NFO. My gut tells me that vaccinations for diseases such as Small Pox and Polio were successful in eliminating the disease. The evidence that there were side effects that were statistically significant are in dispute. And I don’t know what sort of side effects could be worse than Small Pox and Polio.
There are people who I trust who are anti vaccination – but would they want to see a return of Small Pox? Really?
* I use Small Pox and Polio as an example. I know that it’s not confined to those diseases.
Bottom post was meant to be a reply to you. I forgot that I need JS on for that to work.
a) What we have going on is a mass media propaganda campaign, and resistance to it, not a simple spontaneous policy difference of opinion. At least partly. They way you can verify that? The folks wanting bureaucratic power to force vaccinations are not likewise seeking to make sure that bureaucratic regulation of immigration is also sufficient to mitigate spread of disease.
b) I have heard that a 1986 law shields vaccine makers from product liability. Looking things up, this seems to be the national childhood vaccine injury act, which does shield the manufacturers. There is a special venue for injury compensation, run by an appointed panel of special masters. I’m not sure who Bush and Trump have appointed, but they may not have cared much about the composition of the panel. I would be surprised if Clinton and Obama hadn’t packed it with crooks. If so, especially if Bush reappointed Clinton appointments who were subtly crooked, it would be unsurprising if the last thirty or so years of rulings were biased with a hidden corruption.
c) Furthermore, these vaccination programs being pushed are paid for with government money. So this is a pretty good way to peddle influence. Government money goes to passing out a vaccine without much safety or efficacy, the same influence buys a lack of oversight, and the only way things go sour is if you get an epidemic.
d) That vaccine being given to young children, that is only appropriate if the children are having sex. The insistence on giving it makes sense from three perspectives. 1. A corrupt perspective. 2. A insanely ambitious technocratic perspective. “We are the experts society will be perfected so long as you shut up and do what you are told.” 3. A pedophiliac perspective that wants kids performing sex acts, because that damages their ability to resist predation.
e) Corruption is not a clearly wrong model for what is going on. So, even if one’s problems are a result of inborn issues, noticing a correlation with shots may not be wrong thinking.
f) Vaccines are known to have efficacy issues, persistence issues, and outright targeting the wrong strain of flu issues.
I gave up welding (not that I was ever good, or going to be good), when I caught it making me sick. I would not ban welding for everyone.
I think there are circumstances where government has a public health right and responsibility to force vaccines or other measures. In such case, I would tend to think it proper even if that resulted in my death. I don’t have kids, so my thinking and feeling has not covered that contingency. I tend towards ‘public school teachers are pedophiles, or enablers of same’, so ‘we need this for public schooling’ has near zero persuasive force for me.
If there is corruption involved with frivolous vaccines, public trust is undermined.
I understand that in some cases the only actual infections we are seeing are coming from the vaccines. At some combination of lack of efficacy persistence and the disease not being in the wild it will make sense to discontinue the vaccine program.
Religiously supporting all vaccination programs also runs the risk of a return of polio and small pox. Why? Unstinting support does not ensure that processes have not been corrupted, and corrupted processes undermine future support. Especially if society as a whole is becoming more corrupt and dysfunctional.
We may not be able to do anything about immigration. We can definitely make sure any processes we are involved with are transparent, and follow correct procedures. Thus decreasing slightly the corruption and dysfunction in that area of society.
Thank you folks for catching me up on the logic of why vaccinations are needed – I had not considered those points.
I used to subscribe to the Smithsonian; gave it up some years ago when I saw it going leftish. I do subscribe to Air & Space Smithsonian, though.
Not anti vax here. But I do have to question why newborn babies are given Hep B vax at birth. I’ve never gotten a good answer as to why helpless infants need to be protected from a disease spread almost exclusively by intravenous drug usage and sex.
All- Excellent comments and nothing I can really add. JMI- Hep B is a danger in hospitals and from the birth mother- If a pregnant woman has the hepatitis B virus, her baby has a very high chance of having it unless the baby gets a special immune injection and the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
Posted from my iPhone.
I would certainly support administering the vaccine to infants who have immediate family members with the disease. I do know it the virus can survive for several days on surfaces, so I can see the concern in a hospital setting.
I appreciate bob…fool’s comments.
I’m fairly contrarian, and the person I argue and discuss this topic the most with is someone I respect, who has good points. We feel very strongly about it from different directions, and wind up having to compromise on some points, and agree to disagree on others.
The first set of slogans to excite one’s own emotions often fails to capture that level of nuance.
If agreement on all subjects were easy, we would not be Americans.
Ed- Agreed. We are all entitled to our own opinions.
When I was going to school in California in the 1960s vaccinations weren’t just mandatory, the schools lined you up in the halls and you walked the gauntlet of air injectors whether your parents agreed or not.
Obviously, those vaccinations are what caused me to turn into a crazed right-winger with too many guns and motorcycles and not enough concern about the “the environment” or the plights of the various downtrodden…