Friday, 22 August 2008

And so it begins.

I've posted before about how dangerous the "Green Vaccine" movement is. I've pointed out how Japan shows a perfect example of what happens when fears over vaccines keep parents from vaccinating their children. And I predicted a similar trend would start in North America if the "antivaxxers" weren't stopped.

And it's already begun.

"Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, health officials reported Thursday. Worried doctors say they are troubled by the trend fueled by unfounded fears that vaccines may cause autism. The number of cases is still small, just 131, but that's only for the first seven months of the year. There were only 42 cases for all of last year[...]In a typical year, only one outbreak occurs in the United States, infecting perhaps 10 to 20 people. This year through July 30, the country has seen seven outbreaks, including one in Illinois with 30 cases, said Seward, of the CDC's Division of Viral Diseases."
Measles was a big problem in America prior to the introduction of vaccination in the 1960s, after which, cases and outbreaks plummited. Parents have began to reject vaccinations, and now measles are becoming a big concern again. Why don't people realize this? Why must people insist that vaccines are harmful despite the plethora of scientific evidence showing otherwise?

Scientists and doctors need to speak out about this. Facts and evidence have to be given to the general public to counter the complete ignorance of the Green Vaccine. This literally can be a matter of life or death.

2 comments:

Ian said...

We do have Amanda Peet on our side (scroll to bottom of post for almost NSFW pic).

However, Charlie Sheen, Jenny McCarthy, and Jim Carrey are a bit more dense (is it really that surprising though?)

C.W.G.K said...

It's great that we have a celebrity on our side to help combat the utter idiocy that is the Green Vaccine movement, and it surely will help get the truth across to the general public because, frankly, we scientists are not the public relations machines we'd like to be. However, I find it incredibly sad that we need to rely on celebrities to do that. Why, for example, does the public put its trust into the likes of Jim Carrey, an actor with absolutely no scientific or medical training, rather than that of qualified professonals? I'm glad that Peet is on our side, but part of me cringes at the fact that celebrity power is necessary.