I take particular umbrage to the people who crow about personal choice when it comes to vaccines. When your choice endangers the lives of others, that's a real problem. Also, your children don't have your same self-determination. RFK Jr. is a monster for helping promulgate this anti-vax nonsense.
truth and those non-vaxed children are safe because they are surrounded by vaxed children.... that will not last much longer... he is beyond descriptive words.. calling him a monster just doesn't do it any longer.....
I would say he is committing negligible homicide, and should be removed from office on those grounds. The current DOJ would never consider investigating and prosecuting...they are too busy with political retribution on trumps behalf.
I believe everyone who can should get every recommended vaccine they can. I do. It's similar to your seatbelt; if there is only a 1% chance it will save your life, it's a 1% chance you don't have without it. And it is, in actuality, a much greater chance than 1%. So I get vaccinated, but it is by my choice, however that may annoy you.
HST The only people harmed by non-vaxing are the people who are not vaxed. A person's choice not to get vaccinated cannot "endanger the lives of others" (except for your children, because for all intents and purposes in the US we let people make their own choices with regard to their children). But the choice not to get vaccinated doesn't hurt "others", and it is and should be a personal choice. US citizens are allowed to (and do) make crappy choices about things all the time.
I know you will want to argue that they hurt those around them with compromised immune systems, or who are too young or feeble to be vaccinated, but the truth is in every instance it is their compromised condition that makes them vulnerable, not the unvaxed person. The immune compromised, very young, sick and old, need to be protected from all manner of pathogens and toxins, but it is that individual's responsibility to take the steps necessary to protect their life. It is not in their right to force the choice of someone else.
I assume, JenneJ, that you also must not believe in water treatment, because that’s making decisions for whole swaths of people without their informed consent. Individuals can and should filter water themselves, but anyone who is at risk really had a weak immune system as the core problem. Right?
As members of society, we owe a duty to be protective of the group. That includes getting our shots! Otherwise you might as well not live in society and as far as I'm concerned if you don't do your duty you don't belong with the rest of us.
I do not know where you live, but members of US society have no such obligation or "duty". Unless you are a doctor, in the military, police force or some other profession which has sworn an oath not to, there isn't even a tacit agreement let alone a "duty" among civilians to be "protective of the group."
Some people don't have a choice in the matter. Be happy you do. I don't "rely" on it, but I also expect people who can (i.e. no health reasons not to) will get their shots to protect both themselves and others and if they don't, I think they are both idiotic and uncivilized.
Thanks for highlighting this topic. It is unconscionable that our government is working desperately to undermine our public health and spread misinformation and more of their trademark lies. Sadly, I can't see a way that this will end well. Sigh.
Soviet and now Russian misinformation campaigns have been directed to this for decades. Just saying, if you look, you can always see the ‘useful idiot’.
Possibly block those that don’t “believe” in the Vaccines from getting the treatment for their idiocy!! If you don’t “believe” in vaccines, the you sure shouldn’t be getting the “cure”.
If you want to endanger others then you are LAST in line at the emergency room!!!! “Show me your papers”!
So... you are saying that stupidity should be painful? I agree completely. If we allow stupid people and their offspring to be selected against, maybe the species will gradually get smarter. Evolution?!? Let's give it a try!
The "only reason"? No. There are valid reasons not to be immunized. Are you immune-compromised? Don't get vaccinated. Are you allergic to one or more of the vaccine components? Don't get vaccinated. Is the vaccine for a disease that does not have a significant public health effect? You get to choose. Have you 'done your own research' on vaccines? You are stupid. Do you trust self-educated snake oil salesman? Stupid. I am a scientist, specifically, a geologist, and I would like to think I am pretty good at my job, but my being good at geology stuff IN NO WAY makes me competent to tell a mining engineer how to design a mine shaft. Nor does it provide me with insights into virology. We trust experts for a reason, because we have NO expertise to substitute for theirs. Can they be wrong? Sure...science is like that; it changes as new information become available, and that is why science works. You want unchanging rules? Go to church.
People who do not get vaccinated do so for many reasons. Some of those reasons are medical, some are religious. Are you suggesting we persecute people because of their medical conditions or religious beliefs?
People who do not get vaccinated for Medical reasons such as allergies to some of the ingredients, Are the Reason we should ALL get vaccinated, to protect those that Can’t.
Religious beliefs against vaccines, is made up BS. There isn’t a “Bible” in the world that says anything about vaccines. It’s basically a mental illness, to be so absorbed in a deity as to ignore reality.
All those “religions” will use medical science in 90% of cases to get treated for everything from astigmatism to Cancer and then claim we don’t vaccinate for religious reasons. Abject BS!
We don’t have to persecute them, just don’t treat them, Oh and I think we could make a case for negligent Homicide. ignorantia juris non excusat
The same folks that claim “all life is precious” will not vaccinate their children putting them and Other children who can’t get vaccinated at risk. I know common sense isn’t so common, but enough is enough already.
The strategy is to provide an alternative more easily accepted explanation. We saw it when he met with the Mormon family whose child died. We saw it during Covid. (Ex: People “didn’t die from Covid” but old age, pneumonia, blah blah blah.)
RFK, Jr perfected this years ago and it made him a lot of $$. I think he is setting this up for his organization & affiliated personal injury law firms to cash in.
1. They never acknowledge that their words, decisions or actions are related to bad outcomes.
2. They provide “alternative” explanations to deflect from the result of their actions.
3. HHS, including CDC, is now providing “official” reports, documents & recommendations for the anti-health, anti-science, anti-vax movement. In the past judges batted away most of their lawsuits for lack of evidence from credible sources.
Thanks for this. But you know who will be cashing in? The law firms that sue his ass, and his co-conspirators, when he is no longer poisoning the halls of HHS.
I got a piece of mail from the Smithsonian yesterday and I thought, am I giving to Maga if I donate? I thought it might be nice to go to the museums of DC and then I thought, are they Maga-run and therefore a hall of revisionism? I decided to not go to DC, or support its cultural institutions while Twump was still president. Let those peeps who saved their money not vaxing their kids go visit. One hopes they don't bring a little typhoid Mary with them.
It's pretty crass of you to reduce all the reasons people don't vaccinate their children down to "saved their money", as if there is anyone who doesn't vax because it's too expensive. Do you have a statistic on that? It's fascinating if true, considering they can definitely be gotten for free.
The observational data strongly suggests option 1. Ultimately though, it’s the morons who voted for him who are at fault and 70 years of Republicans attacking public education. I hope all of them get measles and worse… and yes, i am a bitter old man!
As someone who is old enough to have lived through the preMMR vaccine era, I remember that pregnant women who develop measles risk consequences to the fetus.
I am not a conspiracy theorist.......(I know, that's what every conspiracy theorist says) but I have to wonder WHY? Why does RFK jr and his ilk insist on spreading this deadly misinformation. A general war on truth? Control of a weakened population? Eugenics? Surely, over hopefully the not so long term, people will come to understand that their children are getting very sick and worse and will turn on those who gave them this misinformation. So why?
He is indeed a monster. These people have blood on their hands. This whole administration is creating problems that don’t currently exist and harming untold numbers of people as they focus only on their own gain. The cruelty and lack of empathy is stunning.
Thank you Judd for the excellent reporting done by you and your team.
I'm old enough to remember the before times when there were no vaccines. Lucky me, I had measles, mumps and chicken pox all in the same summer after first grade. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I can also remember the elation in the country when the polio vaccine was released. And I am disgusted by RFK Jr. and his fellow travelers who should know better than to bring back the before times. He's going to cause a lot of unnecessary deaths and needs to be held to account as do all of his co-conspirators and the Republicans who voted to put him in this job.
This is the result of the intentional dumbing down of school educational programs by Republicans. You end up with a bunch of ignoramuses and fools who are easily scammed by a bunch of monsters.
It's sad to see Kennedy Jr. spreading so much false information, and the gutting of the scientists and replacing them with laymen who are also ignorant, and I guess they must have an agenda; we're not sure what that agenda may be other than to inflict pain and death on ignorant citizens.
So, I guess Trump was lying again when he said he loves the poorly educated?
Not necessarily “laymen.” That fits RFK, Jr. But others have medical backgrounds although vaccinations and contagious diseases are outside their specialty. Robert Malone is a heart specialist. They provide ‘alternative’ explanations for measles deaths as they did Covid. They sold special products & made $$ as podcasters etc.
Malone got the boot from from respectable institutions but got fame & money with his scams. The anti-vax gig is made RFK, Jr million$. There could be more money if their personal injury lawsuits have official documentation & support from HHS (ex: CDC). Many lawsuits failed due to lack of credible evidence.
Thanks, but all I meant was that they act like laymen who are ignorant of the facts. That they take their "alternate" facts and make money off their lies is only more proof that an alarming portion of our electorate is dumber than a box of hair.
Being scammed by personal injury attorneys & medical “experts” does indicate lack of intelligence. Plenty of intelligent people suffer from ignorance, desperation &/or confusion. Humans like to believe they are logical creatures. In reality most of our decisions are based on emotion.
Who wouldn’t prefer to believe it was not their decision to not vaccinate but an unrelated pneumonia that killed their child?
(I should add that those who didn’t go to school in the 50s, maybe 60s, don’t have the same memories of what happened without vaccinations.)
Yes, I'm sure we all believe that we are much more intelligent than we really are, even you... lol
And I also agree that we who attended school at that time were more aware of the benefits of vaccination. I guess that's another reason some see it today as being alarmist, when we are only signalling a warning for their own good.
I’ll pass on the intelligence thing. I was not valedictorian of my class etc. But confess to emotional bias when faced with certain decisions. It takes real effort to try to neutralize that. 😊
In the 1970s I worked in what would now be considered a progressive “open” ward state mental institution doing all the administrative work on my assigned units. When shorthanded I also filled in on other units. One unit had children in state care with such severe devastating disabilities the fire marshal allowed the unit to be locked at all times — to prevent anyone unauthorized (including patients from another unit) from entering & harming them. Many of these children were victims of measles.
Yes, we never know what another person has been through or what challenges they have faced in their life. I try to use that, but I am as prone to emotions as the next guy/gal.
No, Trump really does love the poorly educated because they don't have the background to understand what he's doing. Even smart people without knowledge can be mislead. "Ignorance is Strength."
Replacing science with witchcraft and voodoo. Interesting article in WSJ just this week highlighted studies that the shingles vaccine appears to reduce the incidence of dementia. Imagine if the government focused on that instead?
When these men are required to apologize, it will be too late for the babies and children who are no longer with us. When these men go to prison for murder, will it relieve the heartbreak of the parents? Will the parents understand they had good information and a century of medical science behind vaccines and they chose to follow people who hadn't ten minutes of training or education in the same field? I imagine there are plenty of frustrated pediatricians practicing in these areas of measles outbreak right now.
With measles just like with Covid people often die from other health issues they are susceptible to due to by having measles. Therefore it is not difficult to convince people without medical training that a child who died from pneumonia, bronchitis or encephalitis for instance - was not due to measles. The child was likely not treated for measles but the later health issues. I believe measles would be on the death certificate listed as a contributing or secondary cause of death. No one is even talking about becoming blind.
This is fertile territory for the RFK Jr’s of the world. Vaccinating for measles to prevent pneumonia (etc) is a bit convoluted. So many folks don’t / can’t remember what it was like before the late 60s & 70s.
This was not political for them. The parents are Mennonites - a community that does not embrace vaccinations. From the parents’ perspective (and those who push anti-vax theories) she did not die from measles.
The other children in the family were mildly ill & recovered. This child went to the hospital because she had trouble breathing not because of her rash. In other words, in their minds the obvious symptoms of measles are not related to the other later symptoms. It is a plausible explanation if you are not an ethical serious medical professional.
This is what the deniers did during Covid and still do. They claim the causes of death were the immediate cause & or the patient received wrong treatment for that cause. It makes it harder to explain a child who dies of pneumonia died because of not being vaccinated for measles.
Thanks. I should clarify it’s not the only way. For instance, our info silos lead people to follow personalities - religious, credentialed or others who provide a sense of belonging & knowing special info.
Repetition and reinforcement from those who are trusted is key for propaganda & hoaxes to be believed. Algorithms are made to do that.
(I confess to being a communication major among other things that taught me how to dissect manipulations / propaganda. I live in magaland)
What's sad to me is we live in an age when accurate information is at our fingertips, and yet trumpers prefer to be uneducated and prone to accepting conspiracy theories. And it started with trump's Big Lie that he actually won the 2020 election. Now these irrational people think elections are rigged and vaccines cause autism.
It's as if trump brought on a Dark Age Redux in America with 36% of Americans.
I am at the point where I just cannot read any more of this anti-VAX baloney coming from RFK Junior. We all know that vaccines have been one of the best preventions against disease, enabling the US population to increase lifespans. It is a travesty that one man has taken it upon himself to dismantle the research and evidence as well as protocols that protected the health of the human population.
So what are we going to do about it besides wring our hands?
I take particular umbrage to the people who crow about personal choice when it comes to vaccines. When your choice endangers the lives of others, that's a real problem. Also, your children don't have your same self-determination. RFK Jr. is a monster for helping promulgate this anti-vax nonsense.
truth and those non-vaxed children are safe because they are surrounded by vaxed children.... that will not last much longer... he is beyond descriptive words.. calling him a monster just doesn't do it any longer.....
I would say he is committing negligible homicide, and should be removed from office on those grounds. The current DOJ would never consider investigating and prosecuting...they are too busy with political retribution on trumps behalf.
If someone has decided “not to vax”, I do not think they should Then be able to Clog our Hospitals when their “informed” decision leads to illness.
If they Don’t Believe the science of Vaccines Why would they “Believe” the Science of the Cures ??? WTAF?
True but these death cultists don’t care. Probably better to require unvaccinated kids to all attend one Petri dish school.
I believe everyone who can should get every recommended vaccine they can. I do. It's similar to your seatbelt; if there is only a 1% chance it will save your life, it's a 1% chance you don't have without it. And it is, in actuality, a much greater chance than 1%. So I get vaccinated, but it is by my choice, however that may annoy you.
HST The only people harmed by non-vaxing are the people who are not vaxed. A person's choice not to get vaccinated cannot "endanger the lives of others" (except for your children, because for all intents and purposes in the US we let people make their own choices with regard to their children). But the choice not to get vaccinated doesn't hurt "others", and it is and should be a personal choice. US citizens are allowed to (and do) make crappy choices about things all the time.
I know you will want to argue that they hurt those around them with compromised immune systems, or who are too young or feeble to be vaccinated, but the truth is in every instance it is their compromised condition that makes them vulnerable, not the unvaxed person. The immune compromised, very young, sick and old, need to be protected from all manner of pathogens and toxins, but it is that individual's responsibility to take the steps necessary to protect their life. It is not in their right to force the choice of someone else.
I assume, JenneJ, that you also must not believe in water treatment, because that’s making decisions for whole swaths of people without their informed consent. Individuals can and should filter water themselves, but anyone who is at risk really had a weak immune system as the core problem. Right?
As members of society, we owe a duty to be protective of the group. That includes getting our shots! Otherwise you might as well not live in society and as far as I'm concerned if you don't do your duty you don't belong with the rest of us.
I do not know where you live, but members of US society have no such obligation or "duty". Unless you are a doctor, in the military, police force or some other profession which has sworn an oath not to, there isn't even a tacit agreement let alone a "duty" among civilians to be "protective of the group."
Well then what do you expect when you live in a society? You just plan on being a parasite?
Well, one thing I definitely don't do is rely on others to protect me.
Some people don't have a choice in the matter. Be happy you do. I don't "rely" on it, but I also expect people who can (i.e. no health reasons not to) will get their shots to protect both themselves and others and if they don't, I think they are both idiotic and uncivilized.
Thanks for highlighting this topic. It is unconscionable that our government is working desperately to undermine our public health and spread misinformation and more of their trademark lies. Sadly, I can't see a way that this will end well. Sigh.
Soviet and now Russian misinformation campaigns have been directed to this for decades. Just saying, if you look, you can always see the ‘useful idiot’.
And Putin “loves” his useful idiots.
Possibly block those that don’t “believe” in the Vaccines from getting the treatment for their idiocy!! If you don’t “believe” in vaccines, the you sure shouldn’t be getting the “cure”.
If you want to endanger others then you are LAST in line at the emergency room!!!! “Show me your papers”!
So... you are saying that stupidity should be painful? I agree completely. If we allow stupid people and their offspring to be selected against, maybe the species will gradually get smarter. Evolution?!? Let's give it a try!
I’m say people should be held accountable for their actions.
You think the only reason people don't get vaccinated is because they are stupid?
The "only reason"? No. There are valid reasons not to be immunized. Are you immune-compromised? Don't get vaccinated. Are you allergic to one or more of the vaccine components? Don't get vaccinated. Is the vaccine for a disease that does not have a significant public health effect? You get to choose. Have you 'done your own research' on vaccines? You are stupid. Do you trust self-educated snake oil salesman? Stupid. I am a scientist, specifically, a geologist, and I would like to think I am pretty good at my job, but my being good at geology stuff IN NO WAY makes me competent to tell a mining engineer how to design a mine shaft. Nor does it provide me with insights into virology. We trust experts for a reason, because we have NO expertise to substitute for theirs. Can they be wrong? Sure...science is like that; it changes as new information become available, and that is why science works. You want unchanging rules? Go to church.
Good point.
People who do not get vaccinated do so for many reasons. Some of those reasons are medical, some are religious. Are you suggesting we persecute people because of their medical conditions or religious beliefs?
People who do not get vaccinated for Medical reasons such as allergies to some of the ingredients, Are the Reason we should ALL get vaccinated, to protect those that Can’t.
Religious beliefs against vaccines, is made up BS. There isn’t a “Bible” in the world that says anything about vaccines. It’s basically a mental illness, to be so absorbed in a deity as to ignore reality.
All those “religions” will use medical science in 90% of cases to get treated for everything from astigmatism to Cancer and then claim we don’t vaccinate for religious reasons. Abject BS!
We don’t have to persecute them, just don’t treat them, Oh and I think we could make a case for negligent Homicide. ignorantia juris non excusat
The same folks that claim “all life is precious” will not vaccinate their children putting them and Other children who can’t get vaccinated at risk. I know common sense isn’t so common, but enough is enough already.
I just saw the massive MAHA banner on the HHS building in DC. It is an obscenity.
I would love to hear them explain how giving children and adults measles makes America healthy again.
The strategy is to provide an alternative more easily accepted explanation. We saw it when he met with the Mormon family whose child died. We saw it during Covid. (Ex: People “didn’t die from Covid” but old age, pneumonia, blah blah blah.)
RFK, Jr perfected this years ago and it made him a lot of $$. I think he is setting this up for his organization & affiliated personal injury law firms to cash in.
1. They never acknowledge that their words, decisions or actions are related to bad outcomes.
2. They provide “alternative” explanations to deflect from the result of their actions.
3. HHS, including CDC, is now providing “official” reports, documents & recommendations for the anti-health, anti-science, anti-vax movement. In the past judges batted away most of their lawsuits for lack of evidence from credible sources.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-confirmation-robert-f-kennedy-merck/
Thanks for this. But you know who will be cashing in? The law firms that sue his ass, and his co-conspirators, when he is no longer poisoning the halls of HHS.
I sure hope so.
Thanks Ann - great context - I will share elsewhere.
I got a piece of mail from the Smithsonian yesterday and I thought, am I giving to Maga if I donate? I thought it might be nice to go to the museums of DC and then I thought, are they Maga-run and therefore a hall of revisionism? I decided to not go to DC, or support its cultural institutions while Twump was still president. Let those peeps who saved their money not vaxing their kids go visit. One hopes they don't bring a little typhoid Mary with them.
It's pretty crass of you to reduce all the reasons people don't vaccinate their children down to "saved their money", as if there is anyone who doesn't vax because it's too expensive. Do you have a statistic on that? It's fascinating if true, considering they can definitely be gotten for free.
REALLY?!
https://open.substack.com/pub/borowitzreport/p/republicans-finally-unveil-healthcare?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email.
Parody is important.
I've said this before:
Either:
1) Trump's a Russian asset whose assignment was to weaken/destroy America and the West, and he's doing a superb job
2) He's a figurehead for Project 2025 and they will toss him under the bus when he's no longer useful.
3) He simply really is a truly horrible person and a moron. Or maybe a combination of the three.
Assuming #1 and/or #3 to be the case, appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. US Secretary of Health and Human Services is a master-class move.
I have a feeling it’s all three.
I'll go w/ #3 Dump simply really is a truly horrible person and a moron.
He's a sociopath exacerbated by old age and dementia.
The observational data strongly suggests option 1. Ultimately though, it’s the morons who voted for him who are at fault and 70 years of Republicans attacking public education. I hope all of them get measles and worse… and yes, i am a bitter old man!
I would suggest you might be bitter about the idiocy that is rampant in this country.
As one of my heroes said, "The Trouble Ain’t That There Is Too Many Fools, But That the Lightning Ain’t Distributed Right".
I hope RFK, jr. winds up in prison for what he has done.
As someone who is old enough to have lived through the preMMR vaccine era, I remember that pregnant women who develop measles risk consequences to the fetus.
I am not a conspiracy theorist.......(I know, that's what every conspiracy theorist says) but I have to wonder WHY? Why does RFK jr and his ilk insist on spreading this deadly misinformation. A general war on truth? Control of a weakened population? Eugenics? Surely, over hopefully the not so long term, people will come to understand that their children are getting very sick and worse and will turn on those who gave them this misinformation. So why?
Excellent questions!
• What are the demographics of the unvaccinated?
• Do these nut-cases actually believe their anti-vax baloney or is this part of a plan?
By nature, I am also not a conspiracy theorist...but I can't come up with logical answers.
Some are wackos. Some are angry about being made outsiders. Almost all make $$ from it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-confirmation-robert-f-kennedy-merck/
Yes, of course it's about the money. It's always about that.
I don't have a clue why the lemmings follow along, but as for JFK, Jr. I think it's got something to do with that brain worm.
He is indeed a monster. These people have blood on their hands. This whole administration is creating problems that don’t currently exist and harming untold numbers of people as they focus only on their own gain. The cruelty and lack of empathy is stunning.
Thank you Judd for the excellent reporting done by you and your team.
I'm old enough to remember the before times when there were no vaccines. Lucky me, I had measles, mumps and chicken pox all in the same summer after first grade. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I can also remember the elation in the country when the polio vaccine was released. And I am disgusted by RFK Jr. and his fellow travelers who should know better than to bring back the before times. He's going to cause a lot of unnecessary deaths and needs to be held to account as do all of his co-conspirators and the Republicans who voted to put him in this job.
This is the result of the intentional dumbing down of school educational programs by Republicans. You end up with a bunch of ignoramuses and fools who are easily scammed by a bunch of monsters.
It's sad to see Kennedy Jr. spreading so much false information, and the gutting of the scientists and replacing them with laymen who are also ignorant, and I guess they must have an agenda; we're not sure what that agenda may be other than to inflict pain and death on ignorant citizens.
So, I guess Trump was lying again when he said he loves the poorly educated?
The agenda is not to pay for vaccination programs so they can pay for tax cuts and get kickbacks from the rich.
Like they say, follow the money.
Not necessarily “laymen.” That fits RFK, Jr. But others have medical backgrounds although vaccinations and contagious diseases are outside their specialty. Robert Malone is a heart specialist. They provide ‘alternative’ explanations for measles deaths as they did Covid. They sold special products & made $$ as podcasters etc.
Malone got the boot from from respectable institutions but got fame & money with his scams. The anti-vax gig is made RFK, Jr million$. There could be more money if their personal injury lawsuits have official documentation & support from HHS (ex: CDC). Many lawsuits failed due to lack of credible evidence.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-confirmation-robert-f-kennedy-merck/
Thanks, but all I meant was that they act like laymen who are ignorant of the facts. That they take their "alternate" facts and make money off their lies is only more proof that an alarming portion of our electorate is dumber than a box of hair.
Being scammed by personal injury attorneys & medical “experts” does indicate lack of intelligence. Plenty of intelligent people suffer from ignorance, desperation &/or confusion. Humans like to believe they are logical creatures. In reality most of our decisions are based on emotion.
Who wouldn’t prefer to believe it was not their decision to not vaccinate but an unrelated pneumonia that killed their child?
(I should add that those who didn’t go to school in the 50s, maybe 60s, don’t have the same memories of what happened without vaccinations.)
Yes, I'm sure we all believe that we are much more intelligent than we really are, even you... lol
And I also agree that we who attended school at that time were more aware of the benefits of vaccination. I guess that's another reason some see it today as being alarmist, when we are only signalling a warning for their own good.
I’ll pass on the intelligence thing. I was not valedictorian of my class etc. But confess to emotional bias when faced with certain decisions. It takes real effort to try to neutralize that. 😊
In the 1970s I worked in what would now be considered a progressive “open” ward state mental institution doing all the administrative work on my assigned units. When shorthanded I also filled in on other units. One unit had children in state care with such severe devastating disabilities the fire marshal allowed the unit to be locked at all times — to prevent anyone unauthorized (including patients from another unit) from entering & harming them. Many of these children were victims of measles.
Yes, we never know what another person has been through or what challenges they have faced in their life. I try to use that, but I am as prone to emotions as the next guy/gal.
No, Trump really does love the poorly educated because they don't have the background to understand what he's doing. Even smart people without knowledge can be mislead. "Ignorance is Strength."
True also. Evidence: his presence in our White House, or what's left of it!
Replacing science with witchcraft and voodoo. Interesting article in WSJ just this week highlighted studies that the shingles vaccine appears to reduce the incidence of dementia. Imagine if the government focused on that instead?
Imagine if the government focused on making the populous better off instead of enriching the top 1%?
When these men are required to apologize, it will be too late for the babies and children who are no longer with us. When these men go to prison for murder, will it relieve the heartbreak of the parents? Will the parents understand they had good information and a century of medical science behind vaccines and they chose to follow people who hadn't ten minutes of training or education in the same field? I imagine there are plenty of frustrated pediatricians practicing in these areas of measles outbreak right now.
A father in Texas, whose daughter died, said he did NOT regret not vaccinating his daughter.
Some folks have to rationalize a poor decision somehow, or live with the guilt.
With measles just like with Covid people often die from other health issues they are susceptible to due to by having measles. Therefore it is not difficult to convince people without medical training that a child who died from pneumonia, bronchitis or encephalitis for instance - was not due to measles. The child was likely not treated for measles but the later health issues. I believe measles would be on the death certificate listed as a contributing or secondary cause of death. No one is even talking about becoming blind.
This is fertile territory for the RFK Jr’s of the world. Vaccinating for measles to prevent pneumonia (etc) is a bit convoluted. So many folks don’t / can’t remember what it was like before the late 60s & 70s.
Wow... talk about red-pilled. I wonder how the mother feels?
This was not political for them. The parents are Mennonites - a community that does not embrace vaccinations. From the parents’ perspective (and those who push anti-vax theories) she did not die from measles.
The other children in the family were mildly ill & recovered. This child went to the hospital because she had trouble breathing not because of her rash. In other words, in their minds the obvious symptoms of measles are not related to the other later symptoms. It is a plausible explanation if you are not an ethical serious medical professional.
This is what the deniers did during Covid and still do. They claim the causes of death were the immediate cause & or the patient received wrong treatment for that cause. It makes it harder to explain a child who dies of pneumonia died because of not being vaccinated for measles.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/20/texas-measles-family-gaines-county-death/
I did not understand how anti-vaccination people could "be in denial," but your explanation clarifies the issues involved. Thank you.
Thanks. I should clarify it’s not the only way. For instance, our info silos lead people to follow personalities - religious, credentialed or others who provide a sense of belonging & knowing special info.
Repetition and reinforcement from those who are trusted is key for propaganda & hoaxes to be believed. Algorithms are made to do that.
(I confess to being a communication major among other things that taught me how to dissect manipulations / propaganda. I live in magaland)
What's sad to me is we live in an age when accurate information is at our fingertips, and yet trumpers prefer to be uneducated and prone to accepting conspiracy theories. And it started with trump's Big Lie that he actually won the 2020 election. Now these irrational people think elections are rigged and vaccines cause autism.
It's as if trump brought on a Dark Age Redux in America with 36% of Americans.
36% at its height after being re-elected (March). Down to 30% in NBC’s November report for its ongoing surveys. (No Kings went from nowhere to 43%.)
Stupid is as stupid does.
I am at the point where I just cannot read any more of this anti-VAX baloney coming from RFK Junior. We all know that vaccines have been one of the best preventions against disease, enabling the US population to increase lifespans. It is a travesty that one man has taken it upon himself to dismantle the research and evidence as well as protocols that protected the health of the human population.
So what are we going to do about it besides wring our hands?