Monday, February 09, 2009

On Vaccines, Liars and Ranting (3)

Last on this, promise.

On the idea that multivacc overload the immune system. Why doesn't DTP cause problems then? This 3 shot has been around for ages, and in fact, as well as diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus now contains haemophilus influenza b (last time you saw epiglottitis, anyone? anyone? Bueller?) and polio. That's right: 5! And kids aren't exploding with immune catastrophe. They also get meningitis c and pneumococcus in short order too, and seem to get by quite well...

Also, some people resent the idea that vaccines contain 'foreign' material. So what? We stick foreign material in ourselves all the time, and are often none the worse for it. Natural products are not necessarily safer, and it is fallacy to suggest that they are. I remember being accosted by some animal rights protesters when I was collecting for a cancer research charity. They suggested I must have been driven mad by eating too much beef - at the height of the BSE scare. We need to get over the slightly irrsational fear of things that seem un-natural to us. I don't care if my vaccine is steeped in monkey kidney extract, or my botulinum anti-toxin is extracted from horse piss, as long as it works.

//Rant over

2 comments:

Nurse Sandra May said...

As ive been giving childhood vaccinations this week, this was a story that interested me a lot when i read it over at crippens. So angry was I at his woman over at LBC, i attempted to email my mentor the transcript so she could be pissed off too!

People do come in and are worried about the MMR, and we do a good job of convincing them it is safe.

What part of "there is no link with autism" is hard to understand?

Anonymous said...

Vaccines became part of my life as a child. I understand how it feels when a child undergoes a vaccination session.

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