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Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

nature.com

11–20 of 105 posts

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#11

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

Maybe this is too off topic for here but I have always wondered why people are so angry at Anti-Vaxx people? Yes... the compromise our Herd Immunity, but don't they also serve as a "Canary in The Coal Mine", risking their own health so that the human genome can keep battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?

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Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#12

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

Maybe this is too off topic for here but I have always wondered why people are so angry at Anti-Vaxx people? Yes... the compromise our Herd Immunity, but don't they also serve as a "Canary in The Coal Mine", risking their own health so that the human genome can keep battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?

My mom is currently going through chemo for cancer. Her immune system is essentially zero despite being fully vaccinated.

You bet I get angry: anti-vaxx people are trying to kill my mom and there is nothing I can do about it.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#13

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

I'm involved in a study of vaccinations. One good thing I'm seeing is that many peds clinics, if you are a pure, down the line anti-vaxxer, will politely ask you to choose another provider.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#14

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

Maybe this is too off topic for here but I have always wondered why people are so angry at Anti-Vaxx people? Yes... the compromise our Herd Immunity, but don't they also serve as a "Canary in The Coal Mine", risking their own health so that the human genome can keep battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?

They don't just endanger their own health, they endanger us all. Some people can be carriers but not be symptomatic for a pathogen, so they can be walking around spreading a disease like measles but not even know it. With high herd immunity this is not much of a problem because almost all of the people with whom they come into contact will be vaccinated and not catch the disease before the carrier's body eventually fights it off, but with low herd immunity they become a major problem.

If humanity has not evolved a natural defense to these diseases after thousands of years it is not going to happen by some anti-vaxer volunteering to be an evolutionary petri dish. Actually, now that I think of it, humanity has already evolved a defense against these diseases -- by evolving a big brain it figured out how to develop vaccines...

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#16

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

Maybe this is too off topic for here but I have always wondered why people are so angry at Anti-Vaxx people? Yes... the compromise our Herd Immunity, but don't they also serve as a "Canary in The Coal Mine", risking their own health so that the human genome can keep battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?

  risking their own health so that the human genome can keep
  battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?
Diseases evolve orders of magnitude faster than humans. Giving ourselves a chance to evolve also gives the disease a chance to respond and they will always find ways around our defenses faster than we find defenses. Remember, the usual result of failing to complete a course of antibiotics is a new strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Leaving a reservoir of a disease that we have a vaccine for is far, far more likely to result in a new strain of that disease that can bypass the vaccine.

Additionally... what's the point? Any disease that has a voluntarily unvaccinated population also necessarily has an effective vaccine. The development of a effective vaccine equally necessarily indicates that developing vaccines is easier, faster, and better than attempting to evolve defenses. Why try to go back to evolution at all? The existing vaccine works. If it stops working, make a new one. No need for these ad-hoc primitivist schemes.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#18

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

They'll double down and blame the government for the ensuing deaths.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is too off topic for here but I have always wondered why people are so angry at Anti-Vaxx people? Yes... the compromise our Herd Immunity, but don't they also serve as a "Canary in The Coal Mine", risking their own health so that the human genome can keep battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?

My mom is currently going through chemo for cancer. Her immune system is essentially zero despite being fully vaccinated. You bet I get angry: anti-vaxx people are trying to kill my mom and there is nothing I can do about it.

They're not trying to kill your mom. That may be the effect, but it's not the intent. They're trying to have their kids not be autistic. (You can claim that the evidence doesn't support that as a possibility. But it's still what their intent is.)

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#20

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

I'm involved in a study of vaccinations. One good thing I'm seeing is that many peds clinics, if you are a pure, down the line anti-vaxxer, will politely ask you to choose another provider.

How does this go, usually? They ask you to choose someone else then decline future appointments?

Have you seen anything similar for urgent-care clinics?

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