Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#2I'm surprised antivaccine people read books. You think they would've noticed the mountains of evidence against them.
Oh wait, it is an emotional argument, not a rational, I'll step aside while you blame others for the failure of your own children.
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#3This is one of the reasons I love game theory. So, if no one gets vaccinated, lots of people die preventable deaths. If everyone is vaccinated except me (or my child in this case), no one will die because there are no carriers. So, in the face of the vast majority being vaccinated and wild claims about autism (I agree with the author), parents decide "well, my child has no chance of getting one of these diseases if all their classmates are vaccinated and I've been reading trumped up news reports that make me scared so i'll just not have my kid vaccinated!"
The problem becomes that there's a tipping point. If 5% aren't vaccinated, that's a lot of potential carriers. Then it becomes a fight of "i don't want my child vaccinated, but i want your child vaccinated to protect my child." It's not hard to imagine parents of immunized children then saying, "well, screw you trying to get us immunized while not taking the risk for your kid!"
Ah, the rights of the individual and the rights of the society! It's really fun to think about.
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#4This is one of the reasons I love game theory. So, if no one gets vaccinated, lots of people die preventable deaths. If everyone is vaccinated except me (or my child in this case), no one will die because there are no carriers. So, in the face of the vast majority being vaccinated and wild claims about autism (I agree with the author), parents decide "well, my child has no chance of getting one of these diseases if a…
>"...and I've been reading trumped up news reports that make me scared so i'll just not have my kid vaccinated!"
That's a fairly biased representation of those parents' viewpoint, isn't it?
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#5Isn't there a way to settle this discussion scientifically?
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#6This got me thinking. I am otherwise normally in favor of health care for everybody, but that would also mean health care for those who chose not to get vaccinated because of their own or their parents' beliefs. That would mean that when they get sick it's the public that has the further burden of supporting them.
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#7This is one of the reasons I love game theory. So, if no one gets vaccinated, lots of people die preventable deaths. If everyone is vaccinated except me (or my child in this case), no one will die because there are no carriers. So, in the face of the vast majority being vaccinated and wild claims about autism (I agree with the author), parents decide "well, my child has no chance of getting one of these diseases if a…
>"...and I've been reading trumped up news reports that make me scared so i'll just not have my kid vaccinated!" That's a fairly biased representation of those parents' viewpoint, isn't it?
Totally! I mean, whether that's the reason why or because they have some secret knowledge, the game scenario is the same (and I'm way more interested in that). If you're in that camp, I meant no offense and I'm sorry if I offended you. Mostly, I like to make fictional people sound funny whether I agree with them or not because it makes the harsh reality that can be life more fun.
No one would claim that vaccination = autism. It's more like 0.001 * vaccination = autism if you're in that camp (1 in 1,000 times vaccination causes autism for those that might not understand my quasi-programmer speak).
For a lot of things in life, belief and reality are the same thing. Whether or not vaccinations cause autism, the belief that some have that it does cause autism alters behavior. Whether or not the economy is going to crash, if everyone believes it will and stops spending so they have money when it does crash will cause it to happen (since if everyone stops spending money, very soon businesses will have no money coming in). There is reality, but from a game theory perspective it often doesn't matter since people's behavior will be altered by perception of reality probably as much as by reality.
So, let's say it's real that vaccines cause autism in 1 out of 1,000 cases. If everyone looks at that and says, "no way my kid's getting vaccinated," we have a huge public health problem. On the other hand, if most submit to the social good, there will be large resentment of those who don't and are relying on the vaccination of others not to become infected.
We're not anywhere near the levels where it becomes a big issue in society, but if more parents go down this road there might be more heat to force them not to (for the public good). I'm not saying that's good or bad. Morality is better left to people better than me. I'm just saying it'd be interesting (I guess in the way a car wreck is interesting) to see how it played out socially.
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#8Isn't there a way to settle this discussion scientifically?
Yes, it more or less has been settled. I have not heard of a reputable study showing that vaccines cause autism. The problem is that if you try hard enough you can stretch/fake/politicize scientific results to show just about anything. There is at least some causal link between giving the vaccines and autism (there has been a large rise in autism cases that coincide with the usage of certain vaccines).
Since no one can explain why the incidents of autism are increasing so rapidly there's a ton of crackpot theories which desperate parent's latch on to.
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#9Isn't there a way to settle this discussion scientifically?
That's the whole problem: it has.
But like so many things, the facts don't matter to some people.
The next time someone tells you that, like, science and knowledge is, lik, just your opinion, man, keep in mind that sort of willful ignorance is far from harmless and can be quite damaging.
Re: Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade
#10I'm surprised antivaccine people read books. You think they would've noticed the mountains of evidence against them.
Oh wait, it is an emotional argument, not a rational, I'll step aside while you blame others for the failure of your own children.