Vaccination & epidemic

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Of course I would agree; of course!

But since the flu shot is one of the safest vaccines, it's much more likely to prevent you from injury/serious illness/death, so to describe it as "dangerous" is silly.

It's like - once in a while, somebody gets clocked by an automotive air bag... a handful of people have died, mostly children. Dangerous? Well they've saved about 10,000 lives, so you make the call.

The difference is, they acknowledge the danger and work to mitigate it--after airbags killed a few children, they started offering an airbag offswitch for the passenger seat, so the driver could make the call as to whether there was a child or an adult in the seat. The child-airbag death rate has gone down; they've made an effort.

In the case of vaccines, they've made no effort. They removed thimerosal from childhood vaccines only after Congress ordered them to do so. And they still recommend that same flu shot for pregnant women and babies; what if it's not one of the "safest" for that demographic? They'd never know, because even now they're only nominally looking into it. There happens to be a pandemic rise of not one but several diseases in children, mostly autoimmune. Exponentially more children have these debilitating diseases than ever died or were seriously injured by the diseases we're immunizing against.

Assessing relative risk is important. But they have to be willing to honestly assess it.

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The numbers are available. Regular flu: 100,000 hospitalizations per year, about 35,000 deaths per year.

How many of those were already severely sick with something else? How many of those were actually vaccinated against the flu, but ended up with a different strain anyway?

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

In the case of vaccines, they've made no effort. They removed thimerosal from childhood vaccines only after Congress ordered them to do so.

Incorrect. There's no evidence thimerosol is dangerous, but removing it can make vaccines more dangerous, because less effective preservatives are used.

And they still recommend that same flu shot for pregnant women and babies; what if it's not one of the "safest" for that demographic?

Not at all interested in "what if's". Prefer evidence.

Assessing relative risk is important. But they have to be willing to honestly assess it.

You have the intelligence, but not the education or background to determine if they do.

How many of those were already severely sick with something else? How many of those were actually vaccinated against the flu, but ended up with a different strain anyway?

Cut those numbers in half and we still have a good case. If you want to double or quadruple those numbers or more, tell people the flu vaccine will permanently fuck them up.

Oh, you did! Well aim high.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Cut those numbers in half and we still have a good case.

Tangental “style and tactics” note: it is really funny to watch someone else do that. I love the "cut my numbers in half and I still win!" routine.