Something that gets me steaming is the current fashion opposing the vaccination of children. Some perspective:
Even if the myth [that vaccines cause autism] were true, not vaccinating your children would be a poor solution.
It has been such a long time since we’ve had to deal with polio and smallpox, that people have forgotten just how scary they were. In 1952, at the height of the polio epidemics, around 14 out of 100,000 of every Americans had paralytic polio. 300-500 million people died of smallpox in the 20th century. Add in hepatitis A, hepatitis B, mumps, measles, rubella, diptheria, pertussis, tetanus, HiB, chicken pox, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, pneumonia and the flu, and no wonder experts estimate that “fully vaccinating all U. S. children born in a given year from birth to adolescence saves an estimated 33,000 lives and prevents an estimated 14 million infections.”
There may indeed be dangers with vaccinations. But the dangers of not vaccinating far, far outweigh them.
It’s amazing what a lack of historical perspective these antivaccinationists have.
A website you might find interesting is a MD/PhD who blogs about “woo” in all its forms.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/
Thank you. Try explaining that in 5 minutes to a parent whose alternative practicioner has told them vaccines are evil; they don’t want anything foreign in THEIR body thanks very much.