Measles outbreak among vaccinated kids: how it that possible?

November 2, 2011 — xanthippa

Vaccination is an important weapon in our arsenal of weapons against infectious diseases, as I have written about before.

However, there is a very real problem with how our health officials are presenting vaccination.  It appears calculated to make people distrust the very tool they are touting!!!

After all, most people are not stupid:  we can tell when we are being told things that demonstrably are not true.  This includes oversimplifications to the poin of error:  we see the real-life results while the ‘experts’ are describing ideal ‘lab conditions’ outcomes…and the two are never the same.  (I’ll come back to this point later.)

I am convinced that the vast majority of anti-vaccination sentiment ‘out there’ is among people who have once  believed the health officials statements which touted the benefits of vaccinations, overstated its effectiveness and understated (or left out cmpletely) its risks.  There is no critic so hardened as one who was once a true believer and was proven wrong by real-life experience!

What do I mean?

If somebody sold you, say, suit of body armour and told you this armour can stop any bullet so that you will be safe wearing it anywhere in a combat zone – but omitted to tell you that the neck and joint areas of the suit are not actually armoured, you went out and got shot through the elbow, you might be annoyed.  Had you known, you would have behaved differently – guarded your unarmoured bits better…  But, having been told that the armour is impervious, you will not be as trusting when they try to sell you the next suit of armour…

There are two main things that health officials are not properly informing people about when it comes to vaccination:

  1. risk
  2. efficacy

Now that this is out of the way – it troubles me greatly to see how the latest ‘measles outbreak’ is being handled by the health officials and/or and mainstream media.

Background:

All school kids (with only very few conscientious objectors and health exceptions) are vaccinated against measles.  Yet, despite this, every few years, there are measles outbreaks.  What sets this one apart is how the story is being spun.

The first statistics that came out were that there were just under a hundred kids infected in the initial outbreak, but well over half of these kids were ‘properly vaccinated‘.  This seems to have baffled the health officials beyond belief – suggesting that these health officials are woefully unaware of the efficacy of vaccines…

Not only do vaccines have a surprisingly low rate of efficacy (some are below 20%), the ‘protection’ they confer on someone is not identical to the ‘protection’ that having the illness would.  This is a function of our immune system:  the sicker a germ makes it, the more dilligent it is about storing the antibodies against it – both in strenght and in length of time it ‘stores’ the antibodies for (hence the need for ‘booster shots’).  Since vaccinations only produce a very mild, immitation version of the disease, the body does not consider these antibodies ‘priority antibodies’ and will often drop them if it has too many other antibodies to worry about.

Therefore, we have consistently seen that may childhood illnesses like measles and chicken pox appear in teenagers or young adults, when they are much more dangerous illnesses than had they been suffered through in childhood.  This is what one would expect to see in a ‘properly’ vaccinated population!

It is similar to the not-often-mentioned fact that until very recently (when arrivals of people from the third world changed the situation), the only cases of polio were found in children vaccinated with the live vaccine and the grandparents who were looking after them.  No vaccination confers protection for more than 20-30 years – something our health officials also should be stressing.

But, back to our story:  since the initial news story, the outbreak has grown to over seven hundred.  Since the percentage on unvaccinated kids is small, it seems reasonable to presume that, as before. more than half of these students were also ‘properly’ vaccinated.

So, how do the health officials propose to deal with the outbreak?

MORE VACCINATION!!!

That is insane!

And irresponsible beyond belief!

Either the strain that is ravaging the teens has mutated from the original – which viruses do on a regular basis, in which case giving them the ‘standard’ vaccine would have no effect (there has not been sufficient time to adjust the vaccine), or there is a genetic pocket of people whose immune systems don’t respond to vaccination typically….in which case vaccinating them some more is both idiotic and dangerous.

Plus this creates the false impression that the problem is being contained, when all this activity will have no significant impact whatsoever.  People need to take personal precautions – yet the authorities are assuring them that they don’t need to since they have everything under control…

I know I am sounding like a broken record, but…

Vaccinations are an important tool for combatting infectious disease.  But, like all tools, it must be used properly and its limitations must be clearly stated and generally understood – and this is not happening right now.  Our health officials, through their attempt to manipulate us to all make the ‘right’ choice and misrepresenting the effectiveness of this tool are actually undermining people’s trust in it and feeding the anti-vaccination hysteria!

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Risks Associated with Vaccinations

November 2, 2011 — xanthippa

Every medical procedure has risk associated with it. EVERY ONE!!!

That is not to say that the risk is large:  getting a blood test, for example, is a very low risk medical procedure.  The benefit of learning from a bloodtest the information a doctor needs to treat a patient far outweighs the risk of getting an infection or something going wrong during or following a blood test for most people.  Yet, you might not want to perform daily blood tests on a patient with hemophilia…

The same is true for vaccination:  the danger of something going wrong is very, very low.  But it is there. 

In my experience, doctors and other health officials are likely to vastly understate these dangers: some because they truly believe that the risk is so small and the patient too dumb to make a right choice on their own, some undoubtedly do it because they actually get money for having vaccinated over a certain percentage of their patients.  Either way, doctors and medical officials rutinely mis-state the dangers associated with vaccines and manipulate people into ‘getting the shot’.

People pick up on being manipulated – and most dom’t like it…

Yes, most people are poor at risk assessment – but that does not give anyone the right to deny them the very information they need to make their own choice.  Part of being a grown up is making one’s own decisions – right or wrong!

There is a second part to my ‘risk’ rant:  another aspect of the risk associated with vaccination which medical and health officials are simply not giving the general public sufficient information they need to make an informed decision.  The fact remains that we know that some people are much more likely to have adverse reactions to vaccinations than the average person would.

Have you ever been told this?  Most doctors who are not immunologists whom I have spoken to about this are woefully undereducated and, in my never-humble-opinion, almost criminally ignorant about this.

People who have problems with their immune systems are much more likely to have a dangerous reaction to vaccinations (and it is less likely that vaccines will actually work on them).  Again, there are many factors to consider, so each person ought to do some independent research into this.  People who have immune system diseases (like lupus and so on) are the most likely to have very bad reactions to vaccinations.  Close behind them are people with immune system disorders:  asthma, serious allergies (peanuts, milk, eggs) and so on.

[Aside:  the theory of vaccination is that the ‘skin’ of viruses has a ‘fingerprint’ (made up from unique proteins in the bilipid wall of the skin of the virus).  Once our body identifies the germ, it tries to create all kinds of antibodies and tests to see if any will kill the pathogen (infection).  This trial-and-error method is slow and while it is going on, the germs multiply and make a person sicker.  Once an effective antibody is found, the body makes a lot of it and uses it to kill the germs.  Vaccination introduces dead or weakened pathogens into the body:  this causes the immune system to make antibodies against.  Then, the immune system ‘stores’ the antibody and whenever it encounters the germ again it can start to make lots of it right away, skipping the trian-and-error step.  This prevents the germ from multiplying before the body is ready to fight it, so that it is defeated before it can make the person ill.]

Since the potential of acquiring immunity through vaccination (based on healthy immune systems – not ones that don’t work right) is seriously decreased and the danger of an adverse, potentially life-threatening reaction to a vaccine is greatly increased in people with immune systems which do not function properly, these people need to be fully informed of all the specifics and decide on a vaccine by vaccine basis which course of action carries the least possible risk.

This, of course, is not a concern for people with healthy immune systems.

There are other risks associated with vaccination, which do affect everyone.  When multiple-pathogen vaccinations (such as the controversial MMR) are administered – or several single vaccinations are administered at the same time or very close in time to each other, there is some indication that the probability of an adverse immune system reaction is increased.  However, I am not as knowledgable about these risk factors as about the risks associated with vaccination in people who are immunocompromised, so I am not comfortable saying more than that this has been identified as a risk factor.

Yes, there are risk factors associated with vaccinations.  My post is nowhere near exhaustive – it just hits the highlights.  Despite all of these, vaccinations are an important tool to keep infectious diseases under control.

Information is power.  It is my deep conviction that if doctors and health officials gave people accurate information about both the benefits and the risks of vaccination, people would make more informed choices.  Because they would be aware of the true (however small) risks, many of the hysterical reactions to vaccinations would be minimized, if not eliminated altogether.

Posted in human nature, politics, science, society, technology. Tags: , , . 1 Comment »

‘Occupy Phoenix with AR-15’s’

October 28, 2011 — xanthippa

If only more of the #occupy folks were like this…

With the Harper Conservatives poised to scrap the long-gun registry, this is a timely message:  freedom of speech can only be exercised as long as we have the means to defend ourselves from any government that would usurp onto themselves the power to muzzle us.

Our right to be armed at all times, in all places, is essential for us to retain the most core of our innate and unalienable rights, the very cornerstone of our society:  the freedom of speech!

(And, yes, I AM one of the proponents of the idea that ALL teachers ought to be required by law to be fully gun-certified and armed at all times while we entrust our children to their care:  it is of little consolation that the best 9-1-1 response times to schools are at under 10 minutes….a lot of kids can be shot by an intruder in 10 minutes!  If we entrust our children to their care, each teacher  MUST be personally responsible for their protection – even from an armed attack.)

The government’s right to possess and use arms derives from us, the citizens:  we may, if we choose to, confer upon the government the right to carry arms and, as our proxy, use violence in our defense as we, the citizens, have the responsibility to.  This does not, in any way, abrogate our right – or diminish our responsibility – to do so ourselves at all times.

Any attempt at arms regulation – and I DO mean ANY regulation – by the governmenonly weakens the government’s own power to arm its agents and use violence on out behalf!

As someone somewhere put it:

Armed, we are citizens.

Disarmed, we are subjects!

Video H/T:  CodeSlinger

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Daniel Hannan: As Rome Fell, So Will Europe

October 26, 2011 — xanthippa
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Thoughts about ‘Anonymous’ and the #occupy protests

October 21, 2011 — xanthippa

Why is ‘Anonymous’ so much on my ‘radar’ now?

Couple of reasons…

They are, well, enigmatic…  When a big company picks on little guys – and this appears on their radar – they kick but.  Their aims are altruistic – perhaps idealistic – at least for now.  And they are big-time fans of freedom of speech!

They are techies who are kicking some slick behinds – you have GOT to love that!  (OK, I am indulging in a bit of tribalism here – even if the ‘tribe’ is diffuse and I don’t know them personally. I suspect that most of the people behind Anonymous are Aspies or have strong Aspie tendencies:  they are, after all, techies.  And I like to think that I am rather good at playing ‘spot the Aspie’.  The rules they pick and the way they adhere to them:  very Aspie-like…)

We are still full of the #occupy news….and Anonymous was there first.  No, I don’t think that the majority of people who are there now are in any way connected to Anonymous, but, please, consider the following:

  • before anything happened, Anonymous announced the protests and said to look for them there, on Wall St.
  • when the occupation of Wall St. first started, there was an almost complete news blackout on it
  • Anonymous had hacked into some local CCTV cameras and streamed the signal – that was, at the very beginning, the ONLY coverage of the event
  • then, as time went on, the professional protesters and their media henchmen began to trickle in…and Anonymous disappeared from the picture…
  • now, the protests are creatures of the professional protesters and the big money behind them – including semi-official backing by the US President and his minions, with absolutely no role played by Anonymous (that I can discern)

It is not a coincidence that the vast majority of the people protesting in the #occupy movement have no idea what they want to accomplish with this protest:  it is not a ‘regular’ protest of the sort where people want to accomplish a specific goal, analyze the approaches to achieving this goal and then choose protesting as their tool.  Rather, I suspect, this may have been a bit of an experiment…

…an experiment to see IF Anonymous can harness the power of the professional protest organizers when they need to – and to get an idea of how it would play out.

…an experiment to see how ‘neurotypicals’ (non-techies/non-Aspies) would react and behave, to gage their intelligence, initiative and individuality – or lack thereof in this type of a situation.  How soon and how deeply would ‘mob mentallity’ set in?

…an experiment to see whether ‘if we build it, they will come’ would work with protests.

Recently, when an Islamist group doc-dropped/outed Thunderf00t and his family members and threatened them by urging ‘all Muslims to do their duty’ because he dares to criticize Islam (he criticizes all irrational belief systems – systematically and effectively), Thunderf00t dropped the name of Anonymous as his protectors….and potential avengers!

Which got me thinking:  this is not the first time Thunderf00t has talked about Anonymous in his videos.  So, I went back and looked through his earliest material.  Here it is:

Interesting, is it not?

But there is more here, here, here, here (note the Guy Fawkes mask in the background) and here.

Not just in what Thunderf00t says – and how he says it, but also in how fascinated Anonymous is by Scientology.  Remember how, a few years back, they tried to build some sort of a movement against that cult?  I wonder if this is an indication of their fascination in how brainwashed neurotypical behave in groups … or the source of this fascination.

Don’t get me wrong – I do not think Anonymous has bad intentions.  I rather suspect that they are attempting to figure out how to help neurotypicals help themselves from self-imposed servitude (if this was not a full fledged attempt of its own to get them to help themselves).

But experiments/projects can go wrong – and more people than just Anonymous are keenly watching this and taking notes.

Posted in Aspergers, freedoms, human nature, society, technology. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . 14 Comments »

Collectivism/Anarcho-Communism

October 20, 2011 — xanthippa

The very first step in learning about someone’s life-philosophy/belief system is to listen to what they say.  The second step is to listen to what those ‘close’ to them who disagree with them have to say…

All these #occupy movements seem to have a distinct anarcho-communist undertones…even if, at times, only partially matured.

This has sent me digging around for what do other anarchists think of them:

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Donna Laframboise: a book is born

October 19, 2011 — xanthippa

Donna Laframboise is the corageous Canadian journalist who has taken on the ACC/Global Warmmongers.

She is the one who conducted the IPCC audit (in which your never-humble correspondant participated) which clearly demonstrated that the IPCC did not use ‘peer-reviewed scientific publications’ as the sources of information on which it drew to created its reports.

Her new book is out!!!

(Check out the free preview – it is 7 chapters long!)

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Chivalry is well and alive in Ottawa

October 17, 2011 — xanthippa

At the beginning of September, my friend was hit by a truck while she was riding on her motorcycle.  Both of her legs were broken, one of them very badly, requiring surgery.  As she cannot drive, I have been coming with her to her medical appointments.

Today, we were going to the Ottawa hospital to decide if she needs another skin graft.  Usually, by mid-morning, all the hospital parking lots are full.  As one of these was closed for re-paving, the parking situation was much worse than usual.  It took a while, but I did find a spot about 4 blocks from the hospital.

After the appointment (which went well – she is healing faster than expected), we were returning to the car:  she held my purse as I pushed her wheelchair, making jokes about pushing her around…   It would have been a very enjoyable walk/roll, had cold drizzle not began to fall on us a block into out stroll.  I wanted to return her to the hospital and fetch the car myself, but she would have none of it.  I may push my friends around every now and then, but always in the direction they want!

My friend has a very excellent sense of humour.  You know that proverbial line that people don’t cross?  She thinks it is the ‘start’ line!  Put that together with my superior punning skills and even cold rain cannot dampen our spirits.

There we were: I, limping down the street pushing my bff in her wheelchair (both legs in cast-type-thingies), cracking jokes as we are being drenched by freezing drizzle…

As we were crossing the street, we noticed a charming gentleman looking at us:  he had that puzzled expression on his face that I have often noticed in people who are wondering if they should speak to strangers or not…like, as if they think they might know them from somewhere but aren’t sure and can’t make up their minds whether or not to speak their thoughts aloud.

Then he did something very simple yet noble.

He offered to give us his umberella!

This stranger empathized with us and, even though he was going in a direction opposite to ours, he offered to shelter us from the cold rain, simply for the reward of doing something good for other human beings.  (At this point, we were mere meters from our parking spot, so it was a mute point – but he did not know that!)

Random acts of kindness like this restore my faith in the human race.

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BlazingCatFur: the one sane man in ‘occupy Toronto’ protest

October 15, 2011 — xanthippa

Plus – he has a loudspeaker!

And HE IS RIGHT!!

Posted in human nature, politics. Tags: . 3 Comments »

Pat Condell: The great Palestinian lie

October 6, 2011 — xanthippa

I have, for a time, lived in a UN refugee camp – as a refugee.  While the physical needs of the refugees are provided for – and I am very, very grateful for that – the UN refugee camps are not designed for a person to be a contributing member of the human race.

Not at all.

They are a place to seek physical shelter from persecution or hardships – a transit point along one’s journey.  They are resting place, not a place of permanent settlement.  Just a safe rest stop that lets you, the refugee, make arrangements for a productive life elsewhere without worrying about your immediate physical needs.

We, humans, form communities:  our social bonds are forged in the back and forth of giving and taking, helping and receiving help.  To be a balanced human being, we need to both give and receive.  We cannot function properly only giving or only receiving.

My family lived in the UN refugee camp for only 5 months, but even during that short time, I have noted that most adults (especially the men) had begun to undergo some serious identity crises.  Being a dependant – and idle – gnawed at them, even though they knew it was a temporary situation until some country checks through their background and decides to accept them as immigrants.

Yet, the UN refugee camps are now seeing the third or fourth generation of Palestinian refugees!

The Palestinian leadership and the agencies which profit from the Palestinian refugee situation are conspiring together to keep the Palestinian people in these camps and dependant on them.  For what?  A power rush?  Shame on them!

Posted in human nature, immigrants, politics, society. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »
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