As a coda to the story, the grandmother in question is exceptionally cool, although I never got to meet her, and I will use this opportunity to re-post this.
I have scoliosis. Does that mean by polio vaccine didn't work?
No, but your scoliosis vaccine definitely failed.
I didn't even know there were mild cases of polio.
I didn't even know there were mild cases of polio.
4: Easily the most kinship I've ever had with someone I never knew.
It's too bad she lived before blogs.
It's too bad she lived before blogs.
8: The sense of humor certainly seemed familiar.
I doubt we'll see waning of the antivax movement before the majority of the country has mandatory school vaccinations on the Californian model. (Necessary; not sufficient.) That significantly reduces the incoming supply of parents who didn't vaccinate in the past for any number of reasons and can be activated into the movement later.
Possibly also improvement needed in the culture of parents-of-kids-with-autism supporting each other.
Polio is mostly asymptomatic or with flu like symptoms. It's one of the reasons it is very hard to eradicate polio. For every paralyzed child there can be 200 people that are infected and excreting polio virus that are missed by surveillance.
I think this falls into the random-bad-actor category
Only if you set aside that most of the examples in the linked article are all financially motivated on the part of the doctors.
15: That's probably why they screen for scoliosis.
Either that or someone really enjoys looking at the backs of adolescents.
I have wondered how many people who became anti-vaxxers were in fact ambivalent about vaccines but life happened and they found themselves way overdue. Faced with a choice between "I'm a bad parent" and "Wow vaccines are dangerous, I did the right thing" I can see how some people could be swayed down the path of least guilt, as it were - especially with vocal anti-vaxx people showing up all over the place.
That's how kids grow up to be Eagles fans.
19: Exactly! I mean, I don't know, but that's a plausible avenue. Especially given it's likely easier now to radicalize online via looking for information.
I have wondered how many people who became anti-vaxxers were in fact ambivalent about vaccines but life happened and they found themselves way overdue.
Medical personnel are pretty good about ensuring that you don't accidentally go down this way. Vaccines happen while you're still at the hospital, and at your very early well-visits with your baby. Public schools and daycares require being up-to-date on your shots. Not having your kids vaccinated is the proactive stance - the passive stance is to get vaccinated.
Incidentally, all four of our kids are receiving free flu shots at school today. Someone somewhere is making good decisions.
The polio vaccine was invented just down the street from me. There's a plaque.
Public schools and daycares require being up-to-date on your shots.
Generally, yes but there seem to be a lot of cracks to slip through. The majority of nonvaccinated kids in California before the current law were not for medical or personal belief reasons but because the schools weren't doing a thorough enough job with the people who were happy to have their kids vaccinated. When you're trying to get from 90% to 98%, you need to be very thorough.
22: fair enough. I'm probably thinking about people who stay out of the system a bit anyway. I've known parents who went with a duola and then no daycare, for example. That population is probably prepped already for a bit of anti-authority thinking, but not necessarily anti-vaxx. On the other hand, i recall reading somewhere anti-vaxx sentiment is championed by a bunch of UMC white families, so.
https://qz.com/africa/1711485/measles-is-killing-more-people-in-dr-congo-than-ebola/
but because the schools weren't doing a thorough enough job with the people who were happy to have their kids vaccinated.
I guess I have no idea how firm the follow through is here. We are always told that the vaccinations form is mandatory, and so we supply it, and it's just now dawning on me that of course tons of parents don't respond to the request for documentation.
28: I've had access to some internal data on this sort of thing (not precisely vaccine programs) and it is fascinating to see how "the public" actually behaves en masse.
People are people, so why should it be,
You and I return forms so lawfully?
31: Surprisingly high numbers of non-compliance with relatively simple things that you would think unobjectionable. Surprisingly high numbers of people who don't get communications through some mix of - don't seem to check their mail, don't keep records up to date when moving or changing phones, don't trust any government entity, etc. Teasing those last ones apart is hard from the data, obviously.
That's why Burger King has to be so careful about employees washing their hands before returning to work.
I have to admit that it never occurred to me that I could fail to submit the vaccination form without having by kid kicked out of school.
Maybe matches still work if you don't close the cover before striking?
1 is, still, wonderful. I love her voice.
good point. what else are robots and fume hoods for, if not this?
Similar to 32: the large number of people who fall of the Medicaid rolls at the end of a year. It's near-comprehensive health insurance with zero premiums or copays, almost nobody doesn't want it, but it's cumbersome enough in time and documentation - and low-income people change addresses and phone numbers enough - that huge numbers eligible people end up losing it without any intention of doing so.
29-32: Shit, now that you mention it, we might be in violation about the school policy about dental exams. Atossa had her dentist appointment on schedule, in mid or late September, I just forgot to bring the form for someone there to fill out. The school asked for this in the initial registration period and has reminded us once, I think. Not sure if they're going to ask again or what happens if we ignore it again.
Aren't eyes supposed to be not red?
We have a central registry now. All of the providers are supposed to document either in an EHR or manuallly in the state's system that a vaccine has been administered. So a drugstore flu vaccine should be viewable by the primary care doctor.
If you really want to practice medicine deceptively to increase profits, epilepsy does not seem like a good area to get into. On both moral and practical grounds.
You should probably try what the Enzyte people did and go for fake penis enlargement.
When is the anti-vaxxing movement going to lose its steam? Has it already?
I would appreciate actual numbers on that if anyone has.
I haven't seen anything that would make me optimistic on that count.
I used to have the energy, or the sheer stubborn stupidity, I guess, to argue with anti-vaxxers on the internet (I belonged to an online group of alterna-mums, and I really cared, and I truly believed that it was possible to win hearts and minds through a reasoned appeal to the evidence. Ha! Silly me, and I was so naive...). Might as well argue with Cotton Mather about the existence of witches, is what I learned.
My position now: mandatory vaccinations, paid for by a public health initiative, and with almost no wriggle room for exceptions.
Not evidence about a declining antivax movement, but evidence that the right laws can do a lot over the movement's kicking and screaming.
14-15 school year: 90.4% of CA kindergarteners had all required immunizations
January 2016: SB277 takes effect
15-16: 92.9%
16-17: 95.6%
17-18: 95.1%
18-19: 94.8%