If You Care About Science, This Court Decision Should Horrify You. Vaccines save lives – millions of them, in fact. If you disagree, then you can go in a specially designed box along with climate change deniers, astrologers, and flat-earthers which, when full, will be promptly launched into the sea. Right. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at a concerning ruling that’s come out of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently. A French man went to court after developing multiple sclerosis (MS), a lifelong autoimmune condition wherein your white blood cells attack a biological sheath covering your brain and spinal cord. W received his course of inoculations between 1998 and 1999. Remarkably, at a regional court in France, W won his case. There are multiple factors that appear to cause MS – including genetics, a lack of sunlight, heavy smoking, and associated viral infections – and in W’s case, he had not demonstrated any biological link between the vaccine and his illness.
Spain Has First Case Of Diphtheria In 28 Years Thanks To Anti-Vaxxers. A six-year-old boy who had not been vaccinated is Spain’s first case of diphtheria in 28 years. The young boy, from the Catalan city of Olot, is reportedly very ill and is being treated with antitoxin. The parents, who had chosen not to vaccinate their child, are “devastated” and have now had their younger daughter immunized as a result.
Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that spreads through coughing or sneezing, according to the World Health Organization. Once infected, sufferers can experience a sore throat, fever and swollen glands in the neck. “The family is devastated and admit that they feel tricked, because they were not properly informed,” Catalan public health chief Antoni Mateu told El País. The child remains in critical condition in Vall d’Hebron hospital’s intensive care unit, but is responding to treatment.
“Vaccination is the best way to prevent diphtheria,” the WHO said in their report. Read this next: Engineered Viruses Could Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. Behance. Dear parents, you are being lied to. Note: The content of this article was written by Dr. Jennifer Raff for her blog, Violent Metaphors. It is being rehosted here with permission. You can click on the above hyperlink to view the original and engage in the lively discussion in the comments section. In light of recent outbreaks of measles and other vaccine preventable illnesses, and the refusal of anti-vaccination advocates to acknowledge the problem, I thought it was past time for this post.
Dear parents, You are being lied to. They say that measles isn’t a deadly disease. They say that chickenpox isn’t that big of a deal. They say that the flu isn’t dangerous. They say that whooping cough isn’t so bad for kids to get. They say that vaccines aren’t that effective at preventing disease. They say that “natural infection” is better than vaccination.
They say that vaccines haven’t been rigorously tested for safety. They will say that doctors won’t admit there are any side effects to vaccines. Why are they lying to you? Vaccination Rates In Elite Los Angeles Schools Now Worse Than In Southern Sudan. Oh, rich people. Do they ever stop doing zany things? Unfortunately, there’s a new fad among America’s most wealthy that isn’t quite as laughable. During recent years, the richest people in Los Angeles have not been vaccinating their children. Gary Baum of The Hollywood Reporter has investigated childhood illness and vaccination rates around Los Angeles County. He discovered that some schools in the most affluent L.A neighborhoods have vaccination rates lower than Southern Sudan. Let that sink in for a minute; one of the poorest regions in the world that is unable to supply clean drinking water for half of its inhabitants has a greater vaccination rate than schools that educate the offspring of Hollywood’s elite.
Vaccination records must be submitted to schools at the time of a child’s enrollment. California had an outbreak of whooping cough earlier this year that reached epidemic proportions, resulting in the death of three infants. Of course, not everyone can be vaccinated. One map sums up the damage caused by the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccinations are one of the of most incredible aspects of modern medicine. They can make previously lethal diseases disappear from society and save countless lives. There is, however, a chance that the vaccines work a little too well and our collective memory is too short to remember the devastating effects some of these diseases caused just a few short decades ago. Recently, for reasons that are not based on science or logic, many parents have outspokenly rejected vaccinating their children.
Unfortunately, this has caused a reemergence of easily managed diseases. The Council on Foreign Relations has released an interactive map detailing the catastrophic outcome of these poor choices. The interactive map gives a gut-wrenching tour of global outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and whooping cough from 2008-2014. Update (10/24/2014): CFR's map has now been updated to document attacks on health care workers, which have been increasing in recent years.
But how did it all begin? Anti Vaxxers Lose New York Court Battle. Three families in New York claimed that their right to free exercise of religion was violated when their unimmunized kids were barred from school because of the state’s vaccination practices. Their case was brought before the Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
They lost. According to New York state law, children must be vaccinated before attending school. There are exemptions: if immunization is detrimental to the child’s health or if the guardian holds “genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary.” Supporting documentation is required, and in the latter case, the school can decide to reject the request. However, in the event of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease -- we’re talking diphtheria, polio, measles, mumps, rubella -- in a school, city officials may exclude the attendance of unimmunized students, regardless of whether they’re in the process of being vaccinated or if they’re exempt.
So, that brings us back to Phillips v.