67 Comments - Stu - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:01 pm: “Officials say at this time they don’t know the source of the infection.” I’d be willing to bet ‘ignorance’. - Demoralized - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:03 pm: Unless you have a medical reason that your kids can’t be vaccinated I think you should be found guilty of child abuse for not doing so. Vaccinate your damn kids. - PMcP - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:03 pm: Stu for the win… - Reality Check - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:04 pm: Thankful for the union-represented, experienced, educated, fairly compensated public health workers protecting us all. - LizPhairTax - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:07 pm: “If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick.” We became complacent. We tolerated foolishness. Herd immunity is gone. It was all preventable. Idiots. - Anotheretiree - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:09 pm: Oh no!….time for the crazies to come out. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:12 pm: Usually anti-government paranoids are nice enough to limit their activities to wearing funny hats and searching for the real birth certificate or conversely subjecting us to rants about GMOs. Unfortunately when it comes to vaccinations, they have crossed a line. Time for DCFS to get involved. - truthteller - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:12 pm: This wouldn’t happen if we lowered taxes and got rid of government regulation - Anotheretiree - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:21 pm: Echo Liz’s complacency comment. I read that in 1954, 430,000 kids were volunteered to take the expiremental Salk vaccine because thier parents were so desperate to avoid Polio. They wouldn’t understand the anti vaccers. Neither do I. - Happy in Public Health - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:21 pm: Glad to have CapFax as a source of info….otherwise we’d never have known! - RonOglesby - Now in Texas - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:23 pm: Actually Gooner, Its not always a bunch of right wing anti-gov folks… You should research where the biggest lots of non-vaccinated kids are located. Not exactly hot-beds of right wing anti-gov sentiment. - ChrisB - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:26 pm: My kid turns one today. He hasn’t had the chance to get his vaccines yet. This stuff terrifies me. He does have a doctors appointment next week, where he will most certainly get an MMR shot. I have a Great Uncle who was crippled by polio when he was a kid. I don’t understand why anyone would wish that upon their kid. I guess the silver lining is that this outbreak is creating a lot of ex-antivaxxers. I read somewhere there was a large uptick in calls to pediatricians to get the shots now. - Johnnie F. - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:26 pm: @Reality Check….you’re welcome! - Joe Bidenopolous - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:26 pm: Let’s admit what we know - it’s people on the extremes on both sides, super-libs, and ultra-keep-gummint-outta-my-business types. Further proof that extremism is detrimental to a functioning society. I’m not a doc, but aren’t kids under 1, even if they’ve been vaccinated to that point, not fully immune yet because it takes a series for the immunity to take hold? They’re the real victims if so. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:27 pm: Morn, read my post again. I also mentioned the liberal anti GMO freaks. That being said, polls do show lower numbers among conservatives and trends of liberals becoming more pro vac and conservatives trending the other way. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:30 pm: By the way, Billy Kelly was blaming this on immigrants yesterday. Turns out the vaccination rate in Mexico is higher than in the U.S. (95 in Mexico, 92 here). So Billy’s argument falls flat. Again. - A guy - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:35 pm: “includes five children under age 1″ Scariest damn line in the whole story. I just don’t get this. There’s a vaccination. It’s not new. So frustrating. And serious. - Old Shepherd - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:36 pm: What would the reaction be if this was ebola rather than measles, and there was a vaccination available to stop its spread? There’s been a whole lot more people die from measles in the U.S. than ebola. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:43 pm: Yesterday when I mentioned that political leaders from both political parties were talking out both sides of their mouth on this issue, it seemed to be news to some of my friends here on CapFax who must get their news from PBS, NBC, or who knows. I don’t know how they could have missed these quotes from their own political leaders. So - now that this has been brought up again. I decided to cut and paste quotes to show that this issue is a bipartisan problem. Barack Obama on Vaccinations: “Would you support a federal right for families and individuals to choose for themselves which vaccines they will use?” “I support screening for a wide variety of diseases and disorders,” Obama replied. “I believe that every American has the right to access these screenings, and I believe that every American has the right also to refuse these screenings voluntarily if they so choose. I also support a thorough and independent review of our nation’s vaccination policies.” - 2008, The Daily Caller “We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate,” Obama said. “Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. … The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it.” - 2008, The Daily Caller ______________________________________________ Hillary Clinton on Vaccinations Would you support a large-scale federal study of the differences in health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups? “Yes. We don’t know what, if any, kind of link there is between vaccines and autism – but we should find out. The lack of research on treatments, interventions, and services for children and adults with autism is a major impediment to the development of delivery of quality care.” - 2008, The Daily Caller _______________________________________________ Bill Maher - “I don’t believe in vaccination.” - 2005 “If you don’t believe me look on the CDC website as to what is in the swine flu vaccine,” he said. “Aluminum, insect repellent, formaldehyde, mercury.” I’m not crazy.” - 2009 _______________________________________________ Although science clearly exposed that the study linking autism to vaccinations was wrong, there was still a drive as recently as last year claiming that the mercury used in some vaccines caused autism. John F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote a book you can buy today on Amazon about the link between certain vaccines and autism. Kennedy appeared on “The Daily Show” and made these claims. John Stewart didn’t contest those claims! It seems that the Anti-Vaxxers through their concerns over the link between vaccines and autism claim they found a mercury-based ingredient in vaccines and found a very receptive group of Democrats and Republican on Capitol Hill to listen to their claims. So we have politicians from both political parties on record, on tape, on video make the similar claims - yet, we it seems that it has become mostly an issue, for Republicans? Its tiresome. A POX on both houses and especially on a media obsessed with spinning a tired old story about a political party being anti-science. They can’t even get facts straight anymore. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:49 pm: Vanilla , The problem is that your quotes go back seven years. Yes, Democrats said some dumb stuff back then. They stopped. Tea Partiers, in contrast, now embrace those views. - Secret Square - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:50 pm: “aren’t kids under 1, even if they’ve been vaccinated to that point, not fully immune yet because it takes a series for the immunity to take hold?” At one time it was routine to vaccinate kids before their 1st birthday — I was one of them — but sometime in the 1970s, it was discovered that this was too early and all kids who had been vaccinated too early had to be vaccinated again. In my case, I was in high school when my brother and I had to be revaccinated. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 1:55 pm: The quotes above come YEARS after the autism/vaccination claim was clearly debunked. So why did these politicians and opinion makers keep an open mind on an issue where the evidence was scientific and conclusive? Money! The Anti-Vaxxers have a lot of money and they have a lot of pull in Southern California. These people are often celebrities or have ties to Hollywood and our media. They have kept this thing going even after it has proven out to be false. Our politicians pander. They pander for every vote. I sincerely believe that they are pandering to a group with money that had view that Obama, Clinton, Christie and Paul imagined as harmless. Surely they probably imagined - surely this anti-vaxx meme would never catch on enough to endanger everyone, right? Wrong - as we found out this winter. Our politicians pander to an amazing number of crazies, just to get their support. It comes from both parties. Anti-vaxxers are not ignorant. The problem is that what they think they know an awful lot about, is wrong. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:00 pm: Vanilla, Democrats moved away from the suspicion Republicans embrace it now. Nobody cares what was said in 2008. What people are saying now matters. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:03 pm: Tea Partiers, in contrast, now embrace those views. Nope. Wrong again. Even Wordslinger clearly pointed out yesterday that we aren’t seeing a refusal to vaccinate coming from conservative communities. This is not about ignorant traditionalist shunning modern science. This is about college educated, wealthy and otherwise intelligent people believing and living a lie and using their smarts to push a fraudulent anti-science meme through our popular culture. We listen to smart people, not stupid ones. This has legs because anti-vaxxers are quite capable of holding their own in debates. They are just wrong. We’re not talking Tea Partiers. We’re talking Whole Food Organo-liberals with college, strongly pro-environment, pro-natural living, anti-carbon, global warming believers who believe that there is a link between the increase in autism to chemicals somewhere in our environment. They might be right! However they have brought about a huge health crisis because they believe vaccinations are the source. - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:07 pm: Thank you, VanillaMan. Also, tired of the counter argument that there is not “enough” to harm you. Over time it can. That is why mercury was (supposedly) removed. Harmful is harmful. One cigarette won’t kill you, but it as well has tar, ash, formaldehyde, etc. Are you going to tell children if it only has a little harmful substances, it is okay? That one or a few are okay? Speaking of cigarettes, and those that put their whole trust in physicians and the FDA, remember the days when we were told cigarettes were good for you? Until long term effects began popping up? That is because they push things on the public before doing sufficient testing. AKA, you are fighting to inject yourselves and children with improperly tested substances. That, in so many words, is on the actual inserts of the vaccines. - Jorge - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:12 pm: VMAN, did you take your meds this morning? Anti-vaxxers are on both sides of the aisle. Simply quoting Bill Maher and Hillary Clinton doesn’t create causation for your fringe theory. Take a Valium or something. I wouldn’t exactry call the Taliban a liberal progressive organization. - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:17 pm: VanillaMan, didn’t see your second post. They aren’t causing a health crisis. Diseases are spread by vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike because you can carry them either way. Also, it is by children and adults alike, so people need to get off saying it is all the parents’ fault. Vaccinated people are just as dangerous because they can carry viruses, not show symptoms, go to work or school and spread them as well. And there are always the innocent people that cannot get vaccinated because they are allergic or have an immune disorder, or the people that did get vaccinated but their body did not except it, that suffer from it all. No throwing stones of any sort until you are a person that can say you never, not once, went to work or in public with a fever, runny nose, flu, bronchitis, etc. If you did, you are just as much a problem. Just stay home if you are sick. Or keep your kids home if they are sick. THAT is what keeps health crises from arising. - SAP - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:18 pm: Jenny McCarthy and Jay Cutler’s wife are against vaccination. If that doesn’t convince you of the need to vaccinate, nothing will. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:20 pm: Vanilla, have you read the news? Rand Paul. Christie. The list goes on. Name one Democrat who has embraced those views this year. There is no equivalence. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:20 pm: ===We’re talking Whole Food Organo-liberals with college, strongly pro-environment, pro-natural living, anti-carbon, global warming believers who believe that there is a link between the increase in autism to chemicals somewhere in our environment.=== Yes, yes we are. And home schoolers and biblical literalists too, who tend to fall on the right side of the political spectrum. The anti-vaccine thing is bi-partisan stupidity. I had my kids vaccinated. I’d do it again. Did you have your children vaccinated VanillaMan? - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:24 pm: When someone claims not to be crazy, they most likely are Mr Mahr - Jocko - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:25 pm: I’m with Gooner. Just because you can formulate an opinion (based on specious reasoning) and argue forcefully, doesn’t make you right. The media’s first question needs to be “What are your qualifications…what research have you done on the subject?” then cutting off the TV camera or newsfeed when the answer is “none!” - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:27 pm: 47th Ward, let me guess, you are one of those that rant “if your kids are not vaccinated, keep them out of school and away from mine.” Am I right? And since you asked VanillaMan a question, I ask another of you. What vaccines did you yourself have in the last 12 months? - Wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:30 pm: LizPhairTax, Saladin? - William j Kelly - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:30 pm: I am not sure why rich miller would let gooner slander me but ok, haters gonna hate. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:32 pm: My wife works with autistic kids everyday. She always knew there was never any link between autism and vaccines. All the VanillaKids have been vaccinated. And Gooner - it is on both sides of the political aisle. Sorry, you can’t just blame “Tea Partiers” - we have too many instances where both parties have pandered this into a problem. Why do you have to believe otherwise? I’m not blaming Democrats exclusively. Since yesterday I have been saying it is on both sides and there is a reason. It is the media partisans who can’t seem to get this right. Stop blaming the GOP on this when Marin County California’s inoculation rate is lower than Sudan’s! - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:35 pm: Vanilla, Name a Democratic elected who has embraced those doubts about vaccines this year. - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:36 pm: Kelly, Who did you blame yesterday? - Under Further Review - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:37 pm: Gooner seems more interested in using this topic as a political football. So be it. The important thing is that adults and children be vaccinated. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:38 pm: “Even Wordslinger?” You say that it likes it’s a bad thing, lol. I’m with my boy VMan here. There’s been plenty of pandering idiocy across the political spectrum on this issue over the years. In recent days, guys like Jindal, Rubio, and Cruz have made emphatic statements to smack down the crazy. Good on them. Let’s move forward into the light of common sense and experience. And employees — wash your hands afterwards. Don’t do it for Big Gubmint, do it just because. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:38 pm: Sorry, I also get a flu vaccine every year. - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:41 pm: 47th Ward, that is it? Just flu? What about shingles, MMR, tdap… so you are one of the causes of spreading whooping cough? No one should speak on children being vaccinated if they are not fully vaccinating themselves each year. You are also a problem. - Anyone Remember - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:43 pm: RonOglesby - Now in Texas “Not exactly hot-beds of right wing anti-gov sentiment.” Except for the HPV vaccination. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:44 pm: ===No one should speak on children being vaccinated if they are not fully vaccinating themselves each year. You are also a problem.=== Wow. Did you sleep through biology class? - Jose Abreu's next homer - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:46 pm: I Don’t Vaccinate My Child Because It’s My Right To Decide What Eliminated Diseases Come Roaring Back….http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-dont-vaccinate-my-child-because-its-my-right-to,37839/ - Gooner - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 2:49 pm: Under Review, Actually if you look at my first post I clearly blamed liberals. However, Vanilla brought up old statements by electeds. I just responded to him by pointing that at that level there is a clear trend. By the way Under Review, it is interesting that you pointed the finger at me and not at Vanilla. - Mokenavince - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:04 pm: Jennie McCarthy and Cutlers’ wife both qualify as Congressman material. Jennie should know better she’s from the South Side of Chicago . Who in their right mind would take her advice? Vaccinate YOUR Kids! - qcexaminer - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:06 pm: San Antonio news website has an interesting interactive showing where all those hotbeds of anti-vax are located. Some Fun Fax: out of 5.1 million school kids, 38,000 have claimed an exemption, which is only .075 of school population. Only two states have NO exemption: Mississippi and West Virginia. It would be interesting to see where all the anti-vaxxers live in IL. Has anyone seen any info on this? - Wensicia - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:15 pm: ==Vaccinated people are just as dangerous because they can carry viruses, not show symptoms, go to work or school and spread them as well.== No, you are not a carrier when you’re vaccinated. Vaccinations prevent viral outbreaks, not symptoms of viral illnesses. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:22 pm: This is one of those issues in politics where the geometricists get interested. Is ideology a line, a far right and a far left, with points in between? Or is a circle, where seemingly opposing ideologies can meet, as in the case of marijuana legalization? I don’t know. I only had one semester of geometry in high school and I used to get way baked in the woods across the street before class. Huh? What’s that teacher, proofs? No way you can proof that, man! - G'Kar - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:23 pm: Wordslinger, I’ve firmly believe that ideology is a circle–go too far to the right or too far to the left and you will eventually meet up. - Past the Rule of 85 - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:32 pm: I had polio when I was 6 years old. I spent time in an isolation room at the hospital and had to visit with my mom through a thick glass. I had 2 spinal taps, which were extremely painful in 1960, to the extent I still remember them today. I was lucky. I wasn’t permanently crippled or had to live in an iron lung. A couple of years later I was first in line when they passed out the polio vaccine on sugar cubes. For the life of me I don’t understand why parents would put their children and their neighbors at risk like this. - Secret Square - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:37 pm: “Not exactly hot-beds of right wing anti-gov sentiment, Except for the HPV vaccination” Not the same thing at all and DON’T confuse these issues. It’s one thing to oppose mandatory vaccination against an EXTREMELY contagious and disease than can be spread merely by being in the same room with an infected person. It’s another thing entirely to oppose mandatory vaccination with a vaccine of questionable effectiveness and safety against a disease that can be avoided. - Chris - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:38 pm: ” if they are not fully vaccinating themselves each year” So, if one doesn’t get the smallpox, and Dengue and malaria, and yellow fever, and AIDS, etc etc vaccine every year, one loses standing to discuss the subject? What, pray tell, is *your* basis for standing astride medical science yelling Stop? You’ve had smallpox and survived, I take it. - ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:52 pm: ===John F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote a book you can buy today on Amazon about the link between certain vaccines and autism. Kennedy appeared on “The Daily Show” and made these claims. John Stewart didn’t contest those claims! Was this from the grave? Cut and pasting some clown’s claims does require some proofreading. John F Kennedy Jr wrote no such book and he died in 1999 about six months after Stewart took over the Daily Show. You are confusing this with Robert F. Kennedy Jr who is a anti-vaccine kook. http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/uwf623/robert-f–kennedy–jr- That’s the clip. Jon blew that interview, however that was 9 1/2 years ago and the night before you wrote yesterday he had taken anti-vaccine liberals to task. He also did it in this clip which is a riot: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/g1lev1/an-outbreak-of-liberal-idiocy Paul Offit is in it and I highly recommend all of his books.You have to get to about 1:35 for the pay off. You want to make fun of Maher. Go right ahead. He is a homeopathic kook. However, there is a distinction between Paul and Christie and Obama and Clinton. Clinton and Obama didn’t call for parents to decide–the called for more research. They were poorly informed given the science at the times, but that’s different from parents should choose. It is fair to say that both sides of the ideological spectrum have anti-vax kooks. From the most recent research it’s about equal on both fringes. - ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:57 pm: ===“Not exactly hot-beds of right wing anti-gov sentiment, Except for the HPV vaccination” ===Not the same thing at all and DON’T confuse these issues. It’s one thing to oppose mandatory vaccination against an EXTREMELY contagious and disease than can be spread merely by being in the same room with an infected person. It’s another thing entirely to oppose mandatory vaccination with a vaccine of questionable effectiveness and safety against a disease that can be avoided. It’s not of questionable effectiveness. This is an outright falsehood. It is incredibly effective. http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv-vaccine-hcp.htm I know, the CDC is a liberal plot. In terms of avoiding it estimates of 70-80 % of people have some form of HPV. People have sex so get over it. They always have and always will. Protecting people against the worst forms of HPV is prudent health policy. - ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 3:59 pm: ===What vaccines did you yourself have in the last 12 months? DPT booster and flu. I’m trying to get the shingles as well, but since I don’ fall in the recommended age I am going to have to pay out of pocket. Which is fine. Of course, the point of vaccines other than the flu is that you don’t have to get them every year. - Walter Mitty - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:02 pm: Crazy is not politically exclusive… On the bright side, Weed is legal folks… Some of you on here may need to try some…Including me during a few rants… - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:02 pm: Well said Archpundit, as usual. If there was a vaccine that prevented cancer, wouldn’t you want it? Well, the HPV vaccine prevents cervical cancer. Girls are encouraged to get it before they become sexually active. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV - ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:14 pm: —Girls are encouraged to get it before they become sexually active. Actually girls and boys are recommended to get it at ages 11 or 12. My daughters are slated to get it this year and will. Boys both can get cancer though at far lower risk levels, but given the high degree of safety, it also helps with herd immunity. The age is largely because vaccines have peaks for how effective they are and at age 11-12 it gives the late teens as a peak when most Americans become sexually active. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:17 pm: Good point. Thanks. - ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:18 pm: Fairly new stuff–I studied up on this when Halvorson got attacked a few years ago by Illinois Review. - Sunshine - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:28 pm: VanillaMan I like your style! Don’t let up! I personally don’t get the flu shot and haven’t had the flu, except after a hard weekend night out…the commode hugging type… for a few hours. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 4:29 pm: There is no vaccine for the Irish flu Sunshine. - PolPal56 - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 5:17 pm: In the last 12 months, I’ve received a DPT booster, the flu vaccination, and was thrilled to qualify for the Shingles vaccine this year. Due to vaccines, I’ve never seen anyone with measles, whooping cough, or polio. I have seen the agony that someone with Shingles goes through. Thank science for vaccines. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 5:21 pm: Man, these posts are bringing out the kooks. - How Ironic - Thursday, Feb 5, 15 @ 5:27 pm: @Secret Square “It’s another thing entirely to oppose mandatory vaccination with a vaccine of questionable effectiveness and safety against a disease that can be avoided.” Love that ‘Can be avoided bit’. Because as we all know EVERYONE that has an STD ALWAYS mentions it (if they even know they have HPV). I made sure all 3 of my daughters got the vaccine. And none of them have based on that vaccination rushed out to begin sleeping with every boy they see (contrary to some voiced reasons as to why they are not vaccinating their daughters). Vaccinations are responsible parenting. Period. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.