Poll: Opinion of Vaccination?

[Loop Stricken]

I believe the only people who think vaccinations are a bad thing are idiots.

 

[-D-W-]

Vaccines are "controversial" in the same way that evolution is "controversial". The uninformed and misinformed create the controversy. Vaccines save lives.

 

[SimuLord]

If you don't get your kids vaccinated, you deserve to have them taken away from you and placed with a family that isn't a bunch of retarded moonbats.

 

[Trolldor]

So, I was doing my homework for my infectious disease class, in which we are currently learning about vaccines. Apparently whether or not people should get their children vaccinated is a pretty controversial topic in this day and age. So I was wondering, what do the people of the Escapist think of vaccination, or, more specifically, getting children vaccinated?

It's only controversial if you ignore... everything.

A vaccine is a dead virus. It causes your body to treat it as a real infection without any of the risk.
If a vaccine fucks you up, then you'd have no chance against the real thing as it is anyway, so nothing of value is lost.

Depends on the vaccine. For example, chicken pox vaccines are virtually worthless because many people are born with natural immunities, and most who don't catch it as children, thus gaining immunity.
Flu vaccines are also pretty controversial. My mother is an RN, and she vehemently opposes flu vaccines because of how virtually useless they are. They only protect against a few strands out of thousands/millions, and it's not even all that much protection. A good number who get the vaccine still get that strand of flu. She also saw someone have a bad reaction to a flu vaccine and die. Even though the chance is extremely slim, she still thinks that it's a stupid risk because there is more or less no gain.

She needs to be slapped. Hard. My mother is an RN and my father is a Doctor - a GP, so he administers the damn vaccines himself.

If there is a vaccine, and you are a risk group, get it.

The only way a vaccine is a waste of time is if you are already immune or can't possibly catch anything even if you rub the microbes on an open wound on your tongue.

 

[boholikeu]

Some vaccines are just stupid, however. Like the flu shot. Seriously, wtf? Why the hell should I give myself a shot for something that mutates every five minutes when my immune system can thrash it in 24 hours flat anyways? Huge waste of my time, fuck the flu shot, I'm not getting one. My immune system works just fine, give my flu shot to someone with a broken immune system. They need it.

I honestly think flu shots should be limited to only people who either have a reduced/nonfunctional immune system or regularly come into contact with people like that. The average person with a functional immune system does not need a flu shot.

That might be true if there were a flu shot shortage, but assuming there is a normal supply everyone should get a flu shot because it helps provide herd immunity.

See, the flu shot doesn't actually make you immune to the flu, it usually just lowers the severity of it. People with compromised immune systems can still die of the flu even if they get the flu shot. Now, if everyone got the flu shot, you'd lower the amount of time that people spend at work/school being contagious with the flu, which would help reduce the spread of the disease overall. That means that it's much less likely for a weaker person to catch it in the first place. So by getting a flu shot you aren't only helping yourself, your helping those around you that are more susceptible to the disease.

 

[Knight Templar]

Vaccines are both good and important. Are there risks? Of course, you are sticking a needle in your body after all, and you can have a bad reaction.
But if you're going to play the odds like that, at least play them well and get shot.

For some reason vaccine deniers think they remove, cure or otherwise kill the disease. They do not. Thinking that because nobody has died from what the vaccine protects against, there is no point in getting it is foolish.
"Hey nobody been mauled by tigers in years! Lets take down the fence!"
I mean are they aware they are saying we should stop because they work?


Do you need protection against the flu every year? Maybe not.
Does a child need protection against diseases that were once every parents nightmare? Yeah.

 

[ilspooner]

Vaccines are important. They help eliminate viruses. And stop kids from getting sick. So, all for vaccinations!

 

[Kae]

Although I normally would say yes to vaccines there are some that I'd say no for example that H1N1 bullshit it was all a lie, believe me since supposedly it was Mexico who had the largest pandemic of that disease, well I asked around to everybody if they knew anybody that had the disease and everybody would say either "no" or "no, but a friend told me that his friend's cousin had it" and it sounds like bullshit to me, so if there was no pandemic the What the fuck was on that vaccine?

 

[boholikeu]

That might be true if there were a flu shot shortage, but assuming there is a normal supply everyone should get a flu shot because it helps provide herd immunity.

This would be a concern if I gave a rat's ass about my fellow man. But I don't. So he's on his own.

Besides, when wasn't there a shortage? I can't remember. So give those who need it my shot.

See, the flu shot doesn't actually make you immune to the flu

Whoa, stop right there. The whole point of shots is to render the recipient immune to whatever critter the shot was made from. Thus, the flu shot literally fails at life.

, it usually just lowers the severity of it.

Is that even possible? The only symptoms I get of a flu are a minor bit of congestion over about 12-24 hours. This same flu the week prior had my friends bedridden for a week.

I don't need a flu shot.

People with compromised immune systems can still die of the flu even if they get the flu shot.

Again this just points out how useless the flu shot is. It can't even protect people from the strain it was designed to protect them from, and it doesn't protect against the other 9001 strains at all.

So by getting a flu shot you aren't only helping yourself, your helping those around you that are more susceptible to the disease.

Again if I cared about my fellow man I might consider it.



Still wouldn't change my choice though. I grew up never using antibiotics, never having any of the frivolous shots(Hell I was out of date on the good ones everyone should have by a few years, almost got booted from high school because of it), and my immune system is a combination of Bruce Lee, Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris. I simply don't get sick. Even when I do actually catch something I'm over it within 24 hours and it doesn't cost me any productivity.

All of my friends, however, did grow up getting every single shot that pops up. They did grow up with anti-bacterial everything. They catch every bug that floats around, spend a week or so out of it, then pass the bug on to me where it does jack shit.

My own personal experience tells me the shots are a waste of time. Statistics tell me they don't work. So is it a surprise I don't agree with flu shots?

Care to link to the statistics that say they don't work? All of the studies I've seen show that they do provide protection against the flu for the most vulnerable people.

Also, I'm glad you have such a healthy immune system, but scientifically, you are the exception for people that have not been vaccinated, not the rule (I do agree with you about anti-bacterial products though, but that's a different issue).

In the mean time, It's good to hear you are enjoying a solitary life of not caring about those around you. It would certainly be easier to live life that way, but personally I could never do it.

 

[Engarde]

I'd get kids vaccinated as much as they can. Anythng to help keep them from being sick. Wonderful marvellous useful things, the more things they can resist, the better.

 

[DustyDrB]

I live in South carolina, so there's rampant (bastardized) conservatism. What was interesting and frustrating about Swine Flu scare of 2009 was how whether or not to get the vaccination became a political issue. Many outspoken conservative people I know said the dumbest things to scare people away from getting the shot. The liberal friends of mine, on the other hand, often only got the shot out of spite towards the conservatives.

An aside: I fucking hate how my country lives out their political views. It's just people spitting venom, lying, and tearing each other's names down. It's why I just absolutely do not get involved at all anymore.

 

[Nova Helix]

The scum bag doctor that took a pay ff to lie about vaccines causing autism needs to go to jail for a VERY long time. Not getting your kids vaccinated is more than just negligent, it is potentially fatal.

 

[Canid117]

Its only controversial among idiots.

Like these people

Who are you referring to exactly?

The ones with twelve years of medical school and several studies to back them up that haven't been created using falsified data of course. Jenny McCarthy showed us her tits for a living. That obviously makes her more qualified.

 

[Ironman126]

Getting vaccinated is excellent. Some people are just uneducated or believe propaganda spreaded by dimwits and conspiracy theorist nutbags, that's the only reason for any so-called "controversy". People who hate vaccines are the same people who think the US planned 9/11 and that AIDS is a hoax.

When vaccines first appeared, conspiracy theoritsts proclaiming that it was bad absolutely abounded. It's only when it started saving lives against the flu outbreaks of the time that people started to shut their holes. Sadly, many people these days don't learn from history.

Funny you should say that. My best friend was nearly killed as an infant when he was given a new (at that time) vaccine. He now suffers from dysgraphia due to the neural damage the vaccine caused. My other friend's fiancée died from complications with the H1N1 vaccine back in '09.

With that said, vaccines have helped rid the world of diseases like Smallpox and Polio and many are indispensable today, like the flu vaccines.

Vaccines are a mixed bag. Yes, most are good. Some others, not so much. So don't go around saying that vaccines are the greatest thing ever invented. They are just as prone to problems as anything else humans have created.

 

[KeyMaster45]

The only symptoms I get of a flu are a minor bit of congestion over about 12-24 hours. This same flu the week prior had my friends bedridden for a week.

That's not the flu, that's not even a cold, that's just a runny nose.(hell I have those on a daily basis from allergies alone) The flu sucks, I've had the flu it flipping sucks. Vomiting, constant shaking from chills, diarrhea, congestion, sore throat; the full gambit. Oh no my friend, you've never had, by your account, the flu. Just cause your friend had it doesn't necessarily mean you are going to catch it.

This doesn't mean I don't agree with your argument I'm just saying; if you ever catch the flu by god you will know that you've caught fucking flu. The sniffles, a case of the flu does not make.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The flu sucks, I've had the flu it flipping sucks. Vomiting, constant shaking from chills, diarrhea, congestion, sore throat; the full gambit.

I really enjoy the fever, joint pain and fatigue. [/sarcasm]

Actually fever induced halucinations can be piss funny... nearly dying because the fever is bbqing your brain not so much.

Then, if it's a really nasty strain, you also get to enjoy Influenza Related Complications such as pneumonia.

A few years back I had the 'privilige' of having the one-two punch of getting a particularly bad Influenza A virus (bad enough the docs originally thought I'd managed to get bird flu) and then developing pneumonia, both of which had a red hot go at killing me. My lungs were so full of crap I was coughing up a litre of sputum a day and my blood was brown from lack of oxygen. Took me a month before I was finally in the clear and 4 more months before I was even approaching full health again.