jenny mccarthy wants your kid to get measles: autism, vaccines, and stupid idiots

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1107621

this is kind of a booming post imo:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1107189

friend of mine doing work in Africa put up an interesting post on his blog the other day, too (posted in the Africa brb thread) that mentions how HIV/AIDS is really a chronic disease now for many ppl, which is sort of mirrored way of looking at that NEJM piece.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/sep/14/michele-bachmann-republicans-hpv-vaccine

the ny-er blog rebuttal of bachmann's claim was excellent & concise

some of the comments over at NRO were excellent and concise, too! while i doubt this single issue will sink her, i think that her stance on the HPV vaccine is going to make a lot of conservatives sit up and go "wait what"

HPV vaccine promotes promiscuous sex and that's bad and if you get cervical cancer then your church and community will chip in money to pay for your treatment because insurance is bad.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/9/13/1315879870968/Michele-Bachmann-speaks-d-007.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/9lddv4.jpg

An example of right wing blogs melting down. (Not so much the otherwise batshit author, who here is essentially sane on the point and the relevant issues, but check the comments.)

We had some of the same issues in the UK, but the government listened to scientists rather than crazies. Of course if the crazies are the government...

Interesting to see the Bachmann hate there

She hasn't made any public statement since the debate and post-debate comments, right? Looking forward to the spin from someone who really can't blame the media on this one.

I was looking online to see if I could find what is causing it, and 'fibromyalgia' kept popping up. I'd never heard of it but it sounds so vague I don't think it was anything to do with my problem, but I guess a 'diagnosis of exclusion' is always going to seem like an answer.

It is vague (and also called myositis). "I have a chronic, non-localized pain, and doctors haven't been able to determine why." Leading theory is that it's due to overactive nerves (akin to an autoimmune d/o, but w/nerves), but lots of doctors/scientists don't think it's an actual disease.

...myositis just means "inflamed muscle tissue". it refers to a histological state, not a specific disease, per se. cf gastritis, meningitis, etc

right but a person could go to one doctor w/these symptoms and be told it's fibromyalgia, go to another and be told it's myositis. like GERD=gastritis.

MYOSITIS is inflammation of muscle tissues. FIBROSITIS is inflammation of the fibrous connective tis-sue of muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues. MYOFIBROSITIS is a combination of muscle and connective tissue inflammation. FIBROMYALGIA indicates pain in fibrous tissues, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other sites.

^all "you've got non-specific pain, and we've excluded RA etc"

sort of...thing is, there are lab tests for myositis (eg elevated creatinine) that could confirm the diagnosis, which could then point the doc to the underlying cause (eg yr on statins).

the whole dx of exclusion thing with fibromyalgia lies in that it's what you turn to when you've exhausted all the other possibilities. I think some ppl mistake it for being a pejorative term or something, like why would a doctor consider it last, least important/likely, and do all this other testing first??? when really it's simply because tests actually exist for other, treatable things so may as well make sure it isn't any of those. it isn't because docs have necessarily relegated fibromyalgia to some non-disease status, and they will only diagnose it if they ~have~ to, grudgingly, it's because there's no objective markers for it (afaik) and the clinical presentation is so non-specific that it would be irresponsible to not exhaust the other possibilities

xp obv

also, wrt those defs you posted, I ~think~ the reason fibromyalgia gets it's name is not just because it's painful, but, crucially, because it's pain in the absence of obvious inflammation.

but isn't there an ongoing debate amongst doctors about whether it truly is a disease? or is it that there are some shitty docs who are using it as a catch-all "i don't know what your pain is" dx?

ah, then the lack of obv infammation gives rise to the overactive nervous system theory?

presumably? and fwiw if yr doc says I don't know but I've exhausted all diagnostic modalities then I'm not sure he or she is shitty. chances are they're frustrated like the pt

yeah i'm prob projecting my own experiences with my MD there ("oh you have recurrent stomach pains huh...must be IBS, here's some pills")

Wow, that Ace of Spades argument is still going on, several hundred posts later

An adult friend of ours just contracted whooping cough. All I could do was curse the thoughtless, selfish assholes who made that possible.

Unfortunately, there has yet to be crafted a pistol upon whose barrel you can inscribe "herd immunity, fuckhead!" with which you can use to whip those deserving.

this weekend i visited my friend who works for the public health service in seattle. these days a large portion of his job involves responding to cases of pertussis/whooping cough due to jenny mccarthy. smdh

Ugh, that is awful. Just goes to show how many willfully ignorant people are out there.

We had the same problem in Colorado.

Curious: did your friend say (or given confidentiality, maybe just implied) if the parents had any second thoughts about it all?

he said the parents tend to be unrepentant and found it frustrating that ppl hold the advice of their yoga instructors in higher esteem than that of medical professionals

Those same parents will yet wonder why it is their offspring never call...

There have been a couple of cases in my county.

I went to check if they were in any of the local school districts, and I found someone posting "I wonder if the increase in sickness is due to illegals attending our schools without the proper shots?"

ffs

Vh1 and NBC just gave her chat shows, btw

"Whoop It Up! with Jenny McCarthy"

Will there reach a tipping point wrt to number of cases where we can criminalize not getting your child vaccinated?

ha that will never happen, not without half the country dying

The Whooping Dead

jenny mccarthy's the stand

I was being facetious, but, yeah, since my son was born this has ratcheted up my anger at these people.

ditto

"Whoop It Up! with Jenny McCarthy"

― (thinks and smiles) (DJP), Wednesday, February 22, 2012 3:20 PM (2 hours ago)

hahaha

"Whoop It Up! with Jenny McCarthy"

― (thinks and smiles) (DJP), Wednesday, February 22, 2012 3:20 PM (2 hours ago)

dying

also thread title change?

NO.

aww

it is p lol tho

lol dan

Can't we just give these people hologram bracelets that protect infants from autism. btw these bracelets only work in conjunctions with innoculation

Brilliant.

They also allow us to identify children whose parents we wish to avoid.