swine flu: why hasnt the pope criticised immunisations for encouraging risky foreign travel?
January 31st, 2011 | Flu Symptoms and Signs Scroll Down To Read Answers To The Question9 Answers
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why would he in the first place….I mean he freaking take a private jet to go around the world for god sake….
Immunization against a disease is one of the best ways of preventing it. Why exactly would the Pope be against something that would save lives. If you’re one of those people that buys into the nonsense that immunizations are dangerous, I suggest you take a look at some real science-based evidence.
As autism rates have grown, people have been looking for something to blame, and have decided to latch onto vaccination as the cause. Mostly what we’re talking about is the “thiomersal controversy”, that claims that vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thiomersal contribute to the development of autism and other brain development disorders. The current scientific consensus is that no convincing scientific evidence supports these claims.
The cause has been taken up by misinformed Hollywood celebrities, Jenny McCarthy being a big one. She feels she “cured” her son of autism by a highly dubious, and dangerous, chelation therapy, though it’s more likely her son had Landau-Kleffner syndrome.
Numerous studies have shown that the link between vaccination and autism doesn’t exist, and that increased rates of autism conform to what you would expect with increased detection of autism in child, and an increasing population. The removal of thiomersal (which is a preservative in use since 1928) in 1999 had absolutely no impact on autism rates in Europe and America, though that’s not done anything to stop the anti-vaccination panic.
Here’s another article I like on this subject:
There is a dedicated fringe anti-vaccine movement. They are dedicated to some permutation of the collection of beliefs that vaccines are: 1) not effective; 2) have not reduced or eliminated any infectious disease; 3) are not safe; and 4) are a conspiracy of Big Pharma, the government, and paid-off doctors. Specific claims have wandered over the years, but they have as a central theme that vaccines are bad. When one specific claim collapses, they will move on to the next anti-vaccine claim.
While anti-vaccine cranks have been around as long as vaccines, it is only recently that they have captured the attention of the mainstream media and the skeptical movement and the battle has really been engaged.
Anti-vaccinationists have focused much of their recent efforts on the claim that vaccines cause autism. At first the MMR vaccine was blamed, sparked by a now-discredited study performed by Andrew Wakefield. This led to declining vaccination rates in the UK and a resurgence of measles.
As the MMR claim was in decline (although by no means abandoned), attention shifted to thimerosal – a mercury-based preservative in some vaccines. There are many flaws with the thimerosal hypothesis, and numerous studies have shown no link between thimerosal and autism or any neurological disorder. But the fatal blow to the thimerosal hypothesis was struck when thimerosal was removed from the routine childhood vaccine schedule (thimerosal, incidentally, was never in the MMR vaccine) in the US by 2002. In the subsequent 6 years the rate of autism diagnoses kept increasing at their previous rate, without even a blip. Only the most rabid (or scientifically illiterate) anti-vaccine fanatics still cling to the thimerosal claim.
So attention has shifted yet again. Now the anti-vaccine crowd are hedging their bets with the “toxin gambit.” They blame various “toxins” in vaccines for its alleged and unproven side effects. Mercury is still on the list, but they have added aluminum, which is added to vaccines to make them more effective. They cite hydrochloric acid, which they don’t understand is added to balance the pH of vaccines. They try to scare people by saying vaccines contain formaldehyde, but neglect to mention that formaldehyde is already naturally present in our blood in higher amounts than are found in vaccines. They even make up some toxins (aided by their limitless scientific ignorance) by misreading chemical names. Jenny McCarthy, for example, has repeated numerous times (despite being called on it) the canard that vaccines contain ether and anti-freeze – both untrue. They also try the scare tactic of saying that vaccines contain viral proteins – uh, yeah, that’s the point. And that they may contain fetal tissue – which is a gross distortion. Some vaccine components were cultured in cells that were derived years ago from fetuses.
(For a more thorough review of the science behind recent anti-vaccine claims you can browse through my many blog posts on the topic, or read this overview I wrote for the Skeptical Inquirer.)
The Anti-Vaccine Players
Active players on the anti-vaccine side include a number of organizations, such as Safe Minds and Age of Autism. They have been given an incredible boost by the internet, as the skeptical movement has, and have been tireless in spreading their misinformation and ideology on their websites and blogs.
srry.. i dont take medical advice from no pope….
Irrelevant. The pig is out of the bag.
The Pope right now is trying to lay claim to Mt. Zion in Israel, where King David is supposedly buried. He is claiming it as a Christian site, trying to take it away from the Jews.
It will be interesting to see if the Pope gets hit with the swine flu.
I do not get your point. I think you are comparing it to the use of condoms and although I do not agree with the pope on that one I can not make a connection with this at all.
Most people who get swine flu also get better. What;s the big deal with this one? What happened to Bird Flu? How many people have died from regular flu since Bird and Swine Flue were discovered? How many people were killed by cars? Died from snake bites?
All we hear in the media is “new pandemic!” and subsequently everyone becomes alarmed and panicked. Why? Because of a handful of people in mexico died from flu.
don’t know what all the fuss is about,,,,,,millions of people in the world……say 200 die…thats nothing on that scale…..more die in a plane crash every month
Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual’s immune system becomes fortified against an agent (known as the immunogen).
When an immune system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body (non-self), it will orchestrate an immune response, but it can also develop the ability to quickly respond to a subsequent encounter (through immunological memory). This is a function of the adaptive immune system. Therefore, by exposing an animal to an immunogen in a controlled way, their body can learn to protect itself: this is called active immunization.
The most important elements of the immune system that are improved by immunization are the B cells (and the antibodies they produce) and T cells. Memory B cell and memory T cells are responsible for a swift response to a second encounter with a foreign molecule. Passive immunization is when these elements are introduced directly into the body, instead of when the body itself has to make these elements.
Immunization can be done through various techniques, most commonly vaccination. Vaccines against microorganisms that cause diseases can prepare the body’s immune system, thus helping to fight or prevent an infection. The fact that mutations can cause cancer cells to produce proteins or other molecules that are unknown to the body forms the theoretical basis for therapeutic cancer vaccines. Other molecules can be used for immunization as well, for example in experimental vaccines against nicotine (NicVAX) or the hormone ghrelin (in experiments to create an obesity vaccine).