1x40: Zero-Dollar Energy

So apparently, your [former Boss][1] doesn’t agree with your stance on vaccines.

Related book (although that transposed funny in the title) :wink:

Looks like Bill got the 200ᵗʰ post on this so far.
[1]: Beach reading (and more) | Bill Gates

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This just in today from the American Medical Association: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2015/06/08/ama-end-personal-religious-vaccination-exemptions/

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Also worth considering is that the administrative prevalence of autism has increased, while many developmental experts believe the actual prevalence is largely unchanged. When we were kids, many of these people were labeled mentally-retarded, developmentally-delayed or “special”. This complicates the diagnosis and makes it very difficult to analyze risk factors; all the harder when our collective energies are consumed with vaccines.

These issues, and others, regarding the structure of the brain and “consciousness” have shown how little health science really knows about the brain. That is not to indicate that understanding has not taken leaps and bounds. What irritates me is the arrogance of western health science, that, while acknowledging there is more to be learned, at the same time acting like ‘we know everything.’ That (insert treatment, methodology) has not shown to pass studies, so it must be psychosomatic, all the while not really, truly understanding the human brain.

For me, personally, I only sometimes use the term “mental health” but prefer the term “brain health” as this, in my mind, focuses on the organ itself. I have friends that are uncomfortable when someone has issues that are manifestly in the brain. I have always tried to be open with my own brain issues in hopes to slowly chip at the stigma. I try to reason that a person who needs by-pass surgery on their heart because of a bad lifestyle should be far more embarrassed than one who is dealing with a sickness affecting their brain, although, many times, no fault of their own.

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In both the UK and the US it is believed that 1 in 4 of us will suffer some mental health event each year and that 1 in 6 of us has a problem at any one time. Figures for most of mainland Europe are similar, I do not have figures for the rest of the world. I suspect this reflects a larger problem in society. In 2013, the last year I could find numbers for 90% of the money in the US was owned by just 0.1% of the population: I can’t help feeling these results are in some way linked.

Big confession: I have had my own mental problems, I have had several bouts of depression and expect to have more. This does not mean I’m F*^$!^G CRAZY just that I have problems dealing with some of the realities of the world I find my self living in. For example I’m now told that we are aiming to stop using fossil fuels by the end of the century: Not only do I believe there are insufficient fossil fuel resources to still be able to extract them till the end of the century - If there are the effects on the planet will be devastating.

There are many people who have had brain problems because of circumstances forced upon them, often times manifesting itself in the form of PTSD. I have not suffered from that, but, with the brain issues that I have faced, it’s not hard for me to empathize with them. I have a couple of friends that the war in Vietnam has really messed them up (although, seeing the way war has affected many people, I guess it’s really mild for them compared to many. But, as I tell ones, the issues one faces are theirs to face, knowing someone has it worse really doesn’t make it easier) . I guess one of them was helped a bit from the openness that I have with my own issues, making him less embarrassed by it all. So, i guess I’m not completely worthless. :smile:

You are so right, there are so many things in this world that is very depressing. To make a list would be depressing in of itself.

The ‘interface’ between medicine and public policy is rife with issues like these. Schools routinely send children home with hair nits, even though it’s been shown that doing so does nothing to prevent their spread and even though the American Academy of Pediatrics has argued for years that they are pointless. One insurance company near me denied coverage for live attenuated (nasal) flu vaccine even though its efficacy had been found to be at least as good (and in children, demonstrably better) than the shot and even though the cost was identical. In 2009, one local hospital offered H1N1 flu vaccine to their employee’s children, but only if I wrote a prescription for it first because ‘some people are worried about thimerisol (preservative) in the vaccine’… even though there never was any thimerisol in the H1N1 flu vaccine.

So the issue you raise is sadly not unique and not confined to the matter of autism.
EB

Your certainly not worthless - you are a valued member of this community as I’m sure many of us here would agree. I love this communty: we are able to take the piss out of each other in good natured fun, but we are also able discuss important and often sensitive issues sensibly and sympathically.

It’s true - 1 in 4 do have ‘issues’ with mental health from time to time.
However, you succeed by joining in with the community.
You laugh, retain perspective, everyone wins !

But as @jonobacon inquired; there is a solution (Dip. in Men. Health.) … http://redd.it/2zb698

If only love could be a cure! But it is wonderful support.

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I think Penn & Teller said it best .

Word.

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Saw this on IFLS today:

:slight_smile:

Source: https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience/photos/a.456449604376056.98921.367116489976035/1186767611344248/?type=1

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This new infographic might help put ‘harm’ in perspective: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/news/pages/National-Immunization-Awareness-Month.aspx

The chart on that website is a bit misleading. While I will not try to diminish the results of vaccinations, one thing, that is very significant, is not mentioned. The research into vaccinations paralleled the education of basic hygiene. Much of the success, but by no means all, of the drop in disease can be attributed to that education. Unfortunately, that education seems to be needed all the more these days.

The research into vaccinations paralleled the education of basic hygiene. Much of the success, but by no means all, of the drop in disease can be attributed to that education.

That’s a bit of an oversimplification. Measles vaccine was licensed in the early 60s, by which time public health advances in hand hygiene and refrigeration had advanced pretty far. MMR was licensed for routine use in boys and girls by the 1970s, with corresponding and deep drops in the prevalence in measles, mumps and rubella in the following years. During my own career, similar drops in Haemophilus influenza B, varicella and streptococcus all but cleared out inpatient pediatric units. That pattern would not be explained by advances in cleanliness during that time.

And none of this is really a surprise, given the way those diseases spread. Measles is extremely contagious, and often spreads before the person knows he or she is sick, often before the telltale rash.

None of this is to downplay the importance of handwashing, possibly the most important intervention in preventing hospital-borne infections. But the drop in vaccine-preventable disease prevalence is a function if immunization, not hygiene; and this has been demonstrated empirically.
EB

That’s me to the core! Forget Occam’s Razor, I just go with “Razor”. :smile:

There have been some assertions by some researchers that there had been a marked drop in many of these diseases from the beginning of the 20th century to the time that vaccinations were introduced. However, to take Polio as an example, good hygiene certainly would not explain the near eradication of the virus. But, then again, there are assertions made by other researchers that good hygiene may have actually played a critical part of the Polio epidemics in the first half of the 20th century, in that, there were actually less immunity built up to it as a result of hygiene. So, what it comes down to, pick your hypothesis (they both can’t be right).

I think we are on the same page here! But I would assert, and I am confident you (and anyone with half sense) would agree, that good hygiene, especially hand washing, is just good universal practice. And I agree that good hygiene alone would not achieve the results that has been seen.

But my back brain keeps coming to a point, a point that, I feel, only many, many generations would show. What is immunization doing to the over-all natural immunity of the world-wide community? I have nothing actual to base any such question, only my own gut feeling, and it is an uneasy feeling. Guess time will tell.

Mark Twain said that the only problem with prognostication was the part about knowing the future. That said, natural immunity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Ask anyone who’s ever had shingles or multi-drug resistant strep pneumonia to name two. Sometimes the gut needs to make room for cold logic.

As to your earlier point about hygiene, have a look at vaccine myth #5, here: http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/vaccine-myths-debunked/

I appreciated the even-handed approach to the first paragraph of Myth #5:

“Vaccines don’t deserve all the credit for reducing or eliminating rates of infectious disease. Better sanitation, nutrition, and the development of antibiotics helped a lot too. But when these factors are isolated and rates of infectious disease are scrutinized, the role of vaccines cannot be denied.”

As to “cold logic”, well, I prefer ‘fuzzy logic’. :smile: But the point you made about multi-drug resistant strep pneumonia is another subject about the unwise or underutilized use of drugs, which makes me irritated. FOLLOW THE DOCTORS DIRECTION. TAKE THE WHOLE ROUND OF WHAT IS PRESCRIBED!!! I knew a woman that had TB. She stopped the meds because she felt better. UGH!!! And then a note to some doctors: STOP GIVING DRUGS TO EVERYONE THAT HAS A RUNNY NOSE!!!

By the way @cmgbeyer, you are in the medical field, right? If so, it’s nice to have a professional on board.

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I’m surprised we haven’t met Godwin’s Law in this subject yet:

Offered without comment: