The Science of Anti-Vaccination

[dtq123]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzxr9FeZf1g
Like you need it

[Solitary]

A good video, but I think there is more to people not trusting vaccines than what the video shows. The scientists are not trusted as much anymore after they make money from pharmaceutical companies and tobacco companies, both who are in it for the money. How many drugs are out there that don't cure diseases, or have horrendous side effects? I agree that vaccinations are usually better than not, but it's hard to trust companies that have lawyers and scientists that are biased to serve the companies and not the users. I'm taking 7 different drugs that are keeping me alive that are proven to be effective,  but one time I was given one by a endocrinologists that caused serious side effects that it was known to cause.

One was the safest drugs known: aspirin, which when stopped suddenly, that he recommended, can cause blood clots after long use. The other was steroids that are given out like candy to athletes that can also cause blood clots among other serious problems. The two together almost killed me. And I will never trust psychiatrists that think everybody that is a little different, or even normal, are mentally ill and give out Ritalin like candy. I take a drug that made all the difference in the world for my PTSD, but this was after getting hooked on valiums and other psychoactive drugs that made everything worse.

When doctors can actually cure diseases they can't now, and only treat symptoms, I will question anything they give me. Even vaccines for the flu and colds that haven't worked very well, or like the cancer drugs that seem to just prolong suffering. And no one can say with certainty that modified foods don't cause long term problems. I certainly do not trust Monsanto and its scientists. I do think things are blown way out of proportion when it comes to things well known not to cause harm. Nothing is completely harmless, even too much water can kill you. And alcohol is a very dangerous drug, and poison, but I still drink a little, and smoke pot when in the Netherlands. One has to weigh the risks with the good to live a little in life. Solitary

[Mermaid]

Hey, Solitary. I am a scientist that works for one of those drug companies. I resent the implication made all too often by anyone with internet access that scientists don't have ethics or integrity.

Scientists get sick, too. And we have families and people we love that also benefit from therapies that are created by these companies. The notion that developing cures for diseases is the same as the development of treatments for symptoms because it makes more money is unbelievably irksome and frustrating. Don't you think if there was a cure for hypertension or cancer, drug companies would not make out like bandits? I know there'd be no way to keep me quiet if I knew that were the case since I am privvy to insider information. Don't you think that if I knew there was a drug that cured colon cancer, I'd have skipped that screening colonoscopy I got a few weeks ago? Do we know everything there is to know about disease processes and how they work? It's easy to be critical but it's not as simple as that. What kills cancer cells in a dish usually does not translate into killing cancer cells in a biological system (like a mouse).

ALL drugs have side effects. Every single one out there. Side effects are not built in, they do not occur on purpose. If the benefit of the drug outweighs the side effects, great. If not, the drugs should not be prescribed, or perhaps not sold to anyone depending on the frequency or severity.   

Also there is not a vaccine for colds, and never has been.

This is a symptom of the success of vaccines and drugs, that infectious diseases are not the major cause of death anymore due to vaccines and antibiotics. People live longer and therefore, metabolic disease has taken over as a primary cause of death. Here is a graphic that illustrates the impact of vaccines for some major infectious diseases:
http://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/#b02g20f20b15

[Mermaid]

And by the way, Monsanto is not the only company with GMO technology. But for some reason they get all the blame.

[Aletheia]

Agreed Mermaid.

People tend to assume that all scientists must be like the stereotypical mad scientist who is so obsessed with their work that they forget other people. Furthermore, every scientist is sooner or later faced with ethical issues that stem from their research. They are often trained to never forget the human element. Lastly, there are whistleblowers in the scientific community who feel morally obligated to cry foul when unethical research is put forth or if some life-saving technique is scrapped simply because it wasn't deemed profitable enough.

The risks of vaccines pales in comparison to the dramatic effect of the benefits. Humanity is able to live into our 70s to 90s because so many devastating diseases now have little effect on us. Yes, deadly diseases still exist, but we've substantially reduced the number that we would've commonly encountered.

[Mermaid]

Science is all about ethics in methods. Peer review is one of the basic checks and balances as well. We have morals and ethics just like everyone else.
I don't think people so much make assumptions as they don't stop to think about what scientists actually do and who we are.