This astounding, terrible, unforgivable thing isn’t just happening. It’s a choice made by one of America’s two major political parties. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around that
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/26/vaccine-hesitancy-measles-chickenpox-polio-flu/
@JamesGleick Yes. I am literally looking at the chapter I'm working on in my upcoming book on germ theory when vaccination first gets figured out. I'm about to tell the TB microbe story, and segue into the cholera pandemic--and the public health idea that flowed from identifying V. cholerae.
It was all understood then as perhaps the greatest single advance in human flourishing ever. (It was and is).
And these vicious, power-hungry idiots are throwing it away.
@tomlevenson @JamesGleick What amazes me now that we have the power of Big Data to look decades of vaccine outcomes is that they'll use the internet to excuse their petty fears but not use it to look at the picture Big Data tells us.
Specifically, child mortality from all childhood infectious diseases dropped dramatically once the measles vaccine was introduced.
Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaa3662
More: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(22)00197-3/fulltext#%20
@femme_mal @tomlevenson @JamesGleick
The argument being made is mainly on personal liberty - that government shouldn’t mandate things like vaccinations - not whether the science backs up the decision.
The counter argument needs to be along the continuum of personal liberty vs public good.
James Gleick
Tom Levenson
Femme Malheureuse
DRA69