NPR reports childhood diseases on the rise

Reported on NPR in the first week of November, 2009. Childhood diseases are on the rise mostly in educated, upper-class neighborhoods. The theory that mercury in vaccinations causes autism has led some parents to avoid vaccinations, saving the child from possible autism and dooming them to die of fever or be crippled by polio.

Please support my private academy (and youtube rants) by donating to my school. Each $50 results in a video up to 10 min. long being uploaded.

http://wwwcropperlyceum.com
.
.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• mrcropper
• npr
• childhood
• diseases
• vaccination
• mercury

[JHBowden79]

MrCropper, in the video it was stated the diseases are popping up in affluent areas among educated families. If true, why do you think this is happening, given all things being equal, we believe more education translates into better decisions?

Does being educated lead to an increased likelihood of irrationally distrusting authority? Perhaps an increased tolerance for theory untethered to experience, history, and empirical observation? What gives?

[MrCropper]

"more education translates into better decisions..."

Oh contraire. That would be true of proper education, but the scare-mongering racket that runs 95% of the education in America has spread this tripe at every step. The problem isn't educatedness as such, but the government monopoly in education.

Also, the general hysteria about all things man-made and a fetish for "nature" is a serious factor.

[TheDarknluvlee1]

You're way off base and dangerous: autistic kids need help not false propaganda. The people who need help hopefully are NOT buying your load of crap!!

Where is your research to back up this BS. And dont go using a registered nurse to help bolster your quacky claims. Cite some freaken articles, numbnuts.

[BrettDunbar]

There IS mercury and poison in the vaccines. For fuck sakes I have the H1N1 vaccine box to me. Thimerisol and other poisonous chemicals.

How the fuck can you say autism is bullshit?

Have you ever met a kid with full blown autism? Try to talk to him, make funny faces, do something. He will not respond and will completely ignore you and go on laughing and saying gibberish no matter hard you try to communicate with them.

You know very little about biology

[ForABetterTomorrow]

- The number of administered vaccines increased by 2-3 times in the last 20-30 years (in the US, in other countries children receive a smaller number of vaccines). Is there any evidence that this increase has positive effects on the health of the children?

In addition you can't compare today's child mortality with the child mortality of 200 years ago (just think of the nutrition, hygiene, housing, water, ...).

[MagnusIan]

My own sister has become one of these anti-vaccination idiot followers of Jenny McCarthy. It's sad that people won't listen to reason and it's even worse since she has a kid now.

[Virtueman1]

That's sad. I think the problem is that some people have absolutely no sense of causality. "Is mercury the cause of autism or not?" they ask and then confuse causation with correlation by looking at some statistics.

[buybulkwhey]

great stuff!

[pookiehohn]

"Not much in evolution has prepared humans for this."

Exactly! It's the same thing as having an irrational fear. I think of it as a main stream conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories are similar to our fight or flight response, we get it even when we don't need it. The reason why this particular phenomenon is affecting the intelligence of society is that they are naturally more skeptical, and it's easier to be skeptical and fearful than rational and objective.

[grantsinmypants2]

This is the same dynamic (government control of science, an insulation from personal consequences, leading to irresponsiblity) which led to the lipid hypothesis as the cause of obesity.

You think the immunization issue is a big deal, try that one on for size.

[NotThat3]

I wouldn't be so quick to associate human behavior with evolution. On the one hand you have an evolutionary developed simple pattern recognition which leads an individual to imagining he saw a lion in the bushes when no lion was there. On the other hand you've got a complex behavior of a human mind that has to judge concepts like 'diseases', 'vaccines', and the validity of theories about them. Not much in evolution has prepared humans for this.

[drew335533]

Hahah no, of course he can change his rates. I'm just a little shocked by the change is all. =P