Professor Dorit Reiss has written another wonderful article here clarifying that there really is a lack of conflict between so-called “informed consent” and public health mandates to keep citizens (especially children) safe from infectious diseases. It could not be clearer (at least to me) that informed consent does not trump the needs of the greater good.
In the Star Trek Movie, the Wrath of Khan, Spock and Kirk had this conversation:
Spock: Do not grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many, outweigh…
Kirk: The needs of the few.
Spock: Or the one.
So here’s a poll. Vote early. Vote often.
Lifetime lover of science, especially biomedical research. Spent years in academics, business development, research, and traveling the world shilling for Big Pharma. I love sports, mostly college basketball and football, hockey, and baseball. I enjoy great food and intelligent conversation. And a delicious morning coffee!
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OK, serious question…what is the point of your polls? I think you could assume that most people reading your blog are like-minded when it comes to vaccinations and herd-immunity. Do you do these just to get an idea how many ant-vaxxers are reading your blog? Self-validation? Not criticizing, just curious as to the purpose.
Honestly. To have fun. And no, my blog isn’t exclusively read by like minded folks. For example, I’d guess about ⅓ of the readers of vaccine articles, are actually science denying anti-vax types. They then link to my blog to comments and stuff and say things like “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Moreover, you should see how many people agree with my comments about vaccines, but loathe my comments about GMO’s. Or agree with me on vaccines, and think the world is 6000 years old.
I don’t need self-validation. I have over 1.5 million page views a year. I’ll take that as a vote of confidence.
to Skeptical Raptor and lilady R.N. I would like to apologize. I was wrong. In my post below I let my frustration at the use of these “pols” by television news outlets be displaced onto what is obviously a spoof. I feel that the points I made against the validity of the results of such polling (when used by TV news) are good but they should be taken elsewhere. They in no way should reflect on the Skeptical Raptor.
No need to apologize. Again, they’re just for fun.
This won’t be a accurate poll of the general public’s opinion on vaccination since most participants are going to be self selected (by the nature of this website) towards a certain viewpoint. You would need a randomized statistically significant sample for that. This might not even be a fair servery of the readers of this blog. The humorous picture topping the page poisons the well skewing the poll taker towards a specific point of view. So without looking at the poll results I predict the results will be overwhelmingly in favor of vaccination. For what it’s worth I agree vaccinations are safe, necessary, and have ZERO ties to autism, Crohn’s disease, or the illness de jure and I wish someone would gag Jenny McCarthy for the public good. I am disappointed in the low standards of this post to what is usually a highly accurate web series.
Do you happen to read SR’s introduction to the poll “So here’s a poll. Vote early. Vote often.”?
Chill out, it’s a spoof.
This isn’t even a matter of the needs of the many vs the needs of the few. Whose needs aren’t being met if an anti-vax parent is told to vaccinate her son? Sacrificing a child’s immunity for the sake of feeling superior to all us “sheeple” is not really a “need.” It’s a twisted, perverse attitude. How about, “the needs of the children outweigh the parents’ need for pseudo-intellectual self gratification.”
Yeah, the anti-vaccination moral ground erodes when those parents are using their ignorance and denialism to refuse life saving vaccines for children, who have no vote in the matter.
Newborn boy’s get their genitals mutilated shortly after birth and have no say in the matter, Is that ignorance and denial?
What about piercing the ears of babies?, is that ignorance and denial?
Legal age for voting in US is 18.
Children just don’t get to vote.
Parent’s do their best.
Do you have any children?
“3%” – You mean someone actually picked this?!?!?! “Dorit Reiss is pawn of Big Pharma …’
She’s hated by the antivaccine world, that’s why I put it in there. It allows people to see how much the haters hate.
Dorit Reiss is about as much of a pawn of Big Pharma as I am a pawn of the Republican Party. Which means 0% chance of either.
I know what you mean about haters hating. I’ve been following politics for close to 20 years now, and sometimes am dismayed by the way hatred gets thrown around so casually. It’s as if it’s such a habit, people don’t understand what they’re doing.
In 1984, Orwell wrote something along the lines of how difficult it was, once ignited, to resist the flames of hatred.
About pawns: I find it interesting that some people, who are actually rather intelligent, suffer this delusion where they believe they know better then experts. I’ve seen this said in regard to the Anti-Vaccine crowd twice now. Once in Time Magazine, and once on NBC’s Today Show.
You should look up Bill Meher’s show. He’s a huge anti-GMO/anti-vaccine nut.
Meh…?
(Was that a Freudian slip on your part?)
…. 😉
PS Maher.
Yes! Freudian slip. That’s the one. 😀
*hangs head*
No. It was a misspell.
You aren’t a pawn, you are a reptilian.
Bow to your overlord, Queen Betty the second.