I don't have children, but of course I was vaccinated as a child. I resent parents and the mental midgets who influence them to withhold preventive vaccines from their kids and themselves, therefore, making them possible vectors of disease. My father had polio as a child and went on to become a doctor. It is the influence of survivors and protectors like this that needs to prevail in modern America, not the backwards thinking of Kennedy, a mentally disturbed man with no science or medical training, and the people he directs.
This is basic, folks. This is basic, Trump. This is basic, parents. And so is death, if you prefer it. I do not.
As a person with type one diabetes since 1969 it really scares me that people are turning their backs on established proven medical science facts. Especially from a nut job like RFK Jr who does not have any education in medicine. If you were told that when you buy a new car you never need to do anything to it to keep it up and running in tip top shape, would you believe that? C'mon people, use your brain!
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, RFK Jr’s cousin told us who he is and she wasn’t mincing words about him either. Did the senate committee that confirmed him not pay any attention at all? Bill Cassidy senator from Louisiana and medical doctor went against his better judgment and voted to confirm just to appease the first felon president. It should be a wake up call to get rid of these idiots.
I don't understand how people can not care about the resurgence of an eliminated disease. America has had it easy for too long. Too many people just accepted that they would contract covid, too, and didn't bother with masks or shots.
I didn't accept it, and I took precautions and have not yet contracted it. With my respiratory condition, I do not want to and might not survive it. I am furious at being put at risk for so many preventable diseases because Trump wants to own the libs. Think about it: he installed a guy who ran against him--nearly his greatest sin--in the top health post just to anger half of America. A consequence-free mindset in an intellect-free mind.
Lucky you. I took precautions and have gotten the vaccines and all the boosters, but still got COVID and am still paying the price for it, with an inability to mostly taste my food. I am with you in being put at risk especially for COVID, and anything respiratory. I will be furious if COVID boosters are no longer available, and ditto for flu shots.
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm fortunate to work at home, which helps. I don't interact with children, which helps. Come to think of it, I don't interact with magas if I can help it, which has got to help. If we can't get the vaccines we need, I guess we'll have to hit the black market in Canada or Mexico. Maybe those nations will be kind enough to provide aid to U.S. citizens who are disadvantaged by our own government.
I'm long retired, and I think I picked it up at the grocery store, from rubbing my eye. It's really too bad Ciudad Juárez is so dangerous, because it's just a short drive from our house. And it wouldn't be difficult to find someone who could tell us where to find a clinic or a doctor to get the vaccine. That's a great idea that I will have to keep in mind. Thank you for sharing that idea.
I am so there with you. 81 years old, lung disease, had part of a lung removed during the height of Covid. I haven't gotten it yet and neither has my husband, but neither of us to this day will spend any time in a crowd for any reason. And I still take a mask pretty much everywhere just in case something unexpected happens and I feel uncomfortable. At this point we (and you) really don't need colds or flu either!
Instead, people are saying they would literally rather have you and me go through all that instead of doing a few things to help their fellow citizens. I can't think of a more selfish and cruel mindset. I'm sorry, I can't even call it ignorant: we have learned experience as evidence!
I hear you. With so much of the horrors going on in the country now, I can see-- despise, but understand-- their trajectories. But the Congressional shrug over January 6 (and voter punishment of Republicans who stood up for law and the Constitution and basic decency)and this-- this wholesale rejection of science generally and medicine specifically-- quite literally leave me stupefied to this day. When, how, why did millions of people seemingly overnight start believing, in the words of a college-educated, family member (unfortunately also with young children) that "Doctors lie and scientists fake their data." ("A very small number, as with anything else, but surely you don't mean all," I responded. "I mean all," they replied.) What on Earth has happened to this country?
I can only guess that it was the core value that drew people to Trump in the first place--he hates the same people they hate, therefore they will believe anything he says in order to rationalize and hold onto their animus. Look back on his birtherism crap--that is where it began. And so the rest of us suffer.
Probably true in large part. But Trump seems to be just one conduit for this particular anti-medical science worldview, because some of these people are not among his voters. There's some other pathway for the anti-science poison besides him. He just capitalized it. Where did this start- what's the source, and how did it catch on so quickly and broadly? It's like a wildfire.
As a pediatric nurse practitioner and public hea;th nurse with over 35 years of experiece we cannot blame the parents who have been sold a bill of goods by the well organized and very well funded anti vaxx movement. We health care providers must treat these frightened parents with kindness and care and spend the time it takes to answer the parents' questions which increases parents trust. Over time I have been able to give parents the space they need to decide that vaccinating their children is the right thing to do to protect their children's health. I share the stories of my own family. My mom who had polio at age 3 and my sisters who both had measles. One of my sisers almost died from mealses and my other sister's immune system was permanently damaged and she still suffers the effects of measles to this day. She had measles when she was 7 years old. My mom developed post polio syndrome in her later years and was confined to a wheel chair. I find sharing these stories of my own family moves the parents of my patients and helps me to show in a concrete way that measles and polio and other vaccine preventable diseases are NOT benign diseases and a rite of passage.
I disagree because I don't have the generosity you have. Everyone knows that vaccines work. Most of us were vaccinated as children because in the previous century people were profoundly grateful for prevention of deadly diseases.
These people vaccinate their pets and livestock. We've all seen cautionary tales about being fished in by flimflam and snake oil salesmen, from The Wizard of Oz to the Titan submersible collapse. And anyone who has ever played tag knows how contagion works.
Trust science. Don't listen to fearmongers. There, if they somehow hadn't heard it before, they can hear it now from me. Pathetic. And deadly to the rest of us.
I agree with you, KnockKnockGreenpeace, and you mention an important comparison. I wonder if these parents who also have pets have them vaccinated against rabies and other communicable animal diseases, or do they only believe in the antivaxxers for their children? Perhaps they comply with animal vaccinations because that is the law, at least for rabies, so maybe that's what's needed for their children too. I realize that freedom of choice is important (so, please don't assault me with that argument), but laws worked to stop polio in the United States. I was born before the MMR vaccine, and I had measles as an early infant that resulted in my legal blindness. If that vaccine had been available, my parents would have ensured that I had it. They certainly ensured that I had every other vaccination at the required time intervals.
"I don't want to" has become the law of our land and the maga mantra. Whatever some authority wants them to do for the good of others must be denied. This is far different from any kind of expected conformity that people rejected in the 1960s and 1970s. Even then everyone understood the value of medical science.
Now that expertise has been rejected in and of itself, all of the civilization that we have built will devolve. And faster if people willingly allow disease to spread without check. I can't believe the stupidity. Because someone said something on social media. Because "like" is much more compelling than necessity. I honestly don't see a solution.
All of the troubles humanity has worked through for thousands of years? "We'd like to do that over again." Well, time ain't on our side. We won't get another chance. So, being "kind" to people who resist what we have already learned is not the way to go.
I agree! I do not respect their opinion because they are ill informed or disinformed. Instead of following real news or listening to recognized experts with actual medical degrees, they listen to Fox Faux News or similar podcasts or White Christen Nationalists in the pulpit.
It is a choice, just as our current blanket acceptance of AI is a choice that will further degrade our ability to learn and understand the world. Anyone who willingly gives up their intellectual ability gets no respect from me.
Yesterday I spoke with my doctor who said, I use AI to free me from taking notes during our call. Did I opt in? I had already filled out a form denying my approval to use AI in all situations with that provider, but on a one-on-one basis, I felt I couldn't say no to my overworked doc.
And yet. I know and science proves that note-taking aids our ability to retain information and place it in context with other information. It is a mnemonic device that really can't be replaced. And while this educated doctor may get away with using an app to do that in this type of interaction, it sets a poor example for others and removes one more way in which a doctor--whom I see very infrequently--can know and understand my medical situation. I'm sure that students of all types are already doing this, to their detriment. AI can summarize, but it can't tell you what's relevant to write down.
My memory recall is excellent, in part because I began taking notes in school and continue it in my work with clients. I don't like being asked the same things over and over again in professional situations because people don't have recall or detailed notes that they can reference when needed. One more step toward idiocracy, and one that is a choice taken.
I also agree with you about AI. What a shame that more and more people, especially children in school, are taking for granted that AI has all the right answers. I felt the same way when Wikipedia came along. Some entries are okay perhaps for some general information, but nothing beats using a real encyclopedia that is written and vetted by experts for each entry. As you say about the action of taking notes aiding our memories, the action of looking something up in a reference book and taking notes on what you find there aids our memories. I like and respect my doctor, but if she ever uses AI for my visit, I am walking out and never going back.
It will soon be dangerous to send our children to school. As with so much in public life, this is a man made disaster. A cabinet of know nothings pushing policies by an uneducated leader.
Unless your children cannot be vaccinated, they should be fine at school as far as communicable diseases. Don’t know where you live, but unfortunately the quality of what they are taught depends on it. Good luck 🍀👹
Vaccination against measles helps adults, also. My sister got measles at age 38 and ended up with rheumatoid arthritis. My uncle had measles, probably in his 60s, and died of congestive heart failure, which can also be a side effect of measles. Somehow I never got measles even though I spent some time close to him while he was infected. I've made sure to get my MMR vaccine and update it as needed. Chicken pox, which I had as a child, comes back to bite later as shingles. So anyone who thinks childhood diseases are just part of life are condemning their children to a lot of possible aftereffects.
Next thing you know, the geniuses at HHS will declare that Lister was wrong and surgeons need not wash their hands before performing surgery. or why don’t we go back to bleeding to remove foul humors? In the last few months, thanks to the Dear Leader and his gang of MAGAmorons, they have destroyed hundreds of years of scientific progress along with education, human rights
and basically everything that made this country great. Although, it has occurred to me that if our institutions are so wonderful, how could they all be destroyed in a few months?
As a polio survivor, I'm expecting one of the outbreaks of vanquished diseases will be polio. As a country, we are extremely venerable for such an outbreak. The country stopped vaccinating for polio years ago when only two countries still had wild polio infections (in the Middle East) occurring. With the resistance to vaccinations so common, when polio reenters the US, many will refuse to receive it thus preventing any chance of herd immunity against polio. I lived the reality of what that will mean.
Turning our backs on lived experience is folly. I'm so glad you are here to add your voice to our shared reality. Parents: teach your kids history and a respect for expertise.
I don't have children, but of course I was vaccinated as a child. I resent parents and the mental midgets who influence them to withhold preventive vaccines from their kids and themselves, therefore, making them possible vectors of disease. My father had polio as a child and went on to become a doctor. It is the influence of survivors and protectors like this that needs to prevail in modern America, not the backwards thinking of Kennedy, a mentally disturbed man with no science or medical training, and the people he directs.
This is basic, folks. This is basic, Trump. This is basic, parents. And so is death, if you prefer it. I do not.
As a person with type one diabetes since 1969 it really scares me that people are turning their backs on established proven medical science facts. Especially from a nut job like RFK Jr who does not have any education in medicine. If you were told that when you buy a new car you never need to do anything to it to keep it up and running in tip top shape, would you believe that? C'mon people, use your brain!
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, RFK Jr’s cousin told us who he is and she wasn’t mincing words about him either. Did the senate committee that confirmed him not pay any attention at all? Bill Cassidy senator from Louisiana and medical doctor went against his better judgment and voted to confirm just to appease the first felon president. It should be a wake up call to get rid of these idiots.
I don't understand how people can not care about the resurgence of an eliminated disease. America has had it easy for too long. Too many people just accepted that they would contract covid, too, and didn't bother with masks or shots.
I didn't accept it, and I took precautions and have not yet contracted it. With my respiratory condition, I do not want to and might not survive it. I am furious at being put at risk for so many preventable diseases because Trump wants to own the libs. Think about it: he installed a guy who ran against him--nearly his greatest sin--in the top health post just to anger half of America. A consequence-free mindset in an intellect-free mind.
Lucky you. I took precautions and have gotten the vaccines and all the boosters, but still got COVID and am still paying the price for it, with an inability to mostly taste my food. I am with you in being put at risk especially for COVID, and anything respiratory. I will be furious if COVID boosters are no longer available, and ditto for flu shots.
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm fortunate to work at home, which helps. I don't interact with children, which helps. Come to think of it, I don't interact with magas if I can help it, which has got to help. If we can't get the vaccines we need, I guess we'll have to hit the black market in Canada or Mexico. Maybe those nations will be kind enough to provide aid to U.S. citizens who are disadvantaged by our own government.
I'm long retired, and I think I picked it up at the grocery store, from rubbing my eye. It's really too bad Ciudad Juárez is so dangerous, because it's just a short drive from our house. And it wouldn't be difficult to find someone who could tell us where to find a clinic or a doctor to get the vaccine. That's a great idea that I will have to keep in mind. Thank you for sharing that idea.
I am so there with you. 81 years old, lung disease, had part of a lung removed during the height of Covid. I haven't gotten it yet and neither has my husband, but neither of us to this day will spend any time in a crowd for any reason. And I still take a mask pretty much everywhere just in case something unexpected happens and I feel uncomfortable. At this point we (and you) really don't need colds or flu either!
Instead, people are saying they would literally rather have you and me go through all that instead of doing a few things to help their fellow citizens. I can't think of a more selfish and cruel mindset. I'm sorry, I can't even call it ignorant: we have learned experience as evidence!
I hear you. With so much of the horrors going on in the country now, I can see-- despise, but understand-- their trajectories. But the Congressional shrug over January 6 (and voter punishment of Republicans who stood up for law and the Constitution and basic decency)and this-- this wholesale rejection of science generally and medicine specifically-- quite literally leave me stupefied to this day. When, how, why did millions of people seemingly overnight start believing, in the words of a college-educated, family member (unfortunately also with young children) that "Doctors lie and scientists fake their data." ("A very small number, as with anything else, but surely you don't mean all," I responded. "I mean all," they replied.) What on Earth has happened to this country?
I can only guess that it was the core value that drew people to Trump in the first place--he hates the same people they hate, therefore they will believe anything he says in order to rationalize and hold onto their animus. Look back on his birtherism crap--that is where it began. And so the rest of us suffer.
Probably true in large part. But Trump seems to be just one conduit for this particular anti-medical science worldview, because some of these people are not among his voters. There's some other pathway for the anti-science poison besides him. He just capitalized it. Where did this start- what's the source, and how did it catch on so quickly and broadly? It's like a wildfire.
As a pediatric nurse practitioner and public hea;th nurse with over 35 years of experiece we cannot blame the parents who have been sold a bill of goods by the well organized and very well funded anti vaxx movement. We health care providers must treat these frightened parents with kindness and care and spend the time it takes to answer the parents' questions which increases parents trust. Over time I have been able to give parents the space they need to decide that vaccinating their children is the right thing to do to protect their children's health. I share the stories of my own family. My mom who had polio at age 3 and my sisters who both had measles. One of my sisers almost died from mealses and my other sister's immune system was permanently damaged and she still suffers the effects of measles to this day. She had measles when she was 7 years old. My mom developed post polio syndrome in her later years and was confined to a wheel chair. I find sharing these stories of my own family moves the parents of my patients and helps me to show in a concrete way that measles and polio and other vaccine preventable diseases are NOT benign diseases and a rite of passage.
I disagree because I don't have the generosity you have. Everyone knows that vaccines work. Most of us were vaccinated as children because in the previous century people were profoundly grateful for prevention of deadly diseases.
These people vaccinate their pets and livestock. We've all seen cautionary tales about being fished in by flimflam and snake oil salesmen, from The Wizard of Oz to the Titan submersible collapse. And anyone who has ever played tag knows how contagion works.
Trust science. Don't listen to fearmongers. There, if they somehow hadn't heard it before, they can hear it now from me. Pathetic. And deadly to the rest of us.
I agree with you, KnockKnockGreenpeace, and you mention an important comparison. I wonder if these parents who also have pets have them vaccinated against rabies and other communicable animal diseases, or do they only believe in the antivaxxers for their children? Perhaps they comply with animal vaccinations because that is the law, at least for rabies, so maybe that's what's needed for their children too. I realize that freedom of choice is important (so, please don't assault me with that argument), but laws worked to stop polio in the United States. I was born before the MMR vaccine, and I had measles as an early infant that resulted in my legal blindness. If that vaccine had been available, my parents would have ensured that I had it. They certainly ensured that I had every other vaccination at the required time intervals.
"I don't want to" has become the law of our land and the maga mantra. Whatever some authority wants them to do for the good of others must be denied. This is far different from any kind of expected conformity that people rejected in the 1960s and 1970s. Even then everyone understood the value of medical science.
Now that expertise has been rejected in and of itself, all of the civilization that we have built will devolve. And faster if people willingly allow disease to spread without check. I can't believe the stupidity. Because someone said something on social media. Because "like" is much more compelling than necessity. I honestly don't see a solution.
All of the troubles humanity has worked through for thousands of years? "We'd like to do that over again." Well, time ain't on our side. We won't get another chance. So, being "kind" to people who resist what we have already learned is not the way to go.
I agree! I do not respect their opinion because they are ill informed or disinformed. Instead of following real news or listening to recognized experts with actual medical degrees, they listen to Fox Faux News or similar podcasts or White Christen Nationalists in the pulpit.
It is a choice, just as our current blanket acceptance of AI is a choice that will further degrade our ability to learn and understand the world. Anyone who willingly gives up their intellectual ability gets no respect from me.
Yesterday I spoke with my doctor who said, I use AI to free me from taking notes during our call. Did I opt in? I had already filled out a form denying my approval to use AI in all situations with that provider, but on a one-on-one basis, I felt I couldn't say no to my overworked doc.
And yet. I know and science proves that note-taking aids our ability to retain information and place it in context with other information. It is a mnemonic device that really can't be replaced. And while this educated doctor may get away with using an app to do that in this type of interaction, it sets a poor example for others and removes one more way in which a doctor--whom I see very infrequently--can know and understand my medical situation. I'm sure that students of all types are already doing this, to their detriment. AI can summarize, but it can't tell you what's relevant to write down.
My memory recall is excellent, in part because I began taking notes in school and continue it in my work with clients. I don't like being asked the same things over and over again in professional situations because people don't have recall or detailed notes that they can reference when needed. One more step toward idiocracy, and one that is a choice taken.
I also agree with you about AI. What a shame that more and more people, especially children in school, are taking for granted that AI has all the right answers. I felt the same way when Wikipedia came along. Some entries are okay perhaps for some general information, but nothing beats using a real encyclopedia that is written and vetted by experts for each entry. As you say about the action of taking notes aiding our memories, the action of looking something up in a reference book and taking notes on what you find there aids our memories. I like and respect my doctor, but if she ever uses AI for my visit, I am walking out and never going back.
It will soon be dangerous to send our children to school. As with so much in public life, this is a man made disaster. A cabinet of know nothings pushing policies by an uneducated leader.
Unless your children cannot be vaccinated, they should be fine at school as far as communicable diseases. Don’t know where you live, but unfortunately the quality of what they are taught depends on it. Good luck 🍀👹
Vaccination against measles helps adults, also. My sister got measles at age 38 and ended up with rheumatoid arthritis. My uncle had measles, probably in his 60s, and died of congestive heart failure, which can also be a side effect of measles. Somehow I never got measles even though I spent some time close to him while he was infected. I've made sure to get my MMR vaccine and update it as needed. Chicken pox, which I had as a child, comes back to bite later as shingles. So anyone who thinks childhood diseases are just part of life are condemning their children to a lot of possible aftereffects.
Childhood vaccines cause adulthood. Period.
Good one, Janis!
Next thing you know, the geniuses at HHS will declare that Lister was wrong and surgeons need not wash their hands before performing surgery. or why don’t we go back to bleeding to remove foul humors? In the last few months, thanks to the Dear Leader and his gang of MAGAmorons, they have destroyed hundreds of years of scientific progress along with education, human rights
and basically everything that made this country great. Although, it has occurred to me that if our institutions are so wonderful, how could they all be destroyed in a few months?
To bad Kennedy wasn’t hit. Maybe soon!
As a polio survivor, I'm expecting one of the outbreaks of vanquished diseases will be polio. As a country, we are extremely venerable for such an outbreak. The country stopped vaccinating for polio years ago when only two countries still had wild polio infections (in the Middle East) occurring. With the resistance to vaccinations so common, when polio reenters the US, many will refuse to receive it thus preventing any chance of herd immunity against polio. I lived the reality of what that will mean.
Turning our backs on lived experience is folly. I'm so glad you are here to add your voice to our shared reality. Parents: teach your kids history and a respect for expertise.