Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Swine Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rock_nj who wrote (436)	11/18/2009 12:54:24 AM
From: Webster Groves	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 463

<Perhaps Bill should read up on what the world was like before modern vaccines were available to wipe out diseases> Your assumption is that all vaccines are equally important, and equally effective. Vaccines were first used to fight major diseases such as smallpox, typhoid, polio, pertussis, rabies, anthrax, and diphtheria. Then vaccination was introduced for relatively milder (but potentially dangerous) diseases such as measles, influenza, shingles, etc. Should every bacterial and viral infection be prevented by inducing immunogens into the body ? Just because I avoid influenza vaccines of all types does not mean I would reject a rabies innoculation if the need arose. Your blanket dismissal of the H1N1 anti-vaccination crowd as inferred ignoramuses is simply an ad hominem remark with no applicability. wg PS - Speaking of "reading up" perhaps it is you who needs to do some reading on just how "modern" these "modern vaccines" really are. Edward Jenner was late to the party, but he gets the nod because he was first to publish his work. His big contribution was not the principle of vaccination, but rather the recognition that a weak form (cowpox) could provide immunity to a strong form (smallpox). Like Pasteur, we do the same today with weakened immunogens, but the practice of vaccination itself goes back thousands of years.