UPDATED::Show Notes::Just No!!

UPDATE:: So the laetrile shilling Dinoman is committing adultery by marrying the AV crank. I could say a "match made in heaven" but the consequences here on earth are going to be time consuming.

Before we begin, I would like to say this.  Consider it a disclaimer of sorts but also an explanation of why I do what I do.  I am a layperson, not an expert,  There are subjects I spend more time learning about (ie homosex and the bile) but I do not consider myself an expert.  I have an opinion, hopefully an informed one (vaccines and GMOs are good),  I am not afraid to share it. Or the process I took to get to my reasoning point (hence my numerous citations).

I do this for two reasons, to avoid a charge of plagiarism; a point drilled into me since high school. And the second reason, to provide those that read my shit a chance to read and hopefully learn from those smarter than I.  So when I see information that runs counter to the consensus of science, I cringe.  Some of it really fucks me off.  That is where today’s episode falls.

Another way to think about this is to ask whether or not there is any reason to think that the scientists are corrupt other than simply the fact that you don't like their conclusions. The answer is obviously that there is no a priori reason to think that all of them are corrupt. This same reasoning applies to people who claim that climate scientists are only in it for the money, that Monsanto has control over all the food scientists, etc. Anytime that you claim that a consensus is wrong, you have just placed the burden of proof on your shoulders. Carl Sagan said it best when he said that, 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.' If you're going to claim that the scientific consensus is wrong about climate change, vaccines, etc. you cannot get away with an unsupported cop out like, 'warming is just a natural cycle' or 'it's a conspiracy.' The burden of proof is on you to provide clear and irrefutable evidence for your position. Until you can do that, logic and rational thought are not on your side.

That is what Tocco partakes in, as well as Hovind.  The information presented in this video is  counter to what science tells us with nothing but opinion to back said claim.  Using the trope of “follow the money” does not work as well, as this is used to bolster the above claim.  If you really want to follow the money, do as Fallacy Man suggests.

Wakefield is admittedly an extreme example, but many other less extreme cases exist. For example, have you ever stopped to follow the money on the anti-vaccine blogs and web pages that pollute the internet? If you haven’t, you should, because most of the major ones include a store selling the products that you supposedly should use instead of vaccines. GreenMedInfo, Natural News, Mercola, Modern Alternative Mama, etc. all have stores selling their products and books. Similarly, famous anti-vaccine doctors like Sherri Tenpenny make quite a bit of money off of their books, speaking tours, etc. This is true for much more than just vaccines. You find this pattern throughout the amorphous mess that is alternative medicine, and it’s actually a brilliant business strategy when you think about it. First, you scare people about the horrors of vaccines and traditional “western” medicines. Then, you tell them about some amazing “natural” product that Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about because it can cure everything from measles to infertility. Finally, you direct them to your store which just happens to sell that miracle product. There’s clearly no conflict of interest there (note the immense sarcasm).

 Both Hovind and Tocco have “stores”!!

I have spent time reading Tocco’s material, and ya know what?  Not a nary of credible citation available, Those articles with citation, it is the bare minimum of information (here are three pieces with no citation::  http://childhoodshots.com/vaccines-cause-autism/, http://childhoodshots.com/vaccine-dangers/, http://childhoodshots.com/side-effects-drugging-children/).  This bothers me and is something I try to combat in my own special way.

So the other day Kent "the dinoman" Hovind released a video (4/9/2016) entitled, Dr. Kent Hovind Intro to Mary Tocco's info on the dangers of Vaccinations.  Hovind has officially added anti-vaxx to his repertoire.  He has always been suspect in my mind due to his SovCit, anti-gov't mind-set but this video is evidence of such.

Within the first 2 1/2 minutes Hovind demonstrates his imbecilic understanding of vaccines and immunology, while Tocco hits on 2 AV tropes I would like to discuss.

1]  The Cutter Incident
2]  The alleged renaming of Polio as non-viral meningitis and/or bacterial meningitis as a reaction to the Polio vaccine.


The Cutter Incident
At first glance this narrative looks bad if one accepts Tocco’s subtly implied version as presented to Hovind, although that is not what I found:

In April 1955 more than 200 000 children in five Western and mid-Western USA states received a polio vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Within days there were reports of paralysis and within a month the first mass vaccination programme against polio had to be abandoned. Subsequent investigations revealed that the vaccine, manufactured by the California-based family firm of Cutter Laboratories, had caused 40 000 cases of polio, leaving 200 children with varying degrees of paralysis and killing 10. 

Rightly so, the Cutter Incident has been called one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in U.S. history.”

Delving into court records, government reports and earlier accounts of the tragedy, Offit found that the vaccine was contaminated by live polio virus that withstood the formaldehyde treatment designed to kill it. The virus survived by clinging to bits of cellular material that were not adequately filtered in Cutter“s manufacturing process.

It was a scale-up problem,” Offit explained. When initial batches of vaccine were made in Dr. Jonas Salk’s laboratory, a thick asbestos filter was used that efficiently separated the virus from the cellular debris. When Cutter attempted to produce millions of doses of vaccine for the national program, it used a glass filter that was faster but let some virus-laden debris slip through.

Two of eight batches of Cutter vaccine released to the market, enough for 120,000 doses, were subsequently found to be contaminated with live virus.

The contaminated vaccine was directly responsible for five deaths and 51 cases of permanent paralysis among those who were vaccinated by the Cutter product. The vaccine also triggered a small epidemic among family members and others who had close contact with the children who‘d fallen ill. This resulted in five more deaths, and 113 more cases of paralysis.

So based on a very quick search, one finds that within 2-3 minutes Tocco has imbibed in her first set of hyperbole.  What I have found is, all told, 220,000 people were infected; 70,000 developed muscle weakness.  Of 164 people who developed paralysis in response to the vaccine, 10 died.  Though tragic,  the global end to polio transmission would have been inconceivable without the vaccine.  (Think of the total number vaccinated in the US alone.)  

It is also important to remember that in the 1950s, protecting the public from polio was a national project. (It was a national campaign financed by the March of Dimes that made it such.) Every effort was made to see that the vaccine would be widely available to all children and polio would be wiped out.  In the U.S., the last case of naturally occurring polio happened in 1979.

I am not going to get into the politics or minutiae of the development of the vaccine of the Gottsdanker v. Cutter case or aftermath but I will add this in regards to Paul Offit’s book regarding said case, “the relationship between science and law has been complicated and often counterproductive.”  The Cutter Incident has had huge ramifications (higher production standards and only four, surviving vaccine producing manufacturers; currently 6) but zero evidence of the truth being hidden - slow yes, hidden no - from the public as Tocco claims.

Mistakes were made, there is no denying that.  A tragedy occurred, but one needs to bear in mind the panic that polio caused.  Over 40 million children had been slated to be immunized, to imply other motives is disingenuous at best.

Although it was not the most dreadful disease of its day -- paralysis was rare, and death very rare -- it played upon the public imagination as a despoiler of youth (and of the summertime, when it was most prevalent). Images here of very small children walking with leg braces and canes are still heartbreakingly potent.

Although I am glossing over the Cutter Incident, it does not lessen the overall impression.   The impact of the first few minutes of Hovind’s video, what Tocco suggests in her statement left a mark.  (So much so I have read a considerable amount concerning development of said polio vaccine, the politics behind it and other small details.  I have also ordered a copy of Offit’s book concerning the Cutter Incident.)  You can not trust the power elite - ie the gov’t, academia, the doctors or scientists - but “my” 30+ years at “Google U”  is impeccable.

(FYI::  I have been pondering Hovind’s agenda as to this segment and recently learned that April is the 61st anniversary of the announcement by Jonas Salk that the polio vaccine was safe and effective.  It has a bit of a regional twist, hence the article.)

I was hoping to hit both points tonight in regards to Tocco’s AVer stance.  Regretfully my voice has other ideas and we have already hit the 10 minute mark; or guest tonight is much too fun to continue so there will be a part 2 for next week.

https://thelogicofscience.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/vaccine-sanitation.jpg

[The following three paragraphs currently lack citation as my file became corrupted while formatting to HTML  With some luck I will be able to recreate citation in the next few days.]

I will leave you with a bit of foreshadowing, hidden within Tocco’s concern about the polio vaccine are a whole boatload of unsubstantiated claims - the most egregious, vaccinations have no role in the eradication of disease. [Study abstract]  (A caveat to this article, which discusses measles and whooping cough, “before any anti-vaccers bring up the well worn and fundamentally flawed argument that, "the majority of people who got the diseases were vaccinated," let me remind you that it is the disease rates, not the number of cases that are important. In other words, there are far more vaccinated people than unvaccinated people in the US, so of course most of the people who get a disease will be vaccinated, but their rates are much lower.”)  In her simplistic denial of germ theory, she states that polio was renamed as non-viral meningitis and/or bacterial meningitis as a reaction to the Polio vaccine. 

Both her concerns are false and I will show why.  It boils down to, in a simplistic way, if the  names (polio is not the only ailment included in this list) have been changed, why don’t we see a corresponding increase in other ailments?  (Some say we do but ignore other factors such as the changes in diagnostic criteria.)

If you have 10 minutes to spare, and I hope you do, give a listen to the garbage Hovind and Tocco spew.  Although I am fairly certain I am talking to the choir, it should give you a finer understanding why combating woo is so important.  Why people like our guest Professor Stephen are so important.

For Fun,,,

Examine the science behind vaccinations, the return of preventable diseases, and the risks of opting out. Aired August 26, 2015 on PBS

Show Notes::Just NO!! (Pt 2)

So last week we ended our discussion concerning Kent Hovind and Mary Tocco after briefly talking about the Cutter Incident.  Yes, a tragedy occurred but the entire narrative is not as dire as those of Tocco's ilk make it out to be.  Plain and simple, Vaccines work!!

 https://www.verywell.com/anti-vaccine-myths-and-misinformation-2633730

As I mentioned previous, hidden within Tocco’s concern about the polio vaccine are a whole boatload of unsubstantiated claims - vaccinations have no role in the eradication of disease, a simplistic denial of germ theory, and she states that polio was renamed (as non-viral meningitis and/or bacterial meningitis as a reaction to the polio vaccine).  We will take a brief look at all three claims but it is the third that intrigues me.

Vaccinations have no role in the eradication of disease
My introduction comes courtesy of Bill Maher which I have discussed before [Show notes::I call bullsh*t, if the shoe fits, A more thorough look,,,I call bullsh*t, if the shoe fits (Pt 1), A more thorough look,,,I call bullsh*t, if the shoe fits (Pt 2), A more thorough look,,,I call bullsh*t, if the shoe fits (Pt 3)]. Due to time constraints, I will not re-hash his stance.

My first introduction to Maher’s AV crap December 15, 2005 on Larry  King:

MAHER: Not the least. You know my theory about health.
KING: What?
MAHER: Well, we've talked about it. I'm not into western medicine. That to me is a complete scare tactic. It just shows you, you can...
KING: You mean you don't get a -- you don't get a flu shot?
MAHER: A flu shot is the worst thing you can do.
KING: Why?
MAHER: Because it's got -- it's got mercury.
KING: It prevents flu.
MAHER: It doesn't prevent. First of all, that's...
,,,
KING: You wouldn't say the Salk vaccine was a bad idea.
MAHER: That's somewhat of a different case, yes.
KING: Polio was eliminated.
MAHER: Yes but, you know, there are many books out that will -- that will -- and I'm not well enough versed on it to talk about it that will indicate that there are other reasons why it was.
And a lot of diseases that have been they say, whoa, this was eliminated because of a vaccine, they find out well no actually the country got toilets and that's what happened.

Maher continues three years later on Letterman and what I have noted above.  The simple truth, Maher is AV.

What this argument boils down to "most vaccine-preventable diseases were on their way to be eradicated just before a specific vaccine to prevent them was introduced, typically because of 'clean water and a healthy diet.' They claim that vaccines didn't save us and that vaccines don't even work."

As Vincent Iannelli points out, "The big problem with this false idea is that most of these diseases began to be eradicated at different times - smallpox, diphtheria, polio, measles, etc. If hygiene and better nutrition were the reasons, wouldn't they all have been eradicated at the same time?"

As Fallacy Man does note concerning this issue, "death rates had declined prior to vaccines, but actual infection rates had not." (Disease rates declined - Clemens et al. 1988, Adgebola et al. 2005; diseases have a nasty habit of returning when vaccine rates drop - Antona et al. 2013; Knol et al. 2013).

As Fallacy Man again notes in a piece that de-constructs the AVer’s stance,

,,,it is important to realize that anti-vaccers are correct that death rates from measles had declined greatly prior to vaccines. This was largely due to improved medical treatments that allowed people with measles to have a higher chance of surviving,,, 

The important take away from this,,, deaths may have decreased but actual incidents did not.  “What this graph tells us is that the number of people who were surviving measles increased without vaccines, but the number of people who were getting measles had not changed.”

I will leave with one final cite in regards to this topic.  The key to this subject I believe lays in the final question:

The decrease in infectious diseases has been multifactorial, due to improved nutrition, improved hygienic (lets hear it for the flush toilet) and understanding the epidemiology of diseases.  Knowing how a disease is spread has always been critical in decreasing its spread.  Note that none, none, none of the interventions that have decreased the spread of infections in the last 200 years or so have come from naturopathic tradition.

[See also David Gorski, “Vaccines didn’t save us” (a.k.a. “vaccines don’t work”): Intellectual dishonesty at its most naked]

Crislip in support of his argument cites Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States.  The result of which are very telling,

A greater than 92% decline in cases and a 99% or greater decline in deaths due to diseases prevented by vaccines recommended before 1980 were shown for diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, and tetanus. Endemic transmission of poliovirus and measles and rubella viruses has been eliminated in the United States; smallpox has been eradicated worldwide. Declines were 80% or greater for cases and deaths of most vaccine-preventable diseases targeted since 1980 including hepatitis A, acute hepatitis B, Hib, and varicella. Declines in cases and deaths of invasive S pneumoniae were 34% and 25%, respectively.

To drive the point further,

More than half of reported measles cases in recent outbreaks in the U.S. were among unvaccinated individuals — most of whom were intentionally unvaccinated for philosophical, rather than medical, reasons. In a third of the cases, researchers did not have enough information about the person’s vaccination history to tell if they’d been immunized.

A similar pattern held true for individuals who contracted pertussis, or whooping cough, another vaccine-preventable disease that hit its low point in this country in the late 1970s.

While previous studies have examined how anti-vaccination sentiments may contribute to localized outbreaks, Dr. Varun Phadke, a fellow in the division of infectious diseases with the Emory University School of Medicine and an author on the new investigation, told The Huffington Post that this latest investigation is much broader.

“Our study adds to this work by looking at the contribution of vaccine refusal to outbreaks of measles and pertussis in the U.S,” he said. [URL added to original]

And that contribution, Phadke and his colleagues found, is significant.

Simplistic denial of germ theory

The denial of germ theory by itself is a handful:

• https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/oh-come-on-superman-bill-maher-and-western-medicine/

Who does this sound like?

Similarly, there are still some die-hard germ theory denialists out there who cite Béchamp in much the same way young earth creationists cite the Bible and deny that germs have anything to do with disease whatsoever, claiming instead that microbes appear “because of the terrain” and are an indicator, rather than a cause, of disease (or, as they frequently call it, “dis-ease”). However, most cases of germ theory denialism are of a piece with ID creationism. Like ID promoters who admit that evolution “does” happen, this variety of germ theory denialist accepts that microbes “can” cause disease, but they argue that microbes can only cause disease if the host is already diseased or debilitated. Using such claims, they argue that the “terrain” is by far the most important determinant of whether or not I get sick. As a result, they claim that eating the right diet, doing the right exercises, and taking the right supplements will protect you against disease as well as any vaccine — better, in fact, because supposedly you’re not injecting all those “toxins” from vaccines into your body. 

• https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/i-reject-your-reality/
• https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/germ-theory-denialism-a-major-strain-in-alt-med-thought/
• http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/germ-theory-denial/
• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/03/17/gobsmacked-by-germ-theory-denialism-agai/
• http://vaccineconspiracytheorist.blogspot.com/2012/07/germ-theory-denialism.html

Suffice to say I am going to be glossing over this area as it is a topic in and of itself - Hulda Clark and aggregated toxicity, non-specific toxins,  Loius Pasteur's death bed confession, fruitarianism, raw foods, and more - all surrounded by conspiracy.

In general, under this topic one could also add a lack of understanding as to how the immune system works (insert Hovind here).  The AV claim goes something like this,

An overly simplistic  view, "if germs aren’t the primary cause of infectious disease, then vaccination is unnecessary."

One of many replies,

An antigen is a surface recognition protein that is present on the outer membrane of cells (or bacteria walls). Each type of cell has a specific antigen that your body can recognize (this is how your immune system tells the difference between your cells and a foreign cell). So, when you get an infection, your body learns to identify the antigens of the invading cells, and it produces antibodies for those cells. What vaccines do, is present your body with the antigens without actually giving you the infection. That way your body produces the necessary antibodies without you actually getting sick. So, the mechanism that your immune system uses is identical between vaccines and natural immunity. They both produce antibodies in response to antigens.

Now my understanding of immunology is weak at best.  In other words I know of no way to break it down simpler than what I have read and come to understand.  What I can say is that the denial of germ theory, as we understand it today, undermines the whole of combating disease and illness.  Just as evolutionary theory is a bulwark of the biological sciences, so to is germ theory.

Polio was renamed

This whole renaming shtick is what gets me,

On the extreme end of these anti-vaccine beliefs are those who think that many vaccine-preventable diseases were never eradicated at all! They simply believe that doctors and public health experts simply changed the name of the diseases in a big conspiracy to just make it seem like the diseases went away.

They believe that these diseases, like polio, are still here - just with different names...

What becomes even more bizarre, in order for something like this to be possible, all healthcare workers would have to be wrapped up in a global conspiracy of mammoth proportions.  Like many a con-theory, it is a house-of-cards that collapses under it own weight.  When I say all. I do mean ALL.

Like most con-nutters, AVers share some commonalities:

1]  I've done my research - they confuse one-sided, cherry picked, information gathering as research.  Tocco is a prime example as she touts her 30+ years at Google U as experience in the fields of immunology, virology, bacteriology, vaccines, and epidemiology. "They now think they are experts in highly complex fields of biomedical science."

2]  Vaccines don't work - In other words, after all your extensive research, what journals are you published in?  As SkepticalRaptor aptly notes,

Why should I respect a group of people who cannot provide one single peer-reviewed paper published in a real journal that shows a significant issue with vaccines? They tend to mine news or research for anything that slightly supports their beliefs, while ignoring everything else that does not. They ignore all new research that’s supported by other researchers, that’s repeated by a wide variety of research groups, and then added into meta-reviews by respected groups,,,

It is my favorite question to ask and I do use it!!

3]  The Dunning-Kruger effect - "There is nothing as arrogant as the antivaccinationist belief that their opinion is somehow more important than the vast weight of 99.99% of physicians, healthcare workers, researchers, scientists, public health officers, and just about anyone with a vested interest in the good health of community."

http://digitalintelligencetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/dunning-kruger-effect-1140x641.png

You have heard me state on many occasions that I am NOT an expert.  In areas of uncertainty I will seek out those with proper qualifications to fact-check my work.  Not so, with the AV crowd, they are full of themselves (and I am talking your die-hards here, not those on the fence - people like Hovind, Tocco, Maher, McCarthy, etc.)

SR notes more commonalities, but I think you get my drift.  These are three I experience most often.  As I mentioned last week, my segments or postings are the means to an end.  The path I took to get to my reasoning point.  I share in hopes of showing others what I found helpful.  In a way a means to "edumacate" others in a simple fashion but yet give solid resources of how I got there.

If my science is wrong, or my understanding flawed, I would hope someone smarter than I would straighten my path - with solid resources!!

https://www.facebook.com/ScienceCriticalThinkingAndSkepticism/?fref=photo

I think Gorski sums up well the whole of the AV sentiment,

I realize that I’m citing anecdotal evidence (which is usually a no-no on SBM), but forgive me a movment[sic] as I lapse into an expression of opinion. It is my perception that many skeptics who are hardcore rational when it comes to issues like evolution, paranormal phenomena, and other areas of pseudoscience all too often tend not to understand the important of science-based medicine–or even what science-based medicine is. Moreover, there does seem to me to be a strain of sympathy for the anti-vaccine movement among skeptics. I’ve seen it myself. For example, when I’ve been to meetings with skeptics, namely people who actually belong to skeptical organizations like the Center For Inquiry or who attend meetings like The Amazing Meeting, when it comes to vaccines, pharma, and medicine, I am continually discouraged by how many “skeptics” actually buy into at least some medical pseudoscience. Indeed, recently I have gotten into discussions with a skeptic about vaccines, and I was surprised at how she actually thought there was something to the claimed link between vaccines and autism and how her doubts could not be easily assuaged. Meanwhile, a lot of skeptics I’ve encountered, although they don’t buy the claims of “alternative” medicine or the anti-vaccine movement, appear to be “shruggies,” in that they don’t much care about them either or see why we at SBM get so worked up about them.

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All background images from https://duckduckgo.com/?q=background+images&t=ffnt&ia=images

Some other Hovind videos concerning his AV stance you may be interested in watching.  He seems to have vaccine BS throughout his videos so one can always search in that manner as well.  I did not realize he was so AV!!

w/ Tocco

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18isAxxPMz0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lLyERUxTO4  Dinoman's (Kent Hovind) first mention (that I am aware of) of Tocco

Depopulation Through Vaccines And Chemtrails (Part 1-3)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb54L3p2e40&list=PL82AA95D82B376EB5
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82OdDDOlTU&list=PL82AA95D82B376EB5&index=2
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJq317mQP4w&list=PL82AA95D82B376EB5&index=3

First intro to Tocco and her anti-vaxx BS. Hovind I follow because of his SovCit BS and of course creation BS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BJvPcHGFGI

Tocco's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/MaryTocco1/feed

On Mary Tocco, ie. why she is bad news,,,

• http://totaldrek.blogspot.com/2008/03/not-my-best-decision-ever.html This individual sat through an entire Tocco video,,,,sigh
• http://totaldrek.blogspot.com/2010/12/mary-tocco-redux.html
• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/08/13/antivaccine-cranks-in-michigan-mlive-com-gives-mary-tocco-a-platform/
• http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/toccos-anti-vaccine-narrative/
• http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2011/08/mary-tocco-is-she-mistaken-or.html

Vaccines Work (ie those studies don't mean what you think they mean)

• http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2013/10/oh-not-again-another-post-claiming-vaccines-cause-autism-with-studies-to-prove-it.html
• http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2013/08/-those-lists-of-papers-that-claim-vaccines-cause-autism-part-1.html
• http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2013/08/that-other-list-of-papers-30-scientific-studies-that-demonstrate-vaxes-can-cause-autism.html

Catholic Bishops In Kenya Call For A Boycott Of Polio Vaccines : Goats and Soda : NPR

Africa will mark one year without polio on Tuesday. The last case was in Somalia in 2014.

But last week, a polio vaccination campaign in Kenya faced an unlikely opponent: The country's Conference of Catholic Bishops declared a boycott of the World Health Organization's vaccination campaign, saying they needed to "test" whether ingredients contain a derivative of estrogen. Dr. Wahome Ngare of the Kenyan Catholic Doctor's Association alleged that the presence of the female hormone could sterilize children.

Ngare is a practicing gynecologist with no infectious disease experience.

He raises the specter of eugenics — sterilizing segments of human populations. He put forth other objections as well: "There are all sorts of stories out there," he told me. "Vaccines can cause autism. Vaccines have been used for spread of HIV. There are some cancer-causing viruses that you'd find in vaccines. So there are lot of stories. Some of them we don't know whether they're true or not true."

I pointed out to him that research has shown that claims of vaccines being linked to autism and HIV and cancer are in fact not true.

His response: "We could debate this forever."

Catholic Bishops In Kenya Call For A Boycott Of Polio Vaccines : Goats and Soda : NPR

How anti-vaxxers fuel the spread of polio – Keren Landsman – Aeon

"We had to convince people with healthy children to vaccinate them again, not for their own safety, but for the public good"
__
Fascinating read., a first person account of battling polio from the front lines and the damage done by anti-vaxxers in destroying "herd immunity.". Shows the importance of global organizations such as WHO,,,

Polio should have been eradicated long ago, at least in the developed world. After all, we’ve had a good, efficient vaccine for 60 years. So why is polio still here? And what is it doing in my country?

Israel is the original start-up nation, powered by high-tech and science, with some of the most sophisticated medical research in the world. We have come a long way from the 1950s, when polio was still with us and the signature experience was living on a Kibbutz. We are a modern, wired nation, but we forgot one thing: we still live in the Middle East. We have great weather, plenty of sunshine, lovely beaches, and two relatively nearby countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan – where the wild polio virus still roams free.

Shortly before polio returned to Israel, it hit the sewers of Egypt, our neighbour to the south, in December 2012. Egypt, like Israel, already vaccinated widely – so someone from Pakistan must have entered Egypt, used a toilet, and excreted polio into the sewer system around Cairo, probably infecting some Egyptians along the way. Egyptian physicians could find no cases of polio paralysis, the most devastating outcome of the disease, and that made sense: 95 per cent of people infected with polio show no symptoms and never become sick. But Egypt knew paralysis would be next if the virus was allowed to spread. So Egypt fought back. A nationwide campaign was initiated, and more than 14 million Egyptian children were vaccinated against polio. Within a month, the Egyptians had vanquished polio from its sewers and its country, yet again.

[,,,]
Analysing the situation, the Israeli government looked at the global data collected by the World Health Organization: it turned out that in nations at risk, a combination of the two vaccines could work best. A single, previous IPV shot made of dead virus could protect against the spread of vaccine-associated polio from the live vaccine. The live vaccine, meanwhile, would prevent the virus from taking root in the gut, where it might spread out to infect the vulnerable and exposed.

How anti-vaxxers fuel the spread of polio – Keren Landsman – Aeon