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DrEvil » 22 Apr 2019 20:07 wrote:If people are so terrified of a vaccine that has been in use for decades with amazing results, here's a thought: vaccinate everyone! That's what we did with smallpox, and it is now completely gone and we don't have to vaccinate for it at all. No more vaccine!
That was where we were headed with measles too, until the pro-diseasers took Wakefield's lies and ran with them.
And a little reminder: measles killed 110000 people in 2017 (300 people every day), most of them children under five. Even in a country with good healthcare it will kill about 1 in 1000 infected. There's already one woman in a coma and several people hospitalized from the recent outbreak. It won't be long until someone dies.
Centralization of power and control facilitates hegemony. Contemporary research
indicates the United States is no longer a democracy but an oligarchy (Gilens & Page, 2014).
Sheldon Wolin, in Democracy, Inc. (2008, said the US had become an “inverted totalitarian”
[state or] “managed democracy” (p. xxiv). He states we have “tendencies in our system of
power that are opposed to the fundamental principles of constitutional democracy. Those
tendencies are, I believe, totalizing in the sense that they are obsessed with control,
expansion, superiority, and supremacy” (p. xvii). Like Mills, Wolin asserts this
totalitarianism depends on perpetual war and at its core are a group of intellectual elites who
are not acting on behalf of democracy and the majority, but for their own self-interest. This
concentration of power would seem to necessarily lead to the manipulation and control of the
general public.
[...]
Evidence of this hegemony can be observed in government. In recent decades, the
separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution has diminished. In essence, Congress has
transferred power to unelected regulatory agencies, a part of the executive branch of
government, through the power to make law through regulation. A revolving door of industry
executives being appointed to top positions in regulatory agencies and then often returning to
industry, has created a dynamic where industries now essentially control the agencies
charged with their regulation (Emord, 2008).
This “industry capture” is clearly visible in the pharmaceutical industry’s influence
over the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), and many other institutions connected to the industry. This influence extends to
professional and medical education, medical research and the content in medical journals,
and prescription behavior of healthcare practitioners (Emord, 2008). Members of the United
States Congress face intense pressure from industry lobbyists. Indiana Congressman Dan
Burton stated the industry has “unlimited resources . . . when they push real hard to get
something accomplished in the Congress . . . they can get it” (Burton, as quoted in Rosen,
2007). Legislation is often passed with little review by legislators. Referring to a piece of
legislation regarding prescription drugs, North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones (as
quoted in Rosen, 2007) said, "The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill. The bill was over
1,000 pages. And it got to the members of the House that morning, and we voted for it at
about 3 a.m. in the morning."
Questioning accepted research, like that supporting vaccines, will often earn someone
a conspiracist label yet there is substantial reason to raise questions. Researchers have found
as much as one-half of published psychological studies are not reproducible (Baker, 2015;
Nosek, 2015) and leading medical authorities have suggested similar problems exist in that
discipline (Ioannidis, 2005). Editors of leading peer-reviewed medical journals have
suggested flagrant conflicts of interests and methodological problems have rendered as much
as one-half of all published medical research invalid (Angell, 2009; Horton, 2015).
Some suggest conspiratorial thinking “predicts a rejection of scientific evidence in the
context of genetically modified foods, vaccinations, and climate science” (Bilewicz et al.,
2015, p. xii) yet there is evidence the “science” in each of these areas may not be so
scientific. The potential for industry’s influence over research outcomes is enormous.
Financial incentives which might lead to corruption have been identified. Some have found
industry-supported research impacts medical journal revenue (Lundh, Barbateskovic,
Hróbjartsson, & Gøtzsche, 2010). Indeed, raising questions about the legitimacy of the
regulatory approval system and processes can bring oppression via self-censorship. In 2012,
the New York Times reported the Food and Drug Administration tracked the emails of
scientists who raised questions about the agency to members of Congress and other
authorities (Lichtblau & Shane, 2012).
Politicians and agency executives are often lobbied to pass laws and implement
regulations that are ostensibly for the public good, but in reality benefit only a few companies
or segments of an industry at the expense of competing companies and the public. In 1974
economist Anne Krueger coined the term “rent seeking” where one company can manipulate
laws or regulations to gain advantage over competitors. While often attributed to
dictatorships and banana republics, widespread, global systemic administrative corruption is
found in both developed and underdeveloped societies and is well-documented (Caiden &
Caiden, 1977).
Perhaps a no more troubling example of “industry capture” of regulators by a
corporation or industry is CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding’s appointment as president of
Merck’s vaccine division in 2009. Shortly before joining Merck, the manufacturer of
Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, CDC researcher Dr. William Thompson,
states Dr. Gerberding orchestrated a suppression of data suggesting a potential link between
the MMR vaccine and autism in African American boys. Numerous independent studies have
shown a relationship between Thimerosal, a mercury-containing ingredient found in the
MMR vaccine, and neurodevelopmental disorders (Hooker et al., 2014).
In defense of their positions on the safety of Thimerosal, Merck, and the CDC pointed
to six studies supporting the vaccine’s safety. Hooker et al. (2014) found significant
methodological issues and evidence of malfeasance in those studies, including the CDC’s
direct commission of five of them. In August of 2015, Dr. Gerberding, now an executive vice
president at Merck, sold 38,368 of her shares in Merck stock for more than $2.3 million.
Thompson has been provided immunity from prosecution by President Obama, and
Congressman Bill Posey of Florida called for an investigation of the matter from the floor of
the U.S. House of Representatives on July 29, 2015.
More recently, a group of CDC scientists, calling themselves CDC Scientists
Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research (SPIDER), wrote to the CDC’s Chief
of Staff, expressing concern about the state of ethics at the agency (Gillam, 2016). In the
letter, a copy of which was sent to public watchdog group U.S. Right to Know (2016),
SPIDER members asserted the CDC’s “mission is being influenced and shaped by outside
parties and rogue interests” (p.1). Further, they charge, “Congressional intent for our agency
is being circumvented by some of our leaders. What concerns us most, is that it is becoming
the norm and not the rare exception,” the letter states. “These questionable and unethical
practices threaten to undermine our credibility and reputation as a trusted leader in public
health” (p.1). SPIDER members suggest some CDC executives’ ties to industry appear to be
influencing how the agency handles data and its recommendations.
stickdog99 » Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:38 pm wrote:DrEvil » 22 Apr 2019 20:07 wrote:If people are so terrified of a vaccine that has been in use for decades with amazing results, here's a thought: vaccinate everyone! That's what we did with smallpox, and it is now completely gone and we don't have to vaccinate for it at all. No more vaccine!
That was where we were headed with measles too, until the pro-diseasers took Wakefield's lies and ran with them.
And a little reminder: measles killed 110000 people in 2017 (300 people every day), most of them children under five. Even in a country with good healthcare it will kill about 1 in 1000 infected. There's already one woman in a coma and several people hospitalized from the recent outbreak. It won't be long until someone dies.
And how many vaccine injuries occur per 100,000 vaccinated? Oh, wait. No one can answer that because manufacturer funded vaccine "safety tests" typically include only a few hundred subjects, classify injuries as vaccine-related at the manufacturers' discretion, and use aluminium adjuvants and/or other vaccines as their "placebo controls" for "baselines" for determining side effect rates.
Measles is a terrible disease in countries in which children are malnourished. I personally believe that measles vaccination confers far more benefit than risk to such populations, but this is just my guess. There are certainly no data available that confirm that the MMR vaccine definitely confers more benefit than cost and risk among well nourished children. It is quite possible, maybe even probable, that its benefit vs. cost and risk profile is unassailable and its QALY per dollar is relatively low. But no serious attempts (ones that include non-zero rates of vaccine injuries) have ever been made to collect or analyze these data.
Thus, we mandate vaccination based solely on our FAITH that its benefits MUST exceed its costs and risks for every conceivable population and sub-population. And when people, even fully vaccinated people, start contracting measles? Well, then let's recommend a completely untested "extra dose" on the basis of our dataless FAITH that this will definitely confer "extra protection" without any potential shred of extra risk. We don't need any stinking data when we all already KNOW that when it comes to vaccines, the more injections the merrier! Always and forever in perpetuity. No safety data required!
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