Vaccines - No man is an island

In 1963 the first measles vaccine was patented and released for the masses. Western countries have massively invested in campaigns to get people vaccinated. The consequence was, that measles was almost eradicated in parts of the world with high vaccination numbers.

Somewhere during COVID, when people had little to do during lock down, anti-vax narratives started flooding the datasets that we all live in. A percentage of people that suddenly got interested in vaccination started doing their own research. A segment of those, got hooked on the sensationalist narratives of global elites pumping you full of harmful chemicals. The consequence is that a segment of the population "delayed" or just "denied" the vaccine during this periode.

[quote]Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, and also one of the most preventable: two doses of vaccine in childhood is 97% protective. WHO estimates that some [b]61 million doses were missed or delayed in 2021. In 2022, about 83% of the world's children received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday – the lowest proportion since 2008, when the rate was also 83%.[/b][/quote]

Ideas like: extreme forms of skepticism and ultra-individualism [i](With libertarian greatest hits like: I do what I want; You can't tell me what to do; Leave me alone; I know what is best for myself; Stay off my lawn; Only I know what is good for me; I'm smart enough to make my own choices; ...)[/i], are slowly coming home to roost.

[quote]The WHO's most recent global numbers, released in November, reveal that [b]measles cases increased worldwide by 18% to about 9 million, and deaths rose 43% to 136,000, in 2022 compared to 2021[/b]. Some 32 countries had large, disruptive outbreaks in 2022, and that number ticked up to 51 in 2023, Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, WHO's senior technical adviser for measles and rubella control, told NPR.[/quote]

The measles as a vaccin, is usually injected as a combination with protection for: the mumps and rubella. All these diseases have a new playing field to fester because a segment of the population has been thought to mistrust vaccinations. Something that worked for years without much pushbacks and had incredible positive results, is now suddenly a big societal issue. Our herd-immunity is being diminished purely because a small segment of entrepreneurs are making loads of money selling the gullible a conspiratorial narrative. From merchandise to books to revenue on social media sites getting payed for clicks and likes.

But as the ultra-individualist will find out... being a little Cartman can have great consequences on a societal level. [b]Because no man is an island.[/b]

[media=https://youtu.be/z0-KZS1dDyw]

[b]SOURCE:[/b] https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/02/08/1229540182/its-no-surprise-theres-a-global-measles-outbreak-but-the-numbers-are-staggering

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

It would be interesting to know who is behind the anti-vaccine (so pro-disease?) scare tactics, and why.

Perhaps it's time the sources and nationalities of blogs, social-media posts etc were available to the user in the way that e-posts are.

(For example, BTinternet has a toolbar link called "View Source", and though most of the result is only comprehensible to IT experts it does show if the source claimed by the message is itself a lie, and sometimes reveals the nationality.)

The social(??)-media companies could do more than merely deleting harmful and sometimes illegal posts as they bleat they do, and so irretrievably, permanently block the source. In the case of illegal material, also passing the identities to the Police and ISPs. Yes the scammers and malcontents will find new instruments, or perhaps use work or public-library computers... block again... until they give up. Or are arrested.

.

In the case of measles the real harm was done by a blunder by a British doctor who wrongly muddled correlation and cause. and although the faults in his paper were soon exposed and his paper discredited the damage was already done - not least by irresponsible newspapers. Then came Covid and the wilful anti-vaccine campaigns by probably-political interests, and their malicious development may well have given the measles scare new life.

Kwek00 · 41-45, M

@ArishMell Some people have tried to research this:

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes

It's also big business for some. Another part is that people just meme their stuff around. At some point, a segment of the population just become propagandists because they are so drenched in the misinformation that they see it as a moral obligation too "educate" and warn people for the great evil that only they are aware off.

ElwoodBlues · M

@ArishMell One of them is a big "alternative wellness" funder and profiteer of pseudoscience named Joseph Mercola.

According to a 2019 Forbes report, Joseph Mercola earns an estimated $120 million per year from his alternative wellness businesses. This includes his website, his online store, and his speaking engagements.

Naturally he plows a percentage of his profits into spreading misinformation to lure more people to buy his snake oil crap.

[quote]A 2019 investigation by the Washington Post revealed that Mercola has been a major funder of the anti-vaccine movement over the years to the tune of $4 million, with $2.9 million specifically going to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). Behind its benign name, the NVIC is one of the principal anti-vaccine organizations in the United States and it was identified as a super-spreader of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook. Mercola’s foundation, entirely funded by his business, also helps fund the Organic Consumers Association led by his co-writer, Ronnie Cummins, for a total of over $3.3 million. [/quote]

CBarson · 51-55

@ArishMell [center]https://publicintegrity.org/health/coronavirus-and-inequality/spreading-fears-cashing-in-anti-vaccine/[/center]

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@CBarson @Kwek00 @CBarson

[i]That is appalling![/i]

I had no idea that sort of thing goes on.

Whatever the truth about any hazards of any medication including any vaccine, these people are raking in huge amounts of money from wilful LIES.

They are gambling, using very little effort on their part, with people's lives and most people's rather scanty knowledge of biology, purely to make a lot of money.

When are they going to be banned outright?

I don't know what laws might exist against their activities, and those will obviously vary from country to country (possibly State to State in the USA); but it's possible none do so far because they are using methods and attacks not considered when the laws were made.

The social-media companies could take the lead of course, by outright, permanent bans - not merely deleting posts. Or are they profiting from advertising revenue from these people?

As for that Texan couple to pronounce oh-so-virtuously how "Christian" they are, for sheer bloody-minded hypocracy that takes the prize. They have no regard for human life, which they view as a commercial commodity.