Are anti-vaccine people conspiracy theorists generally?

[Emergent]

I have an old friend from years ago who I now keep in touch with on Facebook. Her posts are fascinating in the amazing variety of conspiracy theories, some outrageous, some maybe partially true. She's a big believer that cannabis oil will cure just about anything and that information of course is being suppressed by the drug companies and the government.

She blames many, if not all, health problems on vaccines. She also subscribes to some disturbing anti-Semitic ideologies, blaming the network of high powered Jews, led by the evil Rothschild family.

I swear, the internet has turned slightly eccentric people into extremists. 30 years ago this woman was into macrobiotics, native Americans, and New Age philosophies.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

You claim to be a nurse, and you have issues believing in basic medical/scientific facts. I don't care if you think I'm rude. I'm of the opinion that if you choose not to believe in those basic medical facts then you shouldn't be a Nurse. No one should need to give you an internet hug to make you feel at peace over your confirmation biases.

Maybe you can breathe easier since I am pretty much retired.

You seem to need some huggies yourself, my friend.

And again, flies, honey, vinegar. I'm not the only one who has remarked on your rudeness.

You claim to be a nurse but you're so belligerent. Your goal is not to educate, rather to be right. Arrogant.

Today science backs up one view, tomorrow it stands behind the opposite one.

Why is it that every Fall a little flu virus knows to come out of hiding? Hmm?

How did the 2 get sick when 95% of their herd were vaccinated?

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Kooky-

Thank you for keeping this thread going.

If you're sincere, you're welcome. If not, well, why thank me?

[Anonymous865]

Maybe you can breathe easier since I am pretty much retired.

You seem to need some huggies yourself, my friend.

And again, flies, honey, vinegar. I'm not the only one who has remarked on your rudeness.

You claim to be a nurse but you're so belligerent. Your goal is not to educate, rather to be right. Arrogant.

Today science backs up one view, tomorrow it stands behind the opposite one.

Why is it that every Fall a little flu virus knows to come out of hiding? Hmm?

How did the 2 get sick when 95% of their herd were vaccinated?

Kooky Korky, here's an article that explains why the flu season in the northern hemisphere is from October to March.

The Reason for the Season: why flu strikes in winter - Science in the News

The short answer it that the flu virus survives longer at low temperature and low humidity. The longer it can survive floating in the air and on surfaces, the more people that it can infect.

You can still get the flu at other times of the year. It is just less likely.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

How did the 2 get sick when 95% of their herd were vaccinated?

This is a basic and fundamental misunderstanding of herd immunity. Individual immunity it what protects individuals from an illness. Herd immunity is what prevents illness from spreading. Herd immunity does offer some indirect protection to those without individual immunity but that is not the "goal" of herd immunity: over time herd immunity results in eradication of disease.

For example: in a 100 person population using influenza with an R0 of 10. If none of the population was immune, one person with influenza would produce 10 new cases of influenza. If 50% of the population was immune, it would cause only 5 new infections. If 100% was immune it would cause no new infections.

We can then use basic math to determine what percent of the population must be immune to stop the spread of the disease (herd immunity threshold): 1-1/R0 or 1-1/10 in this case or 90%. If 90/100 people in this scenario are immune, the influenza will not spread through the population.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

Yes, it is now clearer about the religious beliefs.

I don't know, nor do you unless you've checked with them, what the Duggars did or did not include in their sex education for their kids.

They have numerous seemingly normal kids and one apparent problem child. Not too bad as far as the numbers go.

So only one of their children is a pedophile. Well that makes everything so much better.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

Maybe you can breathe easier since I am pretty much retired.

You seem to need some huggies yourself, my friend.

And again, flies, honey, vinegar. I'm not the only one who has remarked on your rudeness.

You claim to be a nurse but you're so belligerent. Your goal is not to educate, rather to be right. Arrogant.

Today science backs up one view, tomorrow it stands behind the opposite one.

Why is it that every Fall a little flu virus knows to come out of hiding? Hmm?

How did the 2 get sick when 95% of their herd were vaccinated?

Again I don't care if you or anyone else thinks I'm being rude on this subject. I think anti-vaxxers like you are a danger to my family, myself, and my patients so I will continue to call out anti-vaxxers at every opportunity especially the ones that state they are nurses.

The science of vaccines is clear and older than anyone alive. The flu vaccine alone has been in widespread use for over 80 years.

You can post on a Internet forum, but you can't look up basic information on the internet?

Study Shows Why the Flu Likes Winter - The New York Times

Herd immunity has been explained over and over on here to you. People have posted easy to understand videos and you still don't understand the concept. I will give you another example: 95 people were given a quarter and told to put it in their pocket and then go exercise, but 45 of those people had holes in their pockets so how many of them do you think would drop the quarter out of the holes in their pocket?..

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

Yes, it is now clearer about the religious beliefs.

I don't know, nor do you unless you've checked with them, what the Duggars did or did not include in their sex education for their kids.

They have numerous seemingly normal kids and one apparent problem child. Not too bad as far as the numbers go.

Actually, I've seen many episodes of their show (before it was canceled due to the aforementioned sexual abuse!), and they're quite open about their beliefs and what they teach their kids. When the oldest son (aforementioned sexual predator) got married to his wife (whom he has since been publicly outed as being unfaithful to, using sites like Ashley Madison to cheat on her while he was out of town for his job at a right-wing "family values" think tank), they showed a clip of the insanely creepy CD they play for the couple in the limo on the way to the hotel room on their wedding night, explaining what sex is and how to do it now that they're married. Before that, the only education they provide is that sex is wrong, so they should cover themselves up, have a "buddy" with them at all times during childhood (because alone time for a teenager can only lead to one thing!) and that interactions with the opposite sex have to be supervised. The fact that only one of their children is a "problem child" (nice euphemism!) is not comforting to me, nor should it be to you, and actually still remains to be seen, since lots of their children are still very young.

*Ending thread tangent into Duggar territory*

[Beldar_the_Cenobite, CNA]

According to my own purely anecdotal observations, many anti vaxxers are just deeply disquiet about multiple life issues which may not have anything to do with vaccinations. Anti-vax movement provides them a convenient and even kind of fashionable outlet to express denial, undoing and all other negative defensive mechanisms, whatever the real cause(s) of their dissatisfaction with reality and life might be.

Lmao this is probably the greatest comment I have ever read regarding highly intelligent people who just refuse to be practical people.

[cuddlebug]

Actually unvaccinated kids are more likely to have college educated wealthy parents. I don't think that they're all conspiracy theorists. Maybe some have already had a child that became autistic after a vaccination. In time more information about the studies of vaccinations will come out. Then everyone can come back to this forum and read all the comments.

The unvaccinated, by the numbers - CNN

[brownbook]

Actually unvaccinated kids are more likely to have college educated wealthy parents. I don't think that they're all conspiracy theorists. Maybe some have already had a child that became autistic after a vaccination. In time more information about the studies of vaccinations will come out. Then everyone can come back to this forum and read all the comments.

The unvaccinated, by the numbers - CNN

Almost all the wealthy college educated parents I know have either inherited their wealth or have computer/technical jobs. Computer science majors require very few hard science courses beyond biology 101 etc., I wouldn't value their knowledge of vaccinations and the immune system very highly.

Please please please tell me you are not a college educated registered nurse who believes vaccinations cause autism.

PS I am proud to say I do not know who the Duggars are and am sorry I even glanced at some of the posts about them. I am so sick of this thread. Maybe I should post something really nasty so the administrators will close it!

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

Over a thousand research studies and still more ongoing research shows no causation between autism and/or autoimmune diseases. Press Release : Health and Medicine Division