This site 'Physicians for Informed Consent ' started popping up on my Facebook newsfeed. It appears to be an anti-vaccine site.
I was reading the comments about measles. I can see how the people are feeding off of one another. Someone called measles a "nothingburger". They want their kids to get measles.
Now, true, measles was, normally, a routine childhood disease, nothing close to polio or diphtheria, but, what kind of first world bubble do these people live in? I feel like the internet is feeding all kinds of ideologies from political and religious extremism, and all kinds of ethnic and racial group hate, plus a lot of other whackadoodle nonsense.
Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.
I definitely agree the internet is helping further the vaccine hysteria. When I was in PNP school, I did a project on the false information online on vaccines (that appears legit to a non-medical person) and how that influences parental decisions on having their child vaccinated. If I did not know better, I would have been horrified and never let anyone vaccinate my child based on the things I found online. That was 15 years ago and the amount of false information out there was frightening. It is even worse now. I have dear friends, well educated people, that have bought into the anti-vaccine craziness. One of them posted a link to a facebook post that was so alarming. It is a mother who was showing a binder she has of over 1500 pages of "documents" showing vaccines are unsafe that she got from the internet. It has been spreading like wildfire on social media. I looked up some of the links she has and it is all bogus. If you work in healthcare, these people unfortunately do not want to hear it because they think you are part of the conspiracy. Nothing you tell them works. I had a friend argue with me via text message one night trying to tell me I was wrong on the benefit of the HPV and flu vaccine. This is someone who has a master's degree and teaches science to middle schoolers. I got nowhere with her and finally told her to do what she felt was best for her children. She told a mutual friend about our conversation and said all I gave her was "the party line". It is very scary.
LibraSunCMN, I did not realize the 'Measles For Dummies' video started out that way, my apologies. Mainly I thought the clips shown from old TV series' showing the attitude of Measles at the time was interesting.
The video linked below from MAY 16, 2019 of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Speaking at an Albany, NY Rally Concerning Mandatory Vaccines and Government Overreach, may be more to the point and only 23 minutes.
LibraSunCMN, I did not realize the 'Measles For Dummies' video started out that way, my apologies. Mainly I thought the clips shown from old TV series' showing the attitude of Measles at the time was interesting.
The video linked below from MAY 16, 2019 of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Speaking at an Albany, NY Rally Concerning Mandatory Vaccines and Government Overreach, may be more to the point and only 23 minutes.
In a nutshell: I am strongly pro-vaccine and pro-science, and I am very scared at the recent uptick in parents choosing not to vaccinate their children. I'm disgusted by anyone who tries to make pro-vaccine agendas look like government conspiracies to control Americans or who liken pro-vaxxers to Nazis for wanting to promote public health. I'm disgusted by anyone who uses the internet/social media to make false claims about vaccines, twist the truth, or convince other people of their misinformation. I do believe Facebook is a huge part of the problem that is now too huge to be undone easily. I don't care what anyone else on this earth thinks about my take on the matter, I know I'm in the right. Peace!
LibraSunCMN, I did not realize the 'Measles For Dummies' video started out that way, my apologies. Mainly I thought the clips shown from old TV series' showing the attitude of Measles at the time was interesting.
Wait, how can you not know how a video you recommended starts out?
It makes me mad and sad that the Internet is making "society" worse.
I read a science fiction book where on every planet that developed intelligent, advanced, civilizations, everyone spoke the same language. The "aliens" couldn't understand how earthlings advanced at all with our 100's of different languages. The implication was that if we all spoke the same language, were able to communicate better, we'd all get along.
Yet with the World Wide Web people from all around the globe communicating with each other is making things worse!
All that calms me down is the Darwin Award for these idiots.
rnsrgr8t
395 Posts
I definitely agree the internet is helping further the vaccine hysteria. When I was in PNP school, I did a project on the false information online on vaccines (that appears legit to a non-medical person) and how that influences parental decisions on having their child vaccinated. If I did not know better, I would have been horrified and never let anyone vaccinate my child based on the things I found online. That was 15 years ago and the amount of false information out there was frightening. It is even worse now. I have dear friends, well educated people, that have bought into the anti-vaccine craziness. One of them posted a link to a facebook post that was so alarming. It is a mother who was showing a binder she has of over 1500 pages of "documents" showing vaccines are unsafe that she got from the internet. It has been spreading like wildfire on social media. I looked up some of the links she has and it is all bogus. If you work in healthcare, these people unfortunately do not want to hear it because they think you are part of the conspiracy. Nothing you tell them works. I had a friend argue with me via text message one night trying to tell me I was wrong on the benefit of the HPV and flu vaccine. This is someone who has a master's degree and teaches science to middle schoolers. I got nowhere with her and finally told her to do what she felt was best for her children. She told a mutual friend about our conversation and said all I gave her was "the party line". It is very scary.