At first I wasn't going to write this post since I believe that a film that appears to be (at least in part) based on thoroughly discredited, fear-mongering nonsense should get as little attention as possible.
Then after browsing several anti-vaccine and conspiracist websites I found as I suspected, that this has already exploded and whatever I write here won't make matters any worse.
The film 'Vaxxed' is directed by Mr Andrew Wakefield, a former physician who lost his medical license after research that he had authored, was found fraudulent (containing as I understand it, both methodological and ethical flaws).
Just watching the trailer for this film elevated my BP into dangerous territory. How is it that this man keeps promoting the same debunked data to this day? Hasn't it caused enough harm already?
It seems that anti-vaccine proponents span the entire spectrum from sadly misinformed to clearly unhinged. However, no matter what their individual motivation happens to be, they are in my opinion dangerous. We have fought a hard battle against diseases that today are vaccine-preventable. Millions of children have died in the past and some still do, to this day. We don't see much of it in first-world countries due to the success of vaccines. Anti-vaccine proponents seem to believe that the "olden days" were better. I think it's deeply worrisome.
In my escapades around the internet, I've found all sorts of scary blogs, clips and opinions relating to childhood vaccines.
This YouTube clip rather amusingly (in a sad way) has 90 likes and zero (!) dislikes (probably because no rational person would even click on it in the first place). (I'm not sure what this says about me)
Anyway this women thinks that nagalese (an enzyme) is added on purpose to vaccines in order to induce autism, cancer and type 2 diabetes in vaccine recipients. And the doctors who discovered this were subsequently murdered to cover this up. This vaccine tampering seems to be a part of some nefarious population control plot.
(It seems that alpha-N-acetylgalactoseaminidase (referred to as nagalese in the YouTube clip) can deglycosylate vitamin D binding protein (DBP) and DBP plays a role in the immune cascade response. So it seems that alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase can interfere with the immune response. While some cancer cells can release alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase, I've found no proof that injecting them into humans induces cancers, never mind autism and DMII. I will however admit that I didn't spend an inordinate amount of time researching her theory).
I admit that this last video is a bit extreme. But this woman and other "anti-vaxxers" have one thing on common. They are willing to accept something as true, even when there is no supporting evidence available.
Serious questions:
* Why are some people so vulnerable/susceptible to flawed logic and poor research?
* What can we as nurses/healthcare professionals do to ensure that our patients base their decisions on sound evidence-based facts or at least have the opportunity to do so? Or should we just reconcile ourselves with the fact that a portion of the population will base their decisions on questionable or outright false information, misconceptions and fear?
Thank you for being honest about getting me confused with the Vitamin C lady! I appreciate your "mea culpa". And, yes, now I see that you are still a sweet person! :-)
I just had two days of exams and a long clinical day today. Just clicked back on this thread to read, got comfortable -- don't get it closed before I finish reading.
Nobody on allnurses.com has said that they have seen the film, "VAXXED", so it seems in(correct me if I'm wrong) that you are basing your opinions on heresay, --unless you personally HAVE seen the "VAXXED" film. Have you?
I'm basing that on the descriptions of people including Wakefield who wrote and directed the movie, I don't consider that to be hearsay.
Thorough descriptions of the movie are widely available and there are no reports of new evidence.
Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.
Please remember to confine your posts to the subject of the thread, without making personal attacks, resorting to name-calling, or posting in an inflammatory manner -- per the Terms of Service.
In continuing to read about the film from those that have seen it, I am still unclear as to whether Wakefield thinks he can (often in very obvious ways) manipulate and orchestrate data to forward his agenda and not be discovered (again) or if he just knows that there are people out there that are too blind to notice and/or care that he's done it.
You decide to make a movie on a manufactured story about fraud and corruption in the CDC. The problem is that you have a "whistleblower" that never said anything about fraud or corruption, believes in vaccines, and won't appear in your movie combined with the fact the paper that was fabricated to expose the fraud was itself retracted for fraud. So the solution is, you used spliced together voice from telephone calls that you rearrange into a different order and context to try and generate something. Which might work save for the fact those transcripts have been readily available for years and people instantly noticed they were altered.
Its the same mistakes repeated over and over again.
Nobody on allnurses.com has said that they have seen the film, "VAXXED", so it seems (correct me if I'm wrong) that you are basing your opinions on heresay, --unless you personally HAVE seen the "VAXXED" film. Have you?
You keep harping on "heresay" (it's actually "hearsay"). The film was made to promote crackpot theories that have been completely, thoroughly debunked, by a man who lost his medical license over fraud he committed in order to profit from having created that crackpot theory. I don't have to see the film to know it's crap. I've always heard that antifreeze is poisonous, so I've never drunk any. I don't have to drink it myself to find out whether that's true or not (or, hey, maybe I should -- people might have been lying to me all these years about antifreeze. It might be a conspiracy ... Sure, there's solid evidence that it's poisonous, but who believes "evidence"?)
Thank you for correcting my spelling of "hearsay"!
I hope those convinced of the impossibility of a vaccine causing autism relationship, will watch the movie "VAXXED", too.
Vaccines appear to be one of several (or many) causes of autism. For example, there have been autism "clusters" in areas where toxic chemical spills have occurred, such as the old Kodak site in the Rochester, New York State area.
Also, one mother of an autistic child told me that she suspects that her child's autism was perhaps due to a combination of getting vaccinated and of the child having a genetic problem, namely that of her child having the MTHFR gene (MTHFR = Methylene Tetra Hydro Folate Reductase).
With that specific genetic problem, she suspects that her child was genetically unable to deal with (excrete) some of the vaccine ingredients, and that may have led to neurological problems--that is, autism, in her child's case.
If she is correct, it seems to me that screening children for the possibility of having the MTHFR gene, BEFORE the children receive a vaccine, could prevent problems such as autism, etc., in children having that particular genetic defect.
From briefly reading about this (I'm not an expert at genetics), I saw that a child's doctor could also, (in specific cases of a child having the MTHFR gene problem), prescribe (oral) Vitamin B complex supplementation, along with additional Vitamin B-12 (in the "Methyl" cobal amin form, rather than the "Cyano" cobal amin form), plus additional "folate" (one of the "B" vitamins).
Thank you for correcting my spelling of "hearsay"!
I hope those convinced of the impossibility of a vaccine causing autism relationship, will watch the movie "VAXXED", too.
Vaccines appear to be one of several (or many) causes of autism. For example, there have been autism "clusters" in areas where toxic chemical spills have occurred, such as the old Kodak site in the Rochester, New York State area.
Also, one mother of an autistic child told me that she suspects that her child's autism was perhaps due to a combination of getting vaccinated and of the child having a genetic problem, namely that of her child having the MTHFR gene (MTHFR = Methylene Tetra Hydro Folate Reductase).
With that specific genetic problem, she suspects that her child was genetically unable to deal with (excrete) some of the vaccine ingredients, and that may have led to neurological problems--that is, autism, in her child's case.
If she is correct, it seems to me that screening children for the possibility of having the MTHFR gene, BEFORE the children receive a vaccine, could prevent problems such as autism, etc., in children having that particular genetic defect.
From briefly reading about this (I'm not an expert at genetics), I saw that a child's doctor could also, (in specific cases of a child having the MTHFR gene problem), prescribe (oral) Vitamin B complex supplementation, along with additional Vitamin B-12 (in the "Methyl" cobal amin form, rather than the "Cyano" cobal amin form), plus additional "folate" (one of the "B" vitamins).
Thank you for correcting my spelling of "hearsay"!
I hope those convinced of the impossibility of a vaccine causing autism relationship, will watch the movie "VAXXED", too.
Vaccines appear to be one of several (or many) causes of autism.
Once again, please, for the love of God, provide some shred of legitimate evidence, however tiny, to support your repeated statements that vaccines may be causing autism. Something other than your personal belief, the suspicions or personal observations of heartbroken parents, or crackpot theories that have been previously thoroughly debunked by legitimate research.
Your saying it over and over and over again does not make it true.
)
to cover this up. This vaccine tampering seems to be a part of some nefarious population control plot..thumb.jpg.de0b1803a7b639db80953e3a326388a1.jpg){kind=small}
concerned lady
133 Posts
Hi Farawyn,
Thank you for being honest about getting me confused with the Vitamin C lady! I appreciate your "mea culpa". And, yes, now I see that you are still a sweet person! :-)