At the moment, I’m in the blogospheric equivalent of The Doldrums. The election is over, the legislation has yet to begin, the holidays are upon us, and, to top it off, the laptop from which I do a good bit of blogging has blown a hard drive.
In other words, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
Here’s one: Recently, you had posted about people who choose not to take vaccines. There is a large debate going right now about the connection between youth vaccinations and autism.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20081129/LOCAL/811290455
My wife and I have chosen not to vaccinate on the schedule recommended by doctors, because of this risk. Isabel is 3-and-a-half, and she is nearly complete now, lacking only her MMR.
Given the debate, and that we have vaccinated on what made sense to us a more sensible schedule, why should we rush the vaccine and take on, what appeared to us, to be unnecessary risk?
I told him: “Fix the damn thing and leave my private life out of it, okay, pal?”
mike: there is no valid scientific evidence of a link between vaccines and autism.
but ignoring that, if you neglect to get your daughter vaccinated, you’re increasing the risk that she’ll get measles, mumps, or rubella… and those are contagious, which thus increases the risk of her passing those germs on to my (hypothetical) children.
Have some hope, Doug. It’s what our president-elect would want.
How’s this?
What are your collective takes on what happened yesterday at the Long Island Walmart?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDXtETwP7G17BQsO07DecwxuziLgD94OHA6O0
I have always thought that these ridiculous lines/mobs outside of these stores would be not only a prime target for terrorist attacks but was a tragedy waiting to happen. Sadly, this probably won’t be the last time we hear about this.
I have read that this incident started when people started cutting in line, which brings up a legal question that I had been wondering; Is there any sort of legal basis for these lines? In other words ; Say Best Buy or whatever opens at 6 and you show up 10 minutes till. What would legally stop you from going right up to the front of the line? You might get beat up by angry people that have been waiting overnight,but what right would they have to do that?
Also what are these stores, that put out these ads that promote those very limited stock loss leader flat screens , liability/responsibility ?
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Any less than 5 posts a day and I’ll be worried.
If I weren’t somewhat in the doldrums myself, I would note that we have adopted the term “in the doldrums” from nautical language, and I would note that we have adopted many of our common sayings from nautical language, and I would wonder why and how. Then I would list some such sayings that come to mind and ask others to list ones that come to their minds. But, since I’m in the doldrums, I won’t do those things.
Mike–
I can’t blame you for spacing out the vaccines. While each one was studied and approved, they weren’t really studied in the context of giving up to half a dozen or more at once. For the vast majority of kids, the worst that may happen is a fever. However, I don’t think we definitively know the potential effects on all kids. Autism is almost certainly multifactorial. There’s a strong genetic component in many cases, but likely also an environmental trigger. There are probably some kids with a strong genetic predisposition who would not have developed autism had they not had multiple vaccinations at the wrong moment in development. There have probably also been cases triggered by febrile illnesses from viruses or other illnesses.
There are plenty of anecdotal cases of kids who had fifty word vocabularies, got their vaccinations at 15 months, got a fever that night, and woke up nonverbal. The fact that autism and vaccinations tend to occur around the same time doesn’t prove causation. In my opinion, most cases aren’t vaccine related. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some are.
Given that the population at large is mostly vaccinated and the prevalence of these illnesses is very low, I understand the motivation behind spreading the vaccines over a longer period. Yeah, your kid could start a measles outbreak–if everyone else isn’t vaccinated. But if you end up having to deal with autism, knowing you kept measles at bay is cold comfort.
We used thimerosol-free vaccines but vaccinated on time. Looking back, Tommy’s developmental impairments preceeded his MMR. My wife and I don’t believe they played any role at all. Having said that, a mild common cold or lowgrade fever can render our bright and wordy little guy virtually unintelligible for up to a week. If that had happened right after a febrile reaction to MMR, nothing could have convinced us it didn’t cause it because when it happens, it’s dramatic.
Went to Veach’s on Sunday. That place still lokks and SMELLS the same! (Not a bad smell; just the smell of nostalgia.) When I walked out I expected the Promenade to still be there!
Ah….time travel!
Still have the castle in the basement? I remember getting presents from there on my birthday.
No, customers aren’t aloowed in the basement anymore…but the kids did love the HO trains on the second floor.