It’s a very busy day, so meh-be a leettle video from the interwebs today? This is Penn & Teller applying a their usual tools of wit, sarcasm, shouting and bright shiny objects in order to get a point across. In this case, the point that vaccines can save lots and lots of lives.
If you’re at work, watch yer volume: Penn does shout a lot and he drops the F-bomb once.
Enjoy!
Forget cool, vaccines are awesome! Sure, vaccines can help individuals protect themselves against preventable diseases, but even more importantly, vaccines can slow and sometime stop the spread of disease in populations.
Some people cannot receive some vaccines due to allergies or conditions that counterindicate vaccination. Some people choose to not get vaccinated out of fear and ignorance of the science and safety of vaccines. Some people are outside of a vaccine’s intended use age range – i.e., they’re too young or too old to be vaccinated for a particular disease. And some people don’t know (or remember) that booster shots are required for some vaccines, and that without these boosters they lose the protection conferred by the original vaccination over time.
By being vaccinated when you’re able, you are volunteering to be one brick in a wall that keeps disease away from those who are not – for whatever reason – vaccinated. The taller the wall and the fewer holes that are in that wall means disease has less of a chance to get through to those unvaccinated individuals and groups who are hanging out behind our wall.
When there are chinks in the wall, there’s a a chance for infection to spread. Healthy non-vaccinating people who are exposed to a preventable disease may suffer a minor illness, but in turn they might expose elderly, infant or immunocompromised people who may experience a much more severe reaction to the infection.
I admit that this past winter was the first time I received the seasonal flu shot (I also received the H1N1 shot). I was of the opinion that I’d rather take my chances of having a run-in with the flu “in the wild” than to knowingly put flu virus in my body and possibly get sick that way. Also, the flu virus is constantly evolving, and I thought that the chances of being vaccinated for the particular strain I might be exposed to was a little like playing the lottery. Well guess what? It turns out virologists and people who make vaccines actually know a little something about virology and making vaccines.*
This is the experience – The Moment! – that lead me to learning more about vaccination: Around May of last year I had a friend tell me that she hadn’t immunized her children because vaccines weren’t safe. I asked her how she’d feel if her kid got sick, or got sick and spread something around their school, and she told me something to the effect of “Oh, she won’t get sick because everyone else in the school gets vaccinated; we claimed an ethical exemption. And because everyone else is vaccinated, even if she were to get sick she couldn’t spread it to any of them.”
To quote an internet meme:
Seriously????? I asked her what if other parents also claimed an ethical exemption. Her response was, “That’s really unlikely.”
Facepalm.
It was around this time that I discovered Dr. Mark Crislip and the ScienceBasedMedicine blog, and I ran across Dr. Crislip’s A Budget of Dumb Asses, in which he describes 10 fallacious arguments for not getting the seasonal flu shot. A Budget of Dumb Asses was a bit of a revelation and turning point for me; it blends sarcasm, mockery and critical thinking, and most importantly it influenced me to change my personal stance on the importance of getting vaccinated for the seasonal flu.
So in the past year I’ve become a big supporter and a bit of a nerd about vaccination. I’d also consider myself an anti-anti-vaxer. I try to keep my eyes and ears open for news about vaccine controversy and the anti-vaccination efforts here in the US and across the world.
Here are a couple of recent vaccine and flu stories that recently caught my eye:
Pertussis (whooping cough), is a prime example of a disease that requires booster doses – every 10 years for adults – to maintain immunization. In this clip a reporter from CNN explains why. There is a news article associated with the clip, and below is one of my favorite quotes, because I believe Dr. Shu captures the essence of why anti-vax movements prosper:
Young parents today have probably never seen illnesses such as whooping cough, so for them it’s “out of sight, out of mind,” Shu said.
“When you don’t see kids getting sick regularly because the vaccines are doing so well, then you kind of think that kids aren’t at risk for them,” Shu said. “But if we drop our guard, they are.”
Of course the most amusing and distressing part of any article about vaccination is the comments section, where the morons and the people arguing with the morons (sometimes mornons themselves!) duke it out. Note how I didn’t assign “moron” to any particular viewpoint…there are definitely morons on both sides of this issue.
A newsclip featuring Elyse Anders from Skepchick speaking about her one of her favorite topics:
And finally, an brief NPR story from this past Tuesday about the end of the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization. The end of the pandemic, people, not the end of H1N1. From WHO:
Based on experience with past pandemics, we expect the H1N1 virus to take on the behaviour of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come.
So listen up this fall and winter and make sure to get vaccinated as recommended by your doctor, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.
*Flu virus in vaccine is dead virus and can’t give one the flu. Regarding strains and how “they” choose which strains to include in the annual vaccine, see these paragraphs from the CDC on antigenic drift and shift.
Vreee, Vreeeeee! That’s what I think a dentist drill sounds like. And this isn’t really a horror story, so much as a gross, annoying story.
I set my alarm for 5am this morning so that I could be on time for a 7am appointment with the dental hygienist. I didn’t drink any coffee because I thought it was really nice that another human being would poke around in my saliva-y mouth at 7am, and my gift for this generosity was a lack of coffee breath fumes wafting into her face. photo source
I let the dental hygienist talk me into a fluoride treatment, which cost me $42 out of pocket…grrr…being a grown-up sucks some days. I remember fluoride treatments from when I was a kid: The dentist squirts the foam into the squishy mouth-guard thing, you sit for 30-60 seconds and then you can’t eat or drink for 30 minutes. No biggie, right?
But now they have this brush-on crud, and emphasis on CRUD. She brushs this nasty “mint” paste on my teeth (I don’t know who thinks that tastes like any mint found in nature or lab), and then tells me to avoid brushing my teeth and drinking hot liquids (READ: coffee) for FOUR HOURS. I shell out my $42 and shamble out to the car. I run my tongue lightly over my film-encrusted teeth and shudder. All I want to do is spit and spit and spit; there’s no way I’m swallowing with this crap in my mouth. How am I going to last for four hours at work with this crud on my teeth?
I’m driving toward work and I notice the roof of my mouth feels filmy, so I take my index finger and rub the soft tissue. I look at my finger, and it’s covered in this white stuff that looks and feels like candle wax…ewww, ewww, ewww! I get to work and everywhere the smell of coffee calls to me. The gentle sound of water flowing through grounds into coffee pots tickles my ear. And my mouth tastes like waxy rot. Mint-ish waxy rot, but waxy rot nonetheless. I look at my watch…only 3 1/2 hours to go.
Argh!
Three minutes later I emerge from the bathroom – toothbrush in hand – with clean, smooth, shiny teeth. My mouth is now filled with the familiar chemical-tasting mint of my regular toothpaste, and I’ve just washed $42 worth of waxy fluoride paste down the sink. I’m divided in my emotions – sad that I’ve wasted four movies worth of money (or a new snorkel for dive class), happy that I can have coffee and not be grossed out by my filmy, wax rot teeth.
And then I start to wonder: Did she say four hours…or for an hour?
Last Saturday’s Stribe (Star Tribune) included an article called “On Paws and Needles“, which described the growing practice of pet acupuncture in the Twin Cities. I have very little faith in acupuncture for humans and about the same amount of faith in anecdotal evidence, but that’s what author Kristin Tillotson asks us to accept when she writes
“Whether or not you’re ready to embrace the concept of chi flowing through your body, it’s tough to argue with pet owners who have seen their beloveds go from listless and limping to perky and playful.”
Tillotson does let us know that there is some controversy surrounding pet acupuncture with her section entitled “Not enough proof?” (here, I fixed it for you: “Not enough proof?.), but the quote from Dr. Craig Smith is brief, and I get the impression that the author included it so she could argue that she has presented a fair and balanced look at the issue. She quotes Dr. Smith:
Most studies that have shown benefits have been for muscular-skeletal pain. But for seizures and asthma, we do not have the evidence at this time that it’s as beneficial as drugs can be.
However, she follows this logical assertion with a description of ONE CASE that begs to differ. And she also lists an extensive group of local veterinary practices where one can find pet acupuncture.
Dr. Smith reasons that there probably isn’t a push by Big (Vet?) Pharma to incorporate acupuncture sessions into mainstream veterinary practice, as needles are inexpensive. However, at $75 a session and an ability to prescribe as many sessions as an owner will let you get away with, I can see where there might be other financial incentives that could help select for an increase in the occurence of pet acupuncture.
One statement in the article that interests me is a quote by Dr. Keum Hwa Choi, a practitioner of veterinary CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) who started a Vet CAM service at the University of Minnesota eight years ago:
“Dogs don’t experience any placebo effect like humans can. Their brains don’t tell them, ‘Gee, I got these needles stuck in me so I must be better.’ They either feel better or they don’t.”
Hmmm…placebo effects in animals…??? Interesting thought exercise. Although, if not placebo effect, perhaps another variable? I imagine that an acupuncture session is fairly relaxing for the pet – the article indicates that the animal is the center of attention during these exercises – they are petted, nuzzled, spoken to in calming adult-cooing baby language, placed on warm blankets with candle light and soft music, perhaps? One woman reported that her cat’s bp dropped from 220 to 169 by the end of a 10-minute HEAT LASER treatment (apparently, cranky 17 year-old Annie isn’t having any of that sharp sh*t poked in her head, so the vet uses heat lasers rather than “dry needles” to complete the treatment. But don’t worry, I have a very strong suspicion that the two treatments do exactly the same thing…that is…nothing). Apparently, giving your pet attention – petting it, being nice to it, keeping it warm – encourages a calm and happy demeanor. Do needles or frickin’ lasers really add anything to that experience?
And just for fun, here’s a picture of a puppy with pins in his head. Poor little PinHead.source: http://www.habitatboise.com/custom_content/5558_acupuncture.html
You’ve heard how the Church of Scientology is “helping” in Haiti, right?
I found this story via Pharyngula, but the original post about Scientologists continuing to be dinkuses in Haiti comes from gawker.com (which may have to become a Blog I’m Trying Out). Gawker.com actually has several stories on these dinkuses and how they’re mucking things up in an already mucked up situation.
Scientologists in Haiti – yes, it’s as bad as we thought. This is a first-hand account of a volunteer who was stuck on the same plane as the Scientologists, and who had a chance to watch the Scientologists in inaction. It’s a story of ignorance, naivete, idiocy, stupidity, high dinkus-ness…okay, I’m repeating myself. Who the hell let them into Haiti???
Excerpt (go read the whole article – linked above – to get really, really annoyed) describing the “help” provided by these yellow-shirted dinkuses in the hospitals:
[But] they had no-one who spoke Creole, and they brought the weirdness of touch healing into a very superstitious society. They’d leave the tent and come into the general hospital downtown, and try healing people. One of the doctors and one of the nurses told me that the wounded started coming to them to tell them they didn’t want to be treated by the people in the yellow shirts.
One nurse told me that the Scientologists actually caused harm — they gave food to people who were scheduled to go into surgery. That then led to complications in the operating theater.
Mud cookies.
I had never heard of mud cookies before. I remember hearing that starving people will eat mud to stave off hunger, but I never imagined that an industry around mud-food could arise.
With the recent earthquakes has come a renewed interest in Haiti’s past, present and future troubles. I saw a picture of a Haitian woman prepping mud cookies in a newspaper article and was flabbergasted. Apparently, the edible mud is sifted to remove rocks, then mixed with salt and shortening, shaped into disks and dried in the sun.
In an article from msnbc.com, one sixteen year old girl, Charlene, says this about mud cookies:
“When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day,” Dumas said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the 6 pounds, 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. “When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too,” she said.
Oh, and FYI: Haiti’s mud cookie industry isn’t a new phenomenon. The msnbc article above was published in January of 2008. The website HaitiAction.net has an article and several pictures taken in 2008, like this one of women preparing mud cookies:
WTF?
First, let me say that I am not a huge believer in the healing power of acupuncture. I believe there is a significant placebo effect associated with acupuncture, and I know that some people who believe in the power of acupuncture report relief from some disease symptoms after receiving acupuncture. But, not having read the medical literature myself I can’t gripe too loudly about the practice’s shortcomings. I’ll leave that to others at SBM, Whats the Harm, JREF, Quackwatch, Lay Scientist, etc.
But you know what’s fun? If you start to write a google search “Acupuncture is…”, you’ll get “scam” and “bullshit” before “effective” and “safe”.
In a recent study, acupuncture did not fair any better than the placebo treatments(1). Therefore (according to this study), acupuncture does not work…at least in the sense that acupuncture proponents are trying to explain it. But fine…I like to pay exorbitant amounts of money to have people touch me all over my body (I refer to the ancient art of massage, of course. Not the ancient art of…nevermind), and if you want to pay someone to poke you with needles because you think it makes you feel better, who am I to judge?
But I get offended when a sleaze ball practitioner claims that acupuncture can do more for you than makes sense. And when those sleaze balls influence really sick people to choose acupuncture as an alternative to traditional, proven medication or medical supervision, really bad things can happen. AIDS can not be cured by acupuncture. However, Hepatitis B infection can be spread by poorly administered acupuncture.
And now Battlefield Acupuncture. I heard about battlefield acupuncture being used to treat wound pain on Mark Crislip’s Quackcast, episode 41. Why acupuncture, when one has a perfectly legitimate excuse to get morphine…? If you’ve just lost your legs, do you really need to worry about keeping a clear head? When I was browsing around the interwebs in a completely random, uncontrolled, google-ish way for more information I found a fictional scenario of battlefield acupuncture being administered in the field, written by Dr. David Gorski in 2008 for science-based medicine. He follows that up with a nice review of the information available at the time. Take it away, Dr. Gorski!
But acupuncture isn’t just for the battlefield! With Wounded Warrior Acupuncture (WWA), our honored veterans can take advantage of acupuncture to treat conditions not limited to back pain, neck pain, joint pain, neuropathies, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), insomnia, anxiety, depression, brain injuries, phantom limb pain, etc. Of course in the next paragraph, WWA is quick to point out that “our treatment is in no way intended as a replacement for medical care. WWA can be used as a complementary therapy or used as a stand-alone treatment for certain mild to moderate conditions.” Yes folks, mild-to-moderate conditions such as PTSD and associated illnesses. As long as your problem isn’t too problematic, we can take a stab at it (ha!). No gain, no foul, right?
(1) “A Randomized Trial Comparing Acupuncture, Simulated Acupuncture, and Usual Care for Chronic Low Back Pain” Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(9):858-866 See Respectful Insolence for a very good write up of this study and the hype surrounding it.
There is a very interesting argument just gearing up over at sciencebasedmedicine.org. Dr. Steven Novella (of The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast and NeuroLogica blog) has introduced to us “The War on Salt”.
Accepted medical research indicates that people with high blood pressure need to decrease their salt intake to prevent cardiovascular problems later in life, but it sounds like the “war on salt” is about to come a little closer all of us.
It seems that food awareness is a sleepy giant that is starting to stumble up onto its feet. I know the raw/vegan/organic and “natural” foods movements have been around for decades. And as Dr. Novella mentions, New York City has recently legislated the amount of trans fat that is allowed in certain foods. As (literal) consumers, we are having to do a LOT of research before we eat. It’s becoming a bit harder to plead ignorance for the PBJ/white bread and Mac-n-Cheese diet.
Okay, it can be easy. No processed foods, less eating out. Fresh veggies, meats, dairy, eggs, whole grain breads, and fewer starches, sugars and sodium. Easy enough, right? Gets a little harder when you’re trying to work, go to school, wrangle kids, maybe single-parent, less income, two jobs, volunteer work, kids’ afterschool activities, Tivo, writing new blog posts, homework…but with some effort, it can be done. After all, eating healthy has an extremely important and profound effect on our quality of life, so it can be argued that a little – or a lot – of attention should be paid.
But – gah! I was feeling overwhelmed in the grocery store last night. Is organic vs. conventional celery significantly nutritionally different. I don’t think so. Is there a benefit to eating raw food? Might be. Might milk from hormone-injected cows have a deterimental effect on my health? I don’t have a clue. I walk past most of the the pre-packaged foods in the store these days, but even if one wants to buy “fresh” starting materials, the choices are many. Do I need to care if the cattle I’m going to ingest was grass-fed or corn-fed? Well, I think grass-fed tastes better, but that’s completely subjective.
Any time someone opens a conversation about healthy eating and the magical combinations of foods that will increase your chances of immortality (ooo – I know this one – it’s zero! Or wait…is that infinity?), fierce arguments start up. The comments section of Dr. Novella’s post has shot up from 10 to 18 in the time it’s taken me to write this post, and there are some great ideas being discussed. Right now the hot topics are the role of government intervention in public choices, and personal responsibility. *rubbing hands together gleefully* Ooooo! It’s going to be a bloody one!
As for me, constant vigilance! I’m always updating my personal food choice habits (trying to keep up with the latest research rather than fads), but for now I think I’ll stick with the $0.99 conventional celery over the $2.99 organically grown stuff. And maybe I’ll use a bit less salt.
