The anti-vaxxers are going to have a fit...

[Archae]

People like Robert F Kennedy Jr.

California Assembly Passes Tough Vaccine Law, Banning Exemptions on Basis of Belief

June 26, 2015 by Hemant Mehta 56 Comments

California lawmakers deserve a lot of credit for what they did yesterday, with the State Assembly passing SB 277, a law that finally ends vaccine exemptions for reasons of conscience or religious belief:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/06/26/california-assembly-passes-tough-vaccine-law-banning-exemptions-on-basis-of-belief/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=friendlyatheist_062715UTC050609_daily&utm_content=&spMailingID=48976245&spUserID=MTE4MTY1MzAzMTE5S0&spJobID=703603464&spReportId=NzAzNjAzNDY0S0

[Warpy]

1. Erin Brockovich (of all people who should know better)

wrote a fulminating screed about this and about how it interferes with parental rights, blah blah blah, ending with "I am against Government mandated medical decisions for my children.”

I can't link to it because it's now been 404'd, maybe she took it down.

Maybe my reply of "Public health trumps your right to ignorance" hit the mark. Maybe some of the other scathing replies did.

It looks like there have been enough outbreaks of diseases people foolishly thought were gone forever to scare the sensible ones into getting the kids stabbed on schedule.

[SheilaT]

2. Actually, one big problem with that graphic

is that the earlier lower life expectancy is mainly a vastly greater infant and childhood mortality. Of which some part was definitely no vaccines. But people need to understand life expectancy comparisons.

In earlier eras, people did NOT get old at a faster rate, didn't die of old age at 35. Instead, they succumbed to so many things that we can either cure or prevent today. The prevention is where vaccines come in.

[AlbertCat]

3. Also....

Last edited Mon Jun 29, 2015, 10:19 AM - Edit history (1)

...... we bathe.













Seriously, sanitation is a huge part of it. It's hard for us, not living in the 16th century, to understand just not bathing for weeks. If one understands what has to happen back then to take a bath (no hot running water in the house, y'know) one gets why it's that way.... but then add to that a complete lack of knowledge of germs or what caused disease.

[SheilaT]

4. Every time I fall into conversation with someone

who is completely freaked out over another influenza pandemic such as the one in 1918, I point out that we wash our hands pretty regularly these days. A hundred years ago some huge percentage of people did not have access to running water.

And if you go back to the Middle Ages in Europe, peasants commonly lived with their livestock.

Which is not an argument against vaccines, but people need to understand clearly how much is different from earlier eras. Head lice and body lice were so common that they simply weren't remarked upon. In the Middle Ages people would go for months and years without bathing or changing their clothes. I recently read that when Thomas a Becket was murdered, his clothing moved after he was still, because it was so infested with lice. Great image, huh?

[DetlefK]

5. An ancient celtic settlement was unearthed about a year ago.

Scientists took a look at the fossilized feces to find out what the ancient Celtics have been eating. They found that these people were teeming with internal parasites because of the bad sanitary conditions.

[SheilaT]

6. Hadn't run across that before.

Thanks.

[AlbertCat]

7. I always like to remind folks....

Versailles had no indoor bathrooms.




Can't you see all those lords and ladies in theirs silk finery....




with fleas and lice..... getting "caught short" and using the potted plants or sneaking off to go under the stairs?

[DetlefK]

8. I faintly remember that chateaus had secret hallways for servants hidden in the walls.

I figure it would be more practical to keep a pisspot at the ready behind a secret door than to take a shit in a potted plant.