must.stop.reading.results.of.stupidity.

I have a terrible habit of reading a website called what's the harm.net. It publishes incidents of people following non-scientific practices and being harmed as a result. This includes dead children whose parents' religious faith resulted in denied or delayed access to effective care.

I know these parents loved their kids, and didn't want them to die. So how brainwashed were they, to believe some ill-educated church representative would save their kid?

There are side effects to medical treatments. Some of those are permanent, and in some instances are worse than the illness they were intended to treat. But the risks are, to a large extent, known and documented, as are the risks of the illness. Why is comparative risk analysis such a difficult concept for most people to grasp?

Here's a nice, simple example. Guillain-Barre syndrome. This is an auto-immune response that can be triggered by vaccines, although it's more commonly triggered by an illness (possibly one a vaccine would have prevented!)

The risk of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome after a flu vaccine is about one in a million.
The risk of dying of the flu is about 4%, or 1 in 25. Most of those 4% will be in a higher risk population - the very young, very old, or already ill. So for a healthy adult, it's a lot lower than 4% for most flus. But it's still a LOT higher than one in a million. And Guillain Barre, horrible though it is, is treatable and the individuals with it usually get 100% better. Eventually.

I'm probably taking a much larger risk by painting my basement. The primer is really stinky! Smells like ammonia.

Other risks more likely to result in death than vaccination:
1. Driving to the store to buy beer
2. Flying anywhere
3. Smoking
4. Excess drinking
5. Being overweight
6. Not exercising
7. Not wearing a helmet when you cycle/rollerblade/skateboard (for me, walk!)
8. Seeking and following medical advice from an "alternative" practitioner when you are actually sick
9. Swimming unsupervised
10. Having unprotected sex in a non-monogamous relationship

Now, a lot of these things are way more fun than a needle. And you can choose to do them or not - so these are controllable risks. But choosing vaccination instead of disease is a harm reduction strategy, kind of like needle exchanges - there is a risk, but it's WAY lower than the risk of the disease.

I think Jenny McCarthy may prove that having lovely sweater puppies and a terrible brain can be a deadly combination. Check out the Jenny McCarthy body count site. Stupidity kills. Don't listen to it!