Just Sayin’

16 Aug

13 Responses to “Just Sayin’”

  1. anonimouse August 16, 2006 at 22:47 #

    Only on “House”.

    The sad thing is that there are parents out there that really think that way. And when the unthinkable happens to one of their kids, they’ll probably explain it away the same way Christine Maggliore explains away her kid’s death from AIDS-related pneumonia.

  2. clone3g August 17, 2006 at 01:13 #

    I liked the episode of House where a woman was poisoning her husband with gold salts used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. She was sprinkling it on his Rice Krispies or something and the gold didn’t show up on a standard tox-screen. Of course he required chelation therapy.

    Say, I wonder how Mady Hornig’s ‘Go For The Gold’ experiments are coming along….

    Last I heard Dan Olmsted raised a red flag once he realized people shouldn’t seek medical advice from investigative reporters. Of course Mady isn’t overly concerned with the humane treatment of a few rodents.

  3. Ms Clark August 17, 2006 at 01:31 #

    Wannta know a really good business? How about making teeny teeny teeny tiny baby mouse coffins for Dr. Hornig’ et al’s Go for the Gold and thimerosal mice? They come in mousey albino white. ….

    i liked that clip, it’s great. I hadn’t seen it before.

    Camille

  4. Liz August 17, 2006 at 02:29 #

    It took me a while to figure this out, because I had never watched the show.

    The clip is from the episode “Paternity”

    wikipedia version
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternity_(House_episode)

    Official House site version

    http://www.fox.com/house/episodes/102.htm

  5. Gabesmom August 17, 2006 at 03:47 #

    “The sad thing is that there are parents out there that really think that way”

    No kidding; I speak to them on a daily basis, and you might be surprised to learn that all of us are the ones who have been brainwashed. Vaccines don’t actually protect children from disease, pregnant women actually don’t require prenatal care, and medications are equivalent to poison. Now, just imagine if our insurance companies got a hold of this astonishing news. Think of all the money they’d save! (Not that they’d actually ever lower our premiums 🙂 )

  6. Ms Clark August 17, 2006 at 05:03 #

    Are you sure it’s from that (Paternity) episode? That’s one of like 2 or 3 House episodes I’ve seen (with the mutated brain measles thing), but I don’t remember the mom and vaccine scene….

    edit: Nevermind, you were right, Liz. I don’t know how I missed that scene, but I did…
    http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/house/season1/house-102.htm

  7. anonimouse August 17, 2006 at 15:55 #

    Now, just imagine if our insurance companies got a hold of this astonishing news. Think of all the money they’d save!

    Exactly. That’s why that argument is so incredibly bogus.

    If prenatal care was uncessary and vaccines were harmful – don’t you think insurance companies would be all over that? They’d be screaming at the top of their lungs that they’re not going to cover prenatal visits or immunizations because they don’t benefit people and just raise premiums.

    Yet just about every insurance company out there suggests that prenatal care and immunizations are beneficial and for the most part cover them. Why? Are the insurance companies in on the conspiracy? Do they want people to be sick so they can take in less money than they pay out on a yearly basis? (as my former employer’s health plan often did)

  8. Lili August 17, 2006 at 17:46 #

    Is there any chance you could give a synopsis of this video for your readers who (like myself) are not on broadband? It’d take me over an hour to download a video this size. I would get broadband if I could, but it’s not yet available in the part of the world where I live.

  9. Kev August 17, 2006 at 19:29 #

    Sorry about that Lili. Its a scene from the TV show House. Here’s a transcript:

    [House walks away. Cut to the clinic and House is in an exam room with a young mother and her baby.]

    Young Mother: No formula, just mommy’s healthy natural breast milk.

    House: Yummy.

    Young Mother: Her whole face just got swollen like this overnight.

    House: Mmhmm. No fever, glands normal, missing her vaccination dates.

    Young Mother: We’re not vaccinating.

    [Baby giggles and coos]

    Young Mother: [Takes a toy frog and starts to make frog sounds] Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. [Giggles]

    [Baby smiles and giggles too]

    House: Think they don’t work?

    Young Mother: I think some multinational pharmaceutical company wants me to think they work. Pad their bottom line.

    House: Mmmm. May I? [He takes the frog and starts to do the gribbit noise with the baby]

    Young Mother: [Whispered] Sure.

    House: Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. [The baby laughs] All natural no dies. That’s a good business: all-natural children’s toys. Those toy companies, they don’t arbitrarily mark up their frogs. They don’t lie about how much they spend in research and development. The worst a toy company can be accused of is making a really boring frog.

    [Young Mother laughs and so does House. The baby giggles again]

    House: Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. You know another really good business? Teeny tiny baby coffins. You can get them in frog green or fire engine red. Really. The antibodies in yummy mummy only protect the kid for 6 months, which is why these companies think they can gouge you. They think that you’ll spend whatever they ask to keep your kid alive. Want to change things? Prove them wrong. A few hundred parents like you decide they’d rather let their kid die then cough up 40 bucks for a vaccination, believe me, prices will drop REALLY fast. Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit, gribbit, gribbit.

    Young Mother: Tell me what she has.

    House: A cold.

  10. Ms Clark August 17, 2006 at 20:50 #

    It’s funny, too, because the baby’s face doesn’t look swollen, and apparently House doesn’t think it’s swollen. So maybe the mom is kind of overly concerned on the one hand, but ready to put her child at risk over something she probably read in “Mothering” magazine. I like that one is left with the feeling that the mom might change her mind about vaccines, but they don’t say that she will.

  11. Catherina August 18, 2006 at 13:39 #

    btw, antibodies in breastmilk do not carry specific antibodies against vaccine preventable diseases. This is a common misconception that encourages breastfeeding mothers to postpone vaccination. Maternal immunity (through IgGs) is passed through the placenta to the baby in the last few weeks of pregnancy (which is why preemies have such a hard time, they miss out on maternal immunity). This passive immunity is rapidly degraded in the baby’s bloodstream (half life of maternal antibodies is roughly 4 weeks), therefore maternal immunity does not really protect a baby from infection after 3 to 4 months.

    Breastmilk contains antibodies (IgA) that protect (non specifically by lining mucosa) from upper repiratory and gastrointestinal diseases, but they are useless against pertussis or measles or the like. There is decent protection against Rota Virus and some protection from RSV, Hib, Polio and Cholera.

    Breastmilk additionally contains immunomodulators that strengthen the immune system, however, breastfeeding is no reason not to vaccinate.

    I like House, but this is one of my personal irks and it ruins this scene for me.

  12. Jannalou August 23, 2006 at 02:25 #

    I know it’s a pain (literally) but since it’s possible to check for “natural immunity”, why don’t these anti-vaxers just get their children checked for that instead of swearing off vaccines altogether? (I know, I know, they have other reasons for saying vaccines are evil, but come on, doesn’t this make more sense?)

    My middle brother never got chicken pox, though the rest of us did. We figure he must have a natural immunity to it. So it would be rather foolish to have him vaccinated against something he’s already immune to, don’t you agree?

  13. Catherina August 24, 2006 at 17:53 #

    there is no such thing as “natural” immunity. There is vaccine induced immunity and disease induced immunity. Subclinical infections will lead to immunity, however, especially in the case of measles, they are still associated with the disease risk (in this case SSPE).

    Adults who do not recall a clinical infection with chicken pox should indeed have their titres tested to see whether they are immune (due to a subclinical infection). If not, vaccination is advisable for adults. I know a number of people who contracted chicken pox with their children and had a particularly hard time with it.

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