Try getting paint killers from a regular doctor while your pain doctor is out of town…
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It’s honestly kind of funny, when you have multiple apparently-unrelated medical issues. Whenever I see a new doctor I’m always expecting them to jump up and scream “Munchausen’s!” at me. I’ve got the heart defect, I get shingles with no rash, I had cancer, I’ve got a uterine abnormality, I get syncope at the drop of a hat …
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Yeah that’s what the zoster in herpes zoster means.
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Just came back because this topic is going to bug me in the near future big time.
I have to say your advice “they should read” doesn’t cut the mustard. It requires work on their side, the willingness to make yourself change your own position (opposite of confirmation bias?), and scientific literacy to a degree which is far above average.
Which makes me think that we probably need a “How to convince people concerned about vaccinations for dummies” book, offering advise. To us. Not to them.
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I mean, you said they’re smart and well educated… So they should be able to comprehend that all the research looking into harmful effects from vaccines shows a minuscule population of people have adverse reactions to some vaccines, and that herd immunity is very important to keep them safe.
You seemed to imply they were science-literate. They should be able to read a meta analysis, and understand its implications.
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That’s called the philosophy of skepticism and requires extreme intellectual honesty with oneself.
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That’s a lot of mustard.
- a guy who’s eaten mustard sandwiches
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I am sorry that you are having this experience. Our insurance, or what is left of it, does not help with the vaccine either, but my wife is planning to get it anyway, when she can afford to do so. I never had CP, and got the vaccine in Japan in the 80s, as did my kids.
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Dan Burton has shifted to the private sector, where he’s a lobbyist for Scientology’s anti-mental health front CCHR:
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But anti-vax beliefs are more or less religious beliefs. They support each other, and reinforce through flattery and the belief that they are the enlightened few, and really believe that they are being opposed by sinister forces with an evil agenda.
And as you point out in your next post, the philosophy of skepticism requires a certain amount of effort and suppression of ego. Also Dunning Kruger, for example, " I researched it on Age of Autism" .
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(shudder)
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Alternately, punch an anti-vaxxer.
On a brighter note, this is an area where I have had some success in converting people. But what was required wasn’t “understanding” or “empathy”; it was many, many repeats of “no, that’s fucking stupid, and it’s stupid in a way that will directly lead to the death of large numbers of children”.
When you meet murderous stupidity, don’t coddle it. Challenge it.
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That could be a problem, given the US is #3 for cotton production.
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But muh viewer numbers!
Actual programming is hard to produce and is expensive. Sad as it is not a lot of people want to watch history.
Let me phrase it differently: medicine, in nearly all cases, is not their field of expertise. I can only deduce from my own experience with papers on a specific kind of cancer that it requires a lot of additional studying to properly understand something which is not from your field. Since the papers are likely challenging their belief, they would probably need to invest this effort, I assume.
I have the same trouble discussing with, e.g., people who have conditions no doctor could help them with - and who then (e.g. after a suggestion of a doctor, or a peer group member) want try out a histamine-free, or wheat-free, or gluten-free diet. (The important difference being that they don’t harm other people, and especially don’t endanger the health of children.)
I am at a loss how to deal with this. Throwing papers at them doesn’t seem to be the best way forward. But I will try again. One of the next cases will be an in-law who I will need to convince to vaccinate her children. And with “need”, I mean an ethical obligation towards another person in the family whose life may depend due to obligatory mediation with immune suppressants.
This is the most challenging case, yet. And I am not looking forward to it.
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I’ve been getting the impression that the History channel in the UK has been going through its entire repertoire of ‘Rise of the Nazi’ programming.
I do recognise there may be some confirmation bias going on here, however. 
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Uh oh.
Before we had history the reality network we had the Hitler network.
Write to them. Fax. Try keeping History UK from going the way of History US.
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