Actually, I used to play paintball with a guy who was one of Polio’s last victims in the US. He wore leg braces and wasn’t very mobile, but if he had decent cover he would make you pay for underestimating him.
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Because human excrement like the March Against Monsanto folks have tied the anti-GMO cause to the anti-vaxxers. Pretty much nearly every time someone posts a link to an anti-GMO site, they are spamming for an anti-vaxxer site. I’m sure you’ve seen the articles about “how Roundup causes autism” but if you browse these sites you will also find anti-vaxxer articles.
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Well, obviously. Those vaccines are made out of genetically modified viruses and bacteria, therefore they’re much more dangerous and unsafe than the natural counterparts out in the wild!
Just (don’t) think about it! Genetically modified cooties in the varicella vaccine cause autism! But giving your kid the chickenpox on the other hand, will just cause a bad respiratory infection, crazy itchiness and opens the kid up to get shingles when they’re about 50 or so! Much better than autism!
/sarc
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It took me a minute to realize this was a joke. I’m very grateful to doctors who’ve saved my life and even those who just improved the quality of it, but I’ve dealt with a very small number of doctors who could be replaced with people who’ve done internet research and it would be an improvement.
It’s a useful metaphor for the vaccination issue. Just because a small number of doctors first do harm doesn’t mean we should throw out the entire profession with the bathwater.
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Oh yes, I feel one should actively take ownership of one’s care… Challenge with informed questions and go for the second opinion when faced with an apparent dunderhead.
I think that it is often the doctors who are deficient in research when faced with ‘informed’ parents - they seem to take a condescending ha, ha, silly bear, your theory is wrong because I say so attitude rather than guiding them towards the truth.
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Aparently, only you and I have seen this movie. 
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That’s easy, they didn’t want you playing football. Don’t you know how dangerous that is? You could get crippled!
The ablutions they do beforehand aren’t solely ritualistic. Obviously not perfect, but they surely cut down on disease transmission compared to the same amount of completely unwashed people from diverse places in close contact with each other.
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It’s both amazing and sad that the advent of the Internet has actually served to expand ignorance.
All the best information in the world is at our fingertips, but too many of us seem to have terrible information assessment skills. Or bullshit is extraordinarily charismatic…
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Quite often, it’s this ^ combined with appeals to authority.
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I kinda wonder what chance an aggressive new global vaccination programme to eliminate, say, whooping cough (or AIDS, or ebola, or SARS/MERS/xyRS^) would have. I sadly suspect it’d fail spectacularly at the first hurdle.
^ what is a good example of a disease that’s plausibly vulnerable to a simple vaccination schedule conducted on a global scale that would make sense to eliminate?
Tuberculosis. Although you’d have to keep vaccinating for probably 10 years post-elimination, because its endocysts are pretty hardy.
But humans are the only known reservoir, and doesn’t seem to be readily transmitted between non-human mammals. If we can manage to eliminate it from humans long enough (and are careful to treat/cull animals with it), there’s a decent chance we can be rid of it eventually.
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