For Your Anti-vax Friends

You realize there's more than one flu strain, right? So where as the particular vaccine this year wasn't for one of the main strands, that doesn't mean it's not protecting you from the others that are out there.

Oops.

The more you know.

This is not entirely accurate. I was born in 1976 and was forced to get smallpox vaccination in 2003.

Were you in the military protey?

Did you know that the flu in this country is in an epidemic stage right now. Probably not. Oops.

still am.

That is why you were vaccinated just in case you went to a country that didn't have smallpox under control.

Educate them or drop them. I regularly see my friends complain about various things their acquaintances on Facebook post (which can range from all sides of the spectrum). I almost never encounter it because someone who believes in endangering their children, or hitting their children, or using a gun against another human being, or a host of other major ethical issues, doesn't need to be in my life.

Does anyone know where the whole fear of vaccination actually comes from? Yes, everyone points to the autism hoax of '98, but it has to go deeper than that. Is it just good ol' human conservatism (NOT to be confused with political conservatism), whereby we instinctively fear the new? But is something older than our grandparents actually new? Is it some Luddite thing? I guarantee Jenny McCarthy isn't living life without her cell phone.

When I was in the Army we got vaccinated against many things, smallpox included. As a Nurse now you gotta be out of your mind to not vax. It burns my *** when I see children come in with pertussis aka whooping cough and scar their lungs for life because parents are idiots and do not get a simple vaccine for their kids that is 100% safe. If you look it up why do you think all these previously eradicated diseases are making a comeback.

I accept vaccinations happily, I just hate the needle part. Freaking hurts.

Wasn't the flu vaccine this year not as effective as it should be because the virus mutated differently or abnormally than what the CDC excepted?

Yes there is a H3N2 strain going around that is not included in this years flu shot. On the flip side alot of the reason you do not hear of the other flu strains wrecking havoc is because they are included. Imagine all the strains that would be in the if no shots were available.

The comic in the OP seems to gloss over something. They mention that the flu virus is really good at mutating, which is why a flu shot is a crap shoot. Now, can they come up with vaccines at a good rate, or are all these mutations going faster than science can keep up with?

But that one in a million is probably an *** called Conagh, probably (I've been vaccinated from everything, and I don't have autism, alcoholism yes but that's another story!)

*Yes I was being sarcastic about the alcoholism before someone states I'm an Alcoholic because of Vacs

The vaccine has to be formulated early in the year in order for it to be distributed at the onset of flu season. It's not so much that it mutates too quickly but that there's a large stochastic element to it that can be difficult to prepare for so far ahead of time.

Vaccines cause Conaghism. Everybody panic.

I think part of it also has to do with people wanting "pure" living. Diets like paleo and vegan are all the rage right now because they are "pure" and "natural," and people who are preoccupied with that stuff don't want to inject "chemicals" into their children.

I can't imagine being more concerned about keeping my kid vegan than keeping my kid safe, but what do I know. Also, literally everything is made up from chemicals (better not give your kid water, it's made of chemicals!) but again, what do I know.

Not denying that for one second, I presonally think 99% of the population is too stupid to be allowed to live but perhaps I have High Standards.

This is being added to Twitter like

#ScottishBeefBurger!

now it's

#Conaghism!

could be mistaken for a religion though (enough derailing!)

Have anti-wax people considered laser?

That kind of stuff drives me batshit crazy. (Although, I'd say 90% of my meals are either vegan or vegetarian, but I'd never force it on a kid.) People tend to think of the anti-science crowd as bible-thumping hill-people, but there's a sizable contingent of folks on the, for lack of a better term, opposite side of the spectrum who are against certain aspects of modernization for little reason other than pseudoscience. Anti-GMO, anti-vax, anti-gluten, organic only (shudder), etc.

And just like their counterparts, they can't be reasoned out of their positions since they didn't actually reason themselves into them. A lot of people complain about their Facebook friends/family posting overly-political rhetoric, meanwhile, I see ***about all-natural, holistic, detox goobbledygook and I wanna stab a ***.

#Conaghism

I can ship you a beef carcass to practice your stabbing.

Alberta Beef can be especially tender and delicious.

#ScottishBeefBurger

Someone found out the secret recipe, ... stabbing.

It wasn't really a secret. It's well known in Alberta!

I like showing these people stuff like this

You mean it doesn't just contain banana?!

What is wrong with being anti-gluten? I'm intolerant to it and it closes up my intestines, which can cause serious medical issues.