Tuesday, November 04, 2008

I'd rather be disfigured than have a rash

Some many things to write about, where do I start. Paralysis caused by too much choice. There is so much that I've wanted to rant about the last few months but I haven't been able to select one. But watching Mornings With Kerri-Anne today made me want to write this post.

The guest she had on was Meryl Dorey, president of the Australian Vaccination Network. Now if you go to their website, they are actually anti-vaccination so their name is highly misleading, not a good start. She claimed to have read the scientific literature and come to the conclusion that vaccinations are not necessary. I would question her ability to do science rather than just reading science articles. For example, she wrote a letter to the British Medical Journal in response to an article on homoeopathy writing, "Homoeopathy is a system of healing that has been around for over 200 years. It does not operate in the way that allopathic medicine does." In effect saying we can't use science to determine if homoeopathy works. Great science. Also, can you spot the logical fallacy?

Anyway she must believe that before vaccination the world was like this:


When in fact is was like this:


and hospital wards looked like this:


and to think this still happens in some countries:


Just talk to those who had polio as a kid, and I have. They would have given anything to have had the vaccination.