Category Archives: Vaccination

Tragic Influenza-Related Factoid of the Day

Posted on March 26, 2013 by

From the Boston Globe (boldface mine): Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season. One exception was the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010, when 348 children died. The CDC recommends that all children ages 6 months and older be … Continue reading →

Posted in Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 1 Comment

The Importance of Vaccines in One Figure

Posted on March 14, 2013 by

The next time you hear or read some idiot talk about how vaccination isn’t important, just point them to this excellent graphic:

Posted in Vaccination

Why Conservatives Can’t Stop Talking About Rape: Because It’s the New Rubella

Posted on March 4, 2013 by

So it appears that, just as the furor over Todd Akin’s magical vaginas has died down (he was the Republican who claimed that rape victm’s vaginas have ways to “shut down” pregnancy), they seem to have gone full-bore stupid again: … Continue reading →

Posted in Blastocyst Liberation, Microbiology, Rape, Vaccination | 3 Comments

This Is Why Anti-Vaccination Has a Rightwing Bias

Posted on January 17, 2013 by

I’ve noted elsewhere that anti-vaccination sentiment is more likely to be found on the right, despite the common misperception that it is primarily leftwing phenomenon. If we want to know why this is the case, we have to plumb the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bullshit As a Load Bearing Structure, Conservatives, Fucking Morons, Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 2 Comments

The Limits of Individualism: Why You Need to Get a Flu Shot

Posted on January 16, 2013 by

Before I get into this, everyone should check out PalMD’s post on flu–it’s a neat little post. One of the reasons that people don’t get flu shots is that we haven’t done a good job of explaining to people why … Continue reading →

Posted in Framing, Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 4 Comments

Anti-Vaccination Has a Slight Rightwing Trend

Posted on January 3, 2013 by

So this trundled across my Twitter feed a while back: Here are the survey results: “> There’s a slight and statistically significant anti-vaccination trend among Republicans. This doesn’t surprise me, since the only vaccination polling I’ve seen is from 2009, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Democrats, Public Health, Vaccination | 3 Comments

Vaccinating Children Against Tetanus Is Leading to an Epidemic of Impalements With Rusty Objects

Posted on October 22, 2012 by

So snarks Jill Filipovic (boldface mine): According to a recent study, giving children tetanus shots will not, in fact, encourage them to stab themselves with rusty nails or be less cautious when playing outdoors. Various political organizations have advocated against … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Let's Talk About Sex, Baby, Public Health, Vaccination

MA Hospital Influenza Vaccination Still Inadequate: Just Mandate It Already

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

A while ago, we discussed how anti-vaccination idiocy by hospital staff enabled the spread of influenza to critically ill patients. So we read with dismay the following from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (God Bless It!; boldface mine): Roughly 81 percent … Continue reading →

Posted in Boston, Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 2 Comments

How Austerity Is Making You Sick: The Whooping Cough Edition

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

Because costs money to have a public health system that can actually protects the public’s health (boldface mine): MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Whooping cough, or pertussis, a highly infectious respiratory disease once considered doomed by science, has struck Washington State … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Public Health, Vaccination | 6 Comments

How Influenza Spreads Through a Hospital: It’s the (Lack of) Vaccination, Stupid

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

Now that summer is near, let’s talk about influenza (I’m a little behind on some items). A while ago, I came across this post which demonstrates just how critical influenza vaccination (the ‘flu shot’) is for medical personnel (boldface mine): … Continue reading →

Posted in Fucking Morons, Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 1 Comment