Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
It should be obvious to anyone following the news that COVID-19 vaccines protect. They are not 100% but pretty close.
They do protect against getting the disease but more importantly they prevent severe disease and death. Again not perfect but close. A recent article shows that of almost 9000 deaths in Texas in recent months 99.5% were in people not fully vaccinated.
Vaccination saves lives, maybe yours will be one of them.
The COVID-19 crisis and its solution will involve societal measures as well as biomedical sciences. The latest edition of Scientific American (June 2020) has a section with several very informative articles on the coronavirus pandemic.
It is well worth reading if you have an interest in the science research in seeking a vaccine and improving treatments. There is also an article on how this paper on the longer-term consequences of this and several other article on interest.
Many of their articles on their website at https://www.scientificamerican.com/.
The recent outbreak of a measles in the unvaccinated made me think of a book I read several years back (The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin) and briefly mentioned it on this blog. See Protect the kids or why people do dumb things.
It was a good book as I recall but the issue of parents doing a dumb thing in not getting their children vaccinated is still very much with us. My article has link to an article by Seth Mnookin that covers some of the same ground he covered well in his book. I don’t think either of us is calling people dumb. Even smart people can do dumb things.
Another good article that specifically covers the current measles out break is The Vaccine Lunacy: Disneyland, Measles and Madness by Frank Bruni.
There is quite a bit of information out there. Some of it is very good and some of it is misleading. If you are a parent, read it, consider the sources, and act to protect your kids.
Last year I read a good book, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin.
But for some reason I did not review it on my book review site. But here is a review of this and some related books from New Scientist. I don’t recall why I didn’t write a review but Mnookin’s book came back to mind when I saw Parade magazine this weekend.
Seth Mnookin wrote an article “Why So Many Parents Are Delaying or Skipping Vaccines” which covered some of the ground he covered so well in his book but the emphasis was clearly on the problems parents cause for both their children and other children when they do not vaccinate their children as recommended. [Update: The link went bad. Looks like Parade reorganized the site. The new link is given.]
Study after study has show vaccination to be safe, yet many are hesitant. How can people ignore the evidence and do a dumb thing ? I am not calling people dumb. Even smart people can do dumb things.