Tag: questions about vaccines

Jenna Jameson Helps Explain the Modern Anti-Vax Movement

Jenna Jameson is the latest “celebrity” to be talking about vaccines.

Is Jenna Jameson anti-vaccine?

And it helps explain what is going on in the modern anti-vaccine movement.

Jenna Jameson Helps Explain the Modern Anti-Vax Movement

So why is Jenna Jameson talking about vaccines?

Is it because she is vegan?

Many vegans vaccinate.

Maybe, but many vegans vaccinate themselves and their kids…

Is she just against vaccine mandates?

One of the best reasons to question vaccines is because the government is mandating them?

Sure, it is possible she just has a problem with the government telling her what to do.

Not encephalitis, but a motor vehicle accident can lead to a brain injury or even chronic traumatic encephalopathy though.
Not encephalitis, but a motor vehicle accident can lead to a brain injury or even chronic traumatic encephalopathy though.

But that became a less likely reason as she kept tweeting…

Jenna Jameson thinks that vaccines cause peanut allergies.

That vaccines can cause peanut allergies is a common anti-vax talking point. They think that it has something to do with peanut oil adjuvants, even though these peanut oil adjuvants were never actually used in any routine vaccines.

It eventually came out though.

Jenna Jameson is questioning vaccines because she feels that her child nearly died after her vaccines – from a febrile seizure.

A febrile seizure after a vaccine has Jenna Jameson questioning vaccines.

And of course, it is bullying to try and explain that febrile seizures are not a life-threatening reaction.

So what’s the problem?

Jenna Jameson made a lot of misinformed statements about vaccines.
Jenna Jameson made a lot of misinformed statements about vaccines.

It’s not Jenna Jameson questioning vaccines or even whether or not she vaccinates her kids.

It’s her using her celebrity status to scare other parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

Jenna Jameson is happy that she is scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids?
Jenna Jameson is happy that she is scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids?

Want to question something?

A febrile seizure is a vaccine injury now?
A febrile seizure is a vaccine injury now?

Question why parents listen to celebrities like Jenna Jameson when they try and make them think that vaccines are dangerous and cause things like peanut allergies, asthma, diabetes, and autism.

Or that febrile seizures are a dangerous reaction, a vaccine injury, that should keep them from continuing to get vaccinated.

“Fevers can be caused by common childhood illnesses like colds, the flu, an ear infection, or roseola. Vaccines can sometimes cause fevers, but febrile seizures are uncommon after vaccination.”

What is a febrile seizure?

Would you skip or delay your child’s vaccines, putting them at risk to get a life-threatening disease and putting others at risk, because Jenna Jameson, Rob Schneider, Kat Von D, Bill Maher, Kristin Cavallari, Lisa Bonet, or Cindy Crawford told you to?

More on Anti-Vaccine Celebrities

More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic

Are you skeptical about vaccinating your kids?

What is a vaccine skeptic?

That’s good!

You should be skeptical of just about everything. Many of us are.

It’s good to ask questions, do research, and doubt what people tell you…

The thing is, you can’t just be skeptical about stuff you don’t want to believe. You should be skeptical about everything. So don’t blindly buy into anti-vaccine arguments because they’re what you want to hear.

They’re likely the type of propaganda you need to be more skeptical of!

More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic

Wait, why would I want you to become a vaccine skeptic?

Well, if you do it right, you are going to realize that vaccines are safe, with few risks, and that they are very necessary.

Our first 8 questions hopefully got you started on seeing through anti-vaccine arguments, but here are some more you should think about:

  1. If the MMR vaccine is associated with autism, then how come the incidence of autism went up when they stopped using the MMR vaccine in Japan? Remember, Japan stopped using the combination MMR vaccine in 1993 because it had been linked to aseptic meningitis (the problem was with the mumps vaccine strain they were using, which was different than the one used in the United States, where there was no aseptic meningitis issue). And rates of autism have increased in Japan, just as they have in other countries. So much for the idea that the MMR vaccine is associated with autism, right?
  2. If vaccines don’t even work, then how come every time vaccination rates have dropped in an area, we have seen outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases?
  3. If vaccines are associated with SIDS, then why did the incidence of SIDS go down so much when we put infants to sleep on their backs, even as they were vaccinated and protected against more diseases?
  4. If vaccines don’t really work and we just change the names of the diseases, like smallpox became monkeypox, then where are all of the kids with monkeypox?!?
  5. If vaccines are associated with SIDS, then why didn’t the incidence of SIDS go down in Sweden when they stopped using the DPT vaccine between 1979 and 1996?
  6. Why didn’t the reanalysis of CDC’s MMR autism data, the whole thing behind the CDC Whistleblower and Brian Hooker’s paper (which ended up being retracted), find an association between the MMR vaccine and autism in everyone, not just the small subset of African American males?
  7. If the Brady Bunch measles episode was supposed to push the idea that measles was mild, then why did Marsha end up vaccinating her own kids?
  8. What else do you believe? Do you believe in chemtrails? Homeopathy? That you shouldn’t treat kids with cancer with chemotherapy?

Be more skeptical of the misinformation that anti-vaccine folks use to scare you away from vaccinating and protecting your kids.

More on Becoming a Vaccine Skeptic

Do Vaccines Prevent Disease or Infection?

What kind of question is that?

Do you avoid vaccinating your kids because you believe in the sanctity of human blood?!?

It sounds like something from one of those folks who say that vaccination is not immunization, doesn’t it?

“A remark in passing: it has become cliché to say that vaccines prevent only disease, not infection.”

Stanley A. Plotkin on Correlates of Vaccine-Induced Immunity

Oh, it’s one of those kinds of questions…

“Although that may be often the case, it is not a general truth. If the presence of antibodies is sufficient to prevent colonization of mucosal surfaces, vaccines can produce “sterile” immunity. Vaccines against polio, measles, rubella, Hib, pneumococcus, meningococcus, and probably human papillomavirus are all capable of preventing infection as well as disease.”

Stanley A. Plotkin on Correlates of Vaccine-Induced Immunity

The bottom line, whether they are preventing disease or infection, vaccines work to keep you from getting sick.

But just so you know, since talking about vaccines preventing disease vs infection is a thing, many vaccines do both.

More on Vaccines that Prevent Disease and Infection

Preparing for a Public Debate About Vaccines

Need some advice about preparing for a public debate about vaccines?

That’s easy.

“If you are invited for a public discussion you must first decide whether or not to accept the invitation.”

How to respond to vocal vaccine deniers in public

Don’t do it.

Preparing for a Public Debate About Vaccines

Wait, why wouldn’t you want to have a debate about vaccines?

Remember, a good debate implies that there are two valid sides to the issue. Or at least that one side has some arguments that aren’t based on myths and misinformation.

What are you debating?

That vaccines are safe, with few risks, and that they are necessary.

What’s there to debate?

Don’t allow false balance to create a fake debate.

Think about it.

Should Robert F. Kennedy, Jr be given an opportunity to tell folks his opinions about the “perceived dangers” of vaccines, when those perceived dangers include that vaccines are associated with autism, have been untested on pregnant women, are sold by the CDC, and a lot of other conspiracy type stuff?

“They get the shot. That night they have a fever of 103. They go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

Remember, Kennedy is the guy who published the retracted Deadly Immunity article. And he continues to focus on the dangers of mercury in vaccines, even though only a very small minority of flu shots still contain thimerosal and studies have shown that the thimerosal that kids have been exposed to in vaccines is not a danger.

He’s an environmental lawyer who continues to focus on vaccines in the age of climate change and as EPA regulations are being rolled back.

Neither Kennedy nor anyone else in the anti-vaccine movement should be given a stage to scare parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

The debate was canceled because of negative attention.

Update – Fortunately, they weren’t. The “debate” was canceled.

More on Preparing for a Public Debate About Vaccines