“When it comes to needles to stick my new kiddo with, I’m not really being persuaded to do more than the intersection of vaccinations between similar nations.”
You don’t know enough to decide this. What is “similar” (climate, culture, disease spectrum?) Do you know the history of their immunization laws?
Seems to me you first decided this is an icky procedure, and it hurts your kid, and you feel protective. Then you went looking for reasons not to do it. Immunization has a free-rider aspect, because of herd immunity. So you may well get away with it, in terms of your kid’s health, but “people like you” (defectors in PD) are a problem.
If you are an evil pharma-corp, vaccines are a terrible way to be evil.
C/D calculations in public health are real, but this is one of those things where the only way to be effective is not break the phalanx formation.
When it comes to needles to stick my new kiddo with, I’m not really being persuaded to do more than the intersection of vaccinations between similar nations.”
You don’t know enough to decide this. What is “similar” (climate, culture, disease spectrum?) Do you know the history of their immunization laws?
That’s incorrect. I know that my generation was vaccinated against a more limited set of diseases and has survived pretty well.
It’s not wrong to question US health orthodoxy when it’s not at all a secret that pharma can influence US policy and other similar nations haven’t followed these recommendations.
Seems to me you opened a bottle of righteous indignation for me that you had saved up for someone else..
That’s incorrect. I know that my generation was vaccinated against a more limited set of diseases and has survived pretty well.
“There’s no need for the smartphones. I know that my generation only had landlines to use, and has survived pretty well.”
“Back in the day, smallpox was just a fact of life. Most people lived. What’s the big deal about it anyway, afterall, we survived pretty well, and it’s not like it was holding our society back”
“Why do we need to wash our hands before surgery? We’ve survived pretty well so far like this.”
Just because you have not personally seen someone die from a vaccine preventable disease doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen, or that it’s okay.
Depends on what else is in EvilPharmaCorp’s portfolio. Vaccines are generally cheap, but broadly applied so can be profitable. Treatments for disease are often CRAZY expensive, but you sell less of them. There is a network relationship, though—if you can sell much less of the vaccine, you can increase the disease more than linearly.
So truly evil pharma would try to suppress immunization rather than pushing it.
There are enough different pharma companies that vigorously compete with each other. One company that has a patented treatment for disease X that makes a lot of money might not want to develop a vaccine to cure it but that doesn’t mean that developing a vaccine isn’t interesting for other companies.
“When it comes to needles to stick my new kiddo with, I’m not really being persuaded to do more than the intersection of vaccinations between similar nations.”
You don’t know enough to decide this. What is “similar” (climate, culture, disease spectrum?) Do you know the history of their immunization laws?
Seems to me you first decided this is an icky procedure, and it hurts your kid, and you feel protective. Then you went looking for reasons not to do it. Immunization has a free-rider aspect, because of herd immunity. So you may well get away with it, in terms of your kid’s health, but “people like you” (defectors in PD) are a problem.
If you are an evil pharma-corp, vaccines are a terrible way to be evil.
C/D calculations in public health are real, but this is one of those things where the only way to be effective is not break the phalanx formation.
That’s incorrect. I know that my generation was vaccinated against a more limited set of diseases and has survived pretty well.
It’s not wrong to question US health orthodoxy when it’s not at all a secret that pharma can influence US policy and other similar nations haven’t followed these recommendations.
Seems to me you opened a bottle of righteous indignation for me that you had saved up for someone else..
“There’s no need for the smartphones. I know that my generation only had landlines to use, and has survived pretty well.”
“Back in the day, smallpox was just a fact of life. Most people lived. What’s the big deal about it anyway, afterall, we survived pretty well, and it’s not like it was holding our society back”
“Why do we need to wash our hands before surgery? We’ve survived pretty well so far like this.”
Just because you have not personally seen someone die from a vaccine preventable disease doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen, or that it’s okay.
http://callingbullshit.org/videos.html
(a) You don’t know enough to decide one way or the other.
(b) If (a) is true, trust your local public health person.
Evil pharma-corps don’t care about being evil but care about making money. I don’t see why vaccine that can be sold Westerns are bad on that front.
Depends on what else is in EvilPharmaCorp’s portfolio. Vaccines are generally cheap, but broadly applied so can be profitable. Treatments for disease are often CRAZY expensive, but you sell less of them. There is a network relationship, though—if you can sell much less of the vaccine, you can increase the disease more than linearly.
So truly evil pharma would try to suppress immunization rather than pushing it.
There are enough different pharma companies that vigorously compete with each other. One company that has a patented treatment for disease X that makes a lot of money might not want to develop a vaccine to cure it but that doesn’t mean that developing a vaccine isn’t interesting for other companies.
I agree with most of what you’ve said, but here’s a quibble:
Unless you’re one of the sellers of vaccines, right?