© Northern Hospital of Surry County
I am a member of an on-line doctors' community in the UK called Doctors Net. Not open to the public. Whenever any story about vaccination emerges, the vitriol, anger and naked rage is quite scary to observe.
Whenever the issue of MMR raises its head on Doctors Net, doctors have stated that Andrew Wakefield should be thrown in jail, and never allowed to earn any money ever again, that he is a crook and a criminal - and those are the nicer comments.
It is clear that, in the medical profession, there is an unquestioned faith in vaccination. That is, all vaccinations, for all diseases, everywhere - for everyone. Anyone who dares to hint that, ahem, there could be some negative issues associated with vaccination is subjected to withering contempt. 'You will be responsible for killing millions of children.' You don't understand science.' And suchlike.
When it comes to the science, it does amuse me that vaccination began before anyone understood any of the science - of anything to do with microbes and the immune system. It all began, so it is recorded, with the observation that milkmaids were much less likely to get smallpox.
This led to the idea that you should deliberately infect people with a bit of cowpox, to prevent them getting smallpox. Bold.
'The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1796 in the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.' [from the website that cannot be named... Wikipedia actually]This was suggested at a time when all doctors thought infections were spread by Miasma. Basically, a nasty smell. No-one had the faintest idea that there were bacteria, or viruses. Somewhat ironically, vaccination - giving a small amount of a substance to cure/prevent a nasty disease - became the underlying principle of homeopathy - which most doctors now angrily dismiss as 'woo woo medicine.'
Comment: Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, weeds are becoming resistant to herbicides, crop pests are becoming resistant to pesticides and now fungal infections resistant to anti-fungal drugs. It seems all our marvels of chemistry of the past century are starting to become a lot less marvelous. And with their dwindling effectiveness, new plagues are set to sweep over our modern world. One would hope researchers would look into some of the natural anti-fungal treatments that have been used for centuries, without causing resistance, to help battle these new drug-resistant infections.
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