Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Studies that probably didn't need to be conducted

From the Denver Post:
Children whose parents refuse to have them immunized against it are 23 times more likely to get whooping cough, according to a new study that is perhaps the most definitive yet linking vaccine refusal to disease.
Er, duh? I mean, don't we have decades of evidence that vaccinations actually work? My impression of those who refuse the vaccinations for their kids (and I know a few of them!) is not that they believe they don't work, but that they believe that there are under-publicized risks associated with them. So, yes, the whooping cough vaccination will make my child more resistant to whooping cough, but she's unlikely to encounter that disease anyway, and the vaccination may make her more likely to develop allergies, autism, etc.

So I'm not sure who this study is convincing what.

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