biochem wrote:One of the big problems is anecdotal information. Death from vaccinations is one of the known side effects and children do die from them. The problem is that those cases are vanishingly rare and we know most of the risk factors: compromised immune systems, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, etc etc. Outside of those risk groups you run a better chance of winning this weeks $500 million powerball than dying from a vaccine. But the fear everything crowd will find those vanishingly rare cases and will portray them as far more common then they actually are. And they ignore the real risks that catching these diseases brings.
It's not just vaccines, the fear everything crowd does this constantly. Try to find a real life case of someone poisoning candy or putting razor blades in Halloween treats to give to trick or treaters, for example. But every Halloween parents are told to inspect the candy, take it to an emergency room for X-ray etc.
Mendicant wrote:If I remember correctly, and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I don't, the stories of people poisoning Halloween candy/putting razor blades in apples were just that, stories. Then the fear-mongers ran with it as if it were a real thing and the media picked it up and reported on it without confirming if it was actually a danger or not. Fear sells newspapers.
Louis R wrote:according to Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/ne ... sp?print=y, you don't. not quite. the incidence is hugely exaggerated, but it seems that it actually has happened and been documented. like Ms Mikkelson, i remember the great scare - but since i figured that pie was all that the Macintosh apples most people handed out were good for, i was the chief chopper-upper anyway.
kind of like the various vaccine scares: real incidents happen, and people end up convinced that it was just down the block, not half-way around the world, and since everyone knows that they're being covered up, if they heard about it the real numbers must be huge.
fallsfromtrees wrote:The question is: Did the documented incidents occur before the news reports of it happening, or after as copy cats incidents?
The incidents actually happened guys. And those are just what you
heard about.
Let me clue you in on it's origins. Racism. The practice became an epidemic in the 70's. Certain segments of the population didn't want black kids "trick-or-treating" in their neighborhoods. You don't even want to know what was placed into some kids bags, causing them to get seriously injured, die, shocked or cry.
My parents found out about the practice and used to spend a fortune on candy, giving a Halloween party, where kids would end up with tons of "safe" candy.