Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Vaccinate Yourself Against Doctors



Anyone who has had children knows the drill. Over the first two years, regular checkups with the pediatrician are marked by all sorts of vaccination shots for the baby. With all the adventure of new parentage, who really has the time to thoroughly research the wisdom of inoculations against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, Hepatitis B, etc.? Here, look at the the exhaustive list:


Why do my kids need inoculation against chicken pox? I had it as a kid and suffered no lasting damage. It's not even close to a fatal disease.

How about meningitis? That seems very rare.

Again, I confess I hadn't really researched any of this before mindlessly taking my kids to the doctor. But last winter, they wanted to give my six month old angel a flu shot. I told them to forget it - for better or worse, I went with my formidable gut instinct. The nurse looked at me a little cross-eyed and fortunately that is all the condescension I had to bear.

Listen to what happened to Michelle Malkin. Back in 2004, she told the pediatrician she wanted to omit the Hepatitis B vaccination for her son. Here was her reasoning:

Why on earth should we vaccinate our newborn baby against Hepatitis B – a virus that is contracted mostly through intravenous drug use and sexual contact? That is the question my husband and I had for the doctors and nurses at the hospital where our son was born two and a half months ago.

We didn't get very good answers. It was "convenient," "recommended" and "routine," the medical staff assured us. We wanted more information. A nurse gave us a brochure, which explained that babies whose mothers had the Hep B virus were at high risk of developing acute Hep B infections. Well, I tested negative for Hep B. The Centers for Disease Control named unprotected sex, IV drug use and being stuck with a needle on the job as the likeliest routes of Hep B transmission. Well, my husband and I both work primarily from home, our two children stay at home, and neither we nor our 3-year-old daughter nor our baby (for heaven's sake!) live the Kid Rock-and-Pamela Anderson Lee lifestyle.


Now before continuing, please read her entire article - it is short but I didn't want to cut and paste it in its entirety.

So for you lazy bastards, I will give away the ending.

Michelle, because she refused some of the vaccines for her little boy, was told by the pediatrician to find a new doctor. This is simply incredible. Are doctors now little Microsoft monopolies bundling AON ("all or none") treatment? Why the heck would a doctor care so much about one patient's independent thinking?

Small scale or not, this was fascism.

I'll get back to the doctor later on.

So I sent my firstborn son mindlessly through the vaccination schedule and wouldn't have thought about it at all if it weren't for a good friend of mine. His son was diagnosed with mild autism. My buddy swears that his son was developing fine right up until one of the vaccination rounds. No distant doctor or researcher can ever know a child better than the parents who are there, at home, raising him 24 hours a day. All the doctor propaganda insists that vaccinations have nothing to do with autism. Nonetheless they are a profoundly biased group of elitists so I weigh THAT against all their conclusions.

Devil's Advocate - How are they biased? They spend their entire lives studying medicine. Who knows better than them?

Haha. Remember Napoleon asserted that doctors have killed more men than generals. While that may be embellishment, it has more than a kernel of truth. Step back for a moment and consider the pharmacopoeia of present day medicine. Just as we laugh at the astrologers of yesteryear, I submit that one day future generations will ridicule our addiction to cholesterol drugs, anti-depressants, invasive back surgery, stomach stapling, etc. The medical industry is biased toward doctor induced treatment; they are biased toward drugs, surgeries, and just about anything that only THEY can do and which costs considerable MONEY. No orthopedists are out there recommending yoga for their back-pained patients mostly because there is no yoga lobby; there are no AMA-certified yoga schools. In short, while it may be the most efficacious treatment for bad backs, doctors aren't about to outsource back-pain treatment to non-medical healing.

Doctors will no sooner do this than will Professor Mankiw recommend employment in the free market to learn about economics instead of taking college classes and reading his theoretical textbook (for $110).



Now back to my aforementioned friend. Yesterday I emailed him the story of what befell Michelle Malkin. He responded back to me that upon refusing some shots for his daughter, he too was told by his pediatrician to "go elsewhere". Now put yourself in his shoes for a minute. You just had your son develop mild autism right after some inoculations and then when you try to decline some shots for your daughter, the doctor pulls that staggering arrogance on you. Even without the context of having one son already diagnosed with mild autism, if my kids' pediatrician told me to "go elsewhere" I am not so sure that I wouldn't start pounding the snot out of his nose.

Again, why would a doctor care if a few patients refused a couple of immunizations?

About a decade ago, I heard my brother pontificating about doctors and the "god-complex". Using his reputation against him, I totally discounted his diatribe. The god-complex refers to an arrogance and self-righteousness assumed by doctors. It obviously refers to them playing god with their patients' bodies.

Now that I am a little more experienced and knowledgeable I have warmed to this god-complex stereotype. Almost every doctor I have met in my entire life has exuded profound arrogance. Categorically, they are the must cocksure know-it-alls I have ever met. They are never wrong about anything, be it politics, sports, the economy, and especially about medicine. I can't tell you how many doctors have given ME investment and trading advice.

Sure medical school is hard to get into. Sure, becoming a doctor takes many years, much effort, and financial sacrifice (at first). BUT, doctors are seldom polymathic and never infallible. Apparently the elitist selectionism and the lucubration have given doctors an haughty pride; it's given them the sense that they are simply not to be questioned.

But I would add to that the self-assurance that comes from self-employment. Most doctors do not have bosses or any oversight. Who among us doesn't get self-righteous and set in our ways after decades of answering to no one. How incorrigible will I be after another twenty years of working for myself and Marginalizing titans?

Arrogance is easy to establish, but how to understand the vehemence?

Again, I ask what's the big deal with having a patient refuse certain immunizations?

Most doctors don't like their authority questioned - especially not by a pissant patient who's read stuff on the internet. Let's remember that five doctors will always render five different diagnoses for a single ailing patient. So their authority and credibility are essentially always under question.

Consider the hypothetical doctor who's overseen thousands of inoculations. Someone comes in and refuses a treatment for fear of harm...his narrowly-educated, arrogant, defensive mind is going to react. They don't want to believe, even for a nanosecond, that their thousands of vaccinations have hurt anyone. Remember, they are benevolent deities.

A more balanced, more circumspect, more secure doctor should have no problem accepting a patient's decision to omit a vaccine or two.

As a parent, I must say that I am more afraid of the inoculations than I am of the diseases. Doctors will fire back that the diseases are now rare BECAUSE of widespread immunization. Of course, autism is widespread now as well - but the docs deflect any responsibility thereof. Something crazy like 1 out of every 100 kids now has some degree of autism. Have 1% of the people you know suffered meningitis?


In a complex, highly specialized society it makes complete sense to outsource our medical treatment to professionals.

BUT, it never makes sense to outsource our thinking.

Even brilliant, honorable doctors like Dr. Nathanson have to rack their brains, and struggle for years to subjugate the god-complex. I would never equate Dr. Nathanson and abortion to that of current vaccination "orthodoxy" but I would recommend going back and re-reading his story at least for another glimpse into Big Medicine and the god-complex.

7 comments:

MCS said...

I do not agree with you that Chicken Pox do not kill. I have lost a sister to Chicken Pox when her little son got them and SHE died from the virus. However, if the ER docs was smart enough to put 2 and 2 together she would have lived through it. I, as a medical professional, will always believe that it was their lack of common sense that killed her.

With that being said, I still do not support Vaccination and appreciate your excellent job in writing this blog entry.

Thank you.

CaptiousNut said...

mcs,

I googled it and discovered that 50-100 people per year die from it (link). Thank you for educating me.

So sorry about your sister.

Anonymous said...

You are right on target with the god complex symptom that doctors frequently exude. We have always used a midwife for our babies. This midwife has converted her garage into a delivery room with all the medical equipment you would need. But the brillant doctor thought this was the ultimate horror. Never mind that this lady has delivered hundreds if not thousands of babies.
"YOU had your baby delivered in a garage?" If you do any research you will find midwives have a better success rate for safe deliveries than doctors. The same doctor was giving child training advise to another person I know when they took the child in for some routine care. So we have located another doctor that has some common sense.
By the way, I love your comments on Rich's Forbes blog.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Taylor Conant said...

The random people commenting on this post I think show you that a lot of people (probably parents) are utilizing the net to find other opinions on the topic of vaccination.

A friend pointed me to this video awhile back. If you can find 1hr31mins to watch it, might be worth it:

Vaccination: The Hidden Truth

It can be dull in parts, but it's also shocking. Who knows how much of it is good info or bad, then again, you can say the same about the official propaganda coming from the government and the AMA (remember the AMA is a cartel/monopoly... an opinion is supposedly invalid if not blessed by AMA certification beforehand).

I think it's worth doing extensive research on this topic before vaccinating your children further... if there is something dangerous out there and you can spare your kids developmental retardation (of any variety) that'd probably be something you'd be interested, huh?

Mark said...

what a BS post this is c-nut
the vaccine-austim link has been fully debunked
check the research out there!
you're fear mongering like glenn beck
absolutely awful
Also do not engage in anecdotal arguments

CaptiousNut said...

I am fearmongering?

Hey, I'm not the one, or part of the establishment that's pushing needless, ineffective vaccines on an unsuspecting public. See how *prescient* this post was, long before the pig flu alarmism?

But what do you think of those doctors I blogged about who sent their patients away? Discuss their professionalism, if you would.

Mark said...

docs are allowed to ask patients to find another doctor if they do not follow their recommendations/treatment plans or want services that the doctor feels personally uncomfortable in giving as long as they provide the patient with an alternative doctor who will
However this is for controversial treatments such as abortions, the morning after pill, or if the patient violates an agreed upon treatment paln (ie, gets narcotic pain meds from another provider without telling the doctor)
I agree it is unprofessional to sever ties over parents' refusing immunizations
I cannot understand these parents though
They do not cause autism
Rarely they can cause the disease itself in the case of live attenuated (weakened) viruses or neurologic mostly shortlived effects, ie Guillain-Barre
but when compared to these old diseases these small risks are much much better than the diseases the prevent
all of you do yourself a favor and read up on Herd immunity (it is known that not all vaccines are 100% effective)
and the google measles, rubella, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria, etc
or read a book on the eradication of smallpox and the close eradication of polio (you guys are very close to being like these tribal leaders in Africa and in Pakistan who believed that they were evil Western concoctions)
Or read on how yellow fever, malaria (ok this one is not a vaccine) used to be scourges in America
Don't believe this ant-vaccine BS hype!