Is this for real or an onion? Anthrax vaccine trials in children? - Page 3

[stik]

Personally, I'm not interested in vaccinating my children for anthrax, even though I generally consider vaccination a useful and rational public health measure and my kids are fully vaxed.  (Actually, that's not true right now - they're a little behind and are overdue for a doctor's visit, but they will be fully vaxed again soon.)  The vaccine is there for emergencies, and if there were an emergency and my children were close to it, I would consider it, but they're not and this particular vaccine has more risks than the ones in common use.  

I AM really interested in diseases.  When I have a question about a disease, its prevalence, its impacts, or the number of deaths it has caused, I turn to Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the CDC.  Which is how I know that while anthrax has been rare in the US, there were cases of the disease and even human fatalities from it between 1940 and the anthrax attacks (which I'm going to persist in calling attacks, because that's what I call it when someone deliberately does something that injures or kills someone else).   Anthrax has historically been a cause of concern for people who work with cows and sheep, like the man this this case in North Dakota in 2000: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a1.htm.  

This demonstrates to me that clinicians in the US had, at the very least, easy access to case reports of anthrax in the US that were much more recent than 1940 when the anthrax attacks took place in 2001.  Was there hysteria in 2001-02 and in many cases since?  Certainly.  There were also cases of anthrax among postal workers and victims of the anthrax attacks.  

If I wanted to ruin my personal credibility on the internet while making myself the center of attention, I might start by claiming to have a security clearance that gave me access to super-secret information that no one else on the board has.  I like my credibility (such as it is) and I don't feel the need for that much attention, so rather than making ridiculous claims, I'm just going to point out that a number of the ridiculous claims made in this thread can be easily refuted by examining a variety of the reputable sources that will appear when one runs a quick google search on anthrax.  

[purslaine]

Originally Posted by stik 

If I wanted to ruin my personal credibility on the internet while making myself the center of attention, I might start by claiming to have a security clearance that gave me access to super-secret information that no one else on the board has.  I like my credibility (such as it is) and I don't feel the need for that much attention, so rather than making ridiculous claims  

I don't think anyone who made interesting claims has ruined their credibility, and it is quite the leap  to assume they did it for attention.    People can make claims you find  "interesting " in one area, and still be credible in others.

[purslaine]

nm

 

[stik]

It is a leap to assume that they did it for attention.  However, the following claims have been made:

- There have been no anthrax deaths in the US since the 1940s

- The sending of anthrax through the mail does not constitute an attack

- Anthrax has never been used as a biological weapon

- The government and the media have joined hands in a massive conspiracy to freak you out

Those are all ludicrous.  There is plenty of evidence to refute those claims.  

I'm not losing sleep over the possibility of a second round of attacks in which my children (or anyone else's) might be victims.  Even if such an attack does occur, I would rather work to prevent exposure and treat it if it occurs than test the anthrax vaccine in children.  I think that as government officials look for solutions to these problems, they should remember that anthrax is common in livestock, and that people who work with livestock in the US and elsewhere have been working with protocols to manage exposure to anthrax for a long time.  How do ranching families handle this concern?  What are the treatment protocols for anthrax and anthrax exposure in children in the US?  What about in New Zealand?