Vaccination Debate – Penn & Teller tonight!

Two nights ago, we sat and watched “The Vaccine War”, a PBS documentary.  It was actually very informative, unbiased, and interesting.

Tonight at 10 PM EST, Penn & Teller’s Bulls*** will air their season finale dealing with the vaccination debate.

Here is what they said on the Penn & Teller facebook page:

“Vaccination is considered modern medicine’s greatest weapon against disease but thanks to pseudo-science and public gullibility, the debate over vaccination safety rages on. Don’t miss the season finale of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! tonight at 10pm ET/PT only on Showtime.”

It should be interesting to say the least. I rarely disagree with P&T on their views, although there has been a time or two where I strongly disagreed with them and even found flaws in their arguments.  However, for the most part, I think they are spot on.  Too bad I won’t be able to watch it tonight.  Hopefully I don’t have to wait until this season comes out on DVD.

The vaccination debate has been raging for years, and there are emotional ties to both sides of the argument.  Anti-vaxers say that vaccinations permanently damaged their children through the use of mercury, formaldehyde and other “toxins” in the shots, giving them seizures, paralysis, brain damage, and, most often, autism.  However, many scientific and peer reviewed studies have been done and have proven otherwise.  The vaccine debate still continues, however, with new information and accusations appearing daily.  Doctors have jumped on the anti-vaccine bandwagon insisting that vaccinations have harmed their patients, and how they’ve been able to help and/or cure them on debilitating disorders.

Autism is the most emotional of all, as the number of children diagnosed with it have risen so dramatically it’s now considered epidemic.  Doctors say they don’t know what causes it; parents and other medical professionals say that vaccines play at least a part, despite the fact that the vaccination rates have dropped while the autism rate continues to rise.

One thing is certain, however. As the vaccination rate drops, we are seeing a recurrence of diseases nearly eradicated in the United States such as the deadly pertussis, or whooping cough, and diphtheria.  Measles outbreaks occur more frequently as well, as the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine was implicated in autism. However, the doctor responsible for the MMR scare, Dr. Wakefield, has recently been under a great deal of scrutiny when the Lancet withdrew their support and printed a retraction to his findings on MMR.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as any parent, doctor, or nurse who has researched vaccinations will tell you.   There is a  great deal of information and misinformation to find out there, and it’s difficult and gut wrenching to attempt to sort through all of it.  Necessary, but brutal.  Oftentimes, pediatricians aren’t helpful at putting parents’ fears to rest, mostly because they will simply state that “vaccines are good” and to just take their word for it.

Watch the episode, and let me know what you think of it.  Don’t worry about spoilers.  I don’t mind at all.

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• This should be good: Penn and Teller on the anti-vaccine movement (scienceblogs.com)
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• Penn Point: Anti Vaccination is Bull Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy (leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk)