31st January 2009, 11:45 PM
This is a notable issue with a lot of news sources that aren't medical journals, they lack the ability, or the will, to do the research.
There actually has been a noted increase in diseases that were previously nearly eradicated in the first world. What's notable is that the main culprit is parents unable or unwilling to vaccinate their children against said illnesses. The unwilling ones do so out of a fear of the dangers of vaccines. Autism chief among them. This, in spite of a total lack of any evidence that vaccines cause autism, is a fear that's on the rise. It's a sad reality that this irrational fear of autism is outweighing a very rational fear of kids dying from small pox.
There actually has been a noted increase in diseases that were previously nearly eradicated in the first world. What's notable is that the main culprit is parents unable or unwilling to vaccinate their children against said illnesses. The unwilling ones do so out of a fear of the dangers of vaccines. Autism chief among them. This, in spite of a total lack of any evidence that vaccines cause autism, is a fear that's on the rise. It's a sad reality that this irrational fear of autism is outweighing a very rational fear of kids dying from small pox.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)