January 11, 2013

• Weekly update....

  I am finding it nearly impossible to write here as much as I would like.  The disastrous work project is sucking the life out of me but progress is being made.

  But.....not having the time to write has not stopped me from having time to think!  So, here's an unload of the things rattling around my brain this week.....

  

  1. Flu vaccine.  Lately, I have been asked for my mature (more on THAT later!) opinion on whether or not children should get vaccinated.  Let's see......I lived through three types of measles, chickenpox and scarlet fever.  I lived through them but others did not. Some children were left blind, some deaf and others with debilitating heart disease.   Missing out on having the mumps was kind of nice, but when the vaccine came out for it, I got the vaccine.  For those  who have lived through being vaccinated and not having to go through those "childhood diseases", there may be some doubt about whether or not the shots are worth it.  My advice?  Ask someone who had those diseases.  I recall spending a considerable amount of time at age 4 on the couch with various relatives wandering in and out as I lay there with scarlet fever.  Only later did I find out that they were coming in case I died.  For me, getting the vaccine is a no brainer.  Which leads to item number 2.......

  

  2. Vaccines cause autism!!!!  No. They do not.  There is a lot of hysteria out there about how there is proof that they do!  Shun the vaccines!  They may cause your child to catch autism!  The problem with this "evidence" is that the basic person out there may see tidbits of research (carefully packaged by the anti-vaccination people!) which indicate a correlation between the shots and the onset of autism.  Unfortunately, there is a correlation but not a causation-and the causation is the key here.  Autism is often detected at the age when children are receiving a plethora of vaccinations (correlation ).  However, this is not causation-which means, there is no evidence that it causes autism.  If vaccinations caused autism (causation) then every child would become autistic.  And as we know, that simply is not true. I'm sure that there are those out there who disagree with me.  Spare me your venom.  I am not convinced by "evidence" shown by a former porn star (Jenny McCarthy) or by a natural herb shill (Mike Adams).  I think that Ms. McCarthy may well believe that the vaccines caused autism in her child.  When she gets her MD or her PhD, I'll be more inclined to listen to what she says.  Mr. Adams is simply trying to sell a lot of herbs and "natural" medicines.  He figures prominently on conspiracy sites (along with Aliens, Mayan prophecies, Atlantis, UFOs and the coming collapse of every economy known to man-Save the guns!!!).  Before the Internet, he would have travelled with carnivals selling snake oil.  Now, he's a world-wide nuisance to thinking people.

  

  3. Since when does grey hair equal senility?  I've written in the past about how I have left my hair go naturally grey.  This is partly because I happen to love grey/white hair and partly because I'm just too lazy to color it. Lately, I have noticed the tendency of people to repeat things to me s-l-o-w-l-y as though I am either deaf or senile or stupid.  The other day, I needed to get an insert for my shoes to alleviate some foot pain I was experiencing.  The young lady (as in mid-20s) who waited on me explained to me that although it was the size that I needed, I may have to trim the insert.  She took care to explain this to me three times.  Apparently, me nodding my head and saying yes, I understood, did not convince her that at my advanced age (mid 50s!) that I was capable of handling this monumental task all by myself.  I've noticed this several times lately.  Everyone who is repeating things to me is much younger.  Do they not have older relatives?  We aren't all senile!  The best one was the young teacher who carefully explained to me how to find things on the Internet.  He was probably in diapers when I trained an ENTIRE school district on how to use the Internet.  I did not embarass him by explaining that I did, indeed, know how to use the Internet.  I left his fellow teachers straighten him out later.  He came back to apologize and I kidded with him that some of us are not exactly in our fading years and do, in fact, happen to love and use technology.  Now, he and I stick to talking about fishing......

  

  Oh well, time marches on.....but don't count me out yet!!!

  • 8:23 pm
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