MMR

Where to begin. Pinches bridge of nose, rubs tired eyes.

At the beginning would be as good a place as any I suppose.

As anyone who had read my previous posts would know I have a baby daughter. As anyone else with kids would know, around about the age of 18 months, in the U.K. and elsewhere you get a summons to go and have your child vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. The MMR for short.

Unless you have been living on another planet you will also be aware of the controversy surrounding this particular vaccine.

It is this, which has kept me awake at night.

Now before I go any further, I would like to point out that I am not anti vaccination and I would also like to point out that I am not blind either. My daughter has not been vaccinated because I believe there is something fundamentally awry with this particular vaccine and the people behind it.

I do not refer to autism, the main talking point of this particular product and I don’t put this down to its make up, components, wide spectrum of possible side effects, the duration of its overall effectiveness and potential long-term harm.

I refer to the lack/complete absence of the information that is to my mind critical, and the complete loss of reality and/or perspective of 99% of the adult population, medical profession and the media.

I like facts, the truth and a neutral perspective, especially where the MMR is concerned. My daughters well being is at stake at the end of the day. It’s just that when it comes down to it I can’t find any.

Lets start with this. This year the press reported over 1300 cases of measles which had two or more deaths, along with associated hysteria and castigation of those parents who refused to join the herd immunity culture. I personally have never seen anything like it. The only thing missing in some cases was a mob with burning torches and pitchforks. It was as though a childhood disease had suddenly become Ebola to the exclusion of everything else in this world that can harm or kill our children.

To continue…

1300 is what percentage of a population of 60 + million? Plus, two deaths is what compared to deaths from asthma, road traffic accidents, the flu, allergies, tetanus etc etc. We as parents are given no sense of scale with regards to measles.

The following are question I would like answered:

1) How many out of the 1300+ were children below vaccination age?

2) How many out of the 1300+ were adults?

3) How many of the 1300+ were already vaccinated?

4) How many of the 1300+ were visitors to this country?

5) If there were 2 deaths from measles then how many deaths have there been in the same time period from a reaction to the MMR?

6) For the two or more that died, how old were they?

7) For the two or more that died, were they killed by measles alone, or was it due to underlying complications such as a weakened immune system?

8) Why are we not getting the same hysteria with mumps and rubella?

9) If mumps and rubella are not worth the same attention/hysteria as measles then why are they part of the vaccine?

10) If girls are vaccinated against rubella and are therefore immune why are boys being given the same when they obviously can’t get pregnant?

On top of this I would like to ask with regards to this Holy Grail of herd immunity, why aren’t adults being vaccinated?
If you were vaccinated as a child then by the time you hit your twenties the immunity would have more than likely worn off.
It is an accepted fact that the duration of the immunity provided by the MMR is different for each individual. For some it may be 15 years, for others it doesn’t work at all.

So answer me this.

How can you have herd immunity when over three-quarters of the population are no longer immune. C’mon, think about it. When little Tarquin was taken for his jab, did you get offered or ask for a shot as well. No. If there is going to be an epidemic it isn’t going to be among our children now is it.

Plus, if it is not being offered to adults then you have to ask why. If the adult immune system can cope with measles therefore not warranting vaccination, at what age does this start? When is the immune system considered mature?

Finally, and most importantly, what is the cold, hard, neutral truth about measles, mumps and rubella. I would like an open document published with the facts about these diseases that incorporates the answers to the questions raised above.

I am sick to death of the contradictory opinions and supposed facts that anyone in the media or medical profession feel necessary to peddle.
Parents now feel like they are playing Russian roulette with their childs future. Vaccinate, you risk autism (????) ADHD (?????) etc. Don’t vaccinate then its encephalitis and other complications IF they catch measles. The proverbial rock and hard place.
It seems to me, at the end of the day, that profit and professional credibility have taken the place of logic, reason, the truth and my childs welfare.

I hope we don’t all live to regret it.

House of Cards

From the Telegraph newspaper

Obama and McCain computers hacked by foreign entity.

"The computer systems of US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain were targeted by hackers this summer from an unknown "foreign entity," Newsweek magazine has reported.

Newsweek said a federal investigation was opened after the campaigns were "victims of a sophisticated cyber attack".

"FBI and White House officials told the Obama campaign that they believed that a foreign entity or organisation sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy issues – information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration,"

Newsweek said.
"Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese," the magazine said, adding that the FBI had assured the Obama team that the attack had not been carried out by its political opponents.

Newsweek said technology experts at the Obama headquarters discovered the cyber attack in midsummer and initially thought it was a computer virus.
But the FBI and Secret Service warned them the system had been compromised and a "serious amount of files" had been stolen. They said the McCain campaign's computer system had been similarly compromised.

Newsweek said the Obama campaign retained a security firm following the attack and ended the intrusion."

Now considering the fact that the British government, using the excuse of scary men with rucksacks and beards, wants to track everything you and I do from cradle to grave on a daily basis, this does not fill me with confidence. It should also be mentioned that the above attack was publicised. How many have not been. For all we know, those that work in the shadows are fighting an invisible war on a daily basis.

If the most advanced and powerful nation on the planet cannot protect presidential candidates how can the British population have faith in governmental bodies that have a propensity to leave vital information on trains or just outright lose it.

This year the British government has looked into the well-publicised possibilities of identity cards for one and all as well as a massive computer system that will record all emails, telephone and mobile phone calls. I think the response I am looking for is LOL.

For those of you out there that play computer games, online or otherwise, you will be aware of how quickly the youth of today produces hacks and cheats. They are only doing it for giggles. Imagine what a professional organisation could achieve if they really set their minds to it and objected strongly to such methods of surveillance.

What concerns me though is this modern day psychosis which has a fanatical faith in technology.

Back when everything was on paper finding something admittedly was a complete arse and losing files must have been fairly common as well.
To steal information required photography and briefcases followed by clandestine meetings in Hyde Park or smoky back street pubs.
To destroy the information required petrol and a match.
If a hostile agency wanted to steal personal information it was generally limited to data on a few people etc. To take any more would have required a forklift and shipping crates.

Now though, all it requires is a modem and a laptop and a person with knowledge can steal/delete information concerning an entire country. I think the government has an undying faith in its own cleverness and I think that out in the real world somewhere a teenager with a keyboard has an undying faith in the governments technical ignorance and stupidity.

As stated in a previous post, all it needs is for someone to pull the plug and were all stuffed. This is because we no longer keep hard copies anymore. Our bank details, medical records, criminal files etc are all on computer. Turn them off or hack and wipe… well I don’t think it takes much imagination to think of the results.

Can you imagine what Hitlers regime would have achieved with modern technology? The victor would have been the first country to destroy the others IT infrastructure bringing the target country to a grinding financial halt.
Plus we would have no records now of what went on because at the point of the allied victory the Nazi’s would have typed format C: or taken a lump hammer/magnet to the hard drive. The Nuremberg trials would have been based on pure hearsay.

To finish, and to get to the crux of this post, mankind’s growing dependence on the technological now, and complete abandonment of the past concerns me.

It is a social/structural weakness that is easily disrupted and potentially destroyed by anybody, be they curious teenager or hostile nation/ideology.
It is a house of cards that if knocked down effects everybody, not just the people in the 1960’s say, who had savings in a bank that burnt down and all the records were reduced to ash.
In short, we mustn’t forget that paper never got accidentally deleted, filing cabinets never got accidentally formatted, and office records never suffered the blue screen of death.


We have no backup.


Now I am not saying that one-day someone will log on and wipe everything out but the potential is there. It has surprised me to date that terrorists/rebels have not succeeded at least once in this kind of attack.
It is always a possibility and one that grows stronger with each passing year and new conflict.

With this in mind I will finish by saying that I am loath to trust my personal details and the story of my life to this new technological imperative. I don’t trust human competence or nature that much.

The American Revolution

So, America has voted in its first black president. Well done. I mean that most sincerely. In terms of race and equality, subjects close to every coloured minority’s heart, this is a great event. To the rest of the world, it is potentially a vast improvement over the last arse that warmed the presidential seat in the Whitehouse.

But…

While everyone is singing his praises and looking forward to the ‘yet to be seen’ massive changes for the better, he hasn’t actually done anything yet. In fact, correct me if I’m wrong, he doesn’t actually take over from good old George until January.

Another point to consider is the fact that he had better not screw up… ever!

In the UK we voted in Maggy, the antichrist, the devil herself. Hailed as a breakthrough in politics, we the people of Britain elected our first female Prime Minister and much rejoicing was to be had. A decade later the Prime Ministers greatest achievements came down to making the Conservative part unelectable for decades to come and putting everybody off the idea of ever voting for a women PM ever again.
Breaking the Unions by force, destroying our industry, while seemingly making the rich richer and grinding the poor further into poverty, her legacy is one that most people who lived through it remember with a shudder. If a woman ran for parliament today that part of our political history would be like a mantle of lead about her shoulders and a hard one to take off to boot.

In Barracks case there are going to be a sections of the American community who will be waiting eagerly with baited breath for him to fall because the idea of a black president is repugnant. These I am sure are a minority and by far are the smallest of problems.
Those who have pinned their hopes on him however, the coloured community in the main, and the rest who are fed up with the previous administration, are the ones who will be the greatest threat.

They have great expectations, some might say beyond the realms of possibility, but it is those hopes which may never come true which will potentially do the most harm. In watching the news this morning Barrack Obama has come to be seen as a saviour, the superman who will drag America out of recession while healing all its social and economic ills. This is not just an American view, but also seems to involve the rest of the world as well. To me personally, this is verging on expecting the impossible.

I do not envy him, his choice of career. To walk into the presidency with both eyes open, knowing that the people expect him to wipe away the years of George Bush while making things better for one and all must take the greatest of courage. But more frightening still and more importantly is the fact that the people’s confidence in future coloured presidents now rests firmly on his shoulders. Like Margaret Thatcher in the UK, one wrong move on his part could ruin the chances of future coloured presidents for generations to come.

I wish him all the luck in the world and will watch his career with interest.