Lovely article by an actual professor on how vaccine refuseniks (does that make them sound any more sinister?) are freeloading on the back of the people who do the right thing.

Good comments too.

Ben Goldacre commenting on this article: “Take a bow, morons“.

Let’s say this again. It’s only a matter of time before a child is damaged or killed by the effects of measles.

In a perverse way, I’m looking forward to how the Daily Mail reports it. As long as the affected family is white, middle-class and in work of course.

And so Hartlepool, with an immunisation level of 80% has an outbreak of measles. 11 cases confirmed and 60-odd more suspected.

I was about to ramble on in the usual way, but the little voice in my head said something particularly evil. I wonder how many of those children had the MMR vaccine deliberately withheld by their parents. And if one of those children dies or is severely damaged by an entirely preventable disease, whether those parents should be prosecuted for neglect or abuse or somesuch. Or would their hand-wringing angst be punishment enough?

Nah.

PZ biles very well over this so I’ll leave him to it.

So we now live in a society where a Playboy model, hanging out with a tooth-curlingly awful Hollywood star gets a slot on TV under the auspices of the black, female[1] Jesus of our times.

One more time: the most powerful woman on American TV who can propel nonsense like “The Secret” to the top of the bestsellers list is now endorsing someone who wants children to get measles and all the complications  that may follow.

Just in case you’re in any doubt about the dangers of measles Roald Dahl lost a daughter to it.

[1] I was tempted to throw fat in as well and go with a Buddha metaphor but bottled out.

This is an anti-cockbucket of epic proportions. A simple body count of how many people have been killed by stupidity.

Note: this is nothing like being killed in the face by a bear.

That’s odd. The Fail is salivating over the release of “secret” government documents under the FOI. Uh, it’s months after the documents were released. Could it be that there was nothing in there of interest?

Andrew Wakefield, the man who made (up) a connection between the MMR jab and various conditions like MMR and bowel conditions, could be construed as an accessory to manslaughter at least[1].

Now even the Guardian classes are beginning to feel the pinch as immunisation falls below herd level and their children are in danger from measles and its consequences.

The man is an arse.

[1] I construe it. You can never tell, but with measles in London rising 20-fold in the last few years almost solely attributed to him, I’m happy to make the link.