A spreading fear of pet vaccines’ side effects has prompted the British Veterinary Association to issue a startling statement this week: Dogs cannot develop autism.
And yet, there are people who will still refuse to vaccinate their pets despite this. "Fake news!", "Conspiracy!", et cetera.
Frankly, I struggle to understand what the hell is wrong with these people. Even if it weren't physically impossible for dogs to develop autism, and even it wasn't physically impossible for vaccines to cause autism...
...that still leaves us with people who would choose to allow their pets (and the pets of other people!) to contract extremely virulent and lethal diseases like parvovirus, distemper, hepatitus, and rabies, rather than run a risk that their own pets might develop non-lethal and non-debilitatin autism from the vaccine. They'd rather see these animals die horrifically than let them live with a chance of limited behavioral quirks.
But I suppose that isn't surprising. Those same people would rather see their own children die horrifically of measles, rubela, et cetera, than let them live with an (imaginary!) chance of autism.
And the terrible irony is that I suspect many of these monstrously selfish idiots are only alive and well today because their own grandparents and parents were vaccinated against things like polio, smallpox, rinderpest, et cetera. I wonder if they'd think differently about vaccines if they had to watch siblings and loved ones die in front of them as children due to a lack of help.
There are legit risks to the vaccines. I've seen a cat develop cancer at the injection site as a result of the rabies vaccine. He died of it. But that would never keep me from vaccinating my animals: the risk to people if the animal contracts rabies vastly outweighs losing the occasional animal to cancer a few years early. I mean, they're animals. Not people. That said... you can't really draw a direct comparison between vaccinating animals and vaccinating people. The risks and rewards of each vaccine are different. There's a reason we don't routinely vaccinate people for rabies.
And yet, there are people who will still refuse to vaccinate their pets despite this. "Fake news!", "Conspiracy!", et cetera.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I struggle to understand what the hell is wrong with these people. Even if it weren't physically impossible for dogs to develop autism, and even it wasn't physically impossible for vaccines to cause autism...
...that still leaves us with people who would choose to allow their pets (and the pets of other people!) to contract extremely virulent and lethal diseases like parvovirus, distemper, hepatitus, and rabies, rather than run a risk that their own pets might develop non-lethal and non-debilitatin autism from the vaccine. They'd rather see these animals die horrifically than let them live with a chance of limited behavioral quirks.
But I suppose that isn't surprising. Those same people would rather see their own children die horrifically of measles, rubela, et cetera, than let them live with an (imaginary!) chance of autism.
And the terrible irony is that I suspect many of these monstrously selfish idiots are only alive and well today because their own grandparents and parents were vaccinated against things like polio, smallpox, rinderpest, et cetera. I wonder if they'd think differently about vaccines if they had to watch siblings and loved ones die in front of them as children due to a lack of help.
There are legit risks to the vaccines. I've seen a cat develop cancer at the injection site as a result of the rabies vaccine. He died of it. But that would never keep me from vaccinating my animals: the risk to people if the animal contracts rabies vastly outweighs losing the occasional animal to cancer a few years early. I mean, they're animals. Not people. That said... you can't really draw a direct comparison between vaccinating animals and vaccinating people. The risks and rewards of each vaccine are different. There's a reason we don't routinely vaccinate people for rabies.
ReplyDeleteGenius.
ReplyDelete