It’s Even Funnier If You Think It’s About Vaccinations

Rebekah, there is no link between vaccinations and autism. None. At all. There is no debate. A quack faked the data and was funded by a lawyer who asked him to do exactly that so he could sue pharmaceutical companies in a huge way. I am a scientist. I work in autism. There is no link between vaccines and autism. Please stop spreading that word. It is harmful. Because there is a direct link between not getting vaccinations and dying from a preventable disease.

HFCS is really bad for you. It is refined in such a way that our bodies don’t recognize.

And the commercial is hilarious.

Rebekah, have you ever heard of “confirmation bias”?

The important thing to learn relates to the child at the end. It was obviously a full grown man. This raises serious questions about the effects of fructose on children.

Good Skeptoid on HFCS: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4157
Basically, it’s about the same thing as sugar, good and bad. Also, either vaccinate your kids or homeschool ’em.. my kids will thank you for it.

I know a little about HFC and sugar. IIRC:

Good News: There appears to be no difference in scientific studies.

Bad News: That means they are both equally bad (being linked with things like obesity and metabolic syndrome).

Rebekah – your comment is painful! Yikes! Clearly you need to check out a reputable source – such as the CDC or American Academy of Pediatrics site.

I’m a pediatrician. And unfortunately, here in MN, I’ve seen many children this winter with measles, many of them too young to be vaccinated and sick enough to be hospitalized. Vaccinations are safe and effective. Not vaccinating your children is selfish and is nearing child abuse in my book. So shame on you for spreading such nonsense!

I agree with Jen, there is no debate and the clip was absolutely hilarious!

That made me laugh. That is all.

@Michelle,

Considering risk? Tell me, please, using numbers, how much difference in risk there is between getting the normal course of vaccines and getting the spaced-out course.

Good Skeptoid on HFCS: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4157

Great link, mthrnite. I have spent countless hours trying to explain to people that eating too much is causing these health problems, not HFCS itself.

They never listen, though. It’s easier to demonize something else rather than take responsibility for their actions.

HFCS is just as bad for you as real sugar is. Why? Because they’re basically the exact same thing.

Molecules are molecules. They don’t care how they’re created. HFCS is fructose and glucose. Sugar is fructose and glucose combined together into what’s called a disaccharide. This basically means that instead of the fructose and glucose being separate things, they have an extra oxygen atom linking them together.

Now, your body can’t actually process disaccharides directly. so you have an enzyme to do that for you. In this case, you have one called sucrase, which removes that oxygen atom and changes normal table sugar into separate amounts of fructose and glucose. In other words, normal sugar actually becomes the same thing as HFCS as you digest it.

So, bottom line: HFCS is no worse for you than sugar. The effects are basically the same. What’s more *science has proven this already*. Really. Next time you see some headline about HFCS being bad, go read the actual scientific paper they’re reporting about. Read past the title too, since scientific researchers often like to exaggerate their results somewhat in their titles (hey, researchers need funding too). So go to the actual data. The bottom line is invariably that the effects of the differences between HFCS and sugar are essentially unnoticable or beyond our ability to detect them, even on a statistical level.

Yes, HFCS is bad for you. Sugar is bad for you too. They both make you fat. So stop drinking so much of either one of them and you won’t have any problems.

I have to admit to looking for and avoiding HFCS to a certain extent, largely because it hangs out in things you wouldn’t normally expect to contain sugar and I don’t want sugar in everything. A little HFCS ain’t gonna kill you.

Yes, vaccination has its risks. So do the illnesses the vaccines are supposed to protect us from. Vaccines aren’t, of course, 100% effective but they are relatively safe compared to the risk widespread avoidance of vaccinating would have on our society. While I agree that the Cdn gov’t probably would’ve been better off completing the safety trials, one of my kids has what will very likely be a lifelong medical condition resulting from his bout with H1N1.

It’s expensive for us to chase down the cases of these diseases that we do get before they reach too many people. Most estimates of cost are restricted to the direct cost of treating the patient, but that ignores all the other things that are often happening to ensure that others are safe. Here’s a nice article on the indirect public health costs of chasing down a case of measles to avoid epidemic. This is just one case study, but it gives an idea as to what’s involved.

@allison

My kids ended up contracting H1N1 before the whole vaccination fiasco started. The process for vaccination was such a gong show in Alberta, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people who got vaccinated had already had the disease. The kid who passed it on to my kids got the vaccine after the fact (what a wast of fed $$!) Once my kids showed the symptoms of being sick, they stayed home to help prevent spreading the disease to others. While we are up to date with childhood vaccinations, we don’t vaccinate for the flu…and we wouldn’t have had a chance to get the vaccine before the kids got sick anyway. We were fortunate that H1N1 ended up being much milder for us than the media was reporting.

@Mastema

Your referenced study speaks specifically about vaccination spacing/timing and psychoneurological effects. When I spoke about vaccination selectively or choosing a different timing, I was not referencing autism or other neurological disorders. I am not in the anti-vac/Jenny McCarthy camp…scientific studies have shown there is no correlation between vacs and autism.

I do believe that spacing out the number of vaccines for a 2 month old (and older) can be beneficial. Especially with a family history of multiple allergies, including to drugs and metals, I think it is worthwhile to take things slower and be mindful of potential reactions.

It is also of value to be careful when jumping on the vaccine bandwagon for newer vaccines. Back when my first child was born (1998) the rotavirus vaccine was being administered in the US. A number of infants suffered bowel obstruction due to that vaccine, and it was quickly pulled from the market. I was thankful that Canada Health wasn’t offering the vaccine yet, so we didn’t have to worry about going through that health scenario. I feel for the families that did have to go through it. Making decisions about vaccinating can be a mine field. You have to educate yourself rather than blinding following the herd.

@Michelle: Unfortunately, “too many too soon” doesn’t actually make sense either.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=11408
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/05/no_difference_between_too_many_too_soon.php

Specific allergic concerns, of course, should be brought up with the physician. Some things are different for different people. But by and large, “too many too soon” is an entirely unjustified position, typically promoted as back-door anti-vax (not by you, but by a lot of people).

fucking hulu.

@Michelle, we contracted H1N1 before the vaccination programs kicked in as well, and the initial infection seemed mild enough…but for my son it turned into searing headaches and then daily, debilitating vertigo attacks that lasted for hours on end. From what I understand, for some people the flu itself was really bad, but the real kicker for many with other chronic medical conditions (my kid is one of those) was the secondary conditions associated with the disease.

While most of the infectious period is after symptoms start to appear, people are infectious during the latter part of the incubation period as well. I can understand why public health officials were erring on the side of caution.

@allison

Honestly, given how the gov’t was trying to spin their message, I think they were very concerned that they dole out as much vaccine as possible, because they’d already spent the money, and the vaccine would go bad if not used. I remember how much confusion there was about who should get the vaccine first and where pregnant women fit in. The seemingly random shutting down and reopening of clinics and lineups was a joke. By the time most people were finally getting the vaccine, the wave had mostly passed by.

They weren’t terribly effective about getting the vaccine to those at highest risk (such as those with underlying respiratory issues and their immediate families.) Those who really needed it didn’t get it in time, and then there was continued mass vaccination of many who had already been sick with H1N1…which is beyond useless as contracting the disease will provide all the immunity you need to that particular strain.

My first experience with HFCS was in a glass of lemonade I had when I was in the US last year. I practically spat out the first sip, it tasted awful! I quickly discovered that this was a recurring issue with everything containing HFCS. I don’t care if it has a similar chemical composition to cane sugar, it’s gross!
I spent the next 3 months sulking every time I was in a bar because I couldn’t get my lemon, lime & bitters fix.
For those interested, I know of one article in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health journal concerning mercury levels in HFCS (Dufault et al, 2009 – Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar). Another article from around the same time concerning the link between HFCS and obesity in rats is also interesting (Bocarsly et al, 2009 – “High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels”).

THANK YOU, Yet Another Atheist. I was thinking the exact same thing. It’s just like all those inane “5 Questions Atheists Can’t Answer” or “4 Questions for Evolutionists” YouTube videos that claim to be honestly seeking answers, but are really trying to say “Gotcha! You don’t know everything, stupid heathen!”

ff42, if what you’re looking for is a study comparing a group of vaccinated children to a group of unvaccinated children over time, you’re not going to find it. Such a study would be considered extremely dangerous and unethical. Vaccines are considered the standard of care because they are safe and effective, so it would be unethical for researchers to deliberately withhold them from any patient without a damn good reason.

Bullshit. It is everyone’s business. Parents choosing not to vaccinate put peoples lives at risk who cannot get vaccinations for medical reasons or those too young to get them.

Agreed. I’m all for doing your research carefully, and I agree that one vaccination schedule MIGHT not be appropriate for EVERY child, but, like smoking in public, not vaccinating puts others at risk. It’s not a “mind your own business” thing.

Next time you see some headline about HFCS being bad, go read the actual scientific paper they’re reporting about. Read past the title too, since scientific researchers often like to exaggerate their results somewhat in their titles (hey, researchers need funding too). So go to the actual data. The bottom line is invariably that the effects of the differences between HFCS and sugar are essentially unnoticable or beyond our ability to detect them, even on a statistical level.

You want to get into the “scientific data can be misrepresented” debate? Take a look at this video. It’s long, but so worth it if you love science and hate the way journalists (and even scientists themselves) manipulate data. Not all scientific studies are created equal.

http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/05/12/speech-science-for-smart-people/

Ah yes, let’s blindly follow the vaccine schedule regulated by the government which has almost QUADRUPLED in the last 30 years and just start pumping our kids full of chemicals and other harmful substances without actually thinking about it, doing the research, or weighing the risk factors first. Sounds about right.

(By the way, aren’t a lot of medical schools funded by pharmaceutical companies? Just wondering…)

Most parents who don’t vaccinate or who delay vaccinations do so because they’ve done a ton of research, none of which has anything to do with autism. But it DOES have to do with concern over the fact that once it goes into your child’s body, it can’t ever be taken out.

Want a great non-biased view on vaccines? Pick up Dr. Sears’ “The Vaccination Book”.

@Brittany:

Most parents who don’t vaccinate or who delay vaccinations do so because they’ve done a ton of research

Not specifically about vaccinations, but when I came out to my mother this year, she told me that she’d “done a ton of research” into the gay lifestyle. She then promptly reiterated the typical anti-gay canards that have been floating around for years (gays get STDs, gays are promiscuous, gays are unhappy.)

I imagine that a “ton of research” into matters of vaccination can turn out much the same. You get flooded by incorrect information, confirmation biases, and outright lies of opponents of vaccination and parents think that’s the right answer.

HFCS is in fact worse for you than sugar.

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

All of the “HFCS is made of Corn! Corn is good! So HFCS must be good too!!” is propaganda put out there by mega companies that have a lot of money to lose when HFCS is shown to be what it is, awful for human consumption. ADM/Cargill/etc… spend millions of dollars lobbying in Washington to get corn subsidies that get them a very cheap product that they can sell to consumers. Every “study” that says Fructose is equal to Sucrose is bought and paid for by a major corporation that has a lot to gain from the results. Just like the studies that Phillip Morris did to prove cigarettes don’t cause cancer.

This guy sums it up well.
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/killer-on-the-cob-rant.htm

P.S. All of you mothers who are not vaccinating your children are putting their lives at risk and risking the health of other children with whom they interact. Please vaccinate them asap before you kill them with your inaction. Every ‘study’ that linked Autism and vaccines has been proven multiple times to be at best incorrect and worst fraudulent.

HFCS is in fact worse for you than sugar.

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

Actually that’s not a very well done study and it doesn’t really show that HFCS is worse than sugar. If you read over the actual journal article instead of the news publications about it their data didn’t amount to much and they misrepresent it in their discussion. In their short term study the rats with 12h access to HFCS gained more weight than those with 12h access to sucrose, while the rats with 24h access to HFCS did not. Interestingly however they didn’t control for amounts consumed, so the sucrose rats ingested 50% more calories from sugar, while the HFCS rats made those calories up with rat chow. The long term male experiment didn’t include sucrose to compare results to. The long term female experiment showed no statistically significant difference in weight between the 12h sucrose and 12h HFCS groups. I’ve seen this article cited several times as evidence, but the actual results of that study didn’t amount to anything.

It seems to me that most of the people who speak out against vaccinations are under 40. I was born a few years before they finally got rid of small pox and when people remembered what polio did to someone within the community. I think that the people who feel it is their right to not have their children vaccinated, should go talk to people who lived with the real threat these and other diseases that destroy lives.

@ff42 (again)

Science does not work from single, double-blind studies regardless of quality. Science works by gathering data from multiple lines of evidence.

If you’re interested, here is a brief list of some studies concerning MMR and autism, for starters: http://www.aap.org/immunization/families/faq/VaccineStudies.pdf. As for more, I suggest you start your own research by going first to Google Scholar and searching the specific phrases, “vaccine safety” (11,100 results) and “vaccine efficacy” (43,100 results).

But I suspect you won’t…

Brittany,

Referring to vaccines as “a bunch of chemicals” is not going to help your case and will only telegraph immediately to others that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

A vaccine is a dead or weakened microbe suspended in a solution so as to be injected into the bloodstream more efficiently. It is not the same as a drug. It is also not the same as a drum of C6H6, otherwise known as Benzene, a highly flammable carcinogen used as an industrial solvent, which I’m sure you think of (or something like it) whenever you hear the term “chemical”.

It would behoove you (and the rest of us) to learn the difference.