The earliest form of smallpox immunization was used in China in the 1500’s. Doctors would take ground up scabs from people with mild cases of the disease, and blow the material into their nostrils. This lead to a mild version of the disease which had a mortality rate of ~2%. (20-30%if untreated)
Facebook Rolled out Education Features to Combat Anti-Vax Propaganda
It’s amazing that in 2019, a lot of parents out there buy into the anti-vaccination rhetoric and expose their kids (and others’) to potential harm.
That’s why it’s encouraging that Facebook has taken steps to fight harmful misinformation and “fake news” that appeals to these anti-vaxxers. On Facebook, informational windows will pop up when a person searches for anything related to vaccines, taps related hashtags on Instagram (which Facebook owns), or visits vaccine-related pages and groups.
@facebook will be debuting an educational pop-up window on its platforms to direct users to trusted and reliable sources to help combat the spread of #vaccine misinformation — @CNN https://t.co/ikyR6B304H
— Vaccine Finder (@VaccineFinder) September 5, 2019
Furthermore, in the U.S., users can use pop-up windows to connect to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to read about accurate, credible information about vaccines. If you live outside the U.S., you can connect to the World Health Organization through the pop-up windows.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the organization is fully onboard with the move by Facebook:
“We know that parents often turn to social media to access health information and connect with other parents, and it can be difficult to determine what is accurate and who the credible sources of information are. [Combating] vaccine myths and misinformation is a shared responsibility and we applaud these efforts.”
A new feature is rolling out on Facebook and Instagram to combat the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation.Facebook,…
Posted by Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services on Friday, September 6, 2019
Health experts have said that anti-vaccination information online has played a large role in fewer people getting vaccinated against diseases and that has led to outbreaks in measles and other illnesses—in fact, the US is close to having its status as a measles-free country. So this is very timely and very important.
There’s a lot of information about #vaccines online, but not all of it is accurate. Find credible, expert-approved information at https://t.co/jDq2UIHFmT.
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) April 30, 2019
Nice work, Facebook. Let’s see more of this in regard to the spread of misinformation, because we all know how harmful that can be to Americans and others around the world.
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This Nurse Has a Very Powerful Message for Anti-Vaxxers
Meggy Doodle is a nurse who’s had enough with all these anti-vaxxers talking about how “Big Pharma” is just out to get you. Considering she’s a nurse, we’d say she knows what she’s talking about. Maybe that’s why her Facebook rant on the issue is going viral.
Here’s how it starts:
Photo Credit: Facebook
Don’t want to vaccinate, don’t do it. Fair enough. She continues:
Photo Credit: Facebook
Well, that seems harsh. I suspect there’s a reason for this, though.
Photo Credit: Facebook
Ah, things are coming together. I wonder what else “Big Pharma” is behind?
Photo Credit: Facebook
No getting away from “Big Pharma,” then. Fair enough. This isn’t all she has to say to anti-vaxxers, though.
Photo Credit: Facebook
I think they have a different definition of “research.”
Of course, anti-vaxxers may think that since everyone else is vaccinated, they’re okay. Doodle points out that that’s not actually the case.
Photo Credit: Facebook
Mic drop.
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During China’s Ming Dynasty, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses…
During China’s Ming Dynasty, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses of the healthy. The patients would then develop a mild case of the disease, and from then on were immune to it. Although the technique had a 0.5–2.0% mortality rate, it was better than the diseases 20–30% mortality rate.
There was a satirical study published in the British Medical…
There was a satirical study published in the British Medical Journal in 2003 in response to the anti-vaccination movement titled “Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge”. It’s conclusion? Throw anti-vaxxers out of planes without parachutes.