this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
30 points (100.0% liked)

Politics

10286 readers
126 users here now

In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.


Guidelines for submissions:

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.


Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 3 points 13 hours ago
[–] TheGoddessAnoia@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah. Sure. Measles can actually destroy the immune system so that it forgets not only that you have had measles, but everything else you've developed an immunity to (it's called immune amnesia) by having the disease or having a vaccine, and face getting the whole mob again. Or, you could be the 1 or 2 people in 1000 who will die, or the 1 in 1000 who will get encephalitis and live, albeit significantly intellectually and physically disabled. Or you could get subacute sclerosing panencephalitis ten years after you had measles, and that's almost always fatal.

Makes getting shingles after having chicken pox as a kid seem like a walk in the park, mmm?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How the fuck can anyone possibly think autism is worse than this?

[–] apis@beehaw.org 8 points 21 hours ago

Because they mostly have no clue that measles is a potentially fatal illness, with potential severe lifelong complications including some which require 24/7/365 full nursing care.

They think of it as a mild rash with mild flu-y symptoms for a week or two.

They also have no idea it is so very contagious.

So though the measles vaccine has an amazing safety & efficacy record, whether singly or as part of the combined MMR, with endless research turfing up no link to autism whatsoever, and carrying only a negligible risk of vaccine injury (none as severe as the complications of measles), those who reject it do so not only out of totally false beliefs about the vaccine, but also out of fully wild misconceptions about the risk of measles.

Though now the anti-vaxx movement has become such a big thing for a while, they're all egging each other on with the help of ideological pundits. This combines to create a group highly distrustful of public health organisations and all medical advice on the matter, who are much more resistant to accepting correct information than their vaccine-shy counterparts ever were in the past. It also seems to be true that scary conspiracy theories are comforting to them in a world where serious infections can just catch a person, where autism isn't something one can simply opt out of - they want simple answers, and everything which debunks that simple wilful ignorance is a threat to their sense of security.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago
[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This guy is going to be responsible for a lot of suffering and death.

If he was visited by a plumber, and I was on the jury, I would nullify.

[–] artificialfish@programming.dev 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Not the red plumber either. The other one

[–] griff@lemmings.world 20 points 1 day ago

It would be better if Kennedy Jr got measles—go ahead, dude, lead the way!!!

[–] Radiant_sir_radiant@beehaw.org 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I for one am totally in support of all of his backers infecting themselves.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Measles is (I believe) the most contagious virus we have ever encountered. It can remain for 2 hours after an infected person leaves an area.

[–] Radiant_sir_radiant@beehaw.org 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, but every sensible person would likely be vaccinated*. Antivaxxers often get away with being unvaccinated just because of sheer dumb luck (they don't get infected). A mass (self-)infection event could quickly rectify that situation.

  • Everybody with immuno deficiency would probably have to stay indoors for a couple of months, but all things considered I'd say that'd be a small price to pay if it means millions of antivaxxers and Trump supporters get to see the error of their ways or outright kill themselves.
[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean... we effectively did just that with covid, and the results were not great...

Immunodeficient people still need to buy groceries...

[–] Radiant_sir_radiant@beehaw.org 1 points 14 hours ago

I don't know about other places. Here we were swamped with volunteers offering to help the sick and elderly. It probably wouldn't last for long, but honestly, at this point I'd be just happy to wait for all the antivaxxers in the world to infect themselves and then either get well or die. How long would that take, a couple of months? After that we'd be down to normal infection levels again.

[–] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

How about just he gets it? Hell he should get all the diseases. Think of how ~~dead~~ strong his immune system will be!

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] sonori@beehaw.org 8 points 1 day ago

Yup, and he also vaccinated his children as soon as they were old enough to qualify. He wants his voters dumb, trapped, and desperate, not his family.

[–] UngodlyAudrey@beehaw.org 9 points 1 day ago

Bullshit. I actually did apparently have a bad reaction to the MMR vaccine when I was a kid, so I'm not sure if I still have immunity from measles. I would really prefer not risking it, you know? Anti-vaxxers are idiots.