As we did for the 2014 DB of the Year award, first, I’d like to tell you about a very good thing that happened in 2015.
We had Senate Bill 277 pass in California, doing away with religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination requirements for children to go to public school. If a parent doesn’t want to vaccinate their children, that’s all fine and well. However, their children are not allowed to endanger all other children by going to public school. Fair is far, right? Though there have been challenges to the law, it will likely make it through any challenge since the US Supreme Court has ruled time and again that States have the authority to compel vaccination in order to protect the health of the population.
Now, on to our winner…
With 31.9% of the vote, Heather Dexter is 2015’s Douchebag of the Year.
We had a large slate of candidates this year, so she didn’t take the majority, but she took a big chunk. How could she not? She allowed her children to go through months (MONTHS) of whooping cough in the name of anti-vaccine, anti-medicine, anti-science activism. Oh, she tried to cover her ass with the Quack Miranda Warning, but she still deleted the post and acted as if it never happened.
The internet is forever, though. And, so, Heather Dexter is, now and forever, 2015’s Douchebag of the Year. Bad job, Heather. Bad job.
The Poxes Blog 
“Someone” did (Koff, koff). It didn’t stay up very long.
That explains all the visits lately.
No surprise there. Heather Dexter’s post may have been the most rage inducing thing I’ve ever read. There’s a special place in hell for those who let children suffer like that, best intentions or no (and Dexter’s intentions seemed entirely self serving).
Despite being the one who nominated her, I’m a bit surprised that Hollie Singleton edged out Dr. Wolfson though.
Was Singleton 2nd and Wolfson 3rd? (colors hard to distiguish)
Yes. Singleton took 17%. Wolfson 14.9%. Sharyl and Bob tied with 10.6%.
Since the other children at school are vaccinated, doesn’t that protect them from getting sick?
I ask in all sincerity……how do non-vaccinated people endanger vaccinated people?
Vaccinations are not 100% effective. There are also diseases and conditions which prevent vaccinated individuals from mounting an immune response. So, even if you vaccinate everyone, you’ll have a few who are not immune. To make sure you have the highest proportion of immune individuals in a given population, eg a school, you have to vaccinate everyone who can be vaccinated. Short of that, you’re risking jeopardizing herd immunity, which is what keeps the non immune safe.
Anti-vaccine people also tend to use quackery and deny science, which is another way of putting us all in danger. If they had their way, diseases like polio would never be eradicated, killing thousands of children a year out of some misguided fear about autism.
Dolores: the fact that you actually asked that question means you should go back to the place from where you received your BSN and smack them upside the head. NO nurse should be unaware that vaccines aren’t 100% effective and that having a disease doesn’t always give you immunity, either.
Case in point: I *had* measles and mumps. Blood tests show I am not immune to either. I have also had MMR several times. I just don’t create immunity to those diseases and devoutly hope I am not exposed to them because catching them at my age would REALLY suck.
Oh, and let me add: RN, BSN, MSN, CNM.
Has anyone ever said the unvaccinated endanger the vaccinated? I ask in all sincerity because I have only ever heard this from anti-vaxxers to misrepresent the issues and risks and to manipulatively reframe the discussion. The people most at risk of harm are the willfully unvaccinated children of anti-vaxxers. A previously healthy deliberately unvaccinated Ontario boy suffered excruciating pain from tetanus and will have to regrow nerve endings. A previously healthy deliberately unvaccinated German toddler died from measles. A previously healthy deliberately unvaccinated Spanish boy suffered for weeks being kept alive by machines before succumbing to diphtheria. A six week old infant, too young to be vaccinated, died after contracting pertussis from his deliberately unvaccinated family and community. Vaccine mandates for school attendance are for the protection of the willfully unvaccinated child.
The willfully unvaccinated also pose a threat to vulnerable members of the community but anti-vaxxers don’t care about others. Still, it is the unvaccinated children of anti-vaxxers that are most likely to pay the price of their parents’ false anti-vax beliefs.
Like Reuben said above, no vaccine is 100% effective so a certain percentage of fully vaccinated people will still be vulnerable.
It’s all about herd immunity. It requires most people to be vaccinated to keep horrible diseases at bay. By people who are able to get vaccines getting them, those who are vulnerable and can’t get them or are too young are more protected.
So very well-deserved. How does she get notified of the honor?
I guess “someone” could leave her a common on her blog.