COMPLETELY SAFE!!!!
Vaccines are in the news. Anti-vaxers are an interesting mix across the political spectrum. I wonder how many were once Marines. I'm resolutely pro-vaccine, but understand the cynicism most Marines feel when barely trained Navy medical personnel inject them with everything under the sun (and continue to give the same shots every few years when medical records disappear).
The anthrax vaccine has been particularly controversial. Therefore, the Navy had its foremost scientists and wordsmiths craft a particularly cogent pamphlet that explained the benefits of the vaccine. ALL Marines received this in 2002:
There are rare circumstances where refusing a vaccine can be rational if selfish. Say there's a disease that's only spread by human contact, and that all other humans are vaccinated. Refusing the vaccine makes sense: there's a one-in-a-million chance something will go wrong if you get the shot, and a none-in-a-million chance something will go wrong if you don't. Apparently, this logic is too widespread in Oregon at the moment.
By contrast, it never makes sense to refuse a vaccine for something that is spread by rusty nails, or by Saddam Hussein. For the record, my bloodstream is now 80% military vaccine, and I'm perfectly normal.
Both authors of Stepping Off had strong opinions about the vaccine.
Gary, 11/26/02:
He may have received a slightly different version of the pamphlet, as he didn't underline "COMPLETELY SAFE!!!!"
Eileen:
The anthrax vaccine has been particularly controversial. Therefore, the Navy had its foremost scientists and wordsmiths craft a particularly cogent pamphlet that explained the benefits of the vaccine. ALL Marines received this in 2002:
There are rare circumstances where refusing a vaccine can be rational if selfish. Say there's a disease that's only spread by human contact, and that all other humans are vaccinated. Refusing the vaccine makes sense: there's a one-in-a-million chance something will go wrong if you get the shot, and a none-in-a-million chance something will go wrong if you don't. Apparently, this logic is too widespread in Oregon at the moment.
By contrast, it never makes sense to refuse a vaccine for something that is spread by rusty nails, or by Saddam Hussein. For the record, my bloodstream is now 80% military vaccine, and I'm perfectly normal.
Both authors of Stepping Off had strong opinions about the vaccine.
Gary, 11/26/02:
He may have received a slightly different version of the pamphlet, as he didn't underline "COMPLETELY SAFE!!!!"
Eileen:
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