Althouse: "The Sickeningly Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares."

February 12, 2015

"The Sickeningly Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares."

Wired reports.

52 comments:

BigFire said...: I think it's time that we bring back measel party. Either shows proof of your inoculation or we just give you the disease and you become immunized.; 2/12/15, 12:27 PM
B said...: Silver lining: they're smart enough to learn their lesson when dozens of kids suffer permanent disabilities from a measles outbreak.; 2/12/15, 12:28 PM
Unknown said...: Resurgent disease will put the antivaxers back on the fringes soon enough. Let polio start making headlines again and watch the teeter totter tip hard enough to launch them into orbit.; 2/12/15, 12:33 PM
mccullough said...: Reality tramples New Agers; 2/12/15, 12:39 PM
Brando said...: It just goes to show how short-term so many people's thinking really is. Gas prices temporarily down because the Saudis want to squeeze the frackers out of the market? Let's all buy SUVs again, no chance the prices will shoot up in the future!

Measles and polio no longer around? Let's stop taking vaccines, now my precious little crotchfruit won't get phantom autism! What are the chance we get another outbreak?; 2/12/15, 12:41 PM
Big Mike said...: What B said, except the number of children potentially at risk increases the probability that one or more of the unvaccinated children will die. The chances of any single child dying from measles is very small, but when the number of sufferers is large enough the odds that someone will perish get above 50-50 pretty rapidly.; 2/12/15, 12:41 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: If their little fevers get high enough then they'll be able to feel the presence of God same as Hillary Clinton.; 2/12/15, 12:46 PM
CatherineM said...: Surprised? It is typical. These are the tech geniuses who lose their mind over everything being natural so they think they can cure whooping cough with (organic!) olive oil behind their kids ears. Look at foolish Steve Jobs. He had the only form of curable pancreatic in it's earliest stages and he insisted on curing it with diet of some sort. By the time he turned to "Western" medicine it was too late.

It's the wealthiest and most educated who have never seen suffering yet are willing to subject their children to illness for their environmental beliefs.; 2/12/15, 12:46 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: So these techie parents protect their computers from viruses but not their kids.

Priorities!; 2/12/15, 12:50 PM
MadisonMan said...: I think that's not a great metric. The youngest children -- such as those in daycare -- are the ones who are most likely not to be vaccinated, for a variety of reasons. (Of course, they're also more likely to need the protection).

So I would question: What are the ages of the children at these facilities.; 2/12/15, 12:51 PM
Larry J said...: MadisonMan said...
I think that's not a great metric. The youngest children -- such as those in daycare -- are the ones who are most likely not to be vaccinated, for a variety of reasons. (Of course, they're also more likely to need the protection).

So I would question: What are the ages of the children at these facilities.

I looked it up online and found that it's recommended children get two measles (more likely MMR) vaccinations. The first is when they're 12-15 months old and the second around age 4-6. There are children under a year old at many day care centers. If those who are able to be vaccinated actually are vaccinated, there's a very high probability they won't get the disease. Compare that to the reported 90% chance they get the disease if they're exposed to measles and aren't immunized.; 2/12/15, 1:16 PM
bleh said...: Liberals are funny. They want to control others but are paranoid and obsessive about protecting their own prerogatives.

Because they are smart and educated and good people and can be trusted.

But the flyover rubes must fall in line and accept government control.; 2/12/15, 1:17 PM
bleh said...: Of course I am extrapolating from not much knowledge. For all I know these techies are libertarian Ayn Rand adherents.

But Silicon Valley is dangerously close to SF and is crawling with smug assholes. In fact, many Silicon Valley workers live in SF and do a reverse commute.

My guess is that these are political liberals who know everything about how people should live their lives. The reward of being wealthy in an industry that is currently riding high, probably on a bubble, only adds to the obnoxious know-it-all attitude.

Do not tell these people what to do. You know nothing.; 2/12/15, 1:21 PM
JSD said...: Engineers can be the worst of clients. They always think they can do your job better than you. Then become irate when legal and tax advise doesn’t conform to their own superior self-constructed logic. Finally they conclude that the world is being ruined by lawyers and accountants who are too stupid to be an engineer.; 2/12/15, 1:27 PM
Paul said...: Let 'em start dying like flies... and maybe the liberals will open their eyes a bit.

As Henry Fonda said in "Once Upon a Time in The West"...

"People scare better when they are dying."; 2/12/15, 1:32 PM
FullMoon said...: I live here. Everybody here is not a whacko.

As I said before, 360 cases of measles in one Ohio county last year. Anybody hear about it?; 2/12/15, 1:32 PM
Drago said...: Robert Cook will be along shortly to explain that its actually Karl Rove setting up the left as anti-vaxxers.; 2/12/15, 1:33 PM
Balfegor said...: The article doesn't seem quite definitive on whether there actually are low vaccination rates, and leaves open the possibility that there's some kind of data issue (although the author expresses skepticism).

That said, this cuts strongly against my prejudices here. It does not surprise me that California has abominably low levels of vaccination -- it's no more than one would expect walking around California's decaying cities. I would have attributed that to the foreign colonists and the verminous hippies and the superstitious Californian haute bourgeoisie who seek to safeguard their fortunes with stars and crystals and arcane sumptuary rites. Not the people who are keeping the dwindling flame of progress alive in California's long twilight.

But perhaps it is merely that they do not trust the barbarians.

Though I suppose that Steve Jobs with his wacko cancer treatments is a pretty strong indication that there's a deep vein of mysticism and superstition running through Silicon valley.; 2/12/15, 1:33 PM
Drago said...: Paul, that Henry Fonda role was one of his best. The zoom in to his eyes (and into the heart of evil) early in the flick when he is going to shoot the little guy is haunting.; 2/12/15, 1:35 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: JSD:

Then become irate when legal and tax advise doesn’t conform to their own superior self-constructed logic.

The hardest thing for logical people encountering the law to grok is that the law doesn't have to make sense. It's just a set of rules jury-rigged together by people for a whole host of different, conflicting reasons -- not a set of rigorous natural laws -- so it's at best a happy accident if the law coincides with justice or fairness or logic.

I went to an engineering school before law school, so I feel great sympathy for these poor engineers. Law school cured me of any expectation whatsoever that laws would be sensible or logical or coherent, and this revelation has served me well in all the years since. No absurdity outrages me, because I expect nothing.; 2/12/15, 1:39 PM
Deirdre Mundy said...: Notice that the biotech firm has respectable rates (presumably they understand biology!) while the artsy Pixar people are the lowest....; 2/12/15, 1:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Big Mike said...
What B said, except the number of children potentially at risk increases the probability that one or more of the unvaccinated children will die.

One of the big issues with vaccinated kids is that many vaccines can't be given under 15-18 months. So even if you want your kids vaccinated, you are dependent on everybody's kids 12 months to 20 years getting vaccinated.

The baby babies get their herd immunity from having their elder siblings vaccinated as well as the anti-vaxer kids next door.; 2/12/15, 2:02 PM
Achilles said...: The rates may be higher but I bet the headline is click bait. My guess is the whole foods hippie demographic is a bit higher there and the increased percentage of upper middle class liberals correlates with concurrent ignorance and high self esteem.; 2/12/15, 2:30 PM
Steven said...: Every state should adopt the Mississippi approach on vaccine law -- no exemptions except on genuine medical grounds for any childcare worker or for any child in daycare or school.

And they should do it for the whole CDC list.; 2/12/15, 2:31 PM
MadisonMan said...: 360 cases of measles in one Ohio county last year. Anybody hear about it?

Yes. It was a county full of Amish.; 2/12/15, 2:32 PM
Swifty Quick said...: All you need to do is tell them it's gluten free and they'll be signing up in droves.; 2/12/15, 2:51 PM
pm317 said...: We are talking Silicon Valley and Prius drivers - how did it become a GoP issue?; 2/12/15, 2:54 PM
Alexander said...: I'd be careful what I wished for: sure, a rampant epidemic of a debilitating or deathly illness might eliminate the anti-vaxxer position, and so lead to celebratory smugness...

... but not before it eliminates - in a much more volatile fashion - anyone who came here by way of the Rio Grande and anyone who enabled it.

Or do you think that the connection between shipping thousands of Guatemalans around the country and outbreaks of disease is going to be glossed over when thousands of children are maimed or dead? There's a damned good reason why the White and Red Horses ride together.; 2/12/15, 3:19 PM
Fernandinande said...: Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares.

They stop viruses with a firewall.; 2/12/15, 3:28 PM
Fernandinande said...: Eric the Fruit Bat said...
If their little fevers get high enough then they'll be able to feel the presence of God same as Hillary Clinton.

And it won't matter if they die because they're all autistic.; 2/12/15, 3:29 PM
kcom said...: "We are talking Silicon Valley and Prius drivers - how did it become a GoP issue?"

Because it would be inconvenient if it were a Democrat/progressive issue. The best defense is a good offense, especially if you have the refs (i.e. the press) on your side.; 2/12/15, 3:33 PM
Big Mike said...: @pm317, it isn't. That's yet another made-up "fact" courtesy of the mainstream media.; 2/12/15, 4:19 PM
Alex said...: It could be that the dad(engineer) has to go along with the mom(marketing/sales) who has crazy ideas on vaccines causing autism. For family peace, the dad agrees to no vaccination. So don't necessarily find a correlation between engineers and wacky ideas. It's always the wife.; 2/12/15, 4:20 PM
Alex said...: Deirdre Mundy said...
Notice that the biotech firm has respectable rates (presumably they understand biology!) while the artsy Pixar people are the lowest..

Not surprised. Steve Jobs(who ran Pixar years ago) had very wacky ideas on health and medicine. Lots of these "creative" types have no clue how to apply basic common sense to health.; 2/12/15, 4:23 PM
Unknown said...: I thought Althouse was doing the language thing, i.e.,

Is it "sickeningly low vaccination rates" because of the information that the vaccination rate is low impacts sensitive minds, or because of sickness related to low vaccination rate.

Measles infections are person to person; it seems to me that some better correlations are possible than have been made. For instance, of the CF infections, how many occurred in (say) silicon valley? Maybe even what was the COMMUNITY non-vaccination rate rather than broader area?; 2/12/15, 4:24 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/12/15, 4:33 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: As a moderate, I find it curious that the wingers here naturally assume that the people working for these firms, which are the genuine successes of US capitalism, are all a bunch of leftists.

Thank God for the leftists, without them the US corporate landscape would look rather bleak.; 2/12/15, 5:06 PM
MadisonMan said...: As a moderate

A moderate what? Drinker?; 2/12/15, 5:11 PM
retired said...: Shows the tenuous connection between IQ and what used to be called common sense.; 2/12/15, 5:32 PM
Drago said...: AReasonableMeltdown: "Thank God for the leftists, without them the US corporate landscape would look rather bleak."

First, they didn't build that.

Second, thank God for capitalism, private property rights, investment capital, intellectual capital protections, the corporation itself, etc.

Without them corporations wouldnt exist.

You know, like in Cuba where you bravely volunteered to stand against every single one of those things.

Bravely, of course. That goes without saying.; 2/12/15, 5:49 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/12/15, 6:10 PM
Revenant said...: Silicon Valley used to be a hub of innovation. These days it spends more on lobbying than R&D. Pity, really.; 2/12/15, 7:02 PM
pm317 said...: A moderate what? Drinker?

@MM, LOL!; 2/12/15, 8:15 PM
abby said...: My grandmother lost 2 children to measles pneumonia just a month before my father and his twin were born. Because she was pregnant, she was not allowed near her dying children. She never forgot that and told me that story when I was pregnant with my first child. All of my children got every vaccine ever made.; 2/12/15, 8:41 PM
David said...: "Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s half—have below-average vaccination rates, according to the state’s data."

So half are below average.

Will someone explain to me why having half below average isn't what you would expect in any sample?; 2/12/15, 9:29 PM
Alex said...: So half are below average.

It's possible in a even number set to have 50% below average if the distribution of the numbers is fairly even.

The only guarantee of 50% below a certain point is the median.

Yes I took statistics in college.; 2/12/15, 9:40 PM
buwaya said...: Half the high tech company day cares are below average in this matter vs the state as a whole- that's day cares patronized by exceptionally highly educated, wealthy people, the elite of day care operations.
They are being compared vs all day care providers of which a high proportion are charity or home operations catering to the working poor.; 2/12/15, 9:55 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Not much of a story. The wired article just takes a national average and compares it to some data from day care centers that don't even measure the same thing.

It seems to me the reported numbers are probably more related to how well the numbers are tracked than anything else. Reporting deadlines probably have more to do with the variation than anything else. Seems that some companies hadn't done the paperwork yet.

I think Wired is just pushing a meme with no evidence.; 2/12/15, 10:13 PM
jr565 said...: I've heard that the idea that we are all protected through herd immunity is actually a myth. Because the shots don't actually last for our lifetimes as originally thought. Therefore a lot of people who thought they were immune may have lost immunity.
When I went to the doctor a year ago I had no immunity for hep a and hep b and had to get another shot. Many people who think they might be immune may not in fact be immune.

It seems like it was still good enough to largely block stuff like polio, but ummunizations may in fact be a false security in that we don't really have herd immunity.; 2/12/15, 10:21 PM
MayBee said...: Super Science People.; 2/12/15, 10:26 PM
PB said...: Everywhere you look, it's idiot liberals non vaccinating their kids. Those folks on the west coast may know how to code, but they're pretty stupid about many other things.; 2/12/15, 10:41 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Any vaccine carries a small but nonzero risk of serious complications (say, 1 in 1,000,000.) If you figure the chances of (1) your kid getting measles and (2) getting serious complications from it, are less than that, it makes perfect sense not to vaccinate. The denizens of Silicon Valley are good at math.; 2/12/15, 11:56 PM