{"id":2077,"date":"2011-11-07T17:57:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T22:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2015-06-04T15:15:33","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T19:15:33","slug":"can-we-all-agree-that-this-is-stupid-thank-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/can-we-all-agree-that-this-is-stupid-thank-you\/2011\/11\/07\/","title":{"rendered":"Can We All Agree That This Is Stupid?  Thank You."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kpho.com\/story\/15896021\/cbs-5-investigates-mail-order-diseases\" target=\"_blank\">this report<\/a> isn&#8217;t an urban legend, then it&#8217;s pretty clear some people need a brain transplant:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Facebook group is called &#8220;Find a Pox Party in Your Area.&#8221; According to the group&#8217;s page, it is geared toward &#8220;parents who want their children to obtain natural immunity for the chicken pox.&#8221; &#8230;On the page, parents post where they live and ask if anyone with a child who has the chicken pox would be willing to send saliva, infected lollipops or clothing through the mail.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One topic I&#8217;ve tended to steer clear from is whole vaccine controversy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/11\/pops1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2079\" style=\"border-style: initial;border-color: initial\" title=\"pops\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/11\/pops1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"185\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>How could I be rational? I&#8217;m an Infectious Diseases specialist married to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hydeparkpedi.com\/about_sax.html\" target=\"_blank\">pediatrician!<\/a> I believe that the benefits of vaccines &#8212; especially for childhood diseases &#8212; so overwhelmingly outweigh the risks that I can&#8217;t really engage in a polite debate about it.<\/p>\n<p>So each time I&#8217;m about to write something about the vaccine issue, I hear Dana Carvey&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lWt8cqDsHo4\" target=\"_blank\">voice<\/a> saying, &#8220;Not gonna do it &#8230; Wouldn&#8217;t be prudent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And I write nothing.<\/p>\n<p>But sending infected lollipops in the mail? Some things just deserve open ridicule, and this is one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If this report isn&#8217;t an urban legend, then it&#8217;s pretty clear some people need a brain transplant: The Facebook group is called &#8220;Find a Pox Party in Your Area.&#8221; According to the group&#8217;s page, it is geared toward &#8220;parents who want their children to obtain natural immunity for the chicken pox.&#8221; &#8230;On the page, parents [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[180,489,967],"class_list":["post-2077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infectious-diseases","category-patient-care","tag-chicken-pox","tag-immunizations","tag-vaccines"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}