Because I was so ill when I had measles, it’s one of those areas where I have no patience at all for the arguments against vaccination, and I tend to go off like a bomb (red in the face, windmill arms, the whole bit) if someone suggests they even might not vaccinate their child.

On a lighter note, Sweeney wrote a very funny book about the Hamiltons (the former Tory MP for Knutsford Neil Hamiltonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Hamilton_(politician), unseated by Martin Bell in 1997, and his wife Christine), which is a jolly read.

I think this is probably because I retain just about enough self-awareness to know that I am not capable of exercising the necessary self-control to engage with them. Who was that BBC journo that freaked out at the scientology fruitloops? That could be me…

That is possibly what I admire most about people like Richard Dawkins (and it seems Peter Flegg). The ability to pursue a measured rationale argument in the face of the overwhelming primitive desire to bash some zealot with the nearest lump of mammoth poo.

Talking of measles, vaccination, and the North-west of England, an
an honourable “local hero” mention should go to Peter Flegg, an Infectious Disease consultant from Blackpool who spends a fair amount of his time online patiently explaining risk-benefit (and related topics) to do with vaccination.

Of course, a lot of the people he is trying to explain it to are figuratively sat with their fingers stuck permanently in their ears while shouting “nyeeah nyeeah nee nyeeah nyeeah, I can’t hear you” .

For a fairly recent example of both of these, try the thread here, where you will find him discussing the relative risks and benefits of vaccination vs actually catching measles, and manfully managing not to lose his rag with Jackie Fletcher of JABS and her equally crackers friends.

With the benefit of years that wipe away the memory of how lousy you felt at the time (again, unless, like Lexin, you were REALLY ill so that it became a “life event”) this gets remembered as “I had measles, so did everyone I know, we were all fine” (which may be accurate) and then translated on into “measles is a totally harmless childhood illness” (which of course is rubbish) .

There is a great article on this, and the underlying statistics, here. It is written by a retired epidemiologist who survived serious measles complications as a kid in the late 50s. The author blogs as “EpiWonk”, and has done a great job deconstructing the bullshit arguments of the MMR=horrors nitwits when they abuse epidemiology on his blog of the same name.