Rolfe
Adult human female
Eos, no. It is not "impossible not to get what your gene combinations contain." It depends entirely on what you are talking about. In some cases yes, but in other cases definitely no.It's the genetics of the disease. You won't find a simple statement just saying "all kids with these genes have the disease". The literature presents the genetics and how it affects people with it. It thus shows that it's impossible to not to get the disease with those genes. I'd have to quote the entire articles, which I don't even think is allowed. Please show how the people with those genes could possibly escape the disease. It would be like trying to show how people with the blue eyed genes could escape getting blue eyes, or the people people with hazel eyed genes would somehow get brown, It's impossible not to get what your gene combinations contain.
Example. I spent some time in the 1990s researching a condition in Irish Wolfhounds, congenital portocaval shunt. I didn't look at the genetics myself, because I'm a biochemist not a molecular biologist, I was evaluating a practical test for the condition which would allow breeders to identify affected puppies before they were sold. The breeders kept asking me how it was inherited, so I tried to keep up with the literature on that. At first nobody thought it was a simple Mendelian recessive, because the numbers affected were way below the 25% of a litter that would be expected to have the double recessive if two carriers were mated. However, that's what it turned out to be. Every puppy with the condition has the double recessive, and no puppy without the double recessive has the condition. It's just that less than 50% of puppies with the double recessive develop the condition. So far as I know, nobody has yet figured out what else needs to happen to a puppy with the double recessive to make it develop the shunt.
Here we have a condition which (as I read the papers you posted) has a more complex, multi-gene causation. Also, the clinical condition is alleged to be triggered by a fever. So, I ask myself, is it possible that the condition may never be triggered in some genetically susceptible individuals? It seems a reasonable hypothesis that no child can get through childhood without such a fever, and indeed unvaccinated children may be more prone to fevers than vaccinated. Nevertheless, I would like to know. I really can't see that information anywhere.
I did see the first in the papers you linked to. I did not see any implication of the second. I wonder if you are reading more into the text than is actually there.The literature presents the genetics and how it affects people with it. It thus shows that it's impossible to not to get the disease with those genes.
I'll leave Raven to the tender mercies of you guys, as it seems that some genuinely antivax sentiment is being revealed.
However, my curiosity as regards his initial post was twofold. First, what description of the sort of seizures that may be caused by pertussis is he relying on to conclude that his son's seizures were of that type? Second, what was the opinion of his son's doctor or paediatrician about the episode? Did he or she agree that the vaccine was probably responsible?
There are some (relatively rare) cases of adverse reactions to vaccines. And if such a reaction is supected then it may indeed be wise advice that that child should not receive any further doses, but should instead rely on herd immunity. The fallacy that has to be avoided at this point it to then go on and undermine herd immunity by suggesting widespread non-vaccination just because of the extreme reaction of a single individual. Counter-productive, or what?
Rolfe.