Raccoon close upSuccess can breed apathy. Apathy can lead to bad decisions.

That’s a common problem with vaccinations. People lose sight of why we vaccinate. Growing up during a time when many major pathogens have been controlled by vaccines, it’s easy to forget about how bad those diseases are. Whether it’s resurgence in measles in people because of debunked autism concerns, or increasing rates of distemper and parvovirus in dogs, we’re definitely seeing the impact.

A recent article on The Weather Network’s website highlights some of the problems .The article provides an update on the concerning raccoon rabies problem in the Hamilton, Ontario region. Comments to the article range (as is normal) from informed and thoughtful, to unintelligible, with varying degrees in between. Unsurprisingly, the anti-vaccine crowd gets in a few shots.

For example:

You are right, there is no proof that it works, I don’t get flu shots and I don’t get the flu. Perhaps if I took the flu shots, I would get the flu and the doctor would then get my business?

And my favourite….

I would use Intravnous (sic) high dose vitamin c and a quality colloidal siver (sic) product such as acs 200 to treat myself and my pet for rabies.

Well, I guess that’ll leave more oxygen for the rest of us.

Certainly, no vaccine is 100% safe (neither is any antibiotic, or any walk down the road, for that matter). But, returning to the pre-vaccination days when diseases we can now control killed countless individuals and severely impact the lives of countless more isn’t a good idea.

Since rabies is pretty much 100% fatal, this isn’t a vaccine to skip.