12.9 million infants not vaxed in 2016

[Rev. Rye]

Okay, I cannot in good conscience let a mention of the Diptheria-Tetanus vaccine go by without mentioning this:





Okay, in all seriousness, can anyone find the WHO report (specifically where they explained how different areas differed in how commonly they opted out of giving their children the medical care they needed to not get diseases?) Knowing what I know, I strongly suspect that the more Islam-oriented areas might be the biggest offenders, given that Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria are the only countries where polio is still endemic, two of them are almost exclusively Muslim, and the few cases to appear recently in the third were all in a majority-Muslim area with large problems with Boko Haram, I think it may be possible.

Ever read Hitchens' God is Not Great? Fantastic part about exactly that, and how the (Muslims in Africa) twisted it to get people to be afraid of polio vaccines.

Read it the day it came out. Well, technically a few days before because my local Books-a-Million got it a few days before its official release date and I bought it anyway. It's how I first learned about the whole fracas. At least it seems there's still a relatively sane majority of Muslims who consider vaccination a good thing (given that a majority of Muslim nations, even some of the more famously repressive, are polio-free); even in Pakistan, recent lab tests reassured the public the vaccine had only halal ingredients.