Gizmodo: Gizmo + modo, as in gizmos which are gadgets, and I assume the “modo” is part of a reference to something else. (In my head it’s a Komodo Dragon because awesomeness.) So unless Carson is talking about a gizmo, why is it here?!

Hmmm something happened to my post.

But Mannatech saying he’s not a paid endorser- they paid him to give a speech casting Mannatech products in a favorable light. If that’s not a paid endorsement, I don’t know what is?

I don’t think he lied though. He did some speeches for them- he did endorse them. But it looks like that was it. There were several one-off speeches that weren’t part of any larger agreement, pattern, contract, etc.

I’m honestly a little confused as to what exactly you’d like to accuse Ben Carson of. What precisely is the problem?

Just wondering- what do backpackers prefer nowadays as far as fire goes? Personally I’m a car camper, so I have like zero use for this thing. Why mess around with a fire starter when a lighter will do just fine? I imagine if I was on a wilderness trip for a few weeks I’d like some redundancy. But seriously, with…

The probability of contracting mumps once during your life is actually about 1 in 175, assuming you aren’t vaccinated. So that’s not actually insignificant.

As far as the parent aspect goes, I’m not a parent yet, so I won’t claim anything about what parents should or shouldn’t do. I was just hoping to point out others’ perspective. Sometimes understanding others’ perspectives helps me be more sensitive and avoid counterproductive exchanges with others, make my own point…

First, I’m not talking about measles, I’m talking about mumps with meningitis. I completely ignore the risk for measles and only talk about mumps. The odds of getting mumps once in your life increases by 22.5 in 3,000 if you are unvaccinated.

But I should say, it sounds like you’ve done your best to find a fiscally responsible method of healthcare. That’s good. I have no idea how to fix these problems, and the saddest thing of all to me is that the biggest thing keeping us back from solving health problems for a huge portion of the population comes down to…

I did open up the political can of worms myself, didn’t I? I shouldn’t have, when I just wanted to talk about science!

The two most important parts of my post are highlighted. Out of all the discussion I put here, those are, I think, the crux of where you disagree with me: Either you think my method is wrong, in which case I’d like to know what I did wrong, or you think my conclusion isn’t strong enough, in which case I’d like to know…

It’ll take me several days to go through that video. (It’s almost 2 hours long!) I’ve watched 20 minutes (all I have time for at the moment) and here are my impressions:

(I’m going to highlight the useful statistics solely to make them easier to find. I don’t want anybody to think I’m making an emotional argument- these are purely numbers and should be treated as such. The numbers may suggest different things to different people. The art of science is following up those suggestions…

Ah, well, I wanted to be at the extreme upper end: it leaves no wiggle-room for opposing arguments.

Also, HepC doesn’t have a vaccine, so I’m a little confused why you’re bringing that into the discussion.

Actually, I just realized the odds are even less dramatic when compared with the baseline. As a baseline, children have a 1 in 25 chance (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febr…) of having at least one febrile seizure, or a 4% probability. From that standpoint, MMR increases the risk of at least one febrile seizure…

Personally, I would use a different risk equation, then, if I were you. You have a 1/3000 chance of a seizure due to fever. This is a febrile seizure: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febr…. 95%-98% of children recover entirely, with 2-5% developing epilepsy. 1% of children who never have febrile seizures develop…

I think this is one of the more intelligent arguments against vaccinations as recommended by the CDC, in your case delayed. But I have a few concerns, mostly when it comes to applying what you’ve discovered:

CVS gives shots because there’s enough demand for it to be economically feasible. CVS and pharmaceuticals would make more money if people got the disease and then needed to be treated. Think: sell shots, or sell tissues and acetaminophen and antibiotics and thermometers and (etc.)...