chupacabra, Dallas, pain response, pink rabbits, vaccination

Two rather curious Texas-themed entries popped up on FB recently. Potential chupcabra (addressed on this blog previously here) capture by a family in DeWitt County was one. The other is a song by Conan O'Brian written about Dallas, using the highly creditable wikipedia as the sole resource. It also slams Houston a little, but i'm not too sure that part can be credited to wikipedia.

i really enjoyed and highly identify with this blog post  by and about pro cyclist Jens Voight's self-admitted "  interesting relationship with pain ". (For the non-cyclists, Jens Voight might be most famous for the phrase 'Shut up, legs', as applied to pushing through exercise-related pain).

i have had the National's NPR Tiny Desk Concert on repeat all day (... okay, all week), and woke up this morning singing bits of Pink Rabbits to myself. This begs the question, exactly what is a 'pink rabbit'? Well, apparently, " MBE Associate Producer Collin Walzak later found out that “Pink Rabbits” is the name for a drink Matt made up. The recipe, dare you try it, is Tequila, Nestle Quick Strawberry Milk and Kahlua " as documented on the KCRW blog.

This Onion article, entitled The Pros and Cons of Vaccinating Children,  is humorous. Another piece popped up on Huff Post, of all places, that seems to be very well organized and documented. It looks as though the vaccination 'debate' is going through another upswing in the media (it seems to come in cycles). Recently, this might be stimulated by outbreaks of viral infections which are usually prevented by vaccination; for instance, recent outbreaks of mumps in Ohio (and closer to home, on the campus of the university i attend), and public health issues following the measles infection of a Washington state woman who attended a rock concert while infectious, and a man who was traveling through the Seattle airport while infectious (with viral infections, you can be contagious before symptoms occur).

i've posted on this before; as a trained virologist, one who's given the vaccine lecture in virology classes to pre-med undergrads at Big 10 school, i have ardently made the case for vaccines multiple times, in multiple formats. i got called out on the US's state-directed stance on vaccination exemptions by European grad students at an international conference i attended in March. (They were like, "How is it legal to NOT get vaccinated?" Err, religious deferrals? i shouldn't have to defend that when i strongly believe in vaccination. Anyway, only 15 out of the 27 EU nations have mandatory vaccinations, though "However, many programmes in Europe are effective even though voluntary, just with recommendations. ") But this is a polarizing topic. Several of my close friends have infants, and i've brought up the vaccinations issue with them all. One of these very close, dear (and well educated, otherwise pro-science) friends has a younger brother with moderate autism. For the autism community, for whom there is little comfort and lots of questions, vaccination is a highly emotional issue. While there is no scientific evidence AT ALL that vaccines contribute to autism, the exact causes of austim are not clear and well established. For new parents who have prior experiences for life with autism, anything these parents can do to prevent their child from having autism is considered. This includes not getting their child vaccinated. (Again, this is a timing thing; the age at which children are vaccinated is the same age at which some of the symptoms of autism manifest, and some people claim that this is a cause.) So this friend and i discussed things, and i'm not sure if it was any help - while she might be perfectly fine with vaccinating her infant, how does she explain her decision to her non-scientific parents and the rest of the autistic community (who has supported her brother and family through the years)? God forbid, if the child is vaccinated and has autism, what will the response of that community be? Sometimes, it is super difficult to reconcile intellectual data and emotional responses. i've never claimed to have all the answers, but talking with this friend has made me more aware of the struggles of those who have siblings or other family members with autism, and have to deal with the response of that community.