Vaccination – The Silent Killer: A Clear And Present Danger
McBean and Honorof
1977
Submitter: I am wondering if other libraries are receiving donations like this. We have seen an influx of anti-vax books either emailed or dumped into our dropbox. This one is pretty scary!
Holly: I mean, come on, it’s 44 years old! Even if balance of viewpoints is important in your library, this is not the one. It’s missing 44 years of data that anyone would need to make their argument, whatever that might be. And (looks pointedly over my bifocals) let’s stick to a collection development discussion in the comments, please…
We haven’t seen an abundance of anti-vax books, specifically, at our library, but wow the level of general donations we’ve been getting is bananas!
“There is no way that drugs, medicines, chemicals, radiation, vaccines or surgery can prevent or cure diseases.”
Tell that to my seizure meds…
That is just the statement I focused on in this diatribe of delusion! And that “Evil spirits, germs, and viruses do not cause disease–” Jumping Josaphat!
Yup. Had seizures at least once a week until my parents and I found the perfect prescription cocktail.
This theory of disease only being caused by diet and “habits” and environment has been enjoying renewed popularity recently. According to them, all disease is simply your body “detoxing” from your bad diet, etc.
What I wonder is if the influx of these books as donations is an attempt to persuade people against vaccines, or are some people divesting themselves of books they no longer believe in?
I would hope that someone who no longer believes in a book would refrain from donating it to the library–especially if it’s this outdated.
You would think, but no. I have been volunteering at our library foundation’s weekly book sale. Sometimes we end up with more books than we started with, and the donations are often for things that are outdated/irrelevant. Often funny, but the health stuff is scary. Luckily, there is a dumpster right next to where the sale sets up.
The literal “if it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger” proposal has at least 3 problems: it might kill you over your entire lifetime, and it might shorten your lifetime (kill you).
You only listed 2 problems. What’s #3 ?
(Oops, thx) it might make you miserable until the end of your lifetime.
This is *REALLY interesting, more so for the excerpt about polio. I actually used to PCA for people w disabilities, and two were a married couple, the husband actually having gotten polio from the vaccine.
Did he get that 1 notorious bad batch early on?
As someone who got fully vaccinated early this summer, anti vaxxers are the number one reason there are variants of Covid right now and I absolutely despise them. Somebody wake me when the “intelligence above that of a jellyfish” variant comes out. Oh, I guess that means I’ll be asleep forever. I wish. 🙁
That kid’s expression on the cover, though….
The authority medical figure is also wearing a lab coat _and_ necktie.
Submitter may be seeing a surge in these books because of a high death rate among previous owners. We get a lot of donations from “estates.”
Ooh, interesting theory that the previous owners have been dying off.
Well, submitter, at least you have something to use as toilet paper in case we have another shortage.
No library wants books that old on whatever topic.
Surgery never cures diseases? — tell that to the millions of people who’ve had appendicitis. Or limb gangrene back in the olden days.
Or cancerous tumors. Or weird looking moles that had the potential of becoming cancerous.
Nice, they’re basically telling people that their illnesses are either their fault or all in their heads.
Yes, it’s all in our heads and our immune systems just need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, I guess.
Point 3 in his list is somewhat disproved by facts obvious to all, isn’t it?
Several anti-vaxers have died recently thanks to Covid 19. They all get Darwin Awards…
Are the donors trying to win converts to their cause? We seem to be at a point where minds are not being changed, regardless of what new information becomes available.
I’m not a librarian but I sympathize with the librarians who have to take crap like this in the interest of representing all points of view. Not long ago I ran across a book in the religion section that said the Jews are the seed of Satan, etc. Took it to the circulation desk and complained. Was told that unfortunately they can’t weed stuff based on what it says. I understand but it really sucks in some cases.
I found something like that in the book sale at a library. I paid the 50 cents just to take it home and dispose of it.
I once put a copy of “Dianetics” into the recycling. Hopefully it’s gone on to become something useful, or at least not destructive.
I’m interested in their collection policy. Does it have anything about works that perpetuate canards (against anyone) or are principally/solely (as that one sounds like) to teach or maintain hatreds that have a record of … denying others their civil rights?
I don’t know about your library but at mine you can fill out an official form to protest things in the system. A woman did that to get a book on the history of Rolling Stone Magazine removed because there was a picture of one of the writers posing topless holding some beer cans in her hands.
I call self published: item 1 in that list is indented differently, and it isn’t a 1 but an I. Losers and best sent to the LOC if they haven’t a copy, or responsibly repudiated.
Unfortunately, screaming at people about their immune system telling them that it’s their fault you’re sick is still running riot. I had to wheel my mom out of the communal area of her assisted living home when one of the worker’s relatives from abroad did an “educational” presentation about his “medical” work there and he yelled a lot about the Lord and how dementia, illness, ageing, etc. were all just evidence of our bodies decaying due to medical intervention, vaccines, medicine, etc. and that your own willpower and a good diet would keep all ills away. As if! And the nerve of him, saying this to a roomful of seniors, some of whom had Alzheimer’s. “You’re here in wheelchairs through your own darn fault…” Ugh. WEED LIKE NOBODY’s BUSINESS!
I hope the relative was told, “You’re upsetting the residents. It’s time for you to leave,” followed by a swift removal from the building.
Hellfire preaching should be excluded from medicine by everyone. I hope neither of you were injured by that outrageous man.
I have read that this germ denial viewpoint (I think it’s called ‘terrain theory’) has been gaining new adherents at a rapid pace lately. Ugh.
WTF is some rando foreigner doing in an assisted-living home during a damn pandemic?!
Nobody but staff and relatives of the residents should be allowed in.
That is a legit reason to keep him out over and above his BS ranting.
S/he doesn’t mention the timeframe, so I assumed this was year(s) ago.
Can the library put books like these in an “Alternative Viewpoints” section? That way, the crackpots can’t complain about censorship, and those of us looking for actual information won’t run across crap like this in the medical/health section.
I feel like such a section might actually embolden people who believe in conspiracy theories like vaccines cause autism, vaccines are government control chips, etc.
But at least all the crackpot garbage would be in its own section – which would enable it to not be cloaked in legitimacy by being mixed in with actual helpful books. To Train Up a Child, books promoting bigotry, Doris Sanders, et. al. could all keep this-ass book company.
I wouldn’t call it that. Claims that are stated (or so strongly implied) so they can be tested, have been tested to reach a well supported conclusion, and found untrue/inaccurate/false should by under “disproven theories” or have a “DISPROVEN” spine label and the same stamped along with the owning library’s indicia.
Ah. I like your idea better! I was too worried about being polite to crackpots and bigots.
And your idea would both give the crackpots a platform and keep them away from those of us who actually use our brains.