Parents refuse to vaccinate, son nearly dies from tetanus

[PeZook]

According to the polish vaccination schedule, tetanus shots are required at 6 months and then again at 14 years old, and then once more when leaving school or 19, whichever comes first.

[Knife]

Just because you have a degreee doesn't mean you're smart, just means you're educated. Combine first time parent stupidity with it and it makes perfect sense, guy.

You are most probably right. It just bugs me somewhat that someone passed a science degree without actually understanding the basics of how to evaluate a scientific claim (that is, do the observations match the predictions of the anti-vaccine or pro-vaccine side, or to put it another way, which side do the statistics support). In this regard, one doesn't need to be an expert in medical science to do that.

Even in the medical field, you know well enough it's hard to be clinically unbiased if you're dealing with your own family.

[SomeDude]

I was never taught the formal scientific method either, yet my degree is technically classed MSc.

That is because there is no one, single, well-delineated formal scientific method. There are many scientific methods, and these share more of a family resemblance than any definable procedure.

[PeZook]

Okay, I was never taught a formal scientific method. Sheesh.

[Broomstick]

I was never taught the formal scientific method either, yet my degree is technically classed MSc. I had a full-blown philosophy course, too, which somehow managed not to touch it at all.

Ironically, my degree is in Fine Arts, yet I WAS formally taught what the scientific method was... in high school. Multiple times: chemistry, physics, and biology classes all reviewed what, exactly, the scientific method was.

Did it somehow get dropped between my generation and the next?

[Terralthra]

The growing requirement that a high school diploma is mandatory for success, and that a school is judged (and funded) based on how many students pass and graduate, has resulted in an overall dumbing down of general curricula, combined with less stringent requirements to pass a science class.

Though, both you and I were educated in the US, not NZ.

[Broomstick]

True, but my high school years are 30 years behind me now, and a lot can change in 30 years regardless of where you are.

[Irbis]

30 years ago was when USA still needed to out-educate these damn Commies, no?

[Esquire]

My nephew's doing the scientific method in his 7th grade biology now - it hasn't left the US school system entirely, at least.