I just saw a report that there are an army of anti-vaccination believers have made death-threats to doctors who support vaccinating children, causing a recent Centers for Disease Control program to require high levels of security. Imagine that, a group of doctors reporting on disease spreads and the solution that is proposed required armed security with automatic weapons. This is where we are today as people seem to not be able to trust, in some cases, long established science, often using debunked research that asserted as fact things that were not found.
This is not a partisan issue. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Democrat and a loud voice in the so-called anti-vax movement. He often speaks out against government requiring vaccines and citing nonsense opinions about the link between vaccines and autism. However so are many on the right. The current President has been a vocal supporter of this debunked idea going back many years. He has stated publicly and linked to alternative websites that continue to say there is a link. Besides politicians there are tons of celebrities and just ordinary people who live in a place where they are more likely to believe these false ideas and put their children at risk than really research the history of vaccines.
Vaccines can cause harm, to an extremely small percentage of the population. It is a terrible thing when attempts to help cause harm, but medicine is still an art, there are no perfect solutions. But children who have been harmed by vaccines are being exploited by the anti-vax crowd, up to and including lying about how they have been harmed.
The mass distribution of vaccines like the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (MMR) have only been around since the 1960s and world-wide distribution since the 80s. In that time deaths from these disease have dropped from more than 2 million a year to less the 200,000 and most of those are in the developing world. Millions have received these vaccinations and most have no ill effects. While there is a rise in diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders in the last few decades but I am certain that it isn't the result of vaccinations and probably, in part, due to recognizing it more.
I personally welcome science to explore any questions about vaccines or aspect of our public health experiences but this has been done. People who have published stories about vaccines and autism, for example, have been found to be faking the data. While the medical profession that is supposed to be in on some kind of vaccine conspiracy openly acknowledge that sometimes vaccines cause harm. But like many things the benefits outweigh the risks. A car seat can save your child's life in an accident, but it can also trap them if the accident causes a car fire. But you are more likely to be in an accident that can throw your baby from the car than one where they are burned, so using a car seat is a good idea even though there are risks. Same with vaccines, there is a chance of causing a form of harm but it is so tiny the benefits are far more important.
But the worst of the anti-vax crowd are those that attack parents who have children who died even if receiving a vaccine. When a two-year old died of the flu the anti-vax crowd attacked. The crowd even suggested that the mom murdered her child. This is disgusting. The woman vaccinated her child against the flu, but it didn't work and her son died. We should simply be sad that science isn't perfect but that is not what science is meant to be. In fact the idea that we continue to make vaccines and other ways of helping are always being revisited. Science doesn't settle on it laurels, it probes further, it looks for more connections. People are alive today because of the vaccines that took a long time to develop and be successful. The polio vaccine made it so I have never met anyone who had to use an Iron lung, and my guess is that there is an entire generation in college today that would have to google Iron Lung to know what it is. But that might not be true in 20 years. We are seeing measles outbreaks around the country. We are seeing other diseases make a come back after huge declines in the last 50. Some say they are harmless childhood diseases but we know people have died or have suffered significant side-effects because of the disease. Even vaccinated people are at risk as vaccines are not 100% effective and thus rely on diseases not getting a stronghold in a community especially a tight knit one. So while some anti-vax people feel that it is their choice, they are putting others in danger.
Social media has made it easy for people to portray themselves as experts and promote all manner of things. In the 90s, when the internet was just getting to a majority of people I showed how easy it was to my students to find websites that said the earth was flat and that lizard people controlled major governments (Bill Clinton apparently is a lizard person). They looked like well researched websites with images and details that looked legit. Things really haven't changed and with social media you don't even need a website, just a link to RFK, President Trump or any number of famous people who promote anti-vax nonsense and you look like you have done research. So I will say to you what I said to those students. Don't believe everything you read, including this blog. Do your own research, but remember, when doing so, look for facts. Oh and if you are under 60 years old, chances are you are here and well in part because of a vaccine.
This is not a partisan issue. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Democrat and a loud voice in the so-called anti-vax movement. He often speaks out against government requiring vaccines and citing nonsense opinions about the link between vaccines and autism. However so are many on the right. The current President has been a vocal supporter of this debunked idea going back many years. He has stated publicly and linked to alternative websites that continue to say there is a link. Besides politicians there are tons of celebrities and just ordinary people who live in a place where they are more likely to believe these false ideas and put their children at risk than really research the history of vaccines.
Vaccines can cause harm, to an extremely small percentage of the population. It is a terrible thing when attempts to help cause harm, but medicine is still an art, there are no perfect solutions. But children who have been harmed by vaccines are being exploited by the anti-vax crowd, up to and including lying about how they have been harmed.
The mass distribution of vaccines like the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (MMR) have only been around since the 1960s and world-wide distribution since the 80s. In that time deaths from these disease have dropped from more than 2 million a year to less the 200,000 and most of those are in the developing world. Millions have received these vaccinations and most have no ill effects. While there is a rise in diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders in the last few decades but I am certain that it isn't the result of vaccinations and probably, in part, due to recognizing it more.
I personally welcome science to explore any questions about vaccines or aspect of our public health experiences but this has been done. People who have published stories about vaccines and autism, for example, have been found to be faking the data. While the medical profession that is supposed to be in on some kind of vaccine conspiracy openly acknowledge that sometimes vaccines cause harm. But like many things the benefits outweigh the risks. A car seat can save your child's life in an accident, but it can also trap them if the accident causes a car fire. But you are more likely to be in an accident that can throw your baby from the car than one where they are burned, so using a car seat is a good idea even though there are risks. Same with vaccines, there is a chance of causing a form of harm but it is so tiny the benefits are far more important.
But the worst of the anti-vax crowd are those that attack parents who have children who died even if receiving a vaccine. When a two-year old died of the flu the anti-vax crowd attacked. The crowd even suggested that the mom murdered her child. This is disgusting. The woman vaccinated her child against the flu, but it didn't work and her son died. We should simply be sad that science isn't perfect but that is not what science is meant to be. In fact the idea that we continue to make vaccines and other ways of helping are always being revisited. Science doesn't settle on it laurels, it probes further, it looks for more connections. People are alive today because of the vaccines that took a long time to develop and be successful. The polio vaccine made it so I have never met anyone who had to use an Iron lung, and my guess is that there is an entire generation in college today that would have to google Iron Lung to know what it is. But that might not be true in 20 years. We are seeing measles outbreaks around the country. We are seeing other diseases make a come back after huge declines in the last 50. Some say they are harmless childhood diseases but we know people have died or have suffered significant side-effects because of the disease. Even vaccinated people are at risk as vaccines are not 100% effective and thus rely on diseases not getting a stronghold in a community especially a tight knit one. So while some anti-vax people feel that it is their choice, they are putting others in danger.
Social media has made it easy for people to portray themselves as experts and promote all manner of things. In the 90s, when the internet was just getting to a majority of people I showed how easy it was to my students to find websites that said the earth was flat and that lizard people controlled major governments (Bill Clinton apparently is a lizard person). They looked like well researched websites with images and details that looked legit. Things really haven't changed and with social media you don't even need a website, just a link to RFK, President Trump or any number of famous people who promote anti-vax nonsense and you look like you have done research. So I will say to you what I said to those students. Don't believe everything you read, including this blog. Do your own research, but remember, when doing so, look for facts. Oh and if you are under 60 years old, chances are you are here and well in part because of a vaccine.
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