The New Exchange

You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?



1/31/2015 8:58 am  #1


The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

Vaccine Critics Turn Defensive Over Measles

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Their children have been sent home from school. Their families are barred from birthday parties and neighborhood play dates. Online, people call them negligent and criminal. And as officials in 14 states grapple to contain a spreading measles outbreak that began near here at Disneyland, the parents at the heart of America’s anti-vaccine movement are being blamed for incubating an otherwise preventable public-health crisis. 

Measles anxiety rippled thousands of miles beyond its center on Friday as officials scrambled to try to contain a wider spread of the highly contagious disease — which America declared vanquished 15 years ago, before a statistically significant number of parents started refusing to vaccinate their children.

In recent days, new measles cases popped up in Nebraska and Minnesota, New York and Marin County in California. Officials around the country reported rising numbers of patients who were seeking shots, as well as some pediatricians who were accepting nonvaccinated families but were debating changing their policies. The White House urged parents to listen to the science that supports inoculations.

In Arizona, health officials warned that 1,000 people could have been exposed to measles and urged anyone displaying symptoms to avoid this weekend’s Super Bowl events in the Phoenix area. In a small planned community where one family became ill after visiting Disneyland, store windows were lined with measles alerts, and a sign on the Pinal County office building warned: “Stop! Measles is in our county!” and asked people with symptoms to wear masks before entering.

But here in California, anti-vaccine parents whose children have endured bouts of whooping cough and chickenpox largely defended their choice to raise their children on natural foods, essential oils and no vaccinations.

“There is absolutely no reason to get the shot,” said Crystal McDonald, whose 16-year-old daughter was one of 66 students sent home from Palm Desert High School for the next two weeks because they did not have full measles immunizations.

After researching the issue and reading information from a national anti-vaccine advocacy group, Ms. McDonald said she and her husband, a chiropractor, decided to raise their four children without vaccines. She said they ate well and had never been to the doctor, and she insisted that her daughter was healthier than many classmates. But when the school sent her home with a letter, Ms. McDonald’s daughter was so concerned about missing two weeks of advanced-placement classes that she suggested simply getting a measles inoculation.

“I said, ‘No, absolutely not,’ “ Ms. McDonald said. “I said, ‘I’d rather you miss an entire semester than you get the shot.’ “
The anti-vaccine movement can largely be traced to a 1998 report in a medical journal that suggested a link between vaccines and autism but was later proved fraudulent and retracted. Today, the waves of parents who shun vaccines include some who still believe in the link and some, like the Amish, who have religious objections to vaccines. Then there is a particular subculture of largely wealthy and well-educated families, many living in palmy enclaves around Los Angeles and San Francisco, who are trying to carve out “all-natural” lives for their children.

“Sometimes, I feel like we’re practicing in the 1950s,” said Dr. Eric Ball, a pediatrician in southern Orange County, where some schools report that 50 to 60 percent of their kindergartners are not fully vaccinated and that 20 to 40 percent of parents have sought a personal beliefs exemption to vaccination requirements. “It’s very frustrating. It’s hard to see a kid suffer for something that’s entirely preventable.”

The story continues here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/vaccine-critics-turn-defensive-over-measles.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Last edited by Goose (1/31/2015 8:59 am)


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
 

1/31/2015 9:41 am  #2


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

This is what happenes when the public is dumbed down and taught not to trust science or medicine. 

I don't think the anti-vaccine crowd realizes that measles can be a life-threatening disease.  Go through any old cemetary and look at all the chicldren's grave.  There are so many who died of childhood diseases like measles.  It can also have other dreadful complications like blindness or deafness.  Can you imagine that happening to your own child because you didn't immunize them?

Now they are saying some of us geezers might be at risk because the immunizations we got way back when might have worn off by now.

What a mess.....

 

1/31/2015 9:51 am  #3


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

Great post, Florentine.  People forget that the entire reason behind developing the vaccine was that children sometimes died of the measles and other childhood infections.

In reading this I thought about Fred's post about the Climate change disconnect, in which people use their political ideology to derive their opinions on scientific issues. It seems that conservatives are guilty of this on climate change.

And, the far left, "all natural" crowd is guilty of it on the vaccination issue.
As you stated, what a mess.

Last edited by Goose (1/31/2015 9:52 am)


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

1/31/2015 11:21 am  #4


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

Do they also support bleeding as a cure-all.

Do they scoff at the idea that tiny little creatures are responsible for sickness?

Is it the 14th century again?


If you make yourself miserable trying to make others happy that means everyone is miserable.

-Me again

---------------------------------------------
 

1/31/2015 11:28 am  #5


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

You get an awful lot of pampered Americans who have never seen anything really ugly and start mouthing "natural" as if it is the solution to everything.

Hey, I'm all for cutting down on toxins and preservatives.

But these "Granola bar" parents never stopped to realize that nature is not all moonbeams and sunshine.

Polio is natural ,  just like measles, plague, and pneumonia.
Come to think of it, nothing is more natural than an early death from infectious disease.

Last edited by Goose (1/31/2015 11:29 am)


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

1/31/2015 11:48 am  #6


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

A part of me wonders if a big part of the problem is that most people have no idea how a specific vaccine works, what's in it and why, etc. I think if people were more educated, they would make better decisions. Or at the very least, we'd know for sure what really is in the vaccines and what each ingredient's particular purpose is. That way, if they do use things like aluminum and mercury, we could maybe through popular demand affect a change in ingredients if possible. I don't want to see anyone get sick, whether it's from vaccine ingredients or the diseases they can prevent.

 

1/31/2015 11:58 am  #7


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

BYOB wrote:

A part of me wonders if a big part of the problem is that most people have no idea how a specific vaccine works, what's in it and why, etc. I think if people were more educated, they would make better decisions. Or at the very least, we'd know for sure what really is in the vaccines and what each ingredient's particular purpose is. That way, if they do use things like aluminum and mercury, we could maybe through popular demand affect a change in ingredients if possible. I don't want to see anyone get sick, whether it's from vaccine ingredients or the diseases they can prevent.

Excellent points, BYOB. 
I see a problem in how difficult it is for the average person to get good info from our media outlets. They seem to be so intent in being unbiased, that they are unconcerned about what is proven. For instance, I've seen news outlets interview an anti-vaccination advocate who alleges that vaccines cause dieases like autism. But they don't ask them to actually show proof of it.

Also, they often allege that mercury in childhood vaccines causes autism.
Hey, I don't like the idea of mercury in a measles vaccine. The thing is, according to the CDC there hasn't been mercury preservative used in these vaccines since 2001.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/thimerosal/


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

1/31/2015 12:09 pm  #8


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

Goose wrote:

BYOB wrote:

A part of me wonders if a big part of the problem is that most people have no idea how a specific vaccine works, what's in it and why, etc. I think if people were more educated, they would make better decisions. Or at the very least, we'd know for sure what really is in the vaccines and what each ingredient's particular purpose is. That way, if they do use things like aluminum and mercury, we could maybe through popular demand affect a change in ingredients if possible. I don't want to see anyone get sick, whether it's from vaccine ingredients or the diseases they can prevent.

Excellent points, BYOB. 
I see a problem in how difficult it is for the average person to get good info from our media outlets. They seem to be so intent in being unbiased, that they are unconcerned about what is proven. For instance, I've seen news outlets interview an anti-vaccination advocate who alleges that vaccines cause dieases like autism. But they don't ask them to actually show proof of it.

Also, they often allege that mercury in childhood vaccines causes autism.
Hey, I don't like the idea of mercury in a measles vaccine. The thing is, according to the CDC there hasn't been mercury preservative used in these vaccines since 2001.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/thimerosal/

See! Most people don't know that either A) there was ever mercury in vaccines, and B) that they stopped using it in 2001. I'm thinking they should give out vaccine data sheets to everyone that lists ingredients, their reason for being there, and safety/risk records,etc. That would certainly go a long way to help people understand what's what. I understand fully the need for vaccinations, but I also understand that people are nervous about getting things injected into their bodies. Education helps.

 

1/31/2015 3:09 pm  #9


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

Here's a pretty interesting opinion piece from the NYT..

"It used to be that unvaccinated children in America were clustered in impoverished neighborhoods; now they’re often clustered among sophisticates in gilded ZIP codes where a certain strain of health faddishness reigns."
"You can be so blessed with choices that you choose to be a fool" 


The Vaccine Lunacy, Disneyland, Measles and Madness

A FEW years back, an acerbic friend of mine who was a recent transplant to Los Angeles told me that she itched to write a satirical novel with the following narrative:A group of wealthy, educated people in Santa Monica who deliberately didn’t vaccinate their children subsequently take them on a “poor-ism” trip to a developing country. The goal is to make them wiser and more sensitive to suffering in the world. While being sensitized, the kids catch diseases that they could have been inoculated against. Some of them die.

As a plot, it lacks subtlety (and compassion). But as a parable, it’s crystal-clear. You can be so privileged that you’re underprivileged, so blessed with choices that you choose to be a fool, so “informed” that you’re misinformed.Which brings us to Disneyland, measles and the astonishing fact that a scourge once essentially eliminated in this country is back.

You’ve probably heard or read about the recent outbreak traced to the theme park. But there’s a chance that you’re unaware, because it hasn’t received nearly the coverage that, say, Ebola did, even though some of the dynamics at work here are scarier.

It started in mid-December and is now believed to be responsible for more than 70 cases in seven states and Mexico; 58 of those are in California, which of course is where the park is — in Orange County, to be more specific.

As it happens, there are affluent pockets of that county where the fraction of schoolchildren whose parents have cited a “personal belief” to exempt them from vaccinations is higher than the statewide average of 2.5 percent. That’s also true of some affluent pockets of the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.

It used to be that unvaccinated children in America were clustered in impoverished neighborhoods; now they’re often clustered among sophisticates in gilded ZIP codes where a certain strain of health faddishness reigns.

According to a story in The Hollywood Reporter last year, the parents of 57 percent of the children at a Beverly Hills preschool and of 68 percent at one in Santa Monica had filed personal-belief exemptions from having their kids vaccinated.

Why? Many of them buy into a discredited theory that there’s a link between the MMR (mumps-measles-rubella) vaccine and autism. They’re encouraged by a cadre of brash alarmists who have gained attention by pushing that thinking. Anti-vaccine panic was the path that the actress Jenny McCarthy traveled to innumerable appearances on prominent news and talk shows; she later demonstrated her singular version of concern for good health by working as a pitchwoman for e-cigarettes.

Other parents have separate or additional worries about vaccines, which can indeed have side effects. But they’re weighing that downside against what they deem to be a virtually nonexistent risk of exposure to the diseases in question. And that degree of risk depends entirely on a vast majority of children getting vaccines. If too many forgo them, we surrender what’s known as “herd immunity,” and the risk rises. That’s precisely what health officials see happening now.

In 2004, there were just 37 reported cases of measles in the United States. In 2014, there were 644. And while none of those patients died, measles can kill. Before vaccines for it became widespread in 1963, millions of Americans were infected annually, and 400 to 500 died each year.“I don’t think its fatality rate has decreased,” said Daniel Salmon, a vaccine expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We just haven’t had enough cases for someone to die.”

An estimated 90 percent of unvaccinated people who are exposed to the measles virus become infected, and they themselves can be infectious four days before they develop a telltale rash. But what’s in play is more than one affliction’s resurgence. The size and sway of the anti-vaccine movement reflect a chilling disregard for science — or at least a pick-and-choose, cafeteria approach to it — that’s also evident, for example, in many Americans’ refusal to recognize climate change.

We’re a curious species, and sometimes a sad one, chasing knowledge only to deny it, making progress only to turn away from its benefits.The movement underscores the robust market for pure conjecture — not just about vaccines, but about all sorts of ostensible threats and putative remedies — and the number of merchants willing to traffic in it.

Look at Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon now drawing millions of viewers daily as a television host peddling weight-loss tricks. The British Medical Journal recently analyzed dozens of his shows and determined that more than half of the suggestions he doled out didn’t have sound scientific backing.The Internet makes it easier for people to do their own “research” and can lead them to trustworthy and untrustworthy sites in equal measure.

“It can be difficult to know what to believe,” said Kristen Feemster, a infectious diseases specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “So many people can be an expert, because there are platforms for so many voices.”Salmon noted that the sheer variety and saturation of media today amplify crackpot hypotheses to a point where they seem misleadingly worthy of consideration. “People say things enough times, there must be some truth to it,” he said. “Look at the proportion of people who question where our president was born or his religion.”

And we in the traditional media don’t always help, covering the news in an on-one-hand, on-the-other-hand fashion that sometimes gives nearly equal time to people citing facts and people weaving fiction.I’m not entirely baffled by the fear of vaccines, which arises in part from a mistrust of drug companies and a medical establishment that have made past mistakes.But this subject has been studied and studied and studied, and it’s abundantly clear that we’re best served by vaccinating all of those children who can be, so that the ones who can’t be — for medical reasons such as a compromised immune system — are protected.

Right now, Salmon said, only two states, Mississippi and West Virginia, limit vaccine exemptions to such children. If the anti-vaccination crowd grows, other states may have to move in that direction.There’s a balance to be struck between personal freedom and public safety, and I’m not at all sure that our current one is correct.We rightly govern what people can and can’t do with guns, seatbelts, drugs and so much more, all in the interest not just of their welfare but of everybody’s. Are we being dangerously remiss when it comes to making them wear the necessary armor against illnesses that belong in history books?

Last edited by Goose (1/31/2015 3:16 pm)


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

2/04/2015 8:10 pm  #10


Re: The Anti-Antivaccination Backlash

Well, I say it's about time this is viewed as a public health issue:

(Reuters) - Responding to an outbreak of measles that has infected more than 100 people, two California lawmakers said on Wednesday they would introduce legislation to end the right of parents in the state to exempt their children from school vaccinations based on personal beliefs.

 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum