two remarkable essays & A shot of skepticism about vaccines won't hurt a bit (Deardorff)

[Guest guest]

A recent project has me wallowing about in disease rates before and

subsequent to widespread use of various vaccines. Several websites

present charts showing that, for many diseases, the rate fell prior to

vaccinations for the disease. However, those charts are presented w/o

citations (or perhaps my browser wasn't presenting the citations), and

finding citations (articles or texts) which support that graphs is not

easy, and the task is clouded by the trend towards pro-vaccine hoopla in

peer-reviewed articles, increasingly so in the latter part of the 20th

Century.

A recent Deardorff column (see below) generated comments, one of which

is noteworthy because it refers to two online essays which delineate

challenges attending the task of documenting disease rates. That comment

and its links to two essays follow herein.

- - - -

posted by: MinorityView of Waitsfield, VT

One of the big pro-vaccine arguments is that thousands of children will

die if we stop vaccinating. Are the numbers being thrown around

accurate? Here is some research:

Part I explains who did the research and how they publicised the numbers:

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/06/1...

<http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/06/16/where-do-they-find-these-scary-s\

tatistics/>

Part II looks at the numbers for diphtheria:

http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/07/2...

<http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/07/28/where-do-they-find-these-scary-s\

tatistics-part-ii/>

- - - -

A shot of skepticism about vaccines won't hurt a bit

Deardorff Health and fitness reporter

August 31, 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0831deardorffaug31,0,433720\

3.story

Measles cases in the U.S. are rising, and parents who reject vaccination

are shouldering much of the blame. Nearly half of the 131 cases so far

this year involved unvaccinated children, including 25 home-schooled

kids in Illinois.

Health officials worry that as vaccination rates decline, herd immunity

is lost, increasing the chance of a mass disease outbreak. Some

pediatricians, meanwhile, are frustrated that they have to spend so much

time convincing parents that vaccines such as the measles, mumps and

rubella shot are safe.

Questioning in itself is not a bad thing, especially since the Internet

has ignited an information explosion, some of it inaccurate. It does,

however, reflect a larger crisis of confidence in public health

officials and policy, which has developed partly because so many new,

seemingly unnecessary vaccines have been added to the schedule and

because no one can explain what causes, how to prevent or how to treat

the new childhood disorders: asthma, allergies, attention deficit

disorder and autism.

The number of vaccines children receive has tripled since the early

1980s. In 1982, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommended 23

doses of 7 vaccines for children up to age 6.

Today's typical 6-year-old has had 48 doses of 12 vaccines. (Toss in the

flu shot, which may or may not be effective, and it boosts the number to

69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18.)

Immunization against diseases that were once a childhood rite of passage

and that conferred lifelong immunity, such as chickenpox, is now

required for public school in many states, including Illinois. And the

Hepatitis B vaccine is routinely given to babies the day after they're

born, even though the illness is contracted through blood transfusions

and sexual activity. Parents wonder: " Why can't the Hep B vaccine wait? "

But what really prompted questions was the 1997 decision by the Food and

Drug Administration to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal

from most vaccines as a precaution, due to concerns about the

" theoretical potential for neurotoxicity " and the growing number of

vaccines containing thimerosal on the immunization schedule. Though no

evidence of harm has been shown, a mental link to thimerosal was made, a

scarlet letter on vaccines that remains to this day.

Several recent developments have sparked other questions about vaccines:

.. Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of

Health, told CBS News that she thinks " public health officials have been

too quick to dismiss the [autism-vaccine] hypothesis as irrational. "

.. In March, government health officials conceded that childhood vaccines

aggravated a rare, underlying cellular disorder in 9-year-old Hannah

Poling that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms.

.. America might be over-vaccinating its kids and health officials might

want to re-evaluate and adjust the immunization schedule, according to a

study in the New England Journal of Medicine. But not because of health

concerns; the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money.

.. A study in the journal Pediatrics found that 33 percent of

pediatricians would strongly recommend the rotavirus vaccine if it were

up to the doctor's discretion. But if it becomes an " official "

recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics, that number goes

up to 50 percent.

.. Last year, a week after CDC announced that the influenza vaccine was

effective against only 40 percent of the season's flu viruses, it

recommended that all children over 6 months get a flu shot.

Vaccination, considered to be one of medicine's greatest achievements,

is a personal decision that is often forced on people for the greater

good. Parents who question vaccines are simply seeking information and

advocating for their children.

We have the right to question everything that goes into our children's

bodies, whether it's food, herbs, over-the-counter medications or

prescription drugs. Vaccines, which like any medical procedure carry

both benefits and risks, should not be an exception.

..