Fw: Why Some Parents Question Vaccines

[Guest guest]

F wrote: Why Some Parents Question Vaccines "Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, health officials reported."--Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press. By Deardorff, Chicago Tribune.tinyurl.com/6jeszp From a public health standpoint, a drop in vaccination rates is considered a crisis because it increases the chances of a mass disease outbreak. But the real crisis is not that some parents

skip or delay vaccination because they believe vaccines might pose health risks or are linked to autism. It's that they're losing confidence in public health officials and policy, partly because vaccines are being forced on them, regardless of their personal desires or beliefs. The mistrust began in 1997 when Congress asked the Food and Drug Administration to measure the levels of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal found in vaccines. At the same time, the Internet was dramatically changing how the public accessed medical information. Safety standards for thimerosal did not exist, but the finding that six-month-old children could be exposed to 187.7 micrograms of mercury (more than 80 micrograms above the recommended limit for methylmercury, a related compound) prompted safety concerns. Thimerosal was removed from many (but not all) vaccines as a precaution.

Meanwhile, the number of new and required vaccines kept rising. Immunization against diseases that were once a childhood rite of passage and that conferred lifelong immunity, such as chickenpox, was now mandated for public school. In 1982, the Centers for Disease Control recommended 23 doses of 7 vaccines for children up to age 6. Today, children are supposed to receive 48 doses of 12 vaccines by age six. (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.) Even if the vaccines do not have thimerosal, parents are wondering, "Why do I have to give my child a Hepatitis B shot at birth?" And "Why have more than two dozen states tried to mandate the vaccine for humanpapilloma virus (HPV) when we still lack evidence that it's effective against cervical cancer, something Dr. Charlotte Haug pointed out in

the New England Journal of Medicine?" Other developments that have undermined the public's faith in health officials: * Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fudged data to prove that Hurricane Katrina survivors were not getting sick from their FEMA trailers, Democratic lawmakers charged. In fact, residents were breathing in formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. * Last year, a week after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced that the influenza vaccine was effective against only 40 percent of the season's flu viruses, it recommended that all children over the age of 6 months get a flu shot. * In February, health officials announced that the combination vaccine Pro Quad, which protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, may pose some health risks. * Research suggests

that America might be over-vaccinating its kids and that we might want to re-evaluate and adjust the immunization schedule. But not because of health concerns; the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money according to the study by researchers with Oregon Health & Science University published in the New England Journal of Medicine. * The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended issuing cholesterol drugs to ward off heart disease for some children as young as 8, even though there's a lack of evidence that the use of statins in children would prevent heart attacks later in life. * 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 AAP, that number goes up to 50 percent. Likewise 20 percent of pediatricians would

recommend against it, but that number goes down to 11 percent if it is officially recommended for routine use. "This basically indicates that some pediatricians are willing to disregard their honest feelings about what is best for their patients and are unwilling to "buck the system," my pediatrician told me. "Instead, they will blindly follow the dictates of the AAP." * The AAP issued a sample letter to pediatricians suggesting that physicians tell parents who refuse to vaccinate that they have a "self-centered and unacceptable attitude" since their child is getting protection from others who have chosen to vaccinate. Parents who absolutely refuse to vaccinate could be booted from your pediatrician's practice. * In land, parents who didn't vaccinate their children against chickenpox and Hepatitis B were threatened with jail time and fines. Vaccines represent social

health without regard to individuals. That's how they work. But threatening parents--especially American parents who pride themselves on rugged individualism--will not inspire them to vaccinate their children. We don't know what causes autism or the other chronic childhood disorders that are increasing, including asthma, allergy and attention deficit disorder. Until we do, parents should have the right to ask as many questions as they need to. We routinely question the safety of most things we put in our children's bodies, whether it's food, herbs, over-the-counter medications or prescription drugs. Vaccines should not be an exception.-- ô¿ô