A Farewell

Hasta la Vista. Adeus. Au Revoir. Arrivederci. Auf Wiedersehen. Tot ziens. Totsiens. Sayōnara. Zài jiàn. Goodbye. No matter what language you say it in, goodbyes “express good wishes when parting.” Well, this is the last time I’ll be blogging, at least for now, so I’ll be parting from all my avid readers out there.

This blog started as a class project. The class was told to write a blog on a debated issue that they felt passionate about. I feel passionate about quite a few things, so that was the hardest part. I could argue about women’s or gay rights, that is a never-ending debate. But that’s so hard to support and to write about for so long. Oh, I could write about child prostitution in less-developed countries! But that would make me so upset all the time and I wouldn’t have too many new things to write about. My professor suggested some others I was already thinking about, but that wouldn’t be creative. So, it was in the midst of this crisis that I arrived at the vaccination debate.

The first time I heard about the vaccination debate was my junior year of high school at an academic camp at Duke University. My Genetics class was about to be thrown to the Philosophy class, so our instructor had us practice debating skills. She introduced the vaccine debate and, to my surprise, someone in the course actually opposed them. Up until that point, I had never realized that vaccines were debatable.

So, two years after, I took it upon myself to argue as I was unprepared to that day. With legitimate evidence backed by science and history. I hope that my blog has either helped inform you so that you can make your own decisions or convinced you that vaccines are not the devil. I leave you with what may be the only quote on the internet about goodbyes that has nothing to do with relationships.

“History never really says goodbye. History says, 'See you later.'”

-Eduardo Galeano

Vaccines In Politics

                In October 2012, the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) adopted amendments to the Rules and Regulations for Immunization and Testing for Healthcare Workers. The amendments made flu shots mandatory for all healthcare “workers, students, trainees, and volunteers who may have routinely anticipated face-to-face interaction, also known as ‘direct contact,’ with patients at a healthcare facility,” according to the Rhode Island Government website. This is not an unusual request. Nurses, doctors, students, and volunteers in Florida and other states are required to receive annual flu shots.

                The patients that healthcare workers treat tend to be more at risk as a rule. Logically, it is unlikely that you go see your doctor to tell him that you’ve been feeling amazing these past two months. More likely, you see your doctor when you’re feeling under the weather, because he can tell what is wrong and the best way to treat it.

                Nurses in retirement communities have a big reason to get their flu shots also. Studies have found that those over 65 years are less likely to get an acute illness, but when they do, it is more likely to be fatal. And a large portion of older adults (65+) have chronic illnesses that weaken their immune functioning. If the nurses refused to get vaccinated, but continued to work these communities would be at risk. Hospitals have similar situations.

                Despite this, some Rhode Island healthcare workers and more unrelated people believe this amendment to be a violation of the Constitution because it requires people to do something maybe against their will. According to the RI government website,

“Healthcare workers and volunteers who have a medical reason for not getting a flu shot may obtain a medical exemption from their doctor, licensed physician's assistant or licensed nurse practitioner. This exemption must be renewed annually and submitted to the employing facility by December 15 each year. Healthcare workers and volunteers who are opposed to having a flu shot but are not medically exempt must submit a form annually by December 15 that states their refusal to be immunized against influenza and indicates their understanding that they are obligated to wear a surgical face mask during each routinely anticipated direct patient contact during any declared period in which the flu is widespread. That determination will be made by the Director of Health, and healthcare facilities will notify all workers that "a period in which flu is widespread" has been declared for the facility.”

 "HEALTH listened closely to all stakeholders and used that feedback to craft amendments that addressed the concerns of healthcare workers and volunteers, while protecting patients from the threat of influenza," said Michael Fine, MD, director of HEALTH. "Those who care for and interact with patients in a healthcare setting have a duty to protect the health and safety of those for whom they care. A flu shot for all those who interact with patients as part of their employment or volunteer efforts at a healthcare facility is the best way to prevent the spread of influenza to some of our state's most vulnerable populations."

                In 2013, Michael Fine, MD, Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) suggested that every vaccine recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) be required to attend pre-school, daycare, elementary school, middle school, high school, and postsecondary institutions in Rhode Island. Since youth are vulnerable, this amendment is logical. However, in the comments of an article declaring Fine’s policy unconstitutional, Cia Parker said,

“RI parents should sue this fascist Director of Health for attempted holocaust of their children. They should cite VAERS data as well as data from Vaccine Court, which has awarded c. $3 billions to families of vaccine injured and killed children. US is the only western country which has such genocidal policy toward its citizens.”

                This whole comment just set me off. If you wish to make a claim against a policy, you don’t start by name calling. Oh, and not just name calling, but INACCURATE name calling. According to the Political Research Associates,

“Fascism rejects the principles of class struggle and workers' internationalism as threats to national or racial unity, yet it often exploits real grievances against capitalists and landowners through ethnic scapegoating or radical-sounding conspiracy theories. Fascism rejects the liberal doctrines of individual autonomy and rights, political pluralism, and representative government, yet it advocates broad popular participation in politics and may use parliamentary channels in its drive to power. Its vision of a ‘new order’ clashes with the conservative attachment to tradition-based institutions and hierarchies, yet fascism often romanticizes the past as inspiration for national rebirth.”

                Nothing that Fine suggests comes close to real fascism. The article that Parker commented on never bothered to mention that religious exemptions are allowed in most cases. The one it does mention is pre-school workers, because they aren’t supposed to exempt. They deal with the other most at risk age group. But HEALTH is making a compromise. Those who refuse shots must wear a surgical mask during any “declared period in which the flu is widespread.” Obviously, Fine is either not a fascist or a very bad one.

                Parker also claims that data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) be cited as grounds for suing Fine. I tackle that debate here. In short, the VAERS was not meant to be cited as a scientific source. VAERS qualifies as the observation part of the scientific method, not the experimental data.

But wait, there’s more. After that, Parker continues by calling vaccinations a “genocidal policy” that is attempting the “holocaust of its children.” Am I the only who felt the Hitler comparisons? I don’t doubt that the links were intentional. Comparing a political leader of vaccine reformation to Hitler is pretty close to fear mongering. Parker is claiming that a public official is attempting genocide through vaccines and trying to destroy our system of government in three sentences. Even the gubernatorial race in Florida did not generate this kind of accusations. As the Daily Show so kindly points out, 

Sources:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2014/03/action-alert-ri-proposes-worst-vaccine-regulation-ever.html
http://sos.ri.gov/documents/archives/regdocs/holding/DOH/Immunzation_HearingNotice_16January%202014.pdf
http://www.ri.gov/press/view/17589
http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/whatfasc.html
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20141019/PC05/141019524/1177/understanding-risk-stop-worrying-about-ebola-and-go-get-a-flu-shot

Reopening the Book on Infectious Diseases?

“It is time to close the book on infectious diseases, and declare the war against pestilence won,” Surgeon General William Stewart is rumored to have said when testifying before Congress in 1969 (though whether he actually said this is debatable).In the 1960s and 1970s, most of society believed that diseases were a thing of the past. Polio had been eradicated by vaccines and penicillin made bacteria relatively harmless. With many of the known diseases conquered, society had good reason to feel safe.

That security was short-lived. In 1976, Ebola was discovered after it appears to have mutated from bats. In the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS appeared, morphing from two similar diseases found in chimpanzees. Before these diseases were fully understood, fear was the new prevailing attitude returning society to the pre-60s outlooks. "'Emergence' is in fact regression, a return to the standard that prevailed universally in the previous century," Nobel Laureate and Columbia biologist Joshua Lederberg wrote in a special infectious disease issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Now, not only do we have new diseases to handle, the old ones are making a comeback. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified six diseases whose worldwide re-emergence should be monitored: diphtheria, cholera, dengue fever, yellow fever, and bubonic plague (That’s right, guys. The Black Death of the Dark Ages is on the list of re-emerging diseases).

Though the list might be helpful to focus health officials, it also limits what diseases they are watching and health officials are aware of it. "Scarlet fever was a problem for my mother's generation," says Stephen Morse of the epidemiology division in Columbia's School of Public Health. "It essentially disappeared, and for no good reason. We don't understand why [diseases] flare from time to time, and until we do I'm uncomfortable ignoring them.”

The Council of Foreign Relations recently released a map that shows the recent resurgence of measles (maroon), mumps (olive green), rubella (blue), polio (gold), whooping cough(light green), and others (yellow). The circles are localized outbreaks, while the size of the circle indicates the number of people infected.

If you look, measles have re-emerged in Europe and whooping cough in the United States. The Wakefield study in 1998, which I wrote about here, made many parents worry that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was dangerous. Though this was later proven false and Wakefield found to have a conflict of interest, fears still resonate and immunization rates reflect this.

“Viruses and bacteria have taken full advantage of the immunization gaps. In 2011, France reported a massive measles outbreak with nearly 15,000 cases. Only the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Somalia suffered larger measles outbreaks that year. In 2012, the U.K. reported more than 2,000 measles cases, the largest number since 1994. Here in the U.S., the prevalence of whooping cough shot up in 2012 to nearly 50,000 cases. Last year cases declined to about 24,000 — which is still more than tenfold the number reported back in the early '80s when the bacteria infected less than 2,000 people,” according to a newscast from the national public radio (NPR).

In addition, though you may not think much about it, the flu could be problematic in the future. Though relatively harmless now, influenza could evolve into an epidemic or pandemic level. The antigens it displays to our immune system change every year regardless, which is why nurses are required to renew their flu vaccine annually. The flu already kills 36,000 people a year in America alone. I, for one, am not tempted to wait and see what strain evolves into something worse.

While the WHO and other organizations such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the department of Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases (PED) have been taking measures to counteract these issues, some factors remain out of their hands. The decision to vaccinate children is left to the parents. After the Wakefield scare, many parents decided to forgo vaccines instead of risk any side effects that vaccines were rumored to have. "In England, they did the experiment: They simply stopped vaccinating for pertussis. And they wound up with a lot of sick kids. In this country, we are now seeing the waning of immunity," says Dr. Glenda Garvey, Columbia clinical professor of medicine and interim chief of infectious disease at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

According to Steve Mirsky,

“The diphtheria situation in the former Soviet Union involves a more serious disease combined with a crumbling public health infrastructure; organized vaccination efforts are in shambles.”

But wait, it gets worse. According to IFLScience,

“Gary Baum of The Hollywood Reporter has investigated childhood illness and vaccination rates around Los Angeles County. He discovered that some schools in the most affluent L.A neighborhoods have vaccination rates lower than Southern Sudan. Let that sink in for a minute; one of the poorest regions in the world that is unable to supply clean drinking water for half of its inhabitants has a greater vaccination rate than schools that educate the offspring of Hollywood’s elite.”

                The lowered rates of vaccines increase the risk of epidemics which could lead to pandemics. A pandemic covers a much wider geographical area, often worldwide. A pandemic also infects many more people than an epidemic. An epidemic is specific to one city, region or country, while a pandemic goes much further than national borders.  In order to avoid any disease reaching these levels, it is essential that health organizations work together.

"First, you need surveillance," says Bob Howard of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases. "You also have to have science that is up-to-date and capable of dealing with what you discover in the field. Once you do, you want to have appropriate prevention and control in place, and that includes communication to let people know what the threats are and how to control or prevent the spread of that disease threat. Finally, there's got to be that strong public health infrastructure in place. If you don't have a system in place, the three previous things will not work." Basically, in the words of Mad-Eye Moody, “Constant vigilance!”

  

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/01/25/265750719/how-vaccine-fears-fueled-the-resurgence-of-preventable-diseases
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.3/mirsky.html
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/2/294.1.full
http://www.avert.org/origin-hiv-aids.htm
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20141019/PC05/141019524/1177/understanding-risk-stop-worrying-about-ebola-and-go-get-a-flu-shot
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/vaccination-rates-plummet-elite-los-angeles-schools

Walking and Chewing Gum

More than four thousand, eight hundred people have died from Ebola in West Africa as of October 19^th. The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is the deadliest in history. But Ebola may not be the worst problem for West Africa. Childhood vaccination rates have dropped significantly, HIV/AIDS facilities have been shut down, health education programs have been suspended, health care workers are in short supply, and there is an overall lack of trust in health officials. Liberia especially has been hit hard. Liberia has the highest mortality rate for Ebola and if the situation worsens, Ebola won’t compare to the mortality rate of the preventable childhood diseases that could surge.

Before Ebola, 97 percent of babies were getting vaccinated in Liberia, from the National Public Radio (NPR). Even with these many babies being vaccinated, 7 percent of children still died before reaching the age of 5. With Ebola, many mothers no longer trust health officials going so far as to claim that “the hospital [is] giving the people Ebola.” Now, only 27 percent of babies are being vaccinated. “That almost certainly means more children will die,” says Adolphus Clarke, who helps manage the immunization program.

The loss of trust in health officials is not the only reason these numbers are declining. Many children have become orphans after Ebola or another untreated disease took their parents.

“According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, around 3,700 children in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have lost at least one of their parents to the virus, which means Ebola orphan rates are climbing with the death rate. ‘Children are dying from measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases and pregnant women have fewer places to deliver their babies safely,’ the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF announced last month, noting that as many as 8.5 million people under the age of 20 live in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Of these, 2.5 million are under the age of five and most susceptible to childhood diseases,” according to the Daily Beast.

In addition, health facilities are being closed. The closing of these clinics is not out of any malice, but the reality that the doctors and nurses there are at risk.

“It has been a very tough decision to make as we know that thousands of women and children rely on our services in the district and beyond,” Brice de le Vingne, Doctors Without Borders Director of operations said in a statement. “But the safety of our staff must remain our top priority and if we cannot guarantee flawless infection control in the hospital, we are putting our staff and patients at risk.”

Ebola requires a lot of health care workers to give the infected person any chance of survival. Removing so many of the hospitals and clinics for the safety of the staff expands the shortage of health care workers. In this reality, many patients could go untreated or be treated by a relative, serving as a way for Ebola to spread.

The scarcity of nurses doesn’t just effect the Ebola patients though. Other, more contagious diseases are more likely to spread. With childhood vaccines at only 27 percent, how many children will be able to fight of measles which spreads at a one to eighteen ratio? That means that for every one person who has the measles, on average, they will spread it to eighteen other people. Ebola only has a one to two ratio. Mumps is a one to ten ratio.

 Measles and mumps have a childhood vaccine that helps the immune system recognize the pathogens and fight them off. These diseases are preventable! Yet already there are signs of a measles outbreak. UNICEF's Sheldon Yett says, "We've already had cases of measles in Lofa country which was the original epicenter of the disease in Liberia," he says. "So that's already happening."

HIV/AIDS patients are going to be hit hard also. Even in 2012, with all the health systems, 1.2 million Africans died of HIV/AIDS according to the World Bank. Without enough care, more HIV/AIDS patients are going to die. If health care organizations pack their bags and leave, they are basically sentencing these people to their deaths. Abandoning hospitals may not be the best way for health care workers to regain the trust of West Africans though. If Africans are terrified that you infected them with vaccines, the best way to convince them otherwise is to stay and treat them. If doctors stick with the people through troubled times such as these then they might find more acceptance than initially.

Many doctors and organizations are aware of this and are searching for ways to keep doing their jobs.

"If we do not go out to them then we will be having a disaster,” Sonpon Blamo Sieh, head of Liberia's National AIDS Control Program, told The Daily Beast. “We made some gains and 70 percent of our patients who need treatment were getting it. But if we lose that edge, we risk losing the battle completely.”

The organizations are donating to help find a cure for Ebola. “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, have committed $50 million for research and prevention for Ebola, which has sidetracked much of their work to prevent malaria and polio in West Africa,” according to the Daily Beast.

“Ebola is shutting down the healthcare system,” Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft and current head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told The Guardian on the sidelines of the Sibos Banking conference in Boston last month. “More kids are dying of malaria in these three countries now than they were before Ebola came along. So it would be worth stopping the Ebola epidemic if the only benefit was that it put the health system back in place.”

In summary, “We, as a global health community, have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, ensuring that preventing a death from Ebola doesn’t mean a child dies instead from a vaccine-preventable disease like pneumonia or diarrhea.” (Erin Hohlfelder)

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/23/358117900/ebola-is-keeping-kids-from-getting-vaccinated-in-liberia?ft=3&f=1001
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/23/what-s-worse-than-ebola-in-west-africa-almost-everything.html
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/health/ebola-fast-facts/

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

As of 2008, 39% of parents refused to vaccinate their child compared to 22% in 2003. 25% of this group were worried the vaccines might cause autism. Unfortunately, statistics show a steady rise in this trend. If enough people refuse vaccines, then the disease could become prevalent again and society at risk of epidemics as these diseases reemerge.


The belief that vaccines may cause autism has been around for a little under two decades. In 1998, The Lancet published a study by British doctor, Andrew Wakefield. The study, titled "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children", at first seems as indigestible as most other scientific journal articles. However, when you read into the abstract and manage to get past the bland, technical language, you might notice that he says, "Onset of behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination in eight of the 12 children..." In one sentence, Wakefield claims that the onset of autism begins after the children received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.


As you might imagine, this discovery added fuel to the anti-vaccination fire. If eight out of 12 children developed autism, generalizing those statistics would mean 66.7% of children would develop autism from one vaccine. HOLY CRAP?!... Right? If the Wakefield study were correct, then holy crap would definitely be an acceptable response to the findings. However, the Wakefield study has some very blatant errors that must be addressed.


First, let's look at the study itself. If you've learned a little about the scientific process, there are a few things that really stand out in the abstract. For instance, the quote "eight of the 12 children..." jumps out at me. Why are only 12 children involved in the study? If a scientist wants evidence that can be generalized across the population, he would choose a large and varied sample size from multiple populations. Then, even within the same sentence, he says, "behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with" the MMR vaccine. The basis for his scientific analysis was that the parents believed they saw symptoms of autism after the vaccine? But maybe it was just an error or a call for more research?


Unfortunately, "Wakefield was being paid as an expert by lawyers who were suing over alleged vaccine injury. In fact some of the children in the study were the children of parents who were suing. This is a massive conflict of interest." This means that those errors weren't errors at all, but various forms of bias, making this whole debate totally irrelevant. The Lancet fully retracted the study after years of fighting to get it removed. Nonetheless, parents still refuse to get their children vaccinated based off of Wakefield's study.


The MMR vaccine is given to children twice. The first dose is given at 12-15 months of age and the second dose is given between four to six years old. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, most children display early signs of autism from 12-18 months. The overlap of time frames appears to be the root of the problem according to an interesting theory published by Livescience. The human population seems to be falling prey to a fallacy of logic that the Romans expressed with "post hoc ergo propter hoc" which means "after this, therefore because of it." Modern day psychology and statistics students put it differently, "Correlation is not necessarily causation."


This is meant to teach students to think past what may just be coincidence and try to find all possible reasons for the result (in this case autism). But, not everyone is a psychology student, so most people only see the correlated event (vaccinating against MMR) as the entire reason for the development of autism.


Since it is necessary to maintain herd immunity in the population, scientists and health officials are hard at work trying to regain public confidence. Many studies have been published that examine whether Wakefield could have been correct (none have found evidence for the autism theory) but there are still parents who believe vaccines cause autism. Feeling frustrated, scientists conducted a study meant to find out how people are responding to the methods they use to refute the anti-vaccination movement.


This study (published March 3rd, 2014) looked at 1,759 parents that believed the MMR vaccine causes autism. The researchers then tried to convince groups of parents to change their beliefs using four different methods: information on lack of evidence for the autism theory given by a health authority; information on measles, mumps, and rubella also given by a health official; pictures of infants who had measles, mumps, or rubella; or a story of an infant who almost died from measles. The study came up with some counter-intuitive results.


At the beginning of the study, 70% of parents were likely to vaccinate a future child against measles, mumps, and rubella. After the study, the group that had been given information refuting the vaccine-autism link were only 45% likely to vaccinate future children, although they no longer believed that autism was linked to vaccines. The participants were actually LESS likely to want to risk the vaccine even though they now knew that the autism debate was incorrect. This is a major problem because that is how scientists have been trying to dispel the misinformation for the past two decades.


A scientist's entire profession revolves around knowledge and how to look at it logically and refute what might be incorrect, but the scientific community doesn't seem to think the same way as most people. Using their normal methods, scientists seem mostly to be making people more stubborn and set in their ways. To convince people to vaccinate, they need to find new ways to appeal to people. No doubt there is more than one answer for how to increase vaccination rates. Even in just the comments of the study, there were ideas ranging from bringing back fear of the diseases to publicizing the personal and social side effects of the illnesses. It seems to me that a mixture of these ideas would have a greater effect. But first, we need to know what direction to head in.


So, in the words of Maester Aemon in A Dance with Dragons, “Knowledge is a Weapon, Jon. Arm yourself well before you ride forth to Battle.”


Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antivaccination-parents-dig-in-heels-even-after-receiving-medical-info/
http://www.livescience.com/2845-autism-vaccines-bad-logic-trumps-science.html
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(97)11096-0/abstract
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/lancet-retracts-wakefield-article/
http://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/news/20100505/more-parents-refuse-delay-childs-vaccination
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/mmr.html
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/Pages/symptoms-appear.aspx

ELIMINATE

                Every nine minutes a newborn dies of tetanus. Neonatal tetanus is an extremely painful disease that causes the child to have extremely painful spasms. The spasms may be heart-wrenching, but the worst part of the disease is that the child has an extreme sensitivity to noise, light, and touch, making exposure painful. This means that mothers cannot hold their child to comfort the baby for fear of increasing the agonizing pain.

                Maternal and neonatal tetanus are forms of generalized tetanus. Generalized tetanus results in autonomic over activity, leading to a slew of increasingly painful symptoms that can lead to death. Even the babies that do not die are still subject to severe and unnecessary pain.  Maternal neonatal tetanus reaches newborns (and in some cases, mothers) through the umbilical cord or other wounds during birth. Unhygienic birthing practices have the most effect. Clostridium tetani (the bacterium that causes MNT) can be found anywhere in soil and dust. So when a woman goes into childbirth on a dirt floor in a country with little medical assistance, it’s more likely that she or the child could be exposed to tetanus. Neonatal tetanus has a 10-60% mortality rate especially without proper medical attention.

In 1988, 787,000 newborns per year died of neonatal tetanus. This sparked outrage in health organizations worldwide and began the ELIMINATE project which aims to eliminate (˂1 cases per 1000 live births) maternal/ neonatal tetanus worldwide. As of 2010, only 58,000 deaths due to maternal/ neonatal tetanus were reported, but UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) and Kiwanis International are intent on finishing the job. They find it unacceptable that this tragedy is occurring in 24 third world countries and, what’s worse, the disease is easily treatable with only three shots. This series of shots costs only $1.80 and will vaccinate a mother and her future children from being affected by maternal/ neonatal tetanus.

Kiwanis has enlisted all of the younger volunteer branches also (which is where I first heard about this project). Even with UNICEF and Kiwanis working together, they still require funds for the actual outreach. Donating will allow volunteers and medical professionals to vaccinate women of child-bearing age, educate local midwives, and provide medical supplies in high risk areas. Since the goal has been set at 2015, ELIMINATE needs as much help as it can get to be successful on time. With this in mind, I’ve added a link below that you can donate towards the fund.

https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/donate-end-preventable-deaths-children?pcode=WB_XXXCUW15YCGEN&df_id=17020&17020_donation=form1&gclid=CJ65h6bpoMECFWcF7AodJkEAsA

Sources:
http://www.unicefusa.org/mission/survival/immunization/tetanus
http://web.uconn.edu/mcbstaff/graf/Student%20presentations/C%20tetani/Ctetani.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3594855/

Ebola in Current Events

Unless you live under a rock, or perhaps in a college dorm, you’ll have heard that Monday, September 30th, the CDC confirmed that there is now a case of Ebola in the United States.

Thomas Duncan left Liberia and came to Dallas, Texas. On the 24^th, Duncan began feeling symptoms of Ebola. Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on September 26th, where he was misdiagnosed and sent back home (NBC News/ Nature World News). Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has not lived up to safety standards in the past. Many patients the hospital discharges come back within 30 days. Nonetheless, Duncan is now under care of the hospital, which reports him to be in a “serious, but stable condition.”

There are two other cases of patients with “Ebola-like symptoms.” One is in Washington DC at Howard University Hospital. This patient is said to have recently traveled to Nigeria. The hospital is moving forward with “an abundance of caution” including isolating the patient. The second case is in Rockville, Maryland at Shady Groves Hospital. The patient is also in isolation. So far there are less details about this case since it is fairly new.

Back in West Africa, health officials are being attacked while trying to properly bury infected bodies. The people who live in affected countries seem to have a number of ideas ranging from denial of Ebola to belief that health officials are actually causing Ebola. Sadly, this puts many volunteers and health officials at even more risk than just being exposed to the disease itself.

There is an experimental treatment and vaccine in trial right now. Canada’s Public Health Agency has promised to help vaccinate West Africans in the coming weeks. There are now between 800 and 1000 vaccines that are almost ready for distribution. The World Health Organization is organizing how best to transport and distribute the vaccines. However, there is a dispute over intellectual property. The Public Health Agency has to deal with NewLink Genetics, the company that owns commercialization rights of the vaccine. They are both under pressure because the number of Ebola victims doubles every 3 weeks.

With the fear of Ebola running high right now, many people have taken a slightly satirical spin on things.

So, unless your only food source is fruit bats, those of you living under a rock are probably safe.

Sources:
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/9287/20141001/cdc-confirms-ebola.htm
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Patient-With-Ebola-Like-Symptoms-Being-Treated-at-Howard-University-Hospital-278025181.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/03/howard-university-ebola-symptoms-patient-admitted-nigeria/16645717/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-vaccine-for-west-africa-still-in-canada-6-weeks-after-it-was-promised-1.2776627

What Makes Ebola So Hard to Control?

Ebola is in the family Filoviridae (family in regards to taxonomy, which helps distinguish species). There are two types of filoviruses: the Marburg virus and the Ebola virus. Within the Ebola virus, there are 5 known strains, each named after the place it emerged: Tai Forest (formerly known as Ivory Coast), Sudan, Zaire, Reston, and Bundibugyo. The only known filovirus that does not cause hemorrhagic fever in humans is the Ebola-Reston strain, which can still be fatal to monkeys.

Filoviruses may appear in several shapes which means they are pleomorphic. Some are long, sometimes branched filaments. Others are shorter and can be shaped like a “6,” a “U,” or a circle. They may measure up to 14,000 nanometers in length with a uniform diameter of 80 nanometers. They all are enveloped in a lipid (fatty) membrane and contain single-stranded, negative sense RNA (ribonucleic acid).

The RNA is where the virus stores all its genetic information. This is where any virus can get a little hard to deal with. In humans and most other living things, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) stores all the genetic code and RNA is used to help make proteins for the cell. When DNA replicates (copies itself before the cell divides), there are a number of polymers double checking on the newly made DNA to be sure the copy is correct.

 

RNA doesn’t have an error-correction polymerase. This means it cannot be sure what’s copied is the same. As mistakes accumulate, the virus evolves further and further from the original virus. But Ebola isn’t just RNA. It’s negative-stranded RNA. To replicate, negative strands must first make a positive opposite copy and then make the end product. Neither of these processes has any polymers to correct errors. The possibility for error has now doubled.

The speed of evolution also depends on how quickly it is transmitted between victims. A Broad Institute/Harvard University has reported there is a two-fold increase in the number of changes in genome sequences compared to previous outbreaks. This is probably due to the many transmissions from person-to-person. Hopefully, the data that is being analyzed will help us understand how to better manage any future outbreaks.

Sources:
http://theconversation.com/genetic-evolution-how-the-ebola-virus-changes-and-adapts-31525
http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mhunt/rna-ho.htm
https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/history.html

What Happens to Your Body When You Contract Ebola

Given current events, I find it appropriate to take a small tangent away from the usual vaccine topic to research a very serious public health threat: Ebola.

After initial infection, Ebola can take up to 21 days to show any symptoms. Anyone in close contact with an infected person is at risk. When they begin, Ebola symptoms start out much like any other disease symptoms: sore throat, head ache, lack of appetite, slightly feverish (Derek Gatherer). These symptoms occur because the Ebola virus has started to attack your immune system by killing T-lymphocyte cells, much like HIV does.

Within the next few days, the symptoms worsen. The victim’s body will ache all over. They will experience chronic abdominal pain.  The fever will intensify. The victim will experience vomiting and diarrhea. The next week is literally the decision between life and death. The victim could get better. The symptoms could reduce. It’s when the symptoms don’t resolve that the virus gets truly terrifying.

 “After anything between a couple of days and a week of misery, you will have reached the crisis point – now the symptoms will either gradually recede or you will progress to the horrors of ‘cytokine storm’, a convulsion of your ravaged immune system that will plunge you into the terminal phase of Ebola virus disease known as haemorrhagic fever.

Cytokine storm releases a torrent of inflammatory molecules into your circulatory system. Your own immune system, now completely out of control, attacks every organ in your body. Tiny blood vessels burst everywhere and you begin slowly to bleed to death. The whites of your eyes turn red, your vomit and diarrhea are now charged with blood and large blood blisters develop under your skin. You are now at the peak of infectiousness as Ebola virus particles, ready to find their next victim, pour out of your body along with your blood.” (Lancaster University’s The Conversation).

Determining which patients will enter hemorrhagic fevers is currently being studied. If there is a less virulent strain that promotes immunity to that keep certain patients from entering cytokine storm, maybe it could be used to produce a vaccine to help safeguard those at high risk. At this point however, there are only experimental vaccines and treatments.

With all that in mind, I would like to ask you to donate to UNICEF. UNICEF has workers throughout West Africa trying to prevent the virus from spreading by distributing hygiene supplies and instructing families on how they can protect themselves. Please help contain the spread of disease by donating at the link listed below.

https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/stop-spread-ebola-west-africa-your-gift-matched/18771?gclid=CMOO9t-KkcECFSkA7AodyB0Aag

Sources for this Article:
http://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-get-ebola-28116

The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System

 

In 1990, the Vaccine Adverse Event Report System (VAERS) was created by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Medical professionals are required to report and adverse events to the system and concerned parents can also report via fax, mail, or online. The system’s purpose is to be a “post-marketing safety surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events (possible side effects) that occur after the administration of vaccines licensed for use in the United States,” (according to the VAERS itself).

Anti-vaccine proponents use data from the VAERS database to claim that there is scientific evidence for the risks they claim. 10-15% of adverse events reported are for "serious adverse events involving life-threatening conditions, hospitalization, permanent disability, or death, which may or may not have been caused by a vaccine." However, according to skepticalraptor.com, “The data is considered to be ‘passive’ because the individual reports can be made online, by fax or by mail–real causal events may be underreported and hyped, imaginary issues with no causality, can be over-reported. However, without medical investigations of causality between the vaccination and the claimed adverse events that are reported to the VAERS database, the data have no real value.” Therefore, the data cannot prove causality.

Not only is the data passive, the reporting system is particularly flawed. Dr. Laidler reported,

“The chief problem with the VAERS data is that reports can be entered by anyone and are not routinely verified. To demonstrate this, a few years ago I entered a report that an influenza vaccine had turned me into The Hulk. The report was accepted and entered into the database.”

Dr. Laider literally told the VAERS that the vaccine turned him into the Hulk and they had to report it. Since this adverse event is rather unusual, the VAERS called Laidler to ask for details. After explaining it, Laidler gave permission for the report to be removed from the database. If he had refused permission, the VAERS would have been obligated to keep the bogus report.

Anti-vaxxers have claimed Dr. Laidler’s experiment a hoax and maintain that the VAERS collects accurate data. In response, a few people have gone ahead and tried similar things. Such as this man in the UK,

“VAERS has a helpful popup which tells you exactly what it needs to know – which are the most important pieces of data it needs. However, the fact that I live in the UK was not deemed of importance. Neither was the fact that I told VAERS that my daughter had been turned into Wonder Woman. The only piece of contact data I submitted was my email address and I wasn’t even asked for that. I submitted it voluntarily...

The Javascript routine caught the fact that I tried to submit an adverse event *before* the fictional date of my daughter’s birth but it failed to catch that I stated the vaccine was administered at 18months and that the date for vaccination I provided was only 6 months after the ‘birth’ date.”

So if this man in the UK can find that many flaws in our system and record himself doing it, what’s to keep the data truthful? The answer: nothing. People using data from the VAERS must take the majority of the information with a grain of salt or find a completely different source. Well, then what’s the point of having the VAERS at all?

The VAERS is a tool that was created for two reasons. First, it appeases the anti-vaccination crowd, and second, the system can be used for observing data to form a hypothesis about the effects of vaccines. In addition, the VAERS has the power to report its findings to the CDC. The CDC can then use that information to more effectively shape policies. The recent issues with the rotavirus vaccine have proven where the real importance of the VAERS lies.

The rotavirus vaccine is an oral vaccine given to children under 5. Two main types of this vaccine are given Rotarix and RotaTeq. The difference between these two is mainly the packaging.

As you can see, Rotarix looks much more like a syringe that a nurse would inject. In 33 of 39 cases reported to the VAERS, the nurses did mistake the oral vaccine for a shot. Luckily, the children were not hurt by this mistake, but the vaccine does nothing when injected this way. The VAERS reported the delivery errors to the CDC which now reminds health professionals about proper delivery of the vaccines. Therein lies the purpose people should focus on, not the easily skewed data.

Sources:
http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/reports-vaccine-related-effects/
http://antiantivax.flurf.net/#VAERS
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2006/03/14/on-using-vaers/
http://vaccines.procon.org/
http://vaers.hhs.gov/index

Vaccines and Government in the 1980s

In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. This act was in response to the large number of lawsuits being filed claiming vaccines were causing harm. The act shielded vaccine manufacturers and medical professionals from liability. This meant that claimants would bypass the civil court system and immediately go to federal court. In addition, the plaintiff only needed to prove that the vaccine caused injury.

On October 1^st, 1988, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was formed. The VICP was "established to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines, stabilize vaccine costs, and establish and maintain an accessible and efficient forum for individuals found to be injured by certain vaccines,” according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

US Codes (found in Cornell University’s legal database) state,

(3)

 (A) In the case of any person who has sustained a vaccine-related injury after attaining the age of 18 and whose earning capacity is or has been impaired by reason of such person’s vaccine-related injury for which compensation is to be awarded, compensation for actual and anticipated loss of earnings determined in accordance with generally recognized actuarial principles and projections. 

 (B) In the case of any person who has sustained a vaccine-related injury before attaining the age of 18 and whose earning capacity is or has been impaired by reason of such person’s vaccine-related injury for which compensation is to be awarded and whose vaccine-related injury is of sufficient severity to permit reasonable anticipation that such person is likely to suffer impaired earning capacity at age 18 and beyond, compensation after attaining the age of 18 for loss of earnings determined on the basis of the average gross weekly earnings of workers in the private, non-farm sector, less appropriate taxes and the average cost of a health insurance policy, as determined by the Secretary.

“Between 1989 and July 1, 2014, 3,645 compensation awards have been made (amounting to over $2.7 billion in awards and $113.2 million to cover legal costs) and 9,786 claims have been dismissed (amounting to $62.8 million paid to 4,925 dismissed claimants to cover legal costs),” (also from the Dept. of Health and Human Services).

Sources:
www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
http://vaccines.procon.org/
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-15

Passive Immunity

                Since before birth, newborns will be developing an immune system. Starting three months before birth (aka the third trimester), mothers begin to send antibodies to their unborn child. This is called passive immunity because the child’s immune system is not actively creating its own antibodies and is just accepting them from the mother through the placenta.

For a few days after birth, the breast milk (known as colostrum) the mother gives the child also contains a great number of antibodies to add to the immune system. This milk has a thick, yellowish appearance due to the high amount of antibodies present.

                The mother’s immune system plays a very important part in what antibodies the child receives. For example, if the mother has had chickenpox, the baby will receive antibodies to protect against chickenpox. If the mother hasn’t had chickenpox, then the child is left unprotected since there are no antibodies to exchange. Also, the child receives antibodies against bacteria and other microorganisms that the mother typically encounters in her environment.

                This immune system is not particularly strong at birth and actually wears away as the child grows older. Some antibodies disappear in a very short amount of time, which is when doctors recommend getting the first shots. The National Health Society (or NHS, which is based in London) states,

“The first immunisation, given when your baby is two months old, includes whooping cough and Hib (haemophilus influenza type b) because immunity to these conditions decreases the fastest. Passive immunity to measles, mumps and rubella usually lasts for about a year, which is why the MMR vaccine is given just after your baby's first birthday.”

                Without the passive immunity, newborns would be much more fragile. Unfortunately, these antibodies do not last forever, which brings us back to the importance of vaccinations. Without a doubt, my sister’s daughters will be receiving vaccines to boost their immunity. So this is the end of baby week! Thank you for reading!

Sources:

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/939.aspx?CategoryID=54
http://www.gentlebirth.org/vre/newimmun.html

Vaccines and Your Baby Video Series | The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Vaccines and Your Baby Video Series | The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The First Hours

                The picture that most people have of newborn babies is the new mother and father holding the child and fawning over it. Then the baby gets passed around the family who all adore it together. However, right after a baby is born, there are a certain number of things that obstetricians are supposed to do with babies.

Most importantly is the Apgar test which ascertains that the baby is healthy within the first minute. Doctors measure heart rate, breathing, activity and muscle tone, reflexes, and skin color. They repeat this after five minutes to double check that the baby is still healthy or has scored higher in the scale. After five minutes, if the child still is below a seven, they are kept for close medical attention.

There also are two shots: an injection of Vitamin K and the Hepatitis B vaccine. The Vitamin K just ensures that the baby’s blood can clot since newborns generally have low levels of this vitamin. Hepatitis B (the focus of my last blog post) should be given before leaving the hospital. There are other smaller procedures such as eye drops and hearing tests that ob. perform while the baby is in the hospital.

As a patient, there are certain rights that parents have. Parents are allowed to refuse vaccinations for their child. Before an expectant mother goes into labor, lawyers suggest the parents get a waiver of immunization if they intend to avoid vaccines. However, many doctors refuse to treat patients that plan to circumvent immunizations. These patients can put the doctor at risk of lawsuits for malpractice. Pediatrician sometimes will refuse to treat an unvaccinated child.

Although it is possible to refuse treatment for your child in certain states, this decision might not be the wisest course of action. The vaccine given at birth will protect the child throughout their lifetime from Hepatitis B. According to the Hepatitis B Foundation,

“The hepatitis B vaccine is the first anti-cancer vaccine because it can prevent liver cancer. Worldwide, chronic hepatitis B causes 80% of all liver cancer, which is the 9^th leading cause of death. Therefore, a vaccine that protects against a hepatitis B infection can also help prevent liver cancer.”

That sounds like a pretty good reason to get your newborn vaccinated against Hepatitis B if you ask me.

Sources:
http://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/childbirth-beyond/labor-birth.html
http://blogs.lawyers.com/2013/05/newborn-vaccination-without-permission/

Babies on Board

                Babies tend to be a touchy subject for any debate. Generally, protective new mothers can go two ways with vaccinations. Either mothers want to protect their babies and get them vaccinated or they view vaccinations as dangerous and refuse them. Still, there are others who are uninformed about what doctors recommend or what state laws may require. My sister is due sometime next week, so questions about newborns and vaccinations have been running through my head. So what do vaccinations have to do with newborns?

                First, what shots are required at birth? Right after birth, vaccination against Hepatitis B is recommended. Besides that, shots tend to take a break until one or two months when the second dose is suggested. So what about Hepatitis B is so bad that the first thing doctors do is vaccinate against it?

                According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,

“Hepatitis B virus attacks the liver. Hepatitis B virus infections are known as the ‘silent epidemic’ because many infected people don't experience symptoms until decades later when they develop hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), cirrhosis (severe liver disease), or cancer of the liver (hepatocellular carcinoma). Every year in the United States about 3,000 people die from hepatitis soon after they are infected, and another 10,000 go on to develop long-term hepatitis, putting them at high-risk for cirrhosis and liver cancer.”

                Like I did, you may be wondering how newborns are supposed to be getting Hepatitis. That’s a blood transmitted disease from doing intravenous drugs or having unprotected sex, right? There’s a rationale for that too (also from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).

“However, it is also possible to catch hepatitis B virus through more casual contact, such as sharing washcloths, toothbrushes or razors. In each of these cases, unseen amounts of blood can contain enough viral particles to cause infection. In addition, because many people who are infected don't know that they are infected, it is very hard to avoid the chance of getting infected with hepatitis B virus.”

                It’s hard to keep everything that ever touches your child immaculately clean. So a pre-emptive strike might counteract the risks your child will face throughout their life.

Sources:

http://www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/a-look-at-each-vaccine/hepatitis-b-vaccine.html

 

 

Just Jenner

“I shall endeavour still further to prosecute this inquiry, an inquiry I trust not merely speculative, but of sufficient moment to inspire the pleasing hope of its becoming essentially beneficial to mankind.”

-Edward Jenner

 Edward Jenner was born on May 17^th, 1749, in Berkley, Gloucestershire. He was the eighth of nine children born to Sarah Jenner and Reverend Stephen Jenner. By the age of five, Jenner’s parents had both passed away leaving him to be cared for by his older sister, Mary.

                “Edward Jenner was himself variolated whilst at school. He was "prepared" by being starved, purged and bled; then locked up in a stable with other artificially infected boys until the disease had run its course. He suffered particularly badly. It was an experience he would never forget.” Beginning at 14, Jenner began to study medicine as an apprentice surgeon first under Mr. Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon of Chipping Sodbury and then under surgeon and experimentalist, John Hunter. With Hunter, Jenner began to refine his investigation and dissection skills.

                Due to his negative experience with variolation, he became particularly interested in the gossip of the country-folk. They claimed that people who had been infected with cowpox would not become sick with smallpox. Cowpox was similar to smallpox but with much milder effects: a few pocks on the hand and some mild fever.

                When Sarah Nelmes, a dairymaid, called on Jenner to look at some pocks she had, Jenner determined she had contracted cowpox. Seizing the opportunity, Jenner decided to test the rumors. James Phillips, the eight year-old son of his gardener, was his first experimental group. Jenner made small cuts in James’ arm and rubbed some of the cowpox material into the wound.

                James became mildly ill with cowpox a few days later proving the vaccination had some effect. Then came the real test: Jenner needed to see if James was now safe from smallpox. On the 1^st of July, Jenner variolated James and waited. Remarkably, James did not become infected with smallpox. Jenner repeatedly tested to be sure of his results, but James’ immune system warded of the virus again and again.

                After more experimentation, Jenner became more convinced his results were not isolated cases. He chose to publish his findings to the medical community in a book entitled: 'An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae; a Disease Discovered in some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of The Cow Pox'. This was the first recorded introduction of vaccination. And thus, Jenner became the Father of Immunology.

Sources:

http://www.jennermuseum.com/vaccination.html

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

Inoculations have existed for a very long time. Though there is no proper documentation for most of these cases, many cultures put inoculations into practice. It is believed that the Chinese used matter from and infection and scratched the matter into the skin of a healthy person at least since the 10^th century. India practiced even before then since possibly 10,000 BCE.

The philosophy behind inoculations followed the smallpox disease that spread from northeastern Africa across India, into China and the Western world. Northeastern Africa appears to be the cradle of the disease. From that point, Egypt dealt with the disease (as can be seen in mummies including Ramses V). Egyptian merchants are believed to have transferred it to India. As India was a popular trading center, it is easy to see it’s progression along the trade routes.

Smallpox begins with a rash that then progresses into pus-filled blisters that forever mar the skin. Smallpox killed 1 in 3 of its victims. Those that survived the disease had cases of blindness and disfigurement. However, many people, including the Greek philosopher, Thucydides, soon began to notice a peculiar trend: the survivors of the disease, deformed though they were, DID NOT BECOME SICK WITH SMALLPOX AGAIN. This observation led people to begin inoculations in the form of variolation. Variolation is different than modern day vaccination. It uses a live and virulent strain of the virus (as compared to modern vaccinations which use either dead virus or a less virulent cousin). Variolation kills 1 in 100 people (slightly better odds than 1 in 3).

Variolation was soon introduced to Europe primarily through Lady Mary Montagu. She and her husband, the British ambassador, traveled to the Ottoman Empire where she became interested in the strange habits of the native folk. Every September, families would gather their children to visit a set of old women. These women would have “nutshells” of smallpox matter which they inserted into small scratches on the arms or legs. In a letter, Montagu states, “The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day, and are in perfect health to the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize them, and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces, which never mark, and in eight days time they are as well as before their illness.” Montagu went on to have her own children inoculated and became a major proponent of the Inoculation introduction in Western society.

Sources:
http://www.infoplease.com/cig/dangerous-diseases-epidemics/smallpox-12000-years-terror.html
https://explorable.com/who-invented-vaccination
http://www.jenniferleecarrell.com/Speckled%20Monstersmallpox8a.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/montagu-smallpox.asp
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/timelines/all

An Overview

A child’s least favorite word: shots. The thought of needles makes many youths cringe. Still most kids go through with all the required vaccinations without a second thought. However, some remain unvaccinated against preventable diseases such as measles and mumps. Why are these youth being left unprotected?

The many rumors surrounding inoculations are hard to dispel. Many internet stories circulate about whether or not vaccines are safe. If all of these concepts were true, the true nature of vaccines is the world’s best kept secret. Medical fraud and government conspiracies mislead the population down a dangerous path. According to these rumors vaccines cause autism, ADHD, diabetes, tics, seizures, paralysis, and even death.

I have a three-year old niece who is up-to-date on all of her shots and a niece to be born within a month. If those rumors were true, then my nieces should remain on the safe side: unvaccinated. But scientific research has refuted these claims again and again. So why do these arguments continue?

Interestingly, the opinions of the anti-vaccination debate have their own scientific findings. Some of this data comes from the discredited scientist Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield is no longer allowed to practice and has since moved to the US. He wrote Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth behind a Tragedy that reignited the vaccine debate, now with celebrity support from Jenny McCarthy (anybody remember McCarthyism?).

If enough parents swallow these concepts and refuse to get their children vaccinated, not only will it put those kids at risk, it could put the general public in danger. Herd immunity involves the risks of exposure to an infected person. The more people vaccinated against the disease, the less risk of the disease spreading. The more infectious the disease, the higher the percentage of people vaccinated against the disease needs to be.

 

                According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), many states are beginning to fall below the required percentages for herd immunity. The population is steadily becoming more at risk for epidemics once thought to be extinguished. Oddly enough, I think if we were to experience an epidemic, the anti-vaccination crowd would tell us it was because of shots.