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Anti-Vaccine Moms are Risking Children’s Lives
In 1956, an infant contracted whooping cough. It was agonizing for the family to watch a child suffer through this illness. She was so sick one day that her parents had to call the fire department; they were able to revive her and likely saved her life. This incident took place just before the whooping cough vaccine came out.
That infant was my sister.
We are now experiencing a serious measles outbreak in this country, primarily because so many parents still believe the myth that vaccines cause autism. Even though the study that made this claim was debunked, the lie has remained alive. Now we have children coming down with measles currently at alarming levels, because so many children have not been vaccinated:
The Centers for Disease Control said so far this year, there are 101 cases of the measles in ten states and 58 cases of the mumps in 18 states. As these outbreaks grow, experts said vaccines are the key to stopping them.
‘It’s incredibly effective; 97 percent effectiveness with two doses of the vaccine, which is what’s recommended for children – and it’s inexpensive,’ Clark County Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick said.
The MMR vaccine is for measles, mumps and rubella; there is also an MMRV vaccine which also covers chicken pox.
Although people downplay the dangers of these childhood diseases, the CDC doesn’t :
Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children. From 2001-2013, 28% of children younger than 5 years old who had measles had to be treated in the hospital.
For some children, measles can lead to:
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Pneumonia (a serious lung infection)
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Lifelong brain damage
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Deafness
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Death
So refusing to vaccinate children has serious implications for all children. If we want to see what happens when vaccination levels drop, we only need to look at the Philippines:
The Philippines is in the midst of a growing measles crisis, with at least 70 deaths, mainly of children, in the past month. In January, there were 4,302 reported cases of measles in the country, an increase of 122% on the same period last year. The outbreak has been blamed on a backlash against vaccinations. The outbreak has continued into February. Last week, a measles outbreak was declared in Metro Manila – populated by 12 million people with many living in poverty-stricken slums. This follows 196 reported cases in January, compared to just 20 recorded in the same period last year. In Manila, 55 children under the age of four have died of measles since the beginning of the year.
In addition, there is a worldwide increase in cases:
The outbreak in the Philippines follows an alarming wave of measles cases worldwide, which has been blamed mainly on conspiracies and misinformation around vaccinations, particularly in Europe and the US. There has been a 30% increase on measles cases worldwide since 2016, according to WHO.
Overall, south-east Asia is one of the few regions where measles vaccinations are on the rise but other countries in the region have seen recent outbreaks similar to the Philippines. In November last year, a measles crisis was declared in the majority-Muslim southern regions of Thailand, which have high levels of poverty, even though the disease was said to be almost eradicated in Thailand. There were 4,000 measles cases reported in Thailand last year, causing the deaths of at least 22 children.
In a global society that travels a great deal, we are going to be exposed in this country to those in Europe and Asia who come here and bring this highly contagious disease with them.
Due to the drop in immunizations in the U.S., we are also losing our “herd immunity.” That provides resistance to a contagious disease if a high proportion of the population is immune to the disease, i.e., has been vaccinated. With so many parents refusing to immunize their children, this mass protection is disappearing.
What can be done? Many people understandably do not want the government to step in and legislate a requirement for vaccinations; I agree. I also think that using a rational approach to a highly emotional issue has proven to be less than effective. I recommend that we take a dramatic approach.
Have you seen the whooping cough advertisement for a vaccination? I think the times call for this type of approach.
Any other suggestions?
Published in Healthcare
Now cut that out! You’re making me laugh! Thanks, Joe–you hit on the topic I forgot in my comment. Where are the studies? And the doctor cited was a naturopath. Not sure what that means . . .
Just had this discussion with my PCP. I don’t know the cost yet (will shortly), but the time frame is no longer a factor, and the the new, two – stage vaccine, Shingrix, had a better than 90% effectiveness, vs. the older vaccine’s about 60%.
I asked him whether a person who had never had chicken pox should get the vaccine. He said that he used to test such people first, but virtually 100% of those he tested, tested positive anyway. So get the shot.
Plus I’ve known a few people who developed shingles… yeahhhh… I be gettin’ the shot.
My neighbor last week had an online exchange with a person who insisted that “measles is nothing but a cold with a rash.” I hear she needed to buy a new keyboard when she was through.
BTW her husband’s a microbiologist.
Thanks so much for the updated information, @quietpi! I know people, too, and it was awful, including my husband. But he won’t get the vaccination. (He’s a big boy and I gave up nagging long ago). I like the effectiveness numbers, so I expect I’ll get the new one. It’ll be interesting to see the price tag.
Arrrghhhhh!
I haven’t looked into this in years, and in doing so tonight, I find that there has been a recent study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children and rates of autism. I wish this study had been done twenty years ago.
There are some aspects of the study that are a little less than completely reassuring (it’s actually hard to find enough children who have not been vaccinated because even quite a few of the Amish families vaccinate their children), it does appear that there is no correlation between vaccinations and autism. That is good news.
But in my defense and that of the anti-vaxxers (I’m not an anti-vaxxer, just an anti-vaxxer-sympathizer), even Donald Trump as late as the 2015 primary debates expressed the same concerns I’ve had about this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/carson-trump-paul-debate-vaccines-and-autism/2015/09/17/1f117b78-5d4c-11e5-8475-781cc9851652_video.html?utm_term=.877f402c1a71
But it appears from the 2015 study that neither Trump nor I were aware of that the idea that the vaccines may have been causing some cases of autism has been laid to rest as best as scientists can.
A naturopath is someone who practices natural and alternative medicine. Homeopathy, acupuncture, aroma therapy, essential oils, and other such all fall under this rubric. The good thing about it is it takes almost no time, money or effort to become a practitioner, so you don’t have to waste your twenties going to medical school. The therapies are all inexpensive, easy to administer and usually have no side effects.
I also wonder how much of the anti-vax information is coming from Russian bots?
By the way, if the anti-vaxxers are so concerned about autism, why don’t they care about the chances of permanent disability and disfigurement, brain damage, or death associated with the diseases that vaccines prevent?
This is why I always have taken the risks of getting my own kids vaccinated.
But it was not an easy decision for me. The list of risks from the vaccines that parents sign off on is pretty alarming when one is looking into the face of a newborn. All of my kids experienced reactions to their infant vaccines. My middle child can’t have another MMR. When she got her first one, the site of the injection swelled up to the size of a golfball. My pediatrician laughed: “This is a one in a million reaction. I should have known it would be you!” :-)
Being a parent is very hard. That’s all I’m saying. We should try to talk this through as we do here on Ricochet, calmly and sympathetically.
There are many people who suffer from invisible illnesses with compromised immune systems. Vaccination isn’t a debate. It’s a possible life and death situation.
Oopsy, I just realized I left some information out. Here’s the edit:
A naturopath is someone who practices natural and alternative “medicine.” Homeopathy, acupuncture, aroma therapy, essential oils, and other such hokum all fall under this rubric. The good thing about it is it takes almost no time, money or effort to become a practitioner, since you don’t have to learn any really tough stuff like chemistry, physiology, or pharmacology. As a result, you don’t have to waste your twenties going to medical school, because you are not learning real medicine. The therapies are all inexpensive, easy to administer and usually have no side effects since they are all completely ineffective.
Yes there are. And every time they come in contact with an unvaccinated person who is not immunocompromised, they are risking death.
I’m one of those people so I take it seriously.
The discussion is not about people like you. It is about parents who endanger their own children and other people (especially people like you) by not vaccinating. Do you want to have contact with an unvaccinated child?
I knew some parents a few years ago who did not vaccinate their children against all of the childhood diseases. Yes, a couple of kids got whooping cough. They were kept at home for the duration. Their moms were members of our Catholic homeschool group. Some vaccines are created using cell lines from aborted babies. I did not know about this when our son was at the vaccination age. I firmly believe in vaccination. This is a real moral dilemma. Had I known I would have done everything to ensure that the pharmaceutical manufacturer’s product was not in any way derived from cells from aborted children. There are alternatives but you have to ask for them, I believe.
Catholic perspective
Vaccine alternatives
That’s the point I meant to make.
I need to see reliable documentation of this. I can think of many reasons that this would not be necessary. I grant that research and production are two different things, but I would still need to see evidence.
There’s more to my neighbor’s story (See post #33). She has two relatives whose lives have been impacted by measles. One pregnant mother contracted measles, and the child is severely mentally handicapped as a result. Another contracted measles at two years of age, and has been profoundly deaf since. Both these cases occurred before there was a measles vaccine.
My kids have always had all their vaccinations in a timely manner. Just have to state that up front.
But, I think the modern expectation of avoiding suffering is at least as big a problem as the measles outbreak. Actually, I think it’s much bigger.
@littlemissanthrope and I just had this discussion today because of the legislation/policy proposed in Washington state (and I have no details, I’m speaking from a philosophical perspective) that would disallow “religious reasons” for not vaccinating your children.
I think we’re in dangerous territory here — mandating vaccines against the sovereign will and conscience of the parents. Little Miss says she thinks parents should be brought up on charges of neglect, at minimum. I fear for our freedoms. The Left is ascendant and will not discriminate on these issues between the truth of the safety of the MMR vaccine or the lie of AGW to exert control over our lives.
It’s all trade-offs. I’d rather be free than force others to vaccinate, even though those parents’ choice puts my (health-compromised) kids at risk.
And, P.S., the Pertussis vaccine isn’t particularly effective. We’ve had whooping cough despite being vaccinated. My kids’ pediatrician is one who isn’t able to produce the antibody and ends up being forced to get the vaccine every year.
Life isn’t fair. People get sick and die. Sometimes even kids. It sucks. We can’t mitigate all the risks and even maximizing risk-mitigation comes at a price we may not be willing to pay. Be careful what you wish for.
Centers for Disease Control
Two of the fetal cell lines are MRC-5 and WI-38
Article about the origin of WI-38.
New cell line (2015) from China, Walvax-2. This article also has a good discussion of how the fetal cells are used to develop vaccines.
The issue in our homeschool group was not necessarily that some vaccines may contain fragments of aborted fetal DNA (an apparent claim of some who link vaccines and autism), but that allowing your child to be vaccinated with something that utilized the cells derived from aborted humans was participation in evil, no matter how remote.
In a separate comment I’m going to come out in favor of Moms risking their children’s lives.
But today I had an ER discussion about the shingles vaccine that needs to be continued soon.
It turns out I have Bell’s Palsy. I think visible symptoms were developing Tuesday afternoon, maybe around the time of my recent post. It was somewhat alarming this a.m. to see how much the left side of my face was drooping, but I probably should have been plenty alarmed already Wednesday, when I thought it might be a dental issue.
Right now I’m typing with a sleep mask over my left eye, as that eye doesn’t blink. It gets terribly itchy and watery but the sleep mask is helping. And I have a floater in my right eye – first one I’ve ever had. But at this point it’s usually easier to use my right eye. (Next week I have a dental appointment, an eye appointment, and will probably be seeing a neurologist for followup and will try to see my primary care doctor. All this while trying to help my wife recover from knee replacement surgery and keep up with her PT appointments, PT exercises, ice machine, and knee-bender machine, as she calls it, as well as helping her with clothes. Today while I went to the ER she managed to mostly dress herself for the first time. Fortunately we have sons living at home, and one of them is mostly unemployed for the rest of the winter so has been able to pick up some of the slack. He had been our evening cook and grocery shopper during her recovery; now he has expanded his role.)
Anyhow, after ruling out the possibility of a stroke the ER doctor was explaining the possible involvement of a shingles-like or chicken-pox-like virus in the Bell’s Palsy. I asked her if that meant I should be getting the shingles vaccine. She said that was an interesting question and wasn’t sure of the answer. I think she said something about asking the neurologist that she was consulting with, but she never got back to me on the topic so I’ll ask myself when I go to see him (or her).
Now to see if I can get a buccaneer-type eye patch from Amazon, so I don’t need to use this frilly, pink eye mask that belongs to Mrs R.
Now to argue in favor of Moms risking their children’s lives:
Do we want our children to be the kind of people who would risk their lives to save Jews from the camps? Or do we want them to grow up to be the kind of people who will do the safe thing and cooperate with the Nazis?
If you want the former, you need to consider how they are possibly going to learn that if you always put safety above everything else. Your own parental example counts for a lot, of course, but I argue that forgoing a vaccination, even for stupid, dangerous reasons, can help them learn that safety isn’t the number one criterion. There may be better ways to teach that, but it’s one way.
I will give my own mother as an example, not that I’ve ever gone so far as to save anyone from the extermination camps. When the polio vaccine came out when I was in the upper grades of elementary school in the late 50s (I forget now which polio vaccine is which) my mother wasn’t sure it was safe. So when everyone else in school went to get vaccinated, I stayed back, even though teachers and classmates tried to convince me that it wouldn’t hurt, etc. etc. My mother was against it, and I honored her wishes.
I wasn’t sure she was right, but it was excellent training in being the only person to stand up for this or that position, contrary to what the rest of the herd in school was doing. I can’t say I was always so brave and principled as people gave me credit for being, but I did learn to take a stand crosswise to the rest of the world even at an age when peer pressure was strongest. I give that experience with the vaccine a large hunk of credit for making me that way.
My younger siblings all ended up getting their polio vaccination, along with all the others, but somehow I never did. So I’ve always been living on the edge. Much later in life I asked Mom about it – I wondered if some larger principle was at work in her decision — but she said there was no more to it than that she had at first listened to those who said it was a way to get polio. (Yes, safety was her goal, not standing up to peer pressure. But it taught me that safety doesn’t always come first.) I’m glad the world allowed her to be mistaken and to put me and the community at risk because of it. We need more of that.
BTW, I married a woman whose father had polio in 1912 at age 12. When I knew him he had a gimpy leg from it, which had made his life as a farmer difficult. His younger sister died from it; we have her photo portrait in an old-fashioned frame on our living room wall. One time not so long after we were married, at a church function an older uncle of my father-in-law told me that he watched my teen-aged f-i-l at corn-picking time after he was recovered enough from his polio to go out and work. This was of course in the days when corn was picked by hand. The uncle said he fell down a lot, his bad leg tripping over the corn stocks, but he always picked himself and quickly got back to work, keeping up in his row with the rest. And he was that kind of person when I knew him, too. I never mentioned that story to anyone else, figuring it was a common one in the family. But years later, well after both my father-in-law and his uncle were gone, I mentioned it once in my wife’s hearing. She said, “I never heard that story!” She liked knowing of it, too.
I used to hear a lot of corn-picking stories when that generation was still around. So 20 years ago, when I rode my bicycle past a field where Amish men were picking a field of corn the old-fashioned way, I just stopped and watched for a while. I had heard so many stories of how it had been done, it was great to see how it really worked. (The Amish don’t ordinarily do it by hand any more, either, but this was a field that had not been picked before winter, and looked like enough had lodged that it would have been difficult to harvest any other way come spring.)
A lot of homeschool families don’t vaccinate and I’ll be in a real pickle about what to do with co-ops etc when we have another baby. We could get him/her vaccinated at six months, ahead of schedule, if there’s another outbreak, but at this rate, there’s always outbreaks. Do we just stop doing any activities until we can get the MMR? Sigh. I hate that I’m forced into this choice by other people’s recklessness.
It is frightening and enraging. Little Miss has a point, I think. I don’t know where this ends up, but somehow it probably won’t be good.
Oh my gosh, you have so much to deal with, @thereticulator! I send my prayers to you and your wife. Will it be a while before you know the outcome of Bell’s Palsy? There is so much we still don’t know re medicine. So much.
I don’t agree with your analogy, @thereticulator. There was nothing good about the Nazis, and I honor every single person who stood up against them or found a way to resist. They were pure evil. Those who resisted took their lives into their hands. When it comes to vaccinations, people face a different kind of battle: fighting their fears based on false information, while putting their own children and the rest of the population at risk.
I agree we need to be willing to stand up against mindless coercion and evil. And we live in times when people won’t stand up for principles. But I don’t think the vaccine fight falls into that category. I do appreciate, however, that you have the right to make choices that are best for you and your family. But I’d prefer they are based on reason and compassion for others.
It is a dilemma, @9thdistrictneighbor. I had no idea. Thank you for enlightening us. Since there are alternatives, it would make sense to me to use those and make them more readily available. Thanks for the links, too.
And they don’t see the absurdity of taking scientific advice from a Playboy Bunny. (Jenny McCarthy)
I think the relevant question here is “would you support government-mandated vaccinations?” After all, it’s for the children. That’s what we need to decide.
I went to a chiropractor once who also “practiced” homeopathy. He wanted to test my allergic reactions to various things. Out of curiosity, I went along. When he tested my reaction to mercury by putting a can of tuna fish on my stomach, I burst out laughing. He didn’t appreciate that.
I see a Chinese-trained acupuncturist. She’s making improvements on my long-term foot problems and she helped with my daughter’s nerve pain. But, I always think, yeah, if you stick me with needles and apply electrical stimulus, I’m going to respond. It’ll stop hurting just so I don’t have to go back! Whatever works, right? As the Elder says, “what do you care if it’s the placebo effect, so long as you feel better.”
Thank you. It can take several weeks or longer to recover from Bell’s Palsy. A small percentage of people never recover completely. An older cousin of my wife hasn’t recovered completely from one she got several years ago. I’m not quite as old as she was, but because of my age I’m probably in a group with higher risk of incomplete recovery. At the moment the thing I most want back is normal use of my eye. Not having a droopy side of a face that scares small children would be a plus.