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Vaccines may not be the most spectacular of all the miracles of modern medicine, but they are arguably the most beneficial. They have virtually eliminated the infectious diseases of childhood, including measles, diphtheria, mumps, rubella, smallpox and polio that were once the sources of unimaginable worry and grief for parents everywhere.
Vaccines are estimated to have saved over 150 million lives in the last five decades, cutting infant mortality by 40% globally and over 50% in Africa. Closer to home, of all babies born in the US in 2001 alone, a 2005 study showed that vaccines prevented 33,000 deaths and 14 million illnesses. Vaccines are also the most cost-effective of all medical interventions, easily yielding the greatest amount of benefit received per dollar spent.
Like all medical treatments, vaccinations have side effects and risks, but they are rare and mostly insignificant, like a sore shoulder. There was for some time a concern that vaccines or the mercury in them caused autism, understandably so because autism was becoming much more frequently diagnosed just as vaccine use was expanding worldwide.
The scientific community took the threat seriously. Today, many exhaustive studies involving hundreds of thousands of children have all shown the same thing: vaccines don’t cause autism.
Yet in spite of the record of success and all the lives and dollars saved, experiences with Covid have led Americans to become less trusting of vaccines. Before Covid, America was a world leader in vaccination rates with 95% coverage. Since 2020, though, the percentage of children receiving the recommended vaccines has declined by 2% or about 70,000 children.
The result has been a resurgence of childhood diseases once considered vestiges of the past. Measles was considered to be entirely eliminated in 2020, yet last year multiple outbreaks sickened hundreds of children. Cases of chickenpox, whooping cough and pneumonia are all on the rise. Trend lines don’t look good.
Clearly, millions of Americans have become skeptical of medical authority, especially that coming from the government. What happened to cause Americans to adopt behaviors that re-introduced these diseases into the population and caused needless suffering?
The answer is that our public health establishment became politicized, shilling for approved government policy rather than acting as honest, reasonably humble stewards of the public good. The bonds of trust were broken because we were often manipulated rather than informed, we were proselytized rather than respected. Vaccines were rushed to market and their benefits oversold.
Fairly or not, the bulk of criticism has centered on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Adviser to the president on Covid. Dr. Fauci was a respected, competent public health physician until he became a celebrity. Signature prayer candles, action figures and other trappings apparently caused him to lose his way.
For example, Dr. Fauci early on warned against dependence on mask-wearing, citing “unintended consequences” and noting that they didn’t provide much protection. Yet he later repeatedly overstated the known benefits of masks and never disavowed his previous declarations, leading many to conclude that his counsel seemed rooted more in shifting public perceptions than actual evidence.
Fauci also had the exasperating habit of changing his estimate regarding the percentage of the population needing to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, the point at which protection effectively extends to all, vaccinated or not. He finally admitted that he changed his statements based only on his assessment of what the public was ready to hear.
He recommended mandating six feet of distance from others in public, although he later admitted it was nothing more than a personal guesstimate. He initially was an enthusiastic supporter of gain-of-function research in China’s Wuhan lab, but later evaded questions and denied involvement when the consequences of the catastrophic lab leak became known.
What Fauci left unsaid was equally harmful. He neglected to point out that participating in a George Floyd riot was as unhealthy as mingling in any other crowd in 2020 and that there was no evidence supporting school shutdowns.
Fauci indignantly informed his critics that “I am the science.” But the days of authority-based science are past. Fauci’s self-serving deceptions broke the trust relationship with the American people. We may be reaping the consequences for years to come.
Discussion (12)
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pUbLIc hEaLtH hAs eaRNeD tHe tRUst oF maNkInD
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I agree that many now have dis-trust in vaccines and side effects, but not entirely for just the Fauci and Covid horror. That situation resulted in:
1. Rushing vaccines to market before proper trials (allowed because of the emergency) 2. A brand new delivery system called MRNA. This had been used for target cancer treatments, but not standard vaccines and according to the creator of the MRNA delivery system, was not meant to be used in this way, but now it is - in fact, they are bunching up Covid vax with flu etc.!! 3. The side effects in many cases were severe, under-reported and not properly recorded. 4. The source of the virus was suppressed (they looked at wet markets and in caves) when it seemed to be evident from where it emerged. 5. Forced vaccines to keep your job or to travel, shamed publicly if you did not take it - this is unheard of.
While findings may show that autism is not a result of vaccines, why the major increase? I was shocked to find how many vaccines are given to newborns and then more before the age of one! This is new and part of RFK Jr.'s research for years.
I think personally, that a lot of the resurgence of certain diseases are not due to lack of care and vaccines, but as a result of millions of illegal immigrants pouring into the country and released into the population who may be carrying those sicknesses - and are bussed all over creation to fend for themselves. I don't think we have medical people issuing all these vax programs at the border when the border patrol themselves have been told to stand down and say come on in.
This goes back to the Obama administration.
On a personal note, I always got the flu vaccine and have had all the childhood shots etc. I even got that bird flu shot that George HW Bush encouraged! A few times I got the flu after receiving the vaccine. Then back in 2007 I had a terrible reaction to the flu vaccine - this was a first. I have not had one since and have rarely had the flu. I have had some very bad sinus colds and stomach virus, but knock on wood, have been ok.
Lastly, I am appalled at all the drug commercials nowadays and more and more vaccines for all kinds of things. This is new also. It's a big $$$$$ industry. Also this gain-of-function is also appalling and why do all these weird bird and animal flus seem to originate in China? Let's start with questioning that ............it is affecting our food supply.
Thanks for your good post and allowing this rant....
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Wait, you're saying 70,000 fewer babies getting "the recommended vaccines" is enough to cause "multiple outbreaks" of numerous illnesses? In a nation of roughly 335 million people, that doesn't track.
Also, what is the definition of "the recommended vaccines" these days? It's a lot more than it was when we were kids. Does it include the COVID vax? Are some discerning parents choosing to allow some vaccines but not others? With regard to chicken pox, that is a fairly controversial vaccination which many parents reject and many countries (including the UK) don't use.
You're correct in your general assessment that America's growing skepticism of medical authority is a result of the politicization of the public health establishment. But you're missing the mark by claiming the "bulk of criticism has centered on Dr. Anthony Fauci." Your recitation of the criticisms of Dr. Fauci are excellent but nowhere near exhaustive of the reason Americans are tuning out the public health establishment. While Fauci may be the poster boy for our mistrust, the causes go much deeper.
We're tired of the public health establishment making policy based on studies funded by industries with a vested interest in the outcomes. We're tired of the public health establishment, and Congress, being unduly influenced by industry lobbyists. We're tired of government propping up the wholly discredited food pyramid. We've taken notice of the fact that since people started eating the way the government recommends, rates of cancer, diabetes, and a host of chronic illness have increased along a similar trendline as participation in following recommended dietary guidelines. We're tired of being gaslit by bureaucrats who tell us that natural animal fats are bad for us but sugar is hunky dory. We're tired of the public health establishment calling gun crime a health epidemic. We're tired of taking our kids to the pediatrician only to have the pediatrician ask of there are guns in the house. (Stay in your lane, doc!) We're tired of being told we can't go to church but we can go to government approved protests. (Ok, no one is saying that anymore but it was devastating to trust in public health authority when they were.)
We're tired (and deeply skeptical of) the revolving door between government regulators and Big Pharma. That one goes particularly hard.
Bottom line, while Fauci may be the poster boy for our mistrust of the public health establishment, our misgivings predate COVID or the Cult of Fauci. Our skepticism meters for public health are right about where they are with the FBI: whatever they claim, we're going to believe the opposite until facts from trustworthy sources say otherwise.
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As part of a lawsuit, RFK subpoenaed all of the safety studies pertinent to the 70-something vaccines now on the childhood schedule and, after a year, Fauci was forced to admit, "we found none." Pfizer petitioning the court to protect them for decades against having to release the results of what trials they had done was a huge confidence killer. The utter lack of a scientific basis for broad masking and the ludicrous masks pushed by medical institutions to meet the requirement betrayed the emptiness of the exercise.
RFK is about more than just vaccine safety. He is also focused on the need to appraise toxins, including unidentified toxins, in our food and water and the air we breathe. The focus switched politically to carbon counting decades ago in a ridiculous inversion of priorities and he means to address that.
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But when does the law of diminishing returns start to kick in? I'm looking at the schedule and that is a lot of shots: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-schedules/child-easyread.html . The cure must be better than the disease. All vaccines have side effects; sometimes things go wrong (See: The Cutter Incident). How deadly or debilitating does a disease have to be before we vaccinate against it?
I'm looking at the chicken pox vaccine. The CDC is crowing that the vaccine saves lives but look at this info graphic.
Before the vaccine, 4 million cases per year, 10,000 hospitalizations and 150 deaths. After the vaccine, 150,000 cases per year, 1500 hospitalizations and 30 deaths. By my math, the death rate increased and was vanishingly small before.
We can't turn our children into pin cushions. My gut instinct is that over-vaccination of children likely brings its own problems.
DISCLAIMER: I did this analysis very quickly and didn't have time to look deeply into the data so please take all this with a grain of salt.
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