Pertussis Peril

[porphyry]

A few years ago, despite no science to back it, but lots of Hollywood B-list celebrities on the talk show circuit to tout this insanity, a vaccination denial movement caught on this country. Apparently, some doctor, Andrew Wakefield, who thankfully is no longer allowed to practice medicine, published an article in The Lancet that there might be a connection between infant vaccinations and autism. Wakefield didn't tell the journal that he'd been paid nearly a million dollars by some lawyers anxious to sue the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture the vaccines, but I guess Wakefield didn't think that was important, not after performing unethical invasive exams on poor autistic children, what's a little conflict of interest after bribing the guests at your son's birthday party with five pounds each to give a blood test? I guess he also didn't consider the health of all the infants whose idiotic parents would buy into this lunacy, or if he did consider it, he just didn't care. After all, he got a million dollars.

So, measles came back first. It had virtually been wiped out in this country. Kids died. Now pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is also back. Five babies have died in California--all unvaccinated against pertussis, of course--and the state has declared an epidemic in some parts.

I certainly hope that parents who think the likes of Jenny McCarthy ("Fuck science" is her mantra) and her ex-boyfriend, Jim Carrey, have anybody's best interest in their hearts except their own, are satisfied with their "well-informed" decision. As for McCarthy and Carrey and all those of the same group, I hope they look forward to their red-hot iron sarcophagi in the level of hell reserved for liars.

Yes, it's hard to watch your child get a shot. They cry. But five minutes later, they're asleep and the benefit from a moment's discomfort could save a baby's life. I just hope more children in California don't die, but I won't be surprised to see more fatalities.

As a final note, I wonder about the psychology of parents, laymen in medicine in science, who despite having no ability to understand science and medicine, instinctively react with their preconceived unfavorable attitude towards anyone they perceive as an authority. In my opinion, that's the real problem. How else could they so easily reject something proven and sound and tested--I mean, we haven't had massive outbreaks of so many diseases (polio, smallpox) due to these vaccines in decades--and adopt the "Fuck science" approach instead? I wish they'd find some other authority to go up against, one in which their children's lives aren't at stake.

Comments

[eurynome1967.livejournal.com]

Loath though I am to stick my oar into this vibrant discussion, I just wanted to say a couple of rather mundane things.
- I think that there is definitely an element of rebellion against a perceived 'system' in some people's refusal to give their children any vaccinations. I can understand why people would feel like this, even though I think they are mistaken. But then people who flail against 'the system' often do flail in completely the wrong direction.
- In Britain, the crisis arose not because of a suspected connection between the pertussis vaccination and autism, but because of the MMR triple vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella. Several children had very bad reactions to this, and some distressed parents linked the 'onset' of autism with it. Since autism tends to start to manifest itself at about the age children were having this injection, you can see why in their distress people would make the connection. I can see why giving a small child three vaccinations at once might be a bit much for its little body to cope with, and the thinking parents' solution was to ask for the vaccines to be given in three separate doses, though in some case parents were forced to pay for this. I can also see why the government felt that the statistical likelihood of a few bad reactions was acceptable set against the overall national health improvement. (That, mind you, is a bit of a contradiction of the fact that they have stopped giving children vaccinations against TB, particularly in the lead-up to our hosting the Olympics ...) I am not a parent, but if I were, I think I would have gone for separate vaccinations once I thought about it. I do think, given how vaccines work, that three at once is too much for a very small child.
- I do completely accept the importance of mass-vaccination. As a teacher, I spend a lot of time each year explaining to 11-year-old girls why they want to be vaccinated against tetanus, diphtheria, and polio, and why an injection in the arm in a sterile environment is better than being paralysed or choking to death on your own membranes, etc. I also think of a pair of sisters whose parents refused to vaccinate them against anything (middle class intellectual rebels who refused to allow the government to dictate their children's health) and the amount of school those girls missed, and our constant worry that they would infect those of us who are too old to have had all the vaccinations ...

I hope this doesn't change the tone of the discussion too much - my intention is to be mild-mannered about this.