Sadly, the attitude pictured above is more common in practice than one might think.
For instance, recently I was listening to a report on a radio broadcast about how measles was almost at the point of being considered eradicated in this country. Now measles rates are going up again. Why? The answer turns out to be because of the parents who began refusing to vaccinate their children years ago because they either were afraid of vaccines (due to incorrectly performed studies) or because they did not wish to subject their children to vaccines if there was no need for them.
The problem is that there is indeed a need for them. It was those very rejected vaccines that were helping to bring measles to eradication in this country. Now, thanks to those very parents, measles is returning. Yep, do not allow “egghead scientists” to mess with your beliefs.
In the same vein, there are increasing reports of parents who are delaying the whole vaccination schedule for their children, for all vaccines. In other words, if a set of vaccines is due at 12 months, they are delaying them to 18 months or 24 months. Why? No good scientific reason. Simply put, they have decided that their own conclusions are more important than those of “egghead scientists.”
Often these parents can quote with great facility studies that they have read on the Internet or stories passed around from parent to parent. All too often, it is the most “educated” of parents who are willing to buy in to the least peer-reviewed and the least verified theories on issues such as vaccinations.
I first touched upon this subject in 2010. Since then, what was happening back then has continued apace. Childhood diseases, previously considered almost eradicated in the USA, have been making a comeback thanks to all those “educated” parents who reject “egghead scientists.”
In fact, within the last couple of days, octogenarian Barbara Walters has come down with the chicken pox. It turns out that she was born in the days before the chicken pox vaccine, and never quite bothered to be vaccinated. In her case there was no rejection of science, she simply never thought that it would hit her. And so, she is another statistics, as she recovers in a hospital. You see, a mild childhood disease like chicken pox turns out to be a tough disease in an adult, particularly an octogenarian adult.
So, you see, there really is a reality. And reality can come back and get you.
It’s strange that Barbara Walters didn’t manage to contract chickenpox in childhood. Which is just a thought I had; it has nothing to do with your argument. While we adjusted the vaccination schedule a little bit when our kids were babies, just so they didn’t get so many vaccines in one day; and although I moved in circles where a lot (not all, but a lot) of parents resisted vaccines or delayed them significantly, we still adhered pretty closely to the recommended vaccination program.
This resistance to science is, of course, causing us severe grief and genuine danger in other areas. Sadly, this resistance is considered by many groups to be essential to their faith. Lord help us. Many pious Orthodox scientists are quite perplexed by this troubling (and very American) development.
Having said that, I recognize that scientists sometimes overreach and make pronouncements against faith, about which their science is not competent to judge. This should not make unthinking anti-scientific reactionaries out of the rest of us.
Often these parents can quote with great facility studies that they have read on the Internet or stories passed around from parent to parent.
Anyone remember the 2011 “Satan Bug” movie Contagion? The two lethal epidemics in the movie? One the disease itself spreading like fire across a lake of gasoline and the other the Conspiracy Theories about it spreading even faster on the Internet?
This is also one of the dangers of the home-school movement. Public schools require inoculations, but if parents are opposed? Keep the kids home.
I’m not opposed to home-schooling, but I sometimes question the motives as well as the results. But those are none of my business—until my kid catches small pox or polio.
Problem is, the anti-vaccination movement has become yet another Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory, where all evidence against The Conspiracy is PROOF of The Conspiracy, lack of evidence for The Conspiracy is PROOF of The Conspiracy, and doubting The Conspiracy Theory PROVES you are one of The Conspiracy.
Completely closed system.
The Dwarfs are for The Dwarfs, and Won’t Be Taken In.
I’m one of the anti-intellectuals (with an MS in Aerospace Engineering, somehow) who’s delaying his child’s vaccinations.
We researched it fairly thoroughly, and came to the conclusion that the specific timings recommended are not as absolutely essential as claimed. As with all specific numbers, there’s a margin for every age given for vaccine administration. By the time our daughter is three or four, she’ll have had all the shots, but we haven’t seen any convincing evidence that there’s any need for her to get six at once. Off the top of my head, I think the only two shots that we’re delaying by more than two months are HIB and polio, and she’s not in any immediate danger of either of those infections. HIB is recommended early because the baby can be infected during birth if the mother has it, but my wife doesn’t; polio is a very minimal risk in the US.
In your case, you have the science background to understand that in biological systems exact numbers, specific timings, etc., are not possible. Aerospace Engineering is the art of taking hard science numbers and applying them to systems that include a biological (human) component that is not as easily predictable. Thus, there are people who will faint at 3G’s while others will remain awake and functional through 6G’s and more.
However, you are also playing a game of numbers. And it is an individual game of numbers. Your child (and your future grandchildren) can play the polio minimal risk game if, and only if, a large number of other parents do not play the numbers game. If all parents were to delay polio vaccination, then the rate of polio would go up JUST AS THE MEASLES RATE ALREADY HAS.
You “get away” with your decisions because there are sufficient other parents who do not decide what you do and the rate of polio is kept minimal. Measles are a warning sign that when parents choose to do the “my thing, my children, my decision” game, the good of the community suffers, or to put it in scientific terms, herd immunity cannot be maintained unless a certain percentage of the herd is immune.
I checked; I said HIB instead of Hepatitis B; Polio we’re delaying from 2 months old to 9 months old. Since Polio has been eradicated in the western hemisphere, I don’t think that’s a problem. If anyone in the mid-Atlantic states contracts Polio in the next two months (she’s 6.5 months old now), we’ll probably reconsider.
The recommended vaccine schedule is optimized for appointments every 2 months during infancy, at the cost of up to six shots at once. Our delayed schedule is optimized for getting no more than two shots at a time, at the cost of going in three extra times. Again, within a couple years, everything evens out.
I agree that it is dangerous to avoid vaccinations, and agree with your reasoning, but minor delays like ours aren’t the same thing at all.
Also, have you ever seen any studies about the safety of getting multiple vaccines at once?
You are right that your delay is a minor delay at worst. You are getting the same thing done in the same amount of time at the trade-off of having to go to the physician more often. When I read about parents delaying vaccinations, they are often speaking about delaying them from 6 months old to two years old, etc. You are not really delaying vaccinations, you are spreading them out, but all over the same exact period of time as the recommendations. That is a different matter (unless I misunderstood what you wrote).
At this point I am less concerned about the polio vaccine. You are correct that we are still at 0 cases since 2005, and even that case was an immigrant child (legal) who had contracted it in another country. However, working at a hospital, I am all too aware of Hepatitis B. The reason hospital personnel are now vaccinated is because it is/was more prevalent than most people realize. When I started in laboratory work, before I was a priest, slightly over 1/3 of all laboratory workers would develop the antibody within their work life (note that this does not mean severe clinical symptoms of the disease, but rather evidence that it had entered their bodies). That rate is minimal now, but Hepatitis B is like measles. Let your guard down and …
Actually multiple studies have been conducted on the safety and efficacy of multiple vaccines at the same time, both in infants and adults. See http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/multiplevaccines.html
As a veteran, I can tell you that one of the largest pools of evidence for the safety of multiple vaccinations simultaneously in adults is the service. I can still remember the gauntlet that we had to run when we were first received at our new “home” as trainees. LOL!!!!! Multiple nursing staff lines up with multiple vaccinations, on each side of us. We had to walk the gauntlet and get our vaccinations. That was a sight to see, particularly when some would faint!
We spread out the vaccines so that my son would only get one shot at a time as well. My decision in that regard was based on our experiences. When he got all six at once, as recommended, we ended up hospitalized overnight for a very high fever! After that, we went with one shot at a time, and never had fever issues again. I am not sure, to this day, if ONE vaccination caused the fever, or if it was because his body just couldn’t deal with all of them at once.