From time to time, in our Ultra doubleplussecret email list, we snigger and heap abuse on the subjects of various articles we turn up and promulgate to each other. The topic of vaccinations reoccurs frequently and the antics of Jim Carey or the San Francisco liberal elite (or as AM says “filthy hippies”) with their Bay Area whoooping cough outbreak only throw more fodder into the fire. Obviously others think about this also, as depicted in this map of school vaccinations.
Although we may find the logic of innoculations self-evident, many parents reject vaccines. Whether this is some consequence of new age thought, or some arcane academic research study percolating up through channels only available to the elite, I can’t say.
One hypothesis is that the effectiveness of vaccines is itself a contributing factor. One hundred years ago, most people were acutely aware of the consequences of German Measles, Measles, Mumps, Whooping Cough and Diptheria. I make the comparison to the situation with nuclear proliferation today: few are alive who walked in the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To modern pundits, the tragedy of nuclear warfare is an academic exercise, not something to be seen, felt and smelt. Today, with actual acute cases minimized, the effects of these diseases are also academic. The relatively low risk of vaccination effects seem unjustifiable for little Johnny. The much larger risk associated with the disease is not visualized.
And vaccinations are effective. See Vitek CR, Aduddell M, Brinton MJ, Hoffman RE, Redd SC. Increased protections during a measles outbreak of children previously vaccinated with a second dose of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal 1999;18:620-623.
The Center for Disease Control establishes a schedule of vaccinations for children . I reproduce a section here:
More information is available at the CDC Vaccine Page as well as more graphic photos of pathogens their results.
For those with shorter attention spans, the following table summarizes a few diseases and their characteristics as well as the vaccine risks.
Disease |
Rubella (German Measles) |
Tetanus (Lockjaw) |
Pertussis (Whooping Cough) |
Effect |
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Pre-vax Cases/Yr |
47,745 | 1,314 | 147,271 |
2003 Cases/Yr |
7 99.9% eff. |
20 98.5% eff. |
11,647 92.1% eff. |
Disease Risk |
CRS— 1 in 4 (preg.) Arthritis — 7 in 10 (adult) |
Death — 3 in 100 | Death — 1 in 20 Pneumonia — 1 in 8 Encephalitis — 1 in 20 |
Vaccine Risk |
MMR Vaccine Encephalitis or allergy — 1 in 1,000,000 |
DPT Vaccine Convulsion with full recovery — 1 in 1750 Acute Encephalitis — 5 in 1,000,000 Crying with full recovery — 1 in 1000 Death — 0 |
DPT Vaccine See Tetanus |
|
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Disease |
Measles |
Polio |
Mumps |
Effect |
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Pre-vax Cases/Yr |
503,282 | 16,316 | 152,209 |
2003 Cases/Yr |
56 99.9% eff. |
0 100% eff. |
231 99.9% eff. |
Disease Risk |
Death — 1 in 3000 Pneumonia — 1 in 20 Encephalitis — 1 in 2000 |
Death — 3 in 100 (children) Death — 2 in 10 (adult) Paralysis — 1 in 200 |
Encephalitis — 1 in 300 Sterility (adults) |
Vaccine Risk |
MMR Vaccine — see Rubella | Vaccine acquired paralytic polio — rare 144 cases in 18 years (41% healthy, 24% immunodefficient) |
MMR Vaccine — see Rubella |
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Disease |
Diptheria |
Smallpox |
|
Effect |
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|
Pre-vax Cases/Yr |
175,885 | 48,164 | |
2003 Cases/Yr |
1 99.9% eff. |
0 100% eff. |
|
Disease Risk |
Death — 1 in 20 | Death — 3 in 10 Blindness Disfigurement |
|
Vaccine Risk |
DPT Vaccine See Tetanus |
Not Available to Public Life-threatening reaction — 14-52 in 1,000,000 |
Sources:
Note: CRS is congenital rubella syndrome in which the disease is passed to the child in the womb with devastating consequences.
Now if the hippy new age types believe that vaccinations are the result of a sadistic government cabal, and the CDC and evil pharmaceutical companies are covering up adverse vaccine reactions for profit motives, then they have the right. Or do they..?
If I were an immunodeficient AIDS patient who could not tolerate vaccines, or someone with severe allergies who also could not tolerate vaccines, the last place I would want to be would be in a herd of non-vaccinated humans. The chances for a wild vector of one of these diseases is bad enough, but an amplified stream of vectors due to a susceptible population would be a death sentence. The outbreak of pertussis in the Bay Area is a perfect example.
Clusters of people with similar beliefs tend to form sub-populations which diverge from the general population. (See also Latane, Axelrod, and Kennedy). These clusters tend also to localize geographically. When one of the organizing beliefs is an aversion to immunization, a susceptible sub-herd is formed with predictable consequences. Given this particular group’s traditional support for alternate lifestyles and support for the economically depressed, logic would dictate that vaccinations be offered and maintained. Alas … not to be. But on the bright side, in these particular sub-herds, the problem is self-correcting.
Note:All data obtained using tables of mortality and morbidity, New England Journal of Medicine, or Center for Disease Control Statistical Reports. Photos courtesy of CDC.
June 18, 2008 at 12:28 am
[…] Vaccination is good for the species Posted on 18 June 2008 by harebell Just browsing my blog role and 12 angry men has a great post on vaccinations: […]
June 12, 2009 at 11:03 am
Vaccines contain harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, mercury, and genetically modified tissue from aborted fetuses.
Sound like something you want to inject into your blood stream?
These harmful substances cause an autoimmune response that lead to ailments like diabetes, autism, and seizures.
http://republicofhealth.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/autism-mercury-link-appears-to-be-established-attempted-cover-up-by-the-u-s-government-is-suspected/