Thanks Laura for the article. I am open minded, more than most because I dont believe the wealth of knowledge in treating human disease has yet been published in textbooks. As a scientist and immunologist, however, we should stay grounded in real science. Dont get me wrong. When my oldest son was an infant, as a physician, I refused the Rotavirus vaccine for him, since he was getting so many at the time and it was so new. I rationalized it given the fact that for the first three years of his life he was not exposed to a day care setting and spent most of his days with his parents. But we accepted all the other vaccines including a flu vaccine every single year. Recently Ive met or heard of a lot of parents who refuse vaccines entirely; and just as cited in the media, most are affluent educated and younger than me. Since the revelation that the autism and vaccine link had not truly been validated and had been falsified so long ago, I was still surprised that so many individuals refuse to vaccinate their children. I was surprised that the resurgence of pertussis mumps and measles outbreak in suburban pockets throughout the country also did not cause a ripple in that steadfast belief held by some that vaccinations are more harmful than good. My husband and I are in early 40s. As children we remember mumps, scarlet fever, chickenpox. Thank goodness we were not one of the unlucky children who succumbed to severe complications or who died from these illnesses. Childhood illnesses have not been eradicated although in the past 40 years vaccinations have been so successful that they have made the incidence of such diseases much less common. But keeping these childhood illnesses scarce relies on the participation of the populace in vaccinating themselves and their children. At one point recently, up to 20% of parents were not choosing to vaccinate their children with the MMR in the United Kingdom, spurning a measles outbreak. We have seen this rapidly become more common in the United States as well. Think about what happens when unvaccinated child in a small private daycare said get sick and transmits this illness to her/his unvaccinated friends, since their parents may have similar beliefs systems. The epidemiology of transmissible diseases is straightforward and was exemplified by the Ebola scare. Despite all the vaccinations that our children have received, the first year of school is always difficult as almost all children get exposures to many illnesses including viruses for which no vaccines currently exist. As a physician, I have treated patients who are debilitated from contracting polio as children, I diagnosed a unvaccinated young girl with endocarditis (a blood infection that seeded in the heart), and I have cared for several patients in the hospital and ICU who were afflicted with varicella (chicken pox). Contracting diseases, viruses bacteria etc, just plain sucks (pardon my language). There are plenty of people with autoimmune diseases, hives, rheumatic heart disease, cervical cancer and other severe medical complications who wished they could have somehow avoided getting the infection that triggered their illness in the first place. (Cervical cancer as you know is linked to HPV infection and the first vaccine to prevent cancer has existed now for some years). Vaccines save lives, lots of them. Not vaccinating, put you at great risk. Even vaccination on an off schedule slowly, can make sense. At some point, the young unvaccinated child gets older and must venture into the wide world full of germs. I would rather send my kids prepared.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:07:51 +0000
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