Measles is on the rise in the United States. So far this year, the number of cases is about 17 times what it was, on average, during the same period in each of the previous four years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Half of those infected – mainly children – were hospitalized.
The situation will get worse, in large part because a growing number of parents decide not to take their children vaccinated against measles as well as diseases like polio and whooping cough. Unvaccinated people, or those whose vaccination status is unknown, represent 80% of measles cases this year. Many parents have been influenced by a flood of misinformation spread by politicians, podcast hosts, and influential television and social media figures. These figures repeat decades-old notions that erode trust in the established science that supports routine childhood vaccines. KFF Health News examined the rhetoric and explains why it’s wrong
The problem-free trope
A common distortion is that vaccines are not necessary because the diseases they prevent are not very dangerous, or too rare to be of concern. Cynics accuse public health officials and the media of spreading fear about measles, even as 19 states report cases.
For example, an article posted on the website of the National Vaccine Information Center — a regular source of vaccine misinformation — claimed that resurgent concerns about the disease “are ‘the sky is falling’ hype » ». He then called measles, mumps, chickenpox and the flu “politically incorrect to contract.”
Measles kills about 2 out of every 1,000 infected children, according to the CDC. While this seems like a bearable risk, it is worth emphasizing that a much larger proportion of children with measles will require hospitalization for pneumonia and other serious complications. For every 10 cases of measles, one child with the disease develops an ear infection which can lead to permanent hearing loss. Another strange effect is that the measles virus can destroy a person’s existing immunity, meaning they will have a harder time recovering from the flu and other common illnesses.
Measles vaccines have prevented the deaths of about 94 million people, mostly children, over the past 50 years, according to an April analysis by the World Health Organization. Along with vaccination against polio and other diseases, vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives worldwide.
Some skeptics argue that vaccine-preventable diseases no longer pose a threat because they have become relatively rare in the United States. (True – due to vaccination.) This reasoning has led Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to to tell parents that they could send their children unvaccinated. children at school amid a measles outbreak in February. “Looking at the headlines, it feels like the sky is falling” Ladapo said in a News Nation newscast. “There’s a lot of immunity.”
As this lax attitude persuades parents to refuse vaccination, the protective immunity of the group will decline and outbreaks will become larger and more rapid. A rapid outbreak of measles hit an under-vaccinated population in Samoa in 2019, killing 83 people in four months. The chronic lack of measles vaccination in the Democratic Republic of Congo led to the deaths of more than 5,600 people in massive outbreaks last year.
The “you never know” trope
Since the early days of vaccines, a portion of the public has viewed them as evil because they are unnatural, compared to nature’s abundance of infections and scourges. “Bad” has been redefined over the decades. In the 1800s, vaccine skeptics claimed that smallpox vaccines caused them to grow horns and behave like animals. More recently, they blame vaccines for diseases ranging from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder to autism to a disruption of the immune system. Studies do not support these claims. However, skeptics say their claims remain valid because the vaccines have not been adequately tested.
In fact, vaccines are among the most studied medical interventions. Over the past century, massive studies and clinical trials have tested vaccines during development and after widespread use. More than 12,000 people participated in clinical trials of the newest vaccine approved to prevent measles, mumps and rubella. Such high numbers allow researchers to detect rare risks, which are a major concern as vaccines are given to millions of healthy people.
To assess long-term risks, researchers examine reams of data for signals of harm. For example, a Danish group analyzed a database of more than 657,000 children and found that those who were vaccinated against measles as babies were no more likely to be diagnosed with autism later. than those who were not vaccinated. In another study, researchers analyzed records of 805,000 children born between 1990 and 2001 and found no evidence to support concerns that multiple vaccinations could impair children’s immune systems.
However, people who push misinformation about vaccines, like candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reject massive and scientifically verified studies. For example, Kennedy argues that clinical trials of new vaccines are unreliable because vaccinated children are not compared to a placebo group that receives saline or another substance that has no effect. Instead, many modern trials compare updated vaccines with older vaccines. Indeed, it is unethical to endanger children by administering a false vaccine when the protective effect of vaccination is known. During a clinical trial of polio vaccines in the 1950s, 16 children in the placebo group died of polio and 34 were paralyzed, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the hospital. for children in Philadelphia and author of a book on the first polio vaccine.
The too much too soon trope
Several bestselling vaccine books on Amazon promote the risky idea that parents should skip or delay their children’s vaccines. “All vaccines on the CDC schedule may not be suitable for all children at all times,” writes Paul Thomas in his best-selling book “The Vaccine-Friendly Plan.” He supports this belief by stating that children who have followed “my protocol are among the healthiest in the world”.
Since the book’s publication, Thomas’ medical license has been temporarily suspended in Oregon and Washington. The Oregon Medical Board documented how Thomas persuaded parents to skip CDC-recommended vaccines, and reported that he “reduced to tears” a mother who disagreed. Several children in his care contracted whooping cough and rotavirus, illnesses easily prevented by vaccines, the committee wrote. Thomas recommended fish oil supplements and homeopathy for an unvaccinated child with a deep scalp laceration, rather than an emergency tetanus shot. The boy developed severe tetanus and was hospitalized for almost two months, where he required intubation, a tracheotomy and a feeding tube to survive.
The CDC-recommended vaccination schedule has been adapted to protect children at the most vulnerable times of their lives and minimize side effects. The combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is not given during the first year of a baby’s life because antibodies temporarily passed from the mother can interfere with the immune response. And because some babies don’t generate a strong response to that first dose, the CDC recommends a second dose by the time the child enters kindergarten, because measles and other viruses spread quickly in groups.
It may be unwise to delay MMR administration much longer, as data suggests that children vaccinated at age 10 or older are at higher risk of adverse reactions, such as seizures or fatigue.
A dozen other vaccines have discrete timelines, with overlapping windows for better response. Studies have shown that MMR vaccines can be given safely and effectively in combination with other vaccines.
Trope “They don’t want you to know”
Kennedy compares Florida’s surgeon general to Galileo in the introduction to Ladapo’s new book on overcoming fear in public health. Just as the Roman Catholic Inquisition punished the famous astronomer for promoting theories about the universe, Kennedy suggests that scientific institutions are oppressing dissenting voices on vaccines for nefarious reasons.
“The persecution of scientists and doctors who dare to challenge contemporary orthodoxies is not a new phenomenon”…
News Source : www.cbsnews.com
Gn Health
