Blog · 9 September 2016

So let’s get a new and truer meme: “Parents that object to vaccinations despite overwhelming evidence to their safety and efficacy are uniquely unqualified to protect their children and present a clear and present danger to all children”

whatshappeningtothekids:

ucsdhealthsciences:

Lest We Forget

Recently, members of the committees on infectious diseases and practice and ambulatory medicine at the American Academy of Pediatrics published a survey reporting that 87 percent of doctors said they have encountered parents refusing to vaccinate their children, up from 75 percent a decade earlier.

Most parents who were hesitant about vaccines weren’t necessarily opposed to immunizing their children, but rather were unsure or uninformed. The most common reason given was that vaccines didn’t seem to be necessary because diseases like measles, mumps and rubella were not seen anymore.

Of course, the reason for that is, well, vaccines. As Americans have again learned, it doesn’t take much for the broad, protective effects of vaccines to weaken or fail. High immunization rates protect vulnerable individuals (who can’t be vaccinated due to medical problems or because they’re too young) because everybody else is vaccinated. When significant numbers of unimmunized individuals cluster, herd immunity is lost.

In January 2015, for example, a measles outbreak in California occurred because an estimated 3 percent of kindergartners had a non-medical exemption from the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Unimmunized children acquired measles during this outbreak.

For parents who have never seen a case of the measles, the stereoscope card above from 1916 shows a young girl with typical diffuse red maculopapular rash from measles. Other symptoms include fever, cough, and a runny nose. In those days, measles sometimes killed or caused eye damage — it still does in developing parts of the world with inadequate vaccination programs. Routine measles vaccines in the 1960s ended that threat in the U.S. — until perhaps now.

Parents are refusing vaccination for many reasons. One very important one is the clearly declining health of the the current generation of children. Parents are uniquely qualified to sense real threats to their children and should be respected. They are not “unsure”; they are educating themselves with regard to:

the lack of scientific safety studies with regard to individual vaccines,

the lack of scientific safety studies with regard to the current vaccine schedule - synergistic effects when multiple vaccines are given,

the lack of liability of the pharmaceutical companies marketing these products,

the fraud of the pharmaceutical companies in reporting the effectiveness of their products resulting in the elusive “herd immunity” and never ending boosters.

the allegations of the fraud of the CDC in reporting their results in the study of the MMR and autism,

the blatant attempts to create fear around diseases that may have been problematic in 1916 but were routine 50 years later when we understood how to support children through the infections. (As a child of the 1960s, I can assure you that I and my four siblings all survived measles, mumps, German measles, and chickenpox - without even a visit to the doctor. AS DID MOST CHILDREN!) Children in developing parts of the world are at risk because they lack the basic necessities of healthy living: sanitation, nutrition, education, protection from the elements.

the idea that long term and true “herd immunity” that can only come from acquiring these infections.

Stop vilifying parents and ignoring their concerns - they are real and they are valid and they are growing.

Let’s stop this crappy meme if “parents are uniquely qualified to sense real threats to their children”. I’m a parent and I know for a fact that that makes me no more qualified to sense a real threat to my children than anyone else. What makes one “uniquely qualified to sense a threat to children” is actual education and study; nothing else.