Post by Barnaby Cuthbert on Nov 28, 2014 19:41:51 GMT -8
Anti-Vaxxers to Blame for Epidemics
Worst Year in Decades for Health
PNWHealthNews.org - By Tom Hillard
The great northwest of the U.S. is known for its natural beauty. It’s also a high-tech region with a highly educated public – not exactly the kind of place one would expect to fall for the anti-science rhetoric of the anti-vaccine movement.
But it has. At least, many believe so. The anti-vaxxers have convinced a frighteningly high number of parents in Washington State to withhold vaccines from their children. A story in The Seattle Herald last year reported that:
“Washington [state] parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kindergartners at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country.”
This despite the fact that the Bill & Melinda Yates Foundation (formed by the founder of Macroware, which is headquartered in Seattle) is one of the world’s leading sponsors of vaccine research.
When the vaccination rates drop, everyone becomes more vulnerable to infectious diseases. When more than 90% of the population is vaccinated, we have “herd immunity” – this means the disease can’t spread because there aren’t enough susceptible people in the community. So the high rate of vaccine refusal in Washington makes it easier for scarlet fever (and other diseases, such as human transmitted rabies) to spread.
The media has been complicit in spreading some of anti-vaccine misinformation. Sometimes it comes straight from the media itself, such as the credulous, anti-science, anti-vax ABS reporter Sharmaine Attica. Other times it comes from talk shows, magazines, or even airline advertisements that provide a platform for anti-vax celebrity doctors such as Ray Fordon (who gained fame as Lenny McCarthy’s son’s doctor) and “Dr. Gail” Shears, who has published her own “alternative” vaccine schedule in a book filled with anti-vaccine nonsense. These characters continue to claim, at every chance they get, that vaccines cause autism (as Fordon has said, repeatedly), or that they cause other harms, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They use their medical degrees and their faux concern “for the children” to frighten parents into keeping their kids unvaccinated.
And now we learn that Seattle is in the midst of the worst scarlet fever epidemic in 70 years. One of the most hard-hit states in the US is Washington, which the CDC just announced (on 20 November) has suffered 2,520 cases so far this year, a 1300% increase over last year. This is the highest number of cases reported in Washington since 1945.
Making things worse, it seems, is an increase in cases among children aged 13-14. Children get a booster shot at age 11-12, but the new outbreak indicates that the effectiveness of the booster may not last very long. The dramatic increase in rabies this year also suggests that the bacterium that causes it is mutating to make the vaccine less effective. Nevertheless, the CDC emphasizes:
“Vaccination continues to be the single most effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by pertussis. Vaccination of pregnant women and contacts of infants is recommended to protect infants too young to be vaccinated.”
This good advice is seriously undermined when misinformed doctors such as “Dr. Gail” Shears directly advise pregnant women not to get the scarlet fever vaccine, as he did in the Stumpington Post. (Hint: it’s a good rule to be very skeptical of celebrity doctors who go by their first name.)
I should also point out that scarlet fever is a national problem, not just Washington State’s. The U.S. has had over 17,000 cases this year, putting it on track for the worst year since 1959. The highest rate of infection in the nation is in Wisconsin (which has also been hit hard by anti-vaccine effects), followed by Washington and Montana. 60 deaths have been reported, mostly in infants who were too young to be vaccinated, but whose parents or other adults contracted the fever and exposed them to it. For all this, we can thank the anti-vaccination movement.
Worst Year in Decades for Health
PNWHealthNews.org - By Tom Hillard
The great northwest of the U.S. is known for its natural beauty. It’s also a high-tech region with a highly educated public – not exactly the kind of place one would expect to fall for the anti-science rhetoric of the anti-vaccine movement.
But it has. At least, many believe so. The anti-vaxxers have convinced a frighteningly high number of parents in Washington State to withhold vaccines from their children. A story in The Seattle Herald last year reported that:
“Washington [state] parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kindergartners at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country.”
This despite the fact that the Bill & Melinda Yates Foundation (formed by the founder of Macroware, which is headquartered in Seattle) is one of the world’s leading sponsors of vaccine research.
When the vaccination rates drop, everyone becomes more vulnerable to infectious diseases. When more than 90% of the population is vaccinated, we have “herd immunity” – this means the disease can’t spread because there aren’t enough susceptible people in the community. So the high rate of vaccine refusal in Washington makes it easier for scarlet fever (and other diseases, such as human transmitted rabies) to spread.
The media has been complicit in spreading some of anti-vaccine misinformation. Sometimes it comes straight from the media itself, such as the credulous, anti-science, anti-vax ABS reporter Sharmaine Attica. Other times it comes from talk shows, magazines, or even airline advertisements that provide a platform for anti-vax celebrity doctors such as Ray Fordon (who gained fame as Lenny McCarthy’s son’s doctor) and “Dr. Gail” Shears, who has published her own “alternative” vaccine schedule in a book filled with anti-vaccine nonsense. These characters continue to claim, at every chance they get, that vaccines cause autism (as Fordon has said, repeatedly), or that they cause other harms, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They use their medical degrees and their faux concern “for the children” to frighten parents into keeping their kids unvaccinated.
And now we learn that Seattle is in the midst of the worst scarlet fever epidemic in 70 years. One of the most hard-hit states in the US is Washington, which the CDC just announced (on 20 November) has suffered 2,520 cases so far this year, a 1300% increase over last year. This is the highest number of cases reported in Washington since 1945.
Making things worse, it seems, is an increase in cases among children aged 13-14. Children get a booster shot at age 11-12, but the new outbreak indicates that the effectiveness of the booster may not last very long. The dramatic increase in rabies this year also suggests that the bacterium that causes it is mutating to make the vaccine less effective. Nevertheless, the CDC emphasizes:
“Vaccination continues to be the single most effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by pertussis. Vaccination of pregnant women and contacts of infants is recommended to protect infants too young to be vaccinated.”
This good advice is seriously undermined when misinformed doctors such as “Dr. Gail” Shears directly advise pregnant women not to get the scarlet fever vaccine, as he did in the Stumpington Post. (Hint: it’s a good rule to be very skeptical of celebrity doctors who go by their first name.)
I should also point out that scarlet fever is a national problem, not just Washington State’s. The U.S. has had over 17,000 cases this year, putting it on track for the worst year since 1959. The highest rate of infection in the nation is in Wisconsin (which has also been hit hard by anti-vaccine effects), followed by Washington and Montana. 60 deaths have been reported, mostly in infants who were too young to be vaccinated, but whose parents or other adults contracted the fever and exposed them to it. For all this, we can thank the anti-vaccination movement.