Here are a few of many, many baseless health scares we might remember: microwaves (they will re-arrange the molecules in our foods), aluminum foil (it will cause Alzheimer’s), sugar (it will cause cancer), and gluten (it will cause anything). And now, ladies and gentlemen, vaccinations (they will cause autism).
There is a whole anti-vaccination machine that has been put into place. It is a machine of great arrogance put into place by pseudo-scientists, pretend healthcare providers and practitioners without credentials, spewing junk science and feeding it to the arrogant and opulent in places like Southern California. Never mind that the mock-science cannot be duplicated by genuine medical schools or legitimate scientific institutes, never mind that the scientific methodology of this junk-science hearsay would fail any kid in a middle-school biology class. Some rich guy in the movie business in SoCal says vaccinations cause autism and so it must be so.
Let’s start at the here and now – and work backwards. There are now measles outbreaks across the country – and virtually always in unvaccinated children. I am not a physician, just a man who believes in good ethics. What is going on in ethical terms insofar as the dissemination of all of this junk science is plain wrong.
Measles is not a game and the disease is not without its complications. It is not a like a cold or poison ivy. Measles can kill. There was a time when pneumonia related to measles had a 30 percent mortality rate. It is just going to be a matter of time before something very ugly happens.
Now let’s go back a bit; Rory Carroll writing for The Guardian (January 17, 2015), in an article entitled: “Too rich to get sick? Disneyland measles outbreak reflects anti-vaccination trend,” talks about the fact that a significant outbreak. The article interviews Matt Zahn, medical director of Epidemiology and Assessment for the Orange County Health Care Agency.
“The rate of immunization falls as you go north to south. It tracks the socio-economic statistics in the county,” said Matt Zahn. In some of the wealthier Southern California school districts, nearly 10 percent of the children have not received all of their vaccinations.
“It is a strange first-world irony that wealthier, better-educated parents are the ones reducing infant vaccination rates, said Zahn. “Many people in this country have never seen a case of measles,” he said. “We’re a victim of our own success.”
Fanning the flames of disease
According to the article:
“Patient zero became sick and contagious on 28 December, while at Disneyland. She flew to Snohomish County in Washington State for a few days, then returned to Orange County on 3 January. Health officials announced the outbreak on 7 January.”
As patient zero traveled, she spread her measles joy to Colorado, Utah and Washington. There are now reports of measles outbreaks in many other states. According to the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles is the “most deadly of all childhood rash/fever illnesses.”
Essentially what is happening is that parents, especially in areas of great wealth, are betting on the fact that most of the other kids have been vaccinated. However, here is where the junk science kicks in again. Measles doesn’t go away. It is always there. The unvaccinated are playing a game of chance. Sooner or later they will lose.
According to the article, all of this madness started in the late 1990s:
“A debunked and withdrawn 1998 Lancet report linking vaccines to autism still lingers in some parents’ minds along with other worries, such as overloading a child’s immune system with multiple, simultaneous vaccinations – a concern lacking scientific basis, said Zahn.”
Being that Southern California is the center of this junk science debate, it is not unexpected that actors and actresses such as Jenny McCarthy have jumped on board this madness. They claim as their fount of information junk science books written by anti-vaccination experts. The entire argument could, of course, fall like a house of cards if a tipping point is reached. At a rate of 10 percent of the unvaccinated in some school systems, the game is dangerous. Suppose it was ramped up to 100 percent?
Whose kid in what school?
I always like to pose the “what if” kinds of questions. To the staunchest of the anti-vaccine advocates, I would ask if they would send their child to a school where no one was vaccinated. It’s a simple enough question; no child, no teacher, and in fact, no adult. Let’s extend it even further: no visitor needs to have had any vaccinations. We’ll call it a vaccine-free zone.
I am willing to guess that some of these staunch advocates might begin to have doubts.
Now, let me extend the argument just a bit more, and here is where open and frank discussion needs to take place. In the very wealthy district where 10 percent of the children are unvaccinated, there is a new program about to be put in place. The Board of Education has decided that one week out of every month, 1,000 children will be brought in from school districts with a low median income, so that those children could gain contact with the rich kid’s school system.
Due to medical confidentiality, the parents of the wealthy school district will not know if any of the children of lesser means have been vaccinated.
How will that go across? I am willing to take an ethical bet on that one too. In fact, I am willing to bet this argument has little to do with vaccinations at all.
