The Jenny McCarthy Body Count site tracks the number of vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths in the US since June 2007.
(via pegobry)
Vaccination: Truth and consequences
A few days ago, I deposited part of the following wordy tirade in the comment section of the excellent Science-based Medicine blog. I felt motivated after reading a fine post about Vaccine Awareness, publication date November 2010, and still relevant.
Remember Smallpox?
I often wonder what anti-vaccine advocates have to say about smallpox.
Do they condemn small pox innoculation? I don’t think ANYONE could deny the ravages inflicted by smallpox on humanity, over the past 1000 years. Thanks to vaccination, smallpox has (virtually) been eradicated. Do anti-vaccination proponents acknowledge that smallpox vaccination was a GOOD thing?
Public health irony
In the poorer areas of the United States, particularly the southern states and Native American lands, there are higher rates of child vaccination than in the (generally) more wealthy Northeast and West Coast areas. Note that the coastal populations have better access to medical care for many reasons. The primary one is affluence.
Irrationality is the scourge of the wealthy and well-educated
Guess what: Incidence (maybe prevalence) of childhood disease such as measles and even polio is much HIGHER in the MORE economically affluent areas.
In the U.S., vaccination for childhood diseases is free for every child, as it should be. However, it is the parent’s right to refuse vaccination for a child. A higher proportion of well-educated, middle to upper income parents have chosen to do this recently. The consequences are increasingly obvious and dire. Measles had been eradicated in the U.S. over a decade ago. Not anymore. It is back. Herd immunity is suffering.
No, let me be very clear: Children are suffering. Children are suffering, some are dying, due to irrational fears of parents.
Measles is making an alarming comeback via The Mayo Clinic, 30 August 2011
[many cases of] measles have been reported in the United States this year and there have been similar outbreaks in Europe, a sign the disease is making an alarming comeback. The reappearance of the potentially deadly virus is the result of unfounded fears about a link between the measles shot and autism that have turned some parents against childhood vaccination.
A rising portion of the population is deciding not to immunize their children because of this controversy… and these children are now susceptible to the measles.
Suspicions about the vaccine have persisted, gaining steam with the public through celebrity advocates and widespread media coverage.
“The results have been devastating,” Dr. Poland (Mayo Clinic) says. “The campaign against the vaccine has caused great harm to public health across multiple nations, even though it has no scientific basis.”Measles remains the most contagious infectious disease humans can get. Due to the measles vaccine’s effectiveness and successful immunization programs worldwide, indigenous cases of the disease had been eliminated in the U.S., similar to eradication of smallpox.
