The Vaccination Decision: Why Vaccinate?
I write today as a polio survivor. In late 1953, eight children out of twenty-four in our first grade classroom contracted polio. My twin brother died sixty-one hours after admission. Two of my friends died several years later of complications. On the night my twin was buried, I was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of paralytic polio. Later on that week, my mother suffered a miscarriage. Fortunately, I eventually recovered… What our family experienced was not unusual. Families all over the world suffered similar tragedies before the polio vaccine.
Because of the success of vaccines, many young parents have never seen the diseases that once plagued children and haunted every parent on the globe. For that reason, parents are more vulnerable to the hype that permeates today’s media.
Although the wild-poliovirus has been eradicated from our country, it has not been eradicated worldwide. Because of globalization, therefore, public health officials call polio a disease that is “just a plane trip away.”
Jan Nichols, New York
Many of us have never been touched by diseases like polio, diphtheria, and measles. But regardless of your stance on the vaccination issue, there is no denying that the reduction of these diseases is due by and large to the widespread use of vaccines. But there’s no guarantee that these disease won’t become prominent again. In some parts of the world, including Asia and Africa, polio still maims and kills thousands of people each year. Take a look at this info on vaccination as you weigh your decision to vaccinate your own children.
How do vaccines work?
When you get sick, your body creates white blood cells that target the infection and destroy it. This system is very effective for common illnesses like colds and the flu. But other diseases are more difficult for the immune system to tackle at full strength.
The purpose of a vaccine is to stimulate the immune system with a weakened form of the disease so that it can build up its supply of white blood cells more successfully. Vaccines are made by using killed germs, parts of germs, naturally occurring less severe forms of the germs, or live germs modified to be less dangerous. When a vaccine is given to a healthy body, it can stimulate the immune process with a much lower risk of injury to the body.
Vaccination Facts
- In 1962, the year before measles vaccine was introduced, almost 500,000 cases of measles were reported in the U.S. Ten years later, there were about 32,000 cases, and by 1982 there were fewer than 2,000. In 1998 and 1999, only about 100 measles cases were reported each year.
- Worldwide, measles killed about 345,000 people in 2005….311,000 of these deaths were children under the age of five.
- In the 1920s, there were 100,000-200,000 cases of diphtheria each year with 13,000-15,000 deaths. Since the introduction of the vaccine for diphtheria the disease has dramatically declined from a high of 206,939 reported cases in 1921 to 1 case in 2002.
- Hib meningitis killed 600 children each year, and caused seizures among many survivors as well as permanent deafness, and mental retardation. Since the vaccine’s introduction in 1987, the incidence of Hib has declined by 98% in the United States.
- Chicken pox (or varicella) is often thought of as a “rite of passage” for kids. But it has also been the cause of 11,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths in the U.S. alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report a decline in the prevalence of the disease since a vaccine was introduced in 1995.
Why vaccinate?
Here are just a few excerpts from the hundreds of comments I received on why parents choose to vaccinate:
Small, but significant chance my kid could die or be permanently debilitated by a horrible disease? Or unbelievably tiny chance that vaccines might, in some way we don’t understand at all, increase the risk of autism? No choice, to me — unless someone comes up with some solid evidence that changes things, every kid will get vaccinated, against everything they have a vaccine for, as soon as my pediatrician tells me it’s time.
Darren P. Meyer
St. Paul, MNI just never want my children to contract a disease like polio and have the deformities, pain and difficulty breathing that my children’s Granny B had.
Karie Stern
Mill Valley, CA
My wife and I have a 16 year old son, Nicholas, who has been variously diagnosed as mildly autistic, Aspberger’s Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder/Not otherwise specified, EIEIO. We have read the books about vaccines and ASD’s, but we are skeptical about the relationship.
Simply stated, there is not enough scientific proof that any one thing causes Autism or Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
Rudy AlvarezEl Cajon, CA
Are vaccines worth the risk?
A-ha. That is the billion dollar question. There is no denying that vaccines work to reduce the incidence of disease. But are they worth the risk? Stop back tomorrow when I’ll post about the risks associated with vaccines.
Thanks, Jenn, for this post. My mom, who was an R.N. at Oakland (California) Children’s Hospital in 1956 was the last adult in Alameda County to contract polio before the Salk Vaccine was introduced. She was pregnant at the time - lost that baby, and spent the next 8 months in an iron lung (see photos here http://tinyurl.com/alxz7c). She lost the use of her diaphragm and her right hand; while she was perennially short of breath (could not cough, so she never swam, etc.) she could at least walk. When she became pregnant with me she spent another 6 months in an iron lung. She lived to be 74, mostly through sheer will. I am grateful that she survived at all. And now, when friends do not vaccinate their children, I understand their fear but am sick at the thought of anyone else having to endure (and possibly die of) an excruciating disease that we thought had been eradicated.
I don’t think vaccines caused the decline of these diseases. Most charts that investigate this show most of the diseases were on the decline BEFORE vaccines. Some diseases died out with no vaccines ever being produced. This Aussie chart for example shows this:
http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/web1.html
In 1954, a person who was paralyzed for 24 hours could be diagnosed as having polio. Residual paralysis wasn’t required. In 1955, the criteria changed, “residual paralysis was determined 10 to 20 days after onset of illness and again 50 to 70 days after onset”. So, the diagnosis changed, thus fewer people were diagnosed as having polio.
http://www.wellwithin1.com/polio.htm
The oral polio vaccine caused polio, but was used in the US through the 1980s, and is still used in Africa. In Nigeria, an outbreak of vaccine-induced polio happened in 2007.
Until there is a comprehensive, scientific study of vaccines and the chemicals within, comparing populations of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children, we will never know just what issues vaccines cause. It’s far more complicated than just autism disorders. Allergies, asthma, diabetes, shingles, and other diseases and disorders have also risen since the number of vaccines has risen.
I am the polio survivor who wrote the comment that appeared in yesterday’s post. I had no intention of replying to any comments, but because of the inacurracies that are included in some of the comments, I felt it was important for parents to receive the facts. I am certain that it is difficult for parents to appreciate the horror of polio, having been born after the polio vaccine was introduced - the reason why some of you never suffered the losses that many of my peers did… I hope that the information I provide below will be helpful. - Jan Nichols, New York
1. Polio was not on the decline before the vaccine was introduced. Nearly 1/2 of the cases reported in the U.S. during the 20th C were reported between 1951-1954 per the March of Dimes.
2. Before 1952, paralytic and non-paralytic cases were not identified in yearly stats. But, many of those people are suffering from post-polio syndrome today.
3. Nigeria did have an outbreak of circulating vaccine-derived cases of polio.But, the facts are clear: From 1997 to 2007, over 10 billion doses of OPV were administere worldwide with less than 200 circulating vaccine-derived cases of polio. During that same period, there were 31,100 cases of wild poliovirus among non-vaccinated individuals.
4. Each year, while the oral polio vaccine was used in the U.S., 6-10 people contracted the disease from the vaccine or from coming in contact with someone who had recently been vaccinated. This is very sad, but at the same time the Harvard School of Public Health recently completed a study showing that from 1955-2005, the polio vaccine prevented 1.1 million cases of polio and 160,000 deaths.
5. Parents may be interested in visiting websites that give accurate information on polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases:
http://www.polioeradication.org
http://www.vaccine.chop.edu
http://www.vaccine.org
http://www.ecbt.org
http://www.immunize.org
6. On Monday evening, PBS did an excellent presentation on polio. The DVD will be available in March 2009. The program was based on David Oshinsky’s Pulitzer Prize winning book entitled “Polio, an American Story.”
—– Original Message —–
Those charts only show deaths due to diseases. They do not show children disabled, pregnancies miscarried, or later complications.
Excellent post Jenn!!!
This is great information as an educational tool for parents. One concern over the comment regarding “…as soon as my pediatrician tells me it’s time.” Parents need to be much more involved in this process. Yes, your doctor was medically trained to know when it is appropriate and when it is not, but he does not know your child. Your sixth sense, mother’s intuition, or what ever you call that sinking feeling in your gut is usually right and you need to stand up and trust it. After our oldest was diagnosed with Autism, we knew the immunizations had played a role. Following a round of shots, his language changed dramatically, for the worse. It took a full year for him to regain that ground with a lot of therapy, work and sleepless nights, let alone the time to catch up to his peers.
As parents, we would never advocate not immunizing, but we have exercised greater caution and judgment with our younger children. Be involved in the process, don’t just blindly accept what your child’s doctor tells you.
@The Green Doctor:
Of *course* parents need to stay involved in their children’s medical decisions — informed consent is the mainstay of modern medicine.
But “we know the immunizations had played a role” in your kid’s autism diagnosis not reliable. It’s actually a common human mistake, to assume that X causes Y because Y happened after X. The whole scientific method is designed to minimize human mistakes like that.
I’ll take the stack of studies — co-designed by people with concerns over vaccines and autism — that show NO LINK between immunization and autism diagnosis over anyone’s “mommy instinct”.
Yes, trust your intuition, up to a point. If something doesn’t seem right, ask questions. Get a second opinion if need be. But when your intuition contradicts a mountain of evidence and the consensus of the scientific and medical communities, you need to discard your intuition.
I have to strongly disagree with this article. There is nothing, absolutely nothing proving that vaccines have prevented these diseases and the deaths associated with them. In the same way that autism is only attributed to vaccines because of a cause and effect relationship, the same can be said for vaccines. We know that in many cases vaccines simply do not work. It is insanely simplistic to say that vaccines prevent diseases. What about the viruses we do not have vaccines for? What about natural immunity? Better sanitation? Better medical care?
This article ignores vaccine injures completely. The stories about miscarriages and disability could equally be attributed as vaccine side effects. Also I fail to understand how vaccinating against a deathly disease like polio is equal to vaccinating against the chicken pox which is rarely deadly (more people die from the flu) and worth the possible side effects that can come with it. A huge part of the argument against vaccines is just related to animal bi-products or chemicals being in the vaccines. Why not just remove these is if public health was truly the reason behind vaccines?
I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.