Dan
2013-05-28 10:09:08 UTC
http://skep.li/16mg8ls
So, you think there's a 'debate' around the safety of vaccinations?
Don't tell Dr Rachael Dunlop. She's a post-Doctoral fellow in the School
of Medical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Technology
Sydney. Here she shares her thoughts on the six myths of vaccination
with SBS and The Conversation.
By Rachael Dunlop, University of Technology, Sydney
Recently released government figures show levels of childhood
vaccination have fallen to dangerously low levels in some areas of
Australia, resulting in some corners of the media claiming re-ignition
of ?the vaccine debate?.
You can check how your postcode rates here.
Well, scientifically, there?s no debate. In combination with clean water
and sanitation, vaccines are one of the most effective public health
measures ever introduced, saving millions of lives every year.
Those who claim there is a ?debate? will cite a series of canards
designed to scare people away from vaccinating, but, if you?re not
familiar with their claims, you could easily be convinced by anti-
vaccine rhetoric.
So what is true and what is not?
Let?s address just a few of the common vaccine myths and explain why
they?re wrong.
1. Vaccines cause autism
The myth that vaccines are somehow linked to autism is an unsinkable
rubber duck. Initiated in 1998 following the publication of the now
notorious Lancet paper, (not-a-Dr) Andrew Wakefield was the first to
suggest that the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to
autism.
What he didn?t reveal was that he had multiple conflicts of interest
including that he was being paid by lawyers assembling a class action
against the manufacturers of MMR, and that he himself had submitted an
application for a patent for a single measles vaccine.
It eventually unravelled for Wakefield when the paper was retracted in
2010. He was struck from the medical register for behaviour classified
as ?dishonest, unethical and callous? and the British Medical Journal
accused him of deliberate fraud.
But once the idea was floated, scientists were compelled to investigate,
particularly when it stood to impact public health so dramatically. One
of the most powerful pieces of evidence to show that there is no link
between vaccines and autism comes from Japan where the MMR was replaced
with single vaccines mid-1993. Guess what happened? Autism continued to
rise.
After this door closed, anti-vaxers shifted the blame to thiomersal, a
mercury-containing component (not be confused with the scary type that
accumulates in the body). Small amounts of thiomersal were used as a
preservative in some vaccines, but this never included MMR.
Thiomersal or ethyl-mercury was removed from all scheduled childhood
vaccines in 2000, so if it were contributing to rising cases of autism,
you would expect a dramatic drop following its removal. Instead, like
the MMR in Japan, the opposite happened, and autism continues to rise.
Further evidence comes from a recently published exhaustive review
examining 12,000 research articles covering eight different vaccines
which also concluded there was no link between vaccines and autism.
Yet the myth persists and probably for several reasons, one being that
the time of diagnosis for autism coincides with kids receiving several
vaccinations and also, we currently don?t know what causes autism. But
we do know what doesn?t, and that?s vaccines.
2. Smallpox and polio have disappeared so there?s no need to vaccinate
anymore
It?s precisely because of vaccines that diseases such as smallpox have
disappeared.
India recently experienced two years without a single case of polio
because of a concerted vaccination campaign.
Australia was declared measles-free in 2005 by the World Health
Organization (WHO) ? before we stopped being so vigilant about
vaccinating and outbreaks began to reappear.
The impact of vaccine complacency can be observed in the current measles
epidemic in Wales where there are now over 800 cases and one death, and
many people presenting are of the age who missed out on MMR vaccination
following the Wakefield scare.
In many ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success, leading us to
forget just how debilitating preventable diseases can be ? not seeing
kids in calipers or hospital wards full of iron lungs means we forget
just how serious these diseases can be.
3. More vaccinated people get the disease than the unvaccinated
Although this sounds counter-intuitive, it?s actually true, but it
doesn?t mean that vaccines don?t work as anti-vaxers will conflate.
Remember that no vaccine is 100% effective and vaccines are not a force
field. So while it?s still possible to get the disease you?ve been
vaccinated against, disease severity and duration will be reduced.
With pertussis (whooping cough), for example, severe complications such
as pneumonia and encephalitis (brain inflammation) occur almost
exclusively in the unvaccinated.
So since the majority of the population is vaccinated, it follows that
most people who get a particular disease will be vaccinated, but
critically, they will suffer fewer complications and long-term effects
than those who are completely unprotected.
4. My unvaccinated child should be of no concern to your vaccinated one
Vaccination is not just a personal issue, it?s a community
responsibility, largely because of a concept known as ?community
immunity?. This describes a level of vaccination that prevents epidemics
or outbreaks from taking hold and spreading.
Some people question the validity of this concept, sometimes referred to
as herd immunity, but the impact of it breaking down can be easily
observed in places where vaccination levels fall dangerously low ? take
the current measles outbreak in Wales, for example.
The other important factor about community immunity is it protects those
who, for whatever reason, can?t be vaccinated or are not fully
vaccinated. This includes very young children, immunocompromised people
(such as cancer sufferers) and elderly people.
5. Vaccines contain toxins
A cursory search of Google for vaccine ingredients pulls up a mishmash
of scary-sounding ingredients that to the uninitiated can sound like
?franken-science?.
Some of these claims are patently untrue (there is no anti-freeze in
vaccines), or are simple scaremongering (aborted foetuses ? in the 1960s
some cells were extracted from a foetus to establish a cell line that is
still used in labs today). Some of the claimed chemicals (and remember
everything is made of chemicals) are present, but are at such low levels
as to never reach toxicity.
The simple thing to remember is the poison is in the dose ? in high
enough doses even water can kill you. And there?s 600 times more
formaldehyde in a pear than a vaccine.
Also, if you ever read the claim that ?vaccines are injected directly
into the blood stream? (they?re not), be sceptical of any other claims
made.
6. Vaccines will overwhelm kids? undeveloped immune systems
The concept of ?too many too soon? was recently examined in a detailed
analysis of the US childhood immunisation schedule by The Institute of
Medicine. Experts specifically looked for evidence that vaccination was
linked to ?autoimmune diseases, asthma, hypersensitivity, seizures,
child developmental disorders, learning or developmental disorders, or
attention deficit or disruptive disorders?, including autism. The
researchers confirmed that the childhood vaccination schedule was safe.
The amount of immune challenges that children fight every day (between
2,000 to 6,000) in the environment is significantly greater than the
number of antigens or reactive particles in all their vaccinations
combined (about 150 for the entire vaccination schedule).
So the next time you hear these myths about vaccination, hopefully
you?ll have some evidence up your sleeve to debunk them.
Finally, some tips from Dr Dunlop
"Despite the array of opinions online, there are reliable sources on the
web that you can head to for information.
One good tip is to search for "immunisation", not "vaccination". Most
hits that come up for "vaccination" contain anti-immunisation messages.
Also look for government sites such as Immunise Australia or the
Australian Academy of Sciences.
Otherwise, have a chat with your GP or immunisation nurse."
Rachael Dunlop receives funding from The Institute for Ethnomedicine,
WY. She is a Vice President of Australian Skeptics Inc. and an
administrator of the Stop the AVN Facebook page
So, you think there's a 'debate' around the safety of vaccinations?
Don't tell Dr Rachael Dunlop. She's a post-Doctoral fellow in the School
of Medical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Technology
Sydney. Here she shares her thoughts on the six myths of vaccination
with SBS and The Conversation.
By Rachael Dunlop, University of Technology, Sydney
Recently released government figures show levels of childhood
vaccination have fallen to dangerously low levels in some areas of
Australia, resulting in some corners of the media claiming re-ignition
of ?the vaccine debate?.
You can check how your postcode rates here.
Well, scientifically, there?s no debate. In combination with clean water
and sanitation, vaccines are one of the most effective public health
measures ever introduced, saving millions of lives every year.
Those who claim there is a ?debate? will cite a series of canards
designed to scare people away from vaccinating, but, if you?re not
familiar with their claims, you could easily be convinced by anti-
vaccine rhetoric.
So what is true and what is not?
Let?s address just a few of the common vaccine myths and explain why
they?re wrong.
1. Vaccines cause autism
The myth that vaccines are somehow linked to autism is an unsinkable
rubber duck. Initiated in 1998 following the publication of the now
notorious Lancet paper, (not-a-Dr) Andrew Wakefield was the first to
suggest that the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to
autism.
What he didn?t reveal was that he had multiple conflicts of interest
including that he was being paid by lawyers assembling a class action
against the manufacturers of MMR, and that he himself had submitted an
application for a patent for a single measles vaccine.
It eventually unravelled for Wakefield when the paper was retracted in
2010. He was struck from the medical register for behaviour classified
as ?dishonest, unethical and callous? and the British Medical Journal
accused him of deliberate fraud.
But once the idea was floated, scientists were compelled to investigate,
particularly when it stood to impact public health so dramatically. One
of the most powerful pieces of evidence to show that there is no link
between vaccines and autism comes from Japan where the MMR was replaced
with single vaccines mid-1993. Guess what happened? Autism continued to
rise.
After this door closed, anti-vaxers shifted the blame to thiomersal, a
mercury-containing component (not be confused with the scary type that
accumulates in the body). Small amounts of thiomersal were used as a
preservative in some vaccines, but this never included MMR.
Thiomersal or ethyl-mercury was removed from all scheduled childhood
vaccines in 2000, so if it were contributing to rising cases of autism,
you would expect a dramatic drop following its removal. Instead, like
the MMR in Japan, the opposite happened, and autism continues to rise.
Further evidence comes from a recently published exhaustive review
examining 12,000 research articles covering eight different vaccines
which also concluded there was no link between vaccines and autism.
Yet the myth persists and probably for several reasons, one being that
the time of diagnosis for autism coincides with kids receiving several
vaccinations and also, we currently don?t know what causes autism. But
we do know what doesn?t, and that?s vaccines.
2. Smallpox and polio have disappeared so there?s no need to vaccinate
anymore
It?s precisely because of vaccines that diseases such as smallpox have
disappeared.
India recently experienced two years without a single case of polio
because of a concerted vaccination campaign.
Australia was declared measles-free in 2005 by the World Health
Organization (WHO) ? before we stopped being so vigilant about
vaccinating and outbreaks began to reappear.
The impact of vaccine complacency can be observed in the current measles
epidemic in Wales where there are now over 800 cases and one death, and
many people presenting are of the age who missed out on MMR vaccination
following the Wakefield scare.
In many ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success, leading us to
forget just how debilitating preventable diseases can be ? not seeing
kids in calipers or hospital wards full of iron lungs means we forget
just how serious these diseases can be.
3. More vaccinated people get the disease than the unvaccinated
Although this sounds counter-intuitive, it?s actually true, but it
doesn?t mean that vaccines don?t work as anti-vaxers will conflate.
Remember that no vaccine is 100% effective and vaccines are not a force
field. So while it?s still possible to get the disease you?ve been
vaccinated against, disease severity and duration will be reduced.
With pertussis (whooping cough), for example, severe complications such
as pneumonia and encephalitis (brain inflammation) occur almost
exclusively in the unvaccinated.
So since the majority of the population is vaccinated, it follows that
most people who get a particular disease will be vaccinated, but
critically, they will suffer fewer complications and long-term effects
than those who are completely unprotected.
4. My unvaccinated child should be of no concern to your vaccinated one
Vaccination is not just a personal issue, it?s a community
responsibility, largely because of a concept known as ?community
immunity?. This describes a level of vaccination that prevents epidemics
or outbreaks from taking hold and spreading.
Some people question the validity of this concept, sometimes referred to
as herd immunity, but the impact of it breaking down can be easily
observed in places where vaccination levels fall dangerously low ? take
the current measles outbreak in Wales, for example.
The other important factor about community immunity is it protects those
who, for whatever reason, can?t be vaccinated or are not fully
vaccinated. This includes very young children, immunocompromised people
(such as cancer sufferers) and elderly people.
5. Vaccines contain toxins
A cursory search of Google for vaccine ingredients pulls up a mishmash
of scary-sounding ingredients that to the uninitiated can sound like
?franken-science?.
Some of these claims are patently untrue (there is no anti-freeze in
vaccines), or are simple scaremongering (aborted foetuses ? in the 1960s
some cells were extracted from a foetus to establish a cell line that is
still used in labs today). Some of the claimed chemicals (and remember
everything is made of chemicals) are present, but are at such low levels
as to never reach toxicity.
The simple thing to remember is the poison is in the dose ? in high
enough doses even water can kill you. And there?s 600 times more
formaldehyde in a pear than a vaccine.
Also, if you ever read the claim that ?vaccines are injected directly
into the blood stream? (they?re not), be sceptical of any other claims
made.
6. Vaccines will overwhelm kids? undeveloped immune systems
The concept of ?too many too soon? was recently examined in a detailed
analysis of the US childhood immunisation schedule by The Institute of
Medicine. Experts specifically looked for evidence that vaccination was
linked to ?autoimmune diseases, asthma, hypersensitivity, seizures,
child developmental disorders, learning or developmental disorders, or
attention deficit or disruptive disorders?, including autism. The
researchers confirmed that the childhood vaccination schedule was safe.
The amount of immune challenges that children fight every day (between
2,000 to 6,000) in the environment is significantly greater than the
number of antigens or reactive particles in all their vaccinations
combined (about 150 for the entire vaccination schedule).
So the next time you hear these myths about vaccination, hopefully
you?ll have some evidence up your sleeve to debunk them.
Finally, some tips from Dr Dunlop
"Despite the array of opinions online, there are reliable sources on the
web that you can head to for information.
One good tip is to search for "immunisation", not "vaccination". Most
hits that come up for "vaccination" contain anti-immunisation messages.
Also look for government sites such as Immunise Australia or the
Australian Academy of Sciences.
Otherwise, have a chat with your GP or immunisation nurse."
Rachael Dunlop receives funding from The Institute for Ethnomedicine,
WY. She is a Vice President of Australian Skeptics Inc. and an
administrator of the Stop the AVN Facebook page