More and more the anti-vaccination movement is growing worldwide. In the United States alone last year, there were outbreaks of hepatitis A, mumps, measles, pertussis, and more than 80,000 deaths due to influenza. In spite of the myth that vaccines causing autism has been debunked, anti-vaxxers cling to the belief that big Pharma and the government are not telling the truth on the dangers of vaccination. I am assuming these are the same people who do not believe in climate science either, since there will be more infectious disease as the world gets hotter.
The generation plagued with death and disability from diseases like polio, pertussis, and tuberculosis were the ones who created mass vaccination so this generation would not suffer the devastating consequences of infectious diseases. It is a pity that this generation has not seen iron lungs, children dying from pertussis, and people quarantined in sanitariums.
After working more than a decade in immunization, I am still baffled by the stupidity of anti-vaxxers but I no longer argue with them. Currently there is an emerging outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis, known as AFA, which is a rare polio-like illness with no cure, no vaccine, and no certainty of when it will stop. Their children went to bed with a cold and woke up being unable to use their limbs. I wonder if any of the 144 parents of the children affected by AFA are anti-vaccine. My guess is no. The only hope for these and future patients, which are mainly children, will come from science and pharmacology. But until people confront the reality of death and disability from infectious disease, the movement will continue to seek converts.
Don't get me started on the Hollywood celebrities that have joined this bandwagon. Many of them are blaming their children's autism on vaccines. It does not make a difference that the physician, Andrew Wakefield, who started this rumor with a flawed small study (and lost his medical license to practice because of it), is still being quoted. They do not want to think that genetics, epi-genetics, having children when the father is older, being exposed to infectious disease (especially in the second trimester of pregnancy), may have contributed to their child's autism. To read more on the science of autism, go the incredible research being done at the University of California, San Diego: https://autism-center.ucsd.edu.
Unlike the anti-vaxxers, I have seen death and disability from the foolish consequence of not getting vaccinated. I have seen the tears of a first-time mother grieving the loss of her 8 week old baby from pertussis. I have seen a 36 year old die from chickenpox. I have seen countless people die from flu and pneumonia. Not me, I am taking my chances on science and vaccines.
