Cholera, Typhoid, Typhus, and Yellow Fever all were very active in Africa when I was there, decades after antibiotics came into being. Spending time at a medical mission in Malawi which was constantly treating local cholera patients was sobering. The physician's only tool for treating the people who made it to his tiny hospital was to put them on I.V.s to replace the fluids they constantly were losing while fighting this dreadful disease. Many still died. Malawi was a poor country; it's citizens didn't have access to vaccines.
1
There is going to come a day when every single antivaxxer, unfortunately, will be screaming for a vaccine that they refused, or whose development they helped block, or whose researcher they helped discourage.
8
I'm astonished this is still a debate. I had measles, mumps, Chicken pox, German measles...you name it. It was only by the grace of Sabin and Salk that I was too young to get polio. As an RN watching children suffer and die from these diseases is horrible. It's just public health common sense. Vaccinate.
6
Autism rates in California public schools jumped 7 percent in 2016
http://www.sacbee.com/site-services/databases/article90300877.html
2
This has nothing to do with the change in vaccination policy, as rates were rising regardless of policy. It's a misleading article. Regardless even of that, vaccines don't cause autism.
11
Autism rates are rising because the APA has recently written new guidelines for diagnosing autism, as well as all other mental health disorders. The DSM V also puts Ausberger's on the autism spectrum, where it belongs. Simply stated, we are seeing more cases of autism because under the new guidelines, they are being properly diagnosed.
That single piece of crap research which allegedly connected autism and vaccines was debunked years ago. There is NO legitimate scientific research which has ever shown ANY connection between autism and vaccines.
7
If you are not willing to get your child vaccinated, your child should not be permitted to attend public school. If you are unwilling to be vaccinated yourself, you should not be permitted to hold a job. Zero exemptions. Zero excuses.
11
Antivaxxers with autism claims are guilty of a logical fallacy: Post hoc ergo propter hoc = Happened after therefore caused by. Even ancient Romans knew of this kind of fuzzy thinking. Vaccinations are typically administered very early in a child's life, but autism is not diagnosed until later.
The British physician who messed with data and published has been completely discredited and appropriately disciplined.
The CA law is just one more example of how The Golden State is more evolved and ahead of the national curve. The other states eventually catch up, with a few exceptions.
6
Actually, sorry to inject a fact, but Wakefield's partner on the paper was cleared last year by a UK court after losing the last decade or more of practice. Wakefield, equally guilty or innocent, could not try for appeal because he had not taken out insurance to pay for legal costs. While Wakefield has since become a vocal anti-vaccine person, the original paper, concerned with the presence of measles virus in the disturbed gastro-intestinal systems of autistic patients, only said that the subject of measles virus in autism should be further examined. The vaccine issue at the time in Britain was really about whether or not to continue importing vaccine from a Canadian manufacturer who made a measles only vaccine or give the business 100% to a UK manufacturer who made an MMR (three-disease) vaccine. For patriotic reasons (and who knows what else) the UK company had to win. The paper Wakefield co-authored with the lead pediatric gastro-enterologist at his hospital may have become somewhat a victim of this industrial battle. It's hard to tell and has nothing to do with California but the fact is that Wakefield's side both won at appeal and merely suggested a further research topic.
2
Interesting how many of the Anti vaxers dont believe in the scientific data on how vaccines work, but will tell others about the scientific data on global warming
7
Interesting how many of the vaccine apologists don't understand that most "anti vaxers" (sic) were previously 100% pro-vax until their child was seriously injured due to vaccines and that the injury matches the government's injury table which was assembled in conjunction with the vaccine manufacturers to determine the timeframe following vaccination that the injury was most likely to have been caused by the vaccine.
1
As an LA public school teacher who has to be coughed and sneezed on every day by kids whose parents send their kids to school knowing full well they are sick because they can, forcing people to do what’s right is all you can do sometimes.
8
It floors me that so many people are willing to throw out hard science in favor of rumors and wives tales. To all those who refuse vaccines, may you get what you deserve. To those who are unable to receive vaccines for medical reasons, may your paths never cross with those thousands of feckless carriers whose parents cared nothing for their fellow man.
6
I was pulled out of the narrative of this article by this odd phrase: "It could have been better — a place like North Carolina is at about 98 percent — but this was a high enough rate to be in the range of herd immunity. "
What is this place "like" North Carolina? Is it South Carolina? Is it Wyoming? What makes it so "like" North Carolina -- but yet we dare not speak its name?
1
Oprah Winfrey bears some responsibility for the vaccination scare, having promoted vaccines as possible causes of autism and giving people like Jenny McCarthy exposure on her shows.
Anyone giving a thought of Oprah in 2020 ought to consider her taste for quack science.
11
"There is a five-fold higher risk of seizures from the MMR vaccine than seizures from measles, and a significant portion of MMR-vaccine seizures cause permanent harm. For example, 5% of febrile seizures result in epilepsy, a chronic brain disorder that leads to recurring seizures. Annually, about 300 MMR-vaccine seizures (5% of 5,700) will lead to epilepsy."
https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/news/physicians-informed-consen...
3
You cited a biased, anti-vax website that is coy about its origins as scientific, neutral gospel.
Ever seen a little kid's breastbone suck in three or four inches because their windpipe's closed off after an infection that's now vaccine-preventable?
I have. More than once. At three AM.
Quite the party. And once, I got to see a terrified, exhausted first-year resident try to get a trach tube in because nothing else had worked.
Sorry you missed it. The parents certainly enjoyed the blood, as a tired doc worked to cut their kid's throat to save their life.
11
Vaccination refusal is just the tip of the anti-science and life's-about-me iceberg, a place where "my rights" include risking your welfare. America has become a society of hyper-individualism, with a presumption of instant gratification and a sense of entitlement. Hopefully it will not take a national calamity such as a World War or an influenza pandemic to make us again believe and feel that we are one nation, not just a collection of individuals and hyphenated Americans more committed to a primary identity other than American.
Neither individuals nor societies are good at making accurate threat assessments. We spend untold billions on a "war against terrorism", yet almost nothing to fight drunk driving, a threat literally an order or two of magnitude greater to ordinary Americans.
When it comes to effecting policy changes, hyper-individualistic democracies are like battleships, as compared to autocracies, which are more like cutters. A battleship has huge firepower, but cannot turn quickly to fight a threat which appears from a new direction, as can a cutter. Humans mostly live and think in the now, occasionally the short term. To counterbalance that, societies need excellent political, social, and economic leadership. If we are to forestall a pandemic, as well as other serious threats, we need leaders in all spheres who are willing to risk being initially unpopular by clearly articulating the problem, educating their constituencies, and then taking appropriate actions.
10
I've read this statement a couple of times now and thought the same thing both times: yep. We are in mortal danger from flu and pandemics more so than war, terrorisists, etc., but the Feds are focused on the war machine cuz that's what they do. They make war.
Why do we wage war? I'm not really sure why any more. We can tell ourselves it's to push democracy across the globe, but that's a lie. It doesn't work. I really cannot figure it out. There's no logic to spending billions of dollars on war, in foreign countries that aren't ever going to like us, when we need to fight disease and save the planet. You know, the small stuff, lol.......
The fact that the "debate" of whether to vaccinate or not is still being considered reasonable just demonstrates that we are not a science based society.
Measles still kills thousands of children each year around the world and there is a large segment that thinks it is acceptable instead of vaccination. In the US, hundreds used to die each year.
Those evil doctors have saved millions of lives with cheap, very reliable vaccines and somehow that is a bad thing? Do we really want small pox and polio to make a comeback....
9
In the US measles deaths were reduced by over 98% in just 58 years between 1904 (11.0 deaths per 100,000 cases) and 1962 (0.2 deaths per 100,000 cases). Measles vaccine was first introduced in 1963, so that massive reduction was not due to vaccines.
What about this phenomenon (declining deaths) do you assert would have changed were the vaccine not introduced in 1963? Are you saying the death rate was about to stagnate? Or even climb? Please present some evidence to support your assertion. The evidence I present that it would have continued to decline is of course the decline that had been occurring at a fairly stead rate for the previous several decades. (source - CDC Vital Statistics, Mortality, 1904 and 1962)
1
"Changing minds (of the States' subjects) is very difficult, but it isn’t so important when a law can change behavior."
Here's hoping the American public doesn't consider this acceptable use of government authority for much beyond forcing pharmaceutical products on children. The sentiment sends a patriotic shudder down my spine, even if regulatory capture were not a real thing.
2
Excellent article with some unexpected and important results.
1
I had a serious case of measles when I was about 3 years old (during World War II). Although I survived, the disease destroyed all the nerve tissues to my hearing on my right side and impaired the hearing on the left side, making low frequencies inaudible to me. There is no doubt that these losses severely affected my personality and my life. I can’t tell the direction from where a sound is produced (directional hearing requires sensing minute differences in timing as sound reaches each ear); stereo headsets badly misrepresent music for me; people sitting on my right side at a dinner party are invisible to me; and so on.
I was fortunate that a combination of residual hearing and intensive training in lip reading have permitted me to function. But I am powerfully aware of the selfishness, lack of concern for others, and sheer stupidity that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children impose on others. My parents would have walked over burning coals to have some way to have protected me from the scourge of measles.
I’m generally a pretty peaceful person - but in my mind, parents who refuse vaccinations should be horse whipped! Three cheers for California.
11
It would be fascinating to learn whether those parents who had "personal belief" exemptions, and then got their kids vaccinated because of the law, experienced any changes in their personal beliefs!
2
Nelson Mandela said education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Educational discrimination based on immune response is high tech racism. Of course pharma would want to deny their opponents' healthy children access to education. Nothing could be more obvious.
2
Those considering vaccines should request the vaccine insert first and thoroughly read the contents before consenting.
Most doctors have not read the inserts.
There is a reason the US government has a vaccine injury compensation program since vaccine makers have been protected from lawsuits due to injury.
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC dot org) is a good place to check out for up-to-date info on vaccines and others' experiences with vaccines.
3
Talk to your doc.
NVIC makes millions a year from lying to you.
2
For complete and thorough examination of this issue, one would hope you'd consider (and report) how many of those that got the measles were unvaccinated, school-aged children, as I had read it was only about 18. I think that matters. Also, how has the number of homeschooled children changed? Has it gone up and, if so, by how much? Sure these schools may have the same enrollment since the law passed, but they also used to have long waiting lists, probably. Maybe it's just that the vaccinated applicants are the ones getting in, and the others are staying home because they have to? I hope that journalists can be more thorough and unbiased on this issue in the future. There are many kids harmed by this new CA law. The states with the highest vaccination rates also have the highest infant mortality rates. That is newsworthy, too, I think.
2
I lost several friends when I fought for the passage of this law, and I was told that the measles outbreak was "a hoax" and I should "do my research." I am so proud to have beaten back the anti-science hordes in one tiny way.
9
People decide on not vaccinating thinking that the risk of vaccination is greater than the risk of the diseases they prevent. You can talk about levels needed to prevent achieve herd immunity until you are blue in the face, but the Berkeley elites represented by that Waldorf School do not care and clearly expect that the lesser folks will somehow get the shots and save their children. They need to go back into the last century with their theories and watch the way whooping cough, measles, diphtheria, and small pox looks like on a death bed.
5
I'm a little puzzled that so many people blame anti-vaccination hoopla on liberals to me. to me, the anti-vaxxers sounds more like anti-government right-wingers.They sound more like the types who "don't trust the government" etc.
2
I suppose, it's an equal opportunity case of science denial!
3
If you don't want to get your children vaccinated, you're free to homeschool them. But you're also obliged to disclose that they are not vaccinated when involving your kids in any social interactions with other kids. Including taking them to Disneyland.
7
California State Senator Richard Pan was the principle sponsor for this vaccination law. Professionally, he's a pediatrician and is well aware of the health risks to children. For his efforts, he was subject to an unsuccessful recall petition and numerous death threats.
1
California finally did something sensible. Other states should follow its lead. Parents who don't get their children immunized, unless there is a good medical reason, should be prosecuted for child endangerment.
3
An unvaccinated child is a menace. At times a deadly menace to himself and all children -- vaccinated or otherwise. The child of course is innocent. But his parents should be accountable, be subject to severe fines, and held up to the opprobrium of the community.
5
Glad to hear the legislature enacted a law, sad to hear that herd thinking rules the lives of many. Personal exemptions based on a fear of a bad consequence to vaccinations which itself is based on a total misunderstanding of the medical and epidemiological science is very disturbing. Hopefully, in a follow-up in the Upshot will track the prevalence rates of autism, ADHD, SIDS and other side effects that have been associated with widespread vaccination. It would indeed be interesting to see whether those prevalence rates change in those counties with low vaccination rates. Might be worthwhile to ask what the adverse event rates were in those counties with low vaccination rates and what they are with increased vaccinations.
4
Glad to read that the legislature enacted a rational law for the good of society.
When I first saw the title and picture I thought the new law was going to be about having to show proof of immunization in order to get into Disneyland. Come to think about it further, such a law might also be a good way to get out-of-state kids to vaccinate as well.
9
California finally did something sensible. Other states should follow its lead. Parents who don't make sure their children are immunized should (unless there is a good medical reason) be criminally prosecuted for child endangerment.
7
My children are vaccinated, but I remember thinking that the suggested CDC vaccine schedule was a little scary because there so many more vaccines than there used to be. For example, at two months, babies get the polio, Hib, Prevnar, rotavirus, Hep B and Dtap vaccines. They get the same shots at four and six months. They also get the flu shot at 6 months. To the lay person (me), it just seems like a lot - I have never gotten 6 or 7 shots in one sitting. There seems to be many medical experts commenting on this article. Could you please point me to the studies supporting the safety of the current CDC schedule. I can only find safety studies on individual vaccines but can’t seem to find any on giving those listed above at the same time. Thank you!
10
Admittedly not a study, but something to think about: babies and children are exposed to thousands of antigens just through everyday life, and their immune systems are well-equipped to handle this. Certainly 6 or 7 shots can seem like a lot; but when you think about it, the antigens contained in the shots are just a tiny percentage of what babies see day to day.
3
As a retired hospital RN as well as being a school nurse for several years, I was astounded by the attitude of many of our parents, particularly in more affluent and educated neighborhoods. In "my day" here in CA it was public health policy to require all students to be fully up to date in their immunizations before entering school, all ages, all grades. No ifs or buts. The exemptions, if any, were to be signed by a physician and based usually on a pre-existing physical condition. Also, with all the kids I checked over the years, not one had severe or debilitating reactions to the MMR vaccine. Upon learning of the recent "protests" of parents who felt they knew best - don't we all? - when it comes to their children, I was angry at their hubris, based on a Readers' Digest mentality, not on our experts, physicians. I am glad and proud that CA stepped in and put a halt to the absurdity. And I thank our law makers.
32
That's right, because doctors and nursing groups have always led the way by subjecting themselves to the same standard of vaccination required of our kindergarteners! It's time we honor that leadership by having the California legislation require "full vaccination" to practice medicine or maintain a nursing license. No ifs or buts. If our physicians are the experts then let them lead the way! The same goes for teachers and nurses. The teacher's and nurse's unions can lead the way by immediately requiring full vaccination of their members or refusing individual member dues. Law makers, pick up the phone tomorrow and call those unions if you really care about herd immunity.
1
If the vaccination rate is 95%, people want to be among the remaining 5% since there is no outbreak and they can avoid vaccination accidents. If it is 50%, they want to be vaccinated since possible outbreaks scare them. So there should be a Nash equilibrium somewhere. However, as is well known theoretically, a Nash equilibrium usually pays a bad price of anarchy. Thus law helps and this California case is a good example. I would strongly prefer to read this kind of articles rather than Trump's he-said-she-said ones.
6
I'm a pediatrician and I practice in California. Passage of SB 277 was a total godsend. I can't tell you how many of my vaccine refusers in my practice suddenly were willing to give their children several vaccines at once so they could get them into school. It also made it way easier to discuss what constitutes a true medical contraindication to a vaccine.
Just as important, this law is interrupting the culture of vaccine refusal. For vaccine-refuser families, many of whom are highly educated, vaccine refusal is a community belief and part of their community identity, which is why education doesn't improve vaccine rates. When everyone has to be vaccinated, and when it becomes clear vaccination isn't harmful, these beliefs no longer stay the community norm.
54
I take issue with doctors who blame this outbreak on vaccine avoiders - most of the people who got the measles were actually vaccinated, and physicians did not recognize that they were spreading the measles until unvaccinated individuals got the disease - a big part of the problem with measles right now is the physicians who do not recognize and test for it early in the infection when it is so easy to spread. A better way to promote vaccination is to make measles titer testing part of adolescent and adult care, so that people who could spread the disease can be vaccinated early. California's public health services are too quick to blame a few vaccine avoiders to make up for their own poor diagnostic skills. It would be more efficient to test sick people for the measles more often, and spend less money on advertising to get a few avoiders on board.
3
As a pediatric ID specialist, I can state with certainty that this is incorrect. The current measles vaccine is very efficacious, over 90%, however there will always be some non responders. Measles is highly infectious, and will spread and infect all susceptible individuals very quickly. The Disneyland outbreak was driven by unvaccinated individuals. Check out the CDC website, specifically the reports and analyses of the outbreak which were published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. A related point, measles is now widespread in Venezuela secondary to the collapse of their public health infrastructure-no vaccine, lots of measles. Not everything is a government or industry conspiracy.
25
I read that report. 45% were unvaccinated. (71 and of those, 26 were too young and 1 was medically indicated) So less than 1/3 of the cases were people who chose not to vaccinate. I'm not sure they can be considered the "driver" of the epidemic, especially if patient 0 is unknown.
1
It's a simple counterfactual: if the resisters *had been* vaccinated, ceteris paribus would the outbreak have occurred? That establishes causal implication.
As for moral guilt, you'd have to show they had foreknowledge of the possible consequences of their decision. This is more difficult because of their sincerely held "beliefs".
1
Many people with young children now have no memory of what childhood diseases like measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc., could do to a person. That lack means that they see vaccinations as unnecessary particularly since vaccinations can have complications associated with them. If they had been in school or parents prior to the 1970s they would have seen and experienced the yearly alerts about measles or chicken pox or mumps in the schools. They would have heard about at least one person who became extremely ill from whatever illness was going around. Today they don't hear about it. And they don't understand that these childhood diseases are dangerous to adults who haven't had them and to people whose immune systems are compromised.
But I think it's part of a larger problem in America. People pick a side and refuse to budge even when safety is involved. We do a lousy job educating people about health and science in school and out of school. Mandate the vaccinations and do some public education like what we did for smoking. Some people might listen. Or have every student read "Little Women" or about Dr. Edward Jenner.
26
One of the saddest cases I saw in my medical training was a child with Subacute Sclerosing Pan Encephalitis which is a devastating form of brain damage that occurs several years after a measles infection. It is fortunately rare but the child had seemingly recovered only to decline into a near-vegetable state by the age of 8. People have forgotten how devastating childhood illnesses were before the vaccine era. Antibiotics, closed sewers and vaccines are the three biggest public health accomplishments of modern times and have done the most to increase our life expectancy.
40
My Granny contracted polio when she was a child and struggled with the aftermath her entire life. The left side of her body was partially paralyzed which impacted her speech and ability to walk. Because our family had a living example of what happens without any vaccines we made sure that our children were vaccinated.
I suspect that because vaccines have eradicated diseases people have forgotten that they do actually save lives. My Dad remembers when the school nurse gave all kids their vaccines to ensure that they were done on time. California has the right idea. Sometimes the only way to change a behavior is with the law. I hope other states follow their example.
26
If you examine the vital statistics recorded by every industrial country over the past 150+ years you will see the mortality rate of every single communicable disease bottom out before any vaccine campaigns. A healthy immune profile fights disease effectively. Vaccination is effective on incidence rates, not mortality rates. Typhoid, Typhus, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Scarlet Fever and more all disappeared on their own before wide scale antibiotics or vaccination. Keep this in mind. The overwhelming evidence should conclude a health focus not on vaccinating every last kid but keeping our population fed with healthy food in clean low stress environments.
5
So, should we aim for a total organic, nature farming utopia, and those who die because we don't have it - or because they dare be a bit sick, a bit unhealthy - or because we don't currently have the structure to provide this lifestyle to any significant percentage of America nor the world - well, that's just the cost?
We don't all have a healthy immune profile. Vaccinations work - not only in an ideal world, but in the flawed real world.
2
Umm. NO. I've been to Africa. Again, NO.
5
Smallpox, chickenpox, tetanus, whooping cough, rubella fever, measles, mumps, T.B., polio. What do these diseases have in common? They have been wiped out from American soil, other than rare cases, by VACCINES. Research - you'll find the history that tells you these diseases were virulent prior to being wiped out by vaccinations.
1
I am not an anti-vaxer. But when we are combining 3 in one vaccines like the MMR it can get murky. My child had a very bad reaction after getting this shot yet nobody could say which one it was. Was it because of the measles part? The mumps? Or rubella?
In other countries they separate them. Giving one BIG does, especially to a baby may not be the best thing for all to who it is given. Can you get these one by one? I don't know.
I'd be interested in these secretive vaccine courts to find out which ones are the baddies or more compromising.
There have been damages done and we won't know because of the big, white curtain of silence.
13
The latest media presentation of the measles outbreak at Disneyland as a result of unvaccinated children is very upsetting. We are being fed information that is essentially inaccurate by media journalists - none of whom have medical degrees - which may actually be promoting medical harm to our children.
The latest reports blaming a failure of the measles vaccine on the unvaccinated population are not accurate, and in some reports, not true at all. In fact, over the past 30 years, there have been similar numbers of measles cases reported in various areas of the United States. Studies published in leading medical journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Epidemiology, American Journal of Public Health and others around the world have confirmed small numbers, 75-140 cases of measles annually. So why then is the latest statistic of over 90 cases of measles spread over 14 states, representing tens of millions of people being billed as an epidemic?
The media would have us believe that this is a result of the fringe population of anti-vaxers who refuse to have their children vaccinated according the guidelines of the current vaccine schedule.
Last year 1 in every 500,000 Americans came down with the measles. Nearly all recovered in a few days without serious consequences. At the same time 1 in 68 American children were diagnosed with autism or for every case of measles there were 7000 cases of autism. I ask myself which is the real epidemic here?
10
Incorrect statistics are the true epidemic here.
For example, the 1 in 68 referred to a study with self reported kids with autism, including those where the parents self-diagnosed. If you look at the stats - many of those cases, the kids grow out of it. Real autism - you don't grow out of it.
Looking at the stats - you see that the number of properly diagnosed cases of autism rise with the knowledge of the diagnosis - while cases of "mental retardation" decline - the 'rise' can be significantly attributed to awareness rather than more children affected, along with broadening the term to include Aspergers, to the degree that it is very nearly a diagnosis made merely for an introverted child and not much else.
7
Autism is not contagious.
4
Science is science. Does not change with the associations you are claiming here.
4
California has 57 counties. In no way could the bar graphs as shown in the article reflect a distribution by county. For example, the 2014 cohorts between 77.5% and 80% and between 82.5% and 85% clearly show percentages much smaller than 1/57, which is a bit shy of 2%. Cohorts in the bar graph for 2016 show the same problem. While I don't challenge the accomplishments the article is working to cover, getting the details right is of course the true measure of the article's worth to its readership. Are these cohorts perhaps by school district or other finer level of categorization?
4
The horizontal axis does not represent counties; it represents the rate of vaccination. If county X and county Y both have vaccination rates of 95%, the populations of both counties are represented together in the 95% bar.
I'm not sure how having a graph with 57 vertical bars would present this information in a clearer way. But perhaps that would be a fun craft task for a rainy day...
4
As CDC whistleblowers have shown and independent analysis of CDC data has backed up, vaccines are not without risk and the CDC still refuses to do the Vaxxed vs Unvaxxed study requested by congress.
Even Andrew Wakefield is not an anti-vaxxeer, he wants separate measles, Mumps, Rubella shots brought back and wants testing of new vaccines to the same standards as any other new drug.
While experts still don't know what causes autism, it is thought to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors such as infections or exposure to certain chemicals that may lead to differences in the shape and structure of a child’s brain. According to an estimate by the CDC published last year, 1 in 45 (or 2.24 percent) of children age 3 to 17 may have autism — a steep rise over the past few decades. One of those increases is the large increase in vaccinations over the past 30 years. From about 8 in childhood to 60+ and also the routine vaccination of pregnant women.
Researchers have theorized that part of the rise could be attributable to a greater awareness of the condition. Really, think back to your childhood, how many autistic kids were in your classroom?
12
When I was a child there were no children with autism or other disabilities in my classrooms. 1975 was the first year that federal law required public schools to allow kids with disabilities to attend.
7
They weren't in my classroom because they were in special ed which is a thing of the past.
4
I have never understood why Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the author of the the British study that supposed linked autism and vaccinations and was found to have misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study was not brought on murder charges by the State of California. He knowingly committed fraud which resulted in the deaths of children which I believe is sufficient in California to be convicted of murder. A conviction of murder might have changed a number of minds. I believe that Dr. Wakefield currently resides in California.
15
I was living in Cambridgeshire when that detestable article by Wakefield came out. It is amazing how quickly herd immunity drops. The well educated mothers in my area starting balking at boosters for the jabs. Two years later, and one of my daughter's preschool classmates came down with German Measels. I was there months pregnant and terrified that my own immunization Against The disease would prove ineffective. People who do Not immunize are historical illiterates who use other people's immunized children as a shield to keep their own children safe, which is a despicable act. My son was born safely, but I was disturbed that ths UK and German school systems did not ask for Immunization proof for enrollment, and I applaud California for their hard nosed reaction against the ignorant.
19
I just checked the CDC website and learned that in 2014, the most recent year reported, the US had 31,959 deaths due to motor vehicle accidents. Do the anti-vaxers in California refuse to take their children in cars because of the risk? I don't think so.
15
I will never understand why this is not a law in every state. Vaccinate your kids. No personal exemption nonsense. Sadly these people won't understand the serious consequences of not vaccinating until their child is harmed from a preventable illness.
16
Sometimes a stick is the only solution. Let's also thank all those school secretaries whom had to explain and enforce this law.
13
I'm fascinated by how the anti-vaxxers come crawling out of cyberspace whenever someone posts an article like this. I belong to a couple groups on FB that make fun of them, and really, some of what goes on in those groups is ludicrous enough I don't understand what logic was behind it, if any. (Things Anti-Vaxxers Say; they simply post people's own comments with the names redacted)
There is no logic for not vaccinating if your child is healthy enough to have the shots. Period.
12
I applauded SB 277 when it was signed into law. Right before the bill passed, I attended a county supervisor hearing where I was interested in another matter. SB 277 was on the agenda first, and the anti-vaxers who spoke never presented a cogent or even scientific argument against vaccination. I could tell the supervisors were just waiting for the speeches to end so they could vote in favor of SB 277. What none of the anti-vaxers that day acknowledged is that measles can be a serious illness for some populations. The narcissism was striking.
15
We should require vaccination. Period.
13
As we often hear these days, you are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.
Personal fears, religious objections, none of that matters. A dead or maimed child does. Perhaps it is the child of the ignorant parent, or perhaps it is the poor child who was vaccinated but for whatever reason is not immune. Regardless, it does not matter. A child can get very sick, permanent crippled, or die. All because of the stupidity of parents.
This is a product of stupid liberalism. You do not have a right to take heroin, drive 100 mph in public, or to not pay taxes. But you somehow have a right to willingly endanger your child or mine?
Please. This is child abuse. The children should be removed from their parent's control at every necessary interval and be vaccinated. Parents refuse a second time, they go to jail.
Oh- and the manufacturers need to be held harmless, barring evidence of fraud, for 'vaccine-associated injuries.' They are safe and approved. Not perfect, but safe. There are other means of providing for care of special needs people that do not involve frivolous law suits.
13
The Times once again betrays its bias on this issue, which is much more nuanced than the conventional wisdom lets on.
What is often left unanalyzed here is the health tradeoff that we make with vaccines. What are we losing in exchange for protection against these diseases?
I am baffled at how vaccines are perpetually framed as a virtually cost-free endeavor. Vaccines dysregulate the immune system and harm our microbiota, which are already compromised due to things like antibiotics. These are some of the prime drivers of what ails millions of people when they age: autoimmune diseases like MS, chronic fatigue, and more.
The people who so readily argue that vaccines are a panacea are often the same folks who willingly accept autism, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and the like as facts of life - or at most as riddles that can be solved with a drug - rather than the consequence of toxic health choices we make in our society.
I also scratch my head when the measles "debacle" at Disneyland is held up as the hell that awaits us if we do not vaccinate against every illness. How many of the kids infected died? Zero. I'm sure many readers will remember having chicken pox. Like measles, some kids died and now they vaccinate against that.
It is impossible to inoculate our children against every conceivable illness. The best protection is restoring integrity to our health and immune systems. But, as with our approach to psychiatric illness, most people want the easy "fix".
18
Your comments are amazing. I wonder whether or not you have a high school education. Toxic health choices and "our microbiota" are new age nonsense.
You did not have polio and wind up in an iron lung because of vaccines.
You are right though on one thing- we cannot inoculate our children against everything, but we certainly can against many terrible things.
You do not have the right to endanger your child. Or mine.
8
Ignorance and sophistry of the highest caliber.
5
Why do vaccines 'disregulate' our immune system and the disease doesn't?
How can vaccines harm our 'microbiota'?
'It is impossible to vaccinate children against every conceivable illness'.
No, we should vaccinate children against diseases, when a vaccine exists.
I guess, you think parents have the right to take their children out of the gene pool, i don't!
4
All praise to the new vaccination law. I have two small children placed in mortal risk by idiot 'deplorables' who don't even vaccinate their own children against polio let alone measles. If it were were not a matter of life and death it would be humorous to listen to these organic/paleo/vegan/pescatarians blather on about the danger of vaccinations and UFOs. In the meantime there is lead in the school drinking fountains among actual threats to our children. I am a strong believer in personal freedoms but those end where they constitute a threat to others. Just because they might believe they can fly doesn't mean they can push my children off their ignorant cliff. Too bad the NYT article didn't provide a nice demographic chart showing the deplorable correlation between "higher education" and beliefs in "fake facts," fad diets, vaccination plots, and other superstitions.
9
Hurray for state requirements that worked to cut measles' dangers to kids.
Now what about some regulations, supervision, and inspections to keep homes safer where 13 kids were mistreated, starved, or chained and dear old Dad applied to run it as a home-school for 6 kids? Measles might kill a few, but approving abusive home-school false fronts ruined 13.
2
All of my children are fully vaccinated and were done so long before any laws mandated it. I did my research, talked to my pediatrician and made my decision. I firmly believe it was the right decision for all the reasons stated in the article and comments.
However, I'm very troubled by the law that materially minimizes parents' ability to make this decision. Allowing parents together with their pediatricians to make the decision to vaccinate provides a level of needed accountability to the pharmaceutical companies. This is not a short term concern but rather a long term one but it is a big concern. When consumers lose choice, quality unfailingly falls.
What will the consequences be?
9
I would be interested in a Times article on what people like Barbara Loe Fisher make a year by selling dangerous hogwash.
2
The benefits for millions outway the bad reactions of a few hundred. Pretty simple. If one kid out of 10,000 has a bad immune system and has a bad reaction to a vaccine does not justify not manadating the vaccination of all people. It's a small risk for a very small group of people but the benefits greatly outway the risks. That is life. Let's not have this "Boy in the bubble" or over coddling children. They're already screwed up in the heads by their parents. No need to make matters worse.
Here's a thought. Enforce Federal Immigration laws and measles might not be the epidemic that it is. When you have a border with a 3rd world nation, it's a good idea SCREEN the people who come across and "forget" to return. I remember once, years ago I had to get a smallpox inoculation to visit Guatemala. Why were they so vigilant and why is America so lax? Or is that an "insensitive" question? Idiots!
1
Actually, the World Health Organization reports that Latin America has higher vaccination rates for their one year olds than do their counterparts in the U.S. Three quarters of illegal immigrants come from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, all of which maintain equal or higher vaccination rates than the U.S. Most outbreaks are due to the return of non-immunized Americans traveling internationally, such as the Amish outbreak that occurred in 2014 after a visit to the Philippines.
7
The World Health Organization reports that Latin America has higher vaccination rates for their one year olds than their counterparts in the U.S. Three quarters of illegal immigrants come from the four countries of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, all of which maintain equal or higher immunization rates than the United States. Most of the outbreaks are due to the international travel of unvaccinated Americans, such as the Amish outbreak in 2014 that occurred after returning from the Philippines.
4
rates of vaccination in Central and South America are generally higher than in the U.S.
3
Vaccinations for communicable diseases that are life threatening should be mandatory (with exceptions only for health issues).
Vaccinations for non communicable diseases should have more leeway.
1
It's a particular type of "first world privilege" to think vaccination is optional or bad for you. One only needs to look at developing nations, or just our own history, to see that vaccination makes a tremendous difference in quality of public health and life expectancy. I'm glad California passed SB277. Anti-vaccination sentiments is based on bunk pseudo-science, and should not be indulged when it puts everyone else at risk.
16
It's scandalous that the government would force you to inoculate your child when it's against your wishes or beliefs. If these vaccines really worked so well, you wouldn't need the "herd immunity" argument, <a htef="look at this site"> https://customwriting.com</a> even they wrote about it. Promoters of these multiple vaccines have not done research to find out what they really contain or what they do to the immune system of babies and young children. In fact, no one has done this research, especially to know what happens when multiple vaccines are given. There are not studies about this, only assumptions. Glad I don't live in California with small children and if I did I would move.
9
It's scandalous that children die from preventable diseases because parents choose not to have their children immunized.
24
You don't seem to know what "herd immunity" means. It means, when most of the people are vaccinated, and thus at greatly reduced risk of contracting or spreading a disease, this protects the few within the 'herd' who are medically unable to be vaccinated.
And yes, those studies you claim don't exist - they do. Hundreds of them. Some small, some covering millions of children over decades. All of them come up with the same results. Ignorance of those studies doesn't mean they don't exist, it just means you only looked to research that confirmed your fears.
29
What with vaccines, pesticides, and GMOs, it’s too dangerous to live in California.
2
"The CDC and American Cancer Society say that there will be 12,000 cervical cancers diagnosed in the United States each year, among a population of 170 million women. The chances of my daughter being diagnosed in any given year are 12,000 out of 170 million, which works out to .007 percent. The odds of her not being diagnosed in any given year, by the same math, is 99.9929 percent."
NYT- could you please start talking seriously about vaccine injury?
http://www.capitalgazette.com/opinion/columns/ac-ce-column-mazer-2018011...
8
The risk isn't limited to a single year, though. It's a lifetime, cumulative risk vs. the risk of a single vaccine. It's also the difference between a lifetime risk and no risk. In any event, you won't be so interested in statistics if your daughter is one of the unlucky ones who develops ovarian cancer. Nothing is more expensive than regret.
15
The lifetime incidence of Carvical Cancer in the US (according to the NIH) is 0.6%, with roughly a 1/3 mortality. So about 2 in 1000 women will die from Cervical Cancer. The opinion piece you referenced is really selective in picking out information that supports his opinion.
The risk of injury from the HPV vaccine is negligable. After millions of vaccinations given extensive research has been performed (adverse reactions from the vaccine are recorded in databases internationally), with no significant adverse events found on analysis.
This opinion piece references that the HPV vaccination has not been shown to prevent cervical cancer, it has been shown to effectively prevent (not treat) HPV, the number one causative risk factor for cervical cancer (which occurs many years down the track - and as such is difficult to research in a short timeframe).
So the potential to prevent the deaths of up to 2 in 1000 women (at a median age of death of 58) is a significant outcome, with so far minimal risk being identified. Lets start talking seriously, shall we?
8
Science: True science is worth study and people able to read the NYT content are quite able to read studies and research. Here is a link to the paper oft-questioned. Worth a read. Dr. Wakefield, a former gastroenterologist, was one of a team of 12 on this study. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(97)11096-... The conclusion, for those who choose not to read the science was this: "We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. In most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine" This "further study" conclusion would have been welcomed by physicians and other scientists alike if it had been about penicillin, or Vioxx. But the MMR vaccine. Look away, nothing to see here.
6
Mr. Wakefield (I'm not giving him the honor of being called 'Dr' when he was pretty much stripped of that title) was proven multiple times for lying and falsifying evidence in that 'study'. He even lost his license to practice medicine for his lies. Stop spreading misinformation.
14
Wakefield looked at 12 kids with Autism, and found that 8 of them had had MMR vaccination - and he falsified data that made it look like there was a connection.
Studies of millions of people receiving the MMR vaccination have been performed, showing absolutely no increase in the incidence of autism in those being vaccinated versus those who were not. That is true science, a retrospective look at 12 children with autism doesn't compare.
8
You do realize this paper was withdrawn and Wakefield was stripped of his medical license for fraud?
2
This is clear indication that laws work. The solution to anti-vax hysteria are mandates. Once parents realize they have no choice, they will chose to vaccinate their kids.
-- co-author "Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines are Safe and Save Lives"
7
NYT, what WAS the law or policy? In your first paragraphs, you describe the consequences but not the catalyst.
We had an outbreak of rubeola, measles, because of a failure to adequately immunize our population. There were 134 cases as a result. Strangely, the previous calendar year we had 9000 cases of pertussis, whooping cough, with ten infants dying. That got nary a peep out of the public. We as pediatricians are grateful for our state senator getting a law passed to protect children, especially those whose immune system is compromised and cannot be immunized or exposed to the risk in school
6
Thank you for mentioning whooping cough. I remember the outbreak. A friend whose leukemia was in remission at the time contracted whooping cough. I wondered if pertussis would have spared him had more children been vaccinated. He did not need another illness on his chart.
7
My friend's child attended an elementary school in SoCal where the measles vaccination rate was abysmally low. Many children in that elementary school ended up getting the measles, it was very scary and completely preventable. Personal beliefs should not have any say-so when scientific facts are completely clear.
13
Vaccines DO contain ingredients that can be allergic to some recipients. My son is highly allergic to a variety of substances - in the air, in foods, topical. And what seems to cause these reactions is mysterious to us and to his doctors. The CDC website states clearly that people should not receive vaccines if they are allergic to ingredients found in them.
We live in CA and when this law went into effect, we had to jump through all sorts of hoops and ultimately hire a lawyer who could get us the documentation we needed in order to keep our son in school. After this outbreak in Disney there was a pile-on against people who are leery about vaccinations.
In this debate about vaccines I never hear this issue about allergens discussed, even though the CDC clearly acknowledges the dangers. And the the medical community from my experience appears to know very little about the causes of, and treatments for allergies.
I understand that vaccines are overwhelmingly good and save many many lives and need to be widely adopted in order to work. But let's acknowledge that there ARE risks to some people before we go about these attacks, like Dr. Bob in Pa who is suggesting criminal action against people who can't afford to get a lawyer to work around these blunt new laws.
19
There's a difference between being leery and having a legitimate medical reason for not getting the shots.
8
Vaccine requirements protect children like yours, as long as allergies are exempted. If a child can’t get a vaccine due to allergies, it is the herd immunity that will protect him.
18
Having an allergy doesn't mean you can never have a vaccine -- it merely means you have to have a specially compounded vaccine. I have to have my vaccines specially compounded. Frankly, a compounded vaccine costs a lot less than a lawyer.
9
These parents deserve a swift kick in the hindquarters. Ask folks of generations past what they thought of measles, mumps, and Rubella. Of polio, diphtheria, and whooping cough. Even chicken pox! We've never had it so good. Why must people be so stupid, and even worse, elect to be so voluntarily?
21
Very true. My brothers and I all had chickenpox as children in the 60s and unfortunately my eldest brother had a terrible case of shingles a few years ago. He nearly lost an eye to the disease. Children who get the chickenpox vaccine will be spared this, as well those who did have chicken pox but managed to get the shingles vaccine which is not covered by most medical plans unless you are over 65.
3
shingles is on the rise Because of the chickenpox vaccine. Children who get the vaccine are not immune to getting shingles. Where do you get your information? Because of the vaccine, chickenpox is not circulating and therefore none of us get the exogenous boosting effect which would protect us from shingles.
My anti vaxers are evangelicals.
7
The lede of this article seems confusing and could be better written: "At least 159 people contracted the disease during an outbreak lasting several months. This is more than the typical number in a whole year in the United States."
1
I congratulate the NYT for publishing , for once , information that is vital to everyone.
10
For those who would like a balance to this pro- vaccine article, I suggest you watch any of the excellent videos of Barbara Fisher on YouTube.
Educate yourself. Knowledge is power.
7
Fisher lies. Her website is a morass of bad science and outright lies.
17
YouTube videos are not education.
9
There is no such thing as pro-vaccine. It's simply pro-science.
12
The drop in California's vaccination rates can be traced to one person, a celebrity who could not accept that her child landed on the autism spectrum for reasons as yet unknown and went looking for someone to blame. The attention given to her claims that vaccinations caused her child's problems, the audience her celebrity granted her, guaranteed that her unfounded beliefs would be given far more credence than they deserved.
22
Why do Californians have to be so stubborn about vaccinating their children when the evidence is so clear that not doing so endangers communities? They want to jump up and down about guns and their butchery, but not measles which can wipe out large swaths of the population in a matter of weeks. This logic chain fails every time, so why not wisen up?
6
A lot of anti-vaxxerism is the direct result of vaccination. When I was growing up, there was the kid down the street who was deaf from measles, the woman next door whose third baby died at birth due to measles, the teachers who made their way about the school on Canadian crutches or with canes due to polio. The permanent damage was all around. The antivaxers are both ignorant of science and profoundly ignorant of the counterfactual situation. In fact, many outright deny that these diseases ever killed people.
33
I am surprised by the obvious bias of this article and at the bias of the "Times Picks" of responses (really, you didn't choose a single opposing view?). Is it really not possible to discuss the reasons parents choose not to vaccinate without demonizing their decision? Anti-vaxxers aren't necessarily against science. They do not, however, want the research on the efficacy and safety of vaccinations to be funded by pharmaceutical companies. Nor do they want to waiver their rights to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible should damage be done by a vaccination. Vaccines do pose risks. They are not completely innocuous. The choice not to vaccinate poses risks as well. In my experience, parents who decide to partially vaccinate or choose not to vaccinate their children at all have done plenty of research. Much more so than parents who simply go by the status quo. This shouldn't be such a polarizing issue. Articles like this don't help. Shame on the Times.
13
The facts have a pro-vaccine bias. That's just reality.
And the studies on the efficacy and safety have been done by governments, the UN, independent researchers, universities, so on and so forth.
20
Research does not consist of reading bad info and coming to the conclusion that one is entitled to put the public health's in danger. We vaccinate for public health not because pharm companies say so.
15
Preposterous ignorance of medical and scientific facts, when it can harm or even kill a child or children, is indefensible and criminal.
3
This reinforces that public policy is important, changes lives and saves lives. It would also be interesting for the Upshot to overlay the autism rate in CA during the same period from 2014-2016 to prove, again, with science, that vaccinating children does not cause autism.
This study also reinforces the importance of public policy. It can change lives and save lives.
3
The key point here is that vaccination is not about personal health. It is about public health, and that is the reason for things like requiring it for school attendance. People see this as a matter of free choice, which it is not. Children do not choose to get measles. The decision to not vaccinate yourself or your children is a personal choice that carries substantial public liability. If only your children died, that would be horrible, but if they infect my grandchildren, then you are responsible.
Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children should be required to carry substantial liability insurance to reimburse any victims of their poor choices, such as $5MM. Raising small children you cannot avoid all risks. but the small risk of vaccination is acceptable compared to the vast social cost of epidemics. As with seat belts and air bags, there is risk having them, but much more without them.
36
So glad to see this article.
I'm wondering, is there a later point at which children are also required to have vaccinations in California? Say, registering for middle school or high school, or changing schools for other reasons?
If not, all the elementary school students who were unvaccinated in 2014 could just continue through school without getting vaccinated against these awful diseases.
6
Yes, in answer to your question. In fact, when my daughter enrolled last year at UC Berkeley, she was asked for her vaccination records. I hadn't saved everything, and it entailed having her doctor (who had retired) rummaging through her storage files to find them.
4
Yes, students are required to get immunizations for 7th grade in California. The district I taught for was extremely stringent (and this was 2 decades ago). Students who were not up to date were sent home and not allowed to return until vaccinated, period, per district policy.
4
People in modern America tend to say things like "We can't reduce gun violence through laws." This is, of course, ridiculous. If laws can never shape behavior, we wouldn't bother having any. Your article is a useful reminder that laws, while not always efficacious, often are -- and that when other means have failed, they are sometimes necessary.
22
Please describe three new gun laws you'd like to see enacted. Make sure they're not laws which lapsed because they provided no benefits in the past.
1
Let me get this out of the way first: I firmly believe that immunization is crucial and all fears of autism are beyond ridiculous. Moreover, I think that obliging children to be immunized is a perfectly reasonable recourse for the government. That being said, simply obligating each parent to immunize their children is not enough. You have to at the same time convince people of the need for immunization. Whether we are talking about removing statues, immunization or so many other loaded topics, any action that excludes dialogue only risks further alienation of the people you need to reach most.
3
Ummm, no. As it stands, in California, your kid can't go to a public or private school without providing proof of immunization. As the article notes, this has swept up almost everyone.
2
Its interesting to me that the article speculates that the people who contracted the measles where not vaccinated. I'm sure there is data on who the people were who got sick and whether they were vaccinated. I also think its very disingenuous to say that people who choose not to vaccinate there children do it out of misplaced fear of vaccine injury. The US government has paid victims of vaccine injurious over $3.8 billion since the National Vaccine Injury Program was set up in 1988. This demonstrates that there is legitimate risks to vaccinating your kids and as a parent you need to understand what they are. You should do some research before you so blithely dismiss the loss of personal freedoms and criticize parents who are making the best health choices for their children.
13
So, you make what you think is the "best choice" for your child (out of your ignorance), and when your child gets sick, she contaminates a child who can't be vaccinated (because of a compromised immune system/cancer treatments, etc.) Does that not bother you?
4
If you go to the site: https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data/index.html and review the data for 2006 to 2016, you will find that for every 1 million doses of a vaccine, 1 person was compensated. Certainly if someone has known allergies to a vaccine ingredient, or is immune-suppressed and can't be vaccinated, then they should be exempted, otherwise vaccines should be compulsory. Read up on the history of disease and medicine and see what it was like before the advent of widespread vaccination. Not a world I would want for my descendants.
3
There is data showing the vaccination status of those infected in the Disney outbreak. Forty-five percent of the infected were unvaccinated; 43% had unknown or unconfirmed vaccination status. Only 6% of the infected had been vaccinated with two doses of the measles vaccine.
1
As a physician for almost 50 years, I've never been able to understand why not having a child vaccinated as per recommendations is not considered a serious crime, as well as true child abuse.
To not vaccinate a child because of incredible ignorance and its associated fear, in this day and age, is an outrage against the child and society.
287
Question, if a parent has had an auto-immune reaction to a vaccine, with medical implications to this day. Should a parent immediately trust the school nurse or general practitioner to take the risk? If the child has an auto-immune reaction, similar to the parent, how does one justify? Thank you.
FWIW: The parent’s auto-immune reaction was confirmed and treated through medical tests by a world-renowned neuro-immunologist. Auto-immune conditions have been genetically proven to pass from parent to child.
7
Why should a parent's opinion be taken as more important than a doctor's educated opinion, based on research by hundreds of other doctors and medical researchers?
The parent should discuss this with their doctor, seek a second opinion if they disagree, and ask their doctor about appropriate safeguards. If there is a medical justification, then the law does allow that you are exempt from the requirement to vaccinate.
3
A crime ? Child abuse ? Regardless of the results of mandatory vaccinations, this way of thinking is ridiculous.
7
As a pediatrician, I tell skeptical parents that they are free to believe any anti-science con-men -- such as ex-Dr Andrew Wakefield, who actually falsified his MMR/autism data -- that they want. However, if they choose that course, I expect them to go around their neighborhood and school, kissing the feet of other parents whose choice of the responsible, scientific course of action protects THEIR children from the parents' selfish and irresponsible choice.
23
Personally, I think it's also fine for pediatricians to tell those parents that they won't treat their children because of the risk to their other patients (e.g., children with compromised immune systems in the waiting room). Maybe having to find another doctor will make them think a little harder.
13
When my son went to Spain in 2015 for a school vacation trip, Spain was barring admission of unvaccinated US nationals. His group was not stopped at entry (but were all carrying their vaccination histories anyway), but a flight from California was pulled out of line and asked for proof of vaccination. Spain was not about to endanger its most vulnerable citizens so some kid with daft parents could have a holiday. I understand this approach, both as an epidemiologist and daughter of a woman who got mumps for a second time due to lupus and unvaccinated kids in the doctor's waiting room.
42
We aren't health screening illegal entrants into our country.
And we have absolutely no idea about the health of who is coming over here via jets.
3
Bullmuffins.
Mexico has a 95%+ measles vaccination rate, dear. You might want to do your homework before you post.
3
I wonder why the author did not include what appeared to be a change in the pediatrics community-rather than allowing parents to option out of vaccinating their child, to require a strict timeline to have their child vaccinated or face the consequences-refuse to keep the child as a patient. I had read about this after the CA outbreak and wonder if that also had an effect. People might decide to home-school but if hewing to anti-vaccination beliefs meant refusal to accept a patient, I think that would be a pretty big 'stick'.
6
There is one more category of people who rely on herd immunity to avoid the measles. Before there was a measles vaccine my maternal grandmother had the measles three times that we know of, the last when she was in her sixties. She seemed to have an otherwise sturdy immune system but for some reason did not develope immunity after having the disease as most people do. This condition was known in the medical community as affecting a small segment of the population. I imagine that a happy effect of high measles vaccination rates is that most people with that unpleasant and potentially dangerous condition don't even know it.
14
One of my family members in Los Angeles is an anti-vaxxer, who never let her children drink fluoridated water or toothpaste. I do not think it is possible to change peoples beliefs. The only way is through legislation at the state level. California was successful even though the author of the legislation's life was threatened. The anti-vaxxers rushed Sacramento and the politicians were turned by their threats. I remember this. I doubt my niece and nephew are even vaccinated to this day, as I think you can still go a wacko doctor and get a fraudulent medical exemption. Most people will not bother to go to these lengths. I have no doubt this was done. It is borderline child abuse.
20
Interesting that this article was written by an economics professor and her student since vaccines are so profitable, hence why more and more are being thrust upon the public.
The fact is there is such a thing as "informed consent" before any medical procedure can be performed in our country. The California story is one of breaking that law and Dr. Pan's Big Pharma payoff.
In 2012 the United States Supreme Court decided that vaccines are "unavoidably unsafe." Since our lawmakers decided that vaccine makers cannot be sued, the number of vaccines on the market has soared. The vaccine schedule is now nearing 70 for kids by the time they turn 18. Instead, the government has paid out billions to those who are injured and make claims.
It is frightening that the authors are pushing the false notion of "herd immunity." If one is vaccinated, why worry? Google the news stories of illnesses spread in vaccinated populations by those already vaccinated. Learn about vaccine shedding, which in fact spreads the very diseases vaccines are supposed to stop. Whooping Cough is a perfect example.
Here's some expert sources on the facts of vaccines if you question the propaganda: NVIC dot org. Also, starting January 25, The Truth About Vaccines, a free series of expert interviews will be rerun on the internet. Google and sign up to receive the daily links, if interested.
Vaccines need more study, are not a magic bullet and need informed consent, not by government force.
12
I checked out the NVIC site you mentioned to see if there were data to support your claim. The site has a link to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of public Health - it states in boldface that vaccines do not cause autism.
Here's the link: http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/vs-autism.htm
18
I checked your claim that SCOTUS in 2012 "decided that vaccines are 'unavoidably unsafe.'" Turns out that quote was lifted out of context. It was language Congress used when describing side effects that could not be avoided, even when the vaccines were administered properly (as is the case with all drugs). The court was hearing a case about whether drug manufacturers could be held liable for unavoidable side effects that caused "injury or death." The court was not ruling on the safety of vaccines themselves.
https://www.nvic.org/CMSTemplates/NVIC/pdf/NVIC-amicus-as-filed-090809.pdf
12
The medical and scientific ignorance herein is simply stupendous and overwhelming!
It's also unbelievable.
4
It is going to take a full scale polio epidemic in this country to get rid of this ignorance. It will come eventually.
17
Kudos to California!
17
It's a shame that California had to resort to coercion to get people to take seriously this important public health issue. Of course, a worse shame would be if one of your or your neighbors' children dies of complications from measles. Of the two incentives to vaccinate my children, I'd much prefer the first.
9
In 1875, an outbreak of measles killed about one-third of the 175,000 people on the islands. Measles is a serious viral infection, worse in adults without immunity.
15
Outbreak was in Fiji Islands with one third mortality
6
and in 1519 and 1520 Hernan Cortes arrived at Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztecs primarily by bringing diseases formerly unknown to the Americas. Your point?
Vaccination refusal is just the tip of the anti-science and life's-about-me iceberg, a place where "my rights" include risking your welfare.
Neither individuals nor societies are good at making accurate threat assessments. We spend untold billions on a "war against terrorism", yet almost nothing to fight drunk driving, a threat literally an order or two of magnitude greater to ordinary Americans.
A bigger risk is an all but inevitable flu pandemic. Though unquestionably quicker in its potential destruction and disruption, influenza has not become socially and politically "sexy" as has global warming. However, much as with global warming, the trick is to be proactively prophylactic without resorting to panic.
When it comes to effecting policy changes, hyper-individualistic democracies are like battleships, as compared to autocracies, which are more like cutters. A battleship has huge firepower, but cannot turn quickly to fight a threat which appears from a new direction, as can a cutter. Humans mostly live and think in the now, occasionally in the short term. To counterbalance that, societies need excellent political, social, and economic leadership. If we are to forestall an influenza pandemic, as well as other serious threats, we need leaders in all spheres who are willing to take the risk to be initially unpopular by clearly articulating the problem, educating their constituencies, and then following up with appropriate actions.
6
School nurse and RN here. I am loving these pro-vaccine articles. please keep them coming.
38
My great-grandmother lost three of her four children to diphtheria. I started school before the measles vaccine was available and had a friend who was left deaf in one ear from it. We have forgotten the danger of these illnesses.
39
There are real and scientifically established concerns about vaccine safety, aside from any 'Andrew Wakefield' red herrings and the like. There are also real and serious scientifically established concerns about threats to public safety stemming from loss of herd immunity due to low vaccination rates, as the article describes.
What bothers me about this article and the comments, the editorial slant towards nanny state control and coercion, representing so much of what has gone wrong with 'neo-liberalism'.
Science is only as good as the people conducting and reporting, and for that matter trying to understand it. People are fallible social animals and modern science, as much as ever seems to be as distorted and influenced by financial incentives, politics and even religion. It sometimes seems as if science is becoming a new religion.
"Communicating scientific information isn't about persuation and convincing people of the rightness of a position. It's about theorizing and gathering evidence and remaining aware of the uncertainties and limitations of the process." -(wish I could remember the source but thankyou!)
10
There are not "real and scientifically established concerns". These life-savers have been used all over the world on billions of people. To refuse to accept the efficacy, safety and necessity of these miracles of modern medicine is bizarre and DIRECTLY dangerous to others.
37
The data is clear that vaccination rates improved significantly. A wonderful result. But can that improvement be attributed to the law itself? Our world is complex and the well publicised outbreak may have changed hearts and minds of people. The law may have had some impact but its hard to tease out the causal effect of legislation from the coverage and reaction to the well publicized event. That is not to say the law was bad, just that its can be tricky to say it was responsible for some or all of the improvement in vaccination rates.
6
Interesting, the article fails to mention that amoung the general population, the vaccination rate is far below 90%, especially the effective rate. The majority of the disneyland patients had vaccinations.
6
Hooray for California! This just shows that people on the political "left" are not immune to false, unscientific and potentially dangerous beliefs and belief systems, especially when a herd mentality takes over (as in, "none of the other parents in my social circle are getting their children vaccinated so they must know what they're doing, and I don't want to be uncool.") It also shows that when the larger society steps up and makes a decision, whether it's about vaccinations or gay marriages, the vast majority of people's actions and attitudes change.
This is a win for the scientific method, for empiricism and for a society based on science, not mysticism. Being against vaccinations (or for that matter, GMOs) is no more rational or sensible than being against gay marriage. When beliefs like these harm children or anyone other than grown adults who hold them (who should be free to be foolish if they want to be), then they have no place in our society.
8
I suspect people, who oppose vaccinations and GMOs support Gay marriage. This has long been a Liberal story. I bet most of them are Vegans too.
My point is that false, unscientific beliefs can "infect" a portion of the leftist community just as it does those on the right -- although studies show that in general, people who identify as liberal or progressive are more likely to have their opinions changed when presented with convincing evidence repudiating it. The use of metaphors connected to contagion is apropos here. Studies show that beliefs and behaviors truly are "contagious" -- they spread from person to person. People have a strong tendency to think like and behave like the "flock" that they belong to, no matter how unreasonable those beliefs might be. And a surprising number of people switch their beliefs based on the opinions of strong authorities. That is why the Obergefell v. Hodges decision led to a huge increase in acceptance of gay marriage -- if it had gone the other way, the majority would still think it was "controversial." That is also why a strong stand by the government making non-vaccination unacceptable is likely to marginalize that opinion and reduce the number of adherents to that particular "cause."
Reasons for California’s susceptibility to infectious disease outbreaks include not only the families that choose not to vaccinate but also the tremendous amount of international travel and immigration to California. Poorer countries may have vaccination programs that are made less effective by improper storage of vaccine medications, such as lack of refrigeration. No one is standing at the airport checking vaccine records of international visitors and residents returning from overseas, or checking their temperatures. Families in Southern California who do not vaccinate their children are gambling with their children’s lives.
7
To your point, I have friends from developing countries who have witnessed the miracle of vaccines and can't understand why some Americans take it for granted.
14
All my acquaintances from developing countries have their children vaccinated, they know why!
interesting article in which we learn that the "anti-vaxers" seems somewhere to lazzy to assume their choice when the laws changes, after all between a fight against the state more looking for n alternative educational system and a visit to the doctor for a vaccination, the choice is easy.
Air travel for business and pleasure should not have to be concerned about the children from Oregon who are not vaccinated. Why not require vaccination proof when you travel. That is more risk to most than terrorism.
11
This biased article for immunization basically talks about measles vaccine. There should be immunization for some childhood epidemic diseases. However, the authors limited their discussion to one vaccination only. There is no mention of the Hepatits B given at birth. Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. What common sense is it to have a child treated for a STD at birth, 1 month and 6 months? Hepatitis A, is given at 12 months.
Measles is given with mumps and rubella at 12 months of age. Why not give measles at birth instead for protection? Is it because the immune system has not yet developed? Also, when giving some vaccines, parents are instructed and asked to sign a waiver about serious health concerns. This is to stave off law suits protecting the health institution providing the vaccine but primarily to give the pharmaceutical company protection from law suits.
I suggest for some readers to visit a neurological unit at major hospitals to see the extreme damage of vaccines on children who weren't so lucky. Is this an acceptable price to pay for 'herd immunity'?
Lastly, treatment options for the last 200 years for flu and other childhood epidemic diseases have been successfully treated with Homeopathy for those who continue to rightfully question the safety of vaccines (information about vaccine damage is suppressed in the US), this is a healthy option.
8
You get Hep-B at birth because that is when it has been SCIENTICALLY demonstrated to be most effective.
Part deux: MMR vaccine is given later than some other childhood vaccines because antibodies transferred from the mother to the baby can provide some protection from disease and make the MMR vaccine less effective until about 1 year of age.
Part three - Homeopathy - the ultimate in rigorous proof-based medicine - need I say more?
15
To quote our President, this is fake news. I have never, ever, in my 30+ year career as a nurse met a single person who was harmed by vaccines. If you were to go to a neuro unit on a hospital, and ask to see the people injured by vaccines, the nurse would give you a puzzled look.
9
Homeopathy "treatment options for the last 200 years for flu" . . . worked real well in 1918, didn't it?
19
Herd immunity- you pay for a shot, and take the risk of vaccine injury, to protect your kids from an infectious disease. You then demand I take the same risk of vaccine injury, and pay the same, to protect your kid from the risk that the vaccine you bought is a defective and does not actually protect.
I make medical decisions in consultation with my doctor. Just because you are getting a vaccine doesn't mean I or anyone else has to.
Good luck with your vaccines!
4
Then remove yourself from society and join a commune. That's the price you pay to participate.
25
Josh makes it seem that this is a peculiarity to vaccines. In fact it's the same principle behind paying taxes, driving on the right side of the road (or left in the UK), having a police force or an army. It's the principle behind rule of law.
19
We demand this of you not for the sake of our successfully vaccinated kids, but for the sake of the immunocompromised kids and adults, and for the babies not old enough to be vaccinated.
5
One aspect of the regulation - I don't think the author mentioned it - is that the school administers the vaccination if there is no response from the parents/guardians within a particular time period. Isn't it possible that 'conformity' to the vaccination law is really more a case of the schools taking on a much needed role in public health? This a great story because it's about public health for children.
6
Ummm, this is not true. The schools don't administer vaccines. They just require that you provide proof that your kid received them.
4
I just completed a two-year task of detailing and updating the census in our historic cemetery. Prior to the 1940s, the vast majority of annual burials were children under the age of 5. The family grave sites with 2-4 children in the same family dying within a few days of each other is not uncommon. Then, abruptly, this pattern ends. With a nod to the opponents of vaccination, the reality is stark: even if there were to be possible negative side effects, the choice between life and death is clear.
50
There are negative side effects for some, but as you state the numbers tell the story we can accept a few children and adults who get unintended side effects or we can have rampant disease in society.
5
Only a generation that has not experienced the terrible loss related to deadly or debilitating contagions could argue that the risks associated with immunizations outweigh their benefit.
43
Of all the interventions modern medicine has afforded us, vaccines have saved more lives than any other.
Declining life-saving treatments that those in the developing world struggle to obtain is the height of arrogance and privilege.
25
I'm honestly not sure at what point people became so paranoid and fearful of vaccines - a paranoia that is backed by little, if any, scientific evidence. Measles is not something we should have to be worrying about in this modern day and age, but there are those out there who are irrationally fearful of having their children vaccinated. We know that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks, and this is particularly true for something of the illness like Measles -which is highly contagious. To me, refusing vaccination is modern day disinformation at its finest, and it spits in the face of the science and expertise that went into developing these vaccines in the first place. Good on California for having done this.
12
in 1998 Dr (no longer a Dr) Andrew Walefield and a lawyer whose name I do not know at the moment were at a children's party with 8 or 12 children present. Some of these children had Autism. During conversation between the two they cooked up the idea of promoting the idea that the MMR vaccine triggered the onset of Autism so that they could get a few lawsuits going and become wealthy by it. They followed this up with an article Mr Wakefield had printed in the Lancet a British medical journal. That is the origin of this lie. He admitted to those fact at his trial in Britain and was struck off the medical registry. This means they took his license to practice medicine away.
Having admitted to this crime he now lives in Texas and promotes the lie anyway since it makes him money. I have no idea why he has not been charged with murder or manslaughter for all the deaths he has caused by inducing people not to get vaccinated.
8
I guess regulating men who consciously promote dangerous lies for profit is just to big governmenty.
I would love to see one more piece of information in this article - evidence that this increase in vaccination rates did NOT increase autism diagnoses. Perhaps it is too soon to know, but a followup article a few years from now would be extremely valuable. Please!
4
That data is confirmed, has been for many years. There is no link between vaccines and autism. None.
30
Let me put your mind at ease now, George. Every study done by reputable medical researchers shows that there is no link between vaccinations (of any kind) and autism. None.
16
This is excellent news. As someone who grew up am Chrustian Scientists who shunned medical care, I've witnessed children suffering and dying from preventable diseases including measles. But many of those religious parents were not scofflaws--they followed mandatory laws about vaccinating pets, for example. Change the laws and you will change the behavior for most people. This change is especially beneficial because it helps not just the previously unvaccinated children, but everyone those children come in contact with.
13
As someone who had the measles (I'm 61) I can tell you it sucks. I'm sitting in bed right now with the flu (and yes I had the vaccine). I'm a physician and have no doubt that the pros of vaccines far outweigh the cons, even when they don't work so well. Herd immunity is important. I hate to say it, but we can't leave these kinds of decisions up to the uniformed public.
40
Why "hate to say it"? We live in a country where perhaps a majority thinks an antibiotic is effective against viruses. The ignorance is real and widespread. Say it out loud!
10
Resistance to vaccination based on pseudoscience and magical thinking is widespread in California, and it's hard to remain impassive when I encounter those folks. In my neighborhood two of the prominent examples just happen to be religious conservatives, but I think it's represented in the lefty granola crowd, too. The measles flare up was maddening, and it's nice to hear about some progress.
18
Pretty easy. No vaccination, no school. Your choice. It would have been helpful to understand what groups were not getting vaccinated. Were they afraid of autism? Were they immigrants? Were they liberals? Conservatives? This is not to bash people, but to know where education may be needed.
13
When the debate over this was going on, I read that, interestingly, poorer communities were more consistent about having their kids vaccinated. Apparently, a lot of us "liberal snowflakes" were the ones most guilty of failing to vaccinate.
3
anti-vaxxers are criminal and should be incarcerated, their children taken away and vaccinated, their parental rights terminated and property confiscated.
7
Hooray for Hollywood! And Sacramento, and San Francisco, and Modesto, and on and on and on.
Go to the CDC site and find out about measles. 1:4 people infected with the disease will require hospitalization, 1:1000 will develop encephalitis, 1-2 of 1000 persons with measles will die even with the best care.
9
Looking at the CDC statistics, in 2004 there were 37 cases of measles. That means in the entire country, less than 10 people were hospitalized, and you should assume other than infants, the majority of those 10 people were elderly and in poor health. In 2014, 667 cases. In the entire nation. This is nothing to cause the kind of witchhunt and hysteria this has been met with. Because one parent of a child who had leukemia wasn't willing to keep his child home from school were there a measles outbreak (which there wasn't, in at the time, very unvaccinated Marin County) every child in California must now get 60 vaccinations.
If low vac rates caused epidemics, there would have been one. There wasn't. Where is the science.
4
Also, look up Roald Dahl's essay on losing his daughter to measles. He wished the vaccine had been available when his daughter was younger, so he could have protected her. Benjamin Franklin wrote a similar essay about losing his son to smallpox.
10
I love the fact that you scream about how low the risk has become, and then scream at the vaccines that have made the risk so low.
2
There is no such thing as personal freedom when it comes to the health of a population. Unless you live in a commune and have no connection with society, you have to do what's best for the population at large. Babies before vaccination and those with medical conditions can easily get these diseases and die.
This should be on the conscience of everyone who thinks about NOT vaccinating themselves and their children.
14
If low vac rates caused epidemics, there would be no one in California who didn't have measles a few years ago. How many cases were there state wide? In 2014, there were 58 cases statewide in a population of 30 million. You are in much more danger walking down a staircase or crossing the street. This was nothing but hysteria.
5
I disagree. See my answer to your post above.
Science-based legislation, now there's an interesting idea.
22
An extremely important and telling article. The decision by some parents, especially in rich communities like Marin County, to leave vaccination to others so that their child(ren) don't have to "endure" vaccination is the epitome of selfishness.
108
Whenever there is an outbreak of measles, mumps or whatever very often the contagion source is from a carrier who entered our country illegally or legally upon an airplane from another country. Too often today disease can come into our nation very quickly due to modern transport and massive influx of illegal immigrants. There is no screening for them.
If your kids go to school with a lot of immigrants, such as they may do in California, it may be prudent to vaccinate your child. How does our government know who has been vaccinated before people enter our country? They don't.
And most often they are not.
5
Beg to differ. Most of our "southern neighbors" are vaccinated against these childhood illnesses, much as our mothers did in the 1950s and 60s.
29
@cf
How do you know what you claim? It is just as likely that an American child has contracted the virus by visiting a foreign country. Don't make up stuff just to blame immigrants; present data from a reliable, reputable source.
8
Sort of. California schools require an immunization record before admission; private schools have been shamed into following suit. Our largest TB exposures have been from adults from the Philippines, India and central america. The only MMWR exposures have been from rich white kids.
9
I hope this thread will be moderated against the complete lies perpetrated by the uninformed, hysterical anti-vax zealots.
42
It's amazing to me how many people would rather have dead children than autistic children.
12
No one gets autism because of vaccinations. People would rather have dead children rather than perfectly healthy ones with immunity to horrible diseases.
19
Let me clarify--no matter how often it's stressed that autism is completely unrelated to vaccinations, it's one of the most popularly cited reasons for not vaccinating a child. Therefore, my previous comment.
1
The last sentence should omit the leading "Perhaps".
4
For the sake of the larger population, coercion is the only choice. I'm glad that this law is in place even though it deprives people of their freedom to choose whether to let their children have vaccinations.
140
When I entered Chicago public schools in the 1940's children who were not vaccinated were not allowed to go to school--simple.
17
J.Sutton, your language indicates you are an admirer of the great Milton Friedman. I also believe Dr. Friedman would have supported forced vaccinations based on the third party effect. It is the role of government to protect the individual from harm from other persons.
9
There is no such freedom. It is in fact child abuse to with hold a vaccine if your child is healthy enough to be given it.
12
Vaccination is truly the only thing a person can do that without doubt helps the entire human race. The selfishness involved in the fearful balogna about potential harm stands out as the factor even more than the lies promoted by Andrew Wakefield who now lives in Texas and is still promoting the theory he admitted to inventing with a lawyer at a children's party so they could sue vaccine manufacturers and get rich when the British took away his medical license.
We all take the same risk to protect each other and especially to protect those who are genuinely medically unable to take the vaccine.
20
You want to not get vaccinated, fine. But you are not allowed on public transport, or on an airplane, or in a stadium, or a retirement community.
BTW prevention is far cheaper than treatment. If big pharma was smart they would not produce vaccines. The cost of one case of measles is huge...11,000 $ or more.
24
Rubella (German measles) can cause birth deformities if not miscarriage in pregnant women, and can render teenage boys sterile (so can mumps). Look it up. When I was growing up in the 1950's, many women were pregnant in our community, and the Board of Health would put a big quarantine sign on the front door of any household that had children sick with measles. Everyone knew to stay away from that house. The Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine was a godsend.
83
In a populous society valuing freedom, there's always a tension between community welfare and personal rights, but when public health is concerned, the community welfare is the more important. This article illustrates the tension, and the benefit of considering the welfare of the whole as being more important than the preferences of the few.
21
There is a case for legal compulsion when vital public health issues are involved. But in general, relying on laws when we don't like people's attitudes is a dangerous tactic. Prohibition and drug laws give us cautionary examples.
And I wonder how much the term "herd immunity" has to do with some people's resistance. It gives the impression, perhaps justified, that the authorities see them as a faceless mass that needs to be driven. It is a phrase, when applied to humans, that is tinged with contempt.
3
@ERP
No need to generalize. Ask the simple question: what is the consequence of not requiring vaccinations?
2
Oh, please. "Contempt?" It is an objective term to describe a scientific concept.
5
Elephant in the room. What is the dominant political leaning of the anti-vaxxers? Here's a hint: If it were "conservatives" or Republicans the article would remind us of that in every paragraph.
Yet Krugman is free to launch another one-sided hyper-partisan rant about "know nothing" conservatives. (He's mostly correct, IMO, but deliberately misleads with a partial truth.)
"In the Berkeley Rose School, a private Waldorf school, all of the unvaccinated students (87 percent of the kindergartners) had personal belief exemptions." Can we dig a bit deeper into those "personal beliefs"?
6
@tew
Political leaning is unimportant; the sentiment is Libertarian. But the measles (or whooping cough, or mumps) virus doesn't care about your politics.
14
Sorry, you committed the same mistake. It is not based on libertarian sympathies, as you would like it to be. It is driven by the belief in homeopathy, natural products, mind over matter, etc. and disbelief in science.
There have been studies of just this. It's a oddball mix of crunchy types (who may tend left, but may be apolitical), right-leaning anti-government types, and religious types who tend to be right-leaning. That Trump voiced anti-vaccine sentiments is a cause (or maybe symptom) of a what appears to me to be a recent rightward shift in movement antivaccinationism.
3
It would be interesting to understand what role Facebook played in steering concerned parents further down the rabbit hole of anti-vaxx conspiracy theories, by continually feeding them more anti-vaxx content.
20
Gosh, I wonder how the Berkeley Rose school is dealing with an overwhelming amount of students with autism!
(Sarcasm, in case it wasn’t obvious)
45
Hold up your sarcasm sign.
2
I support personal choice: abortion, marriage, and vaccination matters. Stay out of personal liberty!
7
What happens when personal liberty directly and negatively impacts people around them? Kids with measles are a threat to - and can be catastrophic to pregnant women, new born babies, and anyone with a weakened immune system (such as cancer patients). That all is very well documented.
101
So I guess you're OK with people being able to throw stones around in public spaces (literally).
17
part of the problem is the State that forces children into public schools. a private school could require that all students be vaccinated, or else they don't get to attend. a different private school could have a vax-free policy. parents could then choose as they see fit.
I grew up in SoCal in the '50's. You had to be vaccinated to go to school. I'm sure there were exceptions but, for the most part, we all had to get our "shots". Many were given by the school nurse. If you missed one, you had to go down to the public health dept and get it. They were all free. Just sayin'
36
Same in NJ. I was thinking about it as I read the article and the big difference between my childhood and now is that the adults had personal experience of these diseases at the "normal" levels they existed in society before vaccines were invented for them. They simply were not going to let anyone get away with silly belief based refusals period. They knew the real harm these things caused and yet there were still stupid people who had measles parties or chicken pox parties to get their kid infected to let them become immune "naturally".
8
Indeed. I am of the generation who were vaccinated for everything going, because our parents remembered polio epidemics. Thanks, Mom and Dad.
2
So after the dramatic increase in MMR vaccination rates, where was the explosion of vaccine-induced autism that should naturally follow if the MMR causes autism? (waits... waits... waits)
Well there you have it, more proof that vaccines don't cause autism (as if there weren't enough already).
20
Just to be clear, most children with milder forms of autism are not diagnosed until at least 3 years old. Not that I am expecting any "wave," but to invoke science and then make a false claim is not helpful.
6
On the other hand, we all know people whose autism is mild -- on the Asberger spectrum -- and who are in their 60s, before we had measles vaccinations.
1
When there is no spike in autism rates after this mass vaccination event can we expect anti-vaxxers to admit they were wrong and apologize for directly causing the deaths of children? Or is a little personal responsibility in public discourse too much to ask for? I'm guessing they will find another excuse for why it didn't happen. Probably something to do with Thetans or Mars in retrograde or gluten interfering with midichlorians.
17
I don't understand why the author is shocked that vacation rates would go up if the law changed. It is illegal to send your kid to school w/o shots. Soooo what do you THINK would happen.
1
No where does the author indicate that he is shocked by the results. He is simply pointing out what the results were and that the law was effective. The hyperbole is all yours.
11
If you had ever spoken to an anti vaxxer you'd realize why. They make it pretty clear they will go to any length to avoid a vaccine and the level of irrational process involved in their defense does not lead one to think "hey if we change the law they will see reason and comply".
10
Vaccines are a pharmaceutical, and like all pharmaceuticals, are toxic to some degree, and so while they may offer benefits they also create additional risk. The official, medically acceptable risk associated with vaccines include permanent, severe neurological damage and death. Read the inserts that your doctors is obliged to provide you with your vaccine, if you don't believe this verifiable fact.
Some contend that the benefit outweighs the risk, and while this may be, arugably, demonstrated statistically, for each parent confronted with the choice of a small risk of disaster versus becoming a good herd member or preventing a relatively mild disease in most cases, who on earth has the right to mandate the "correct" decision?
Over $3 Billion has been paid out by the government for court-adjudicated vaccine injuries sustained in this country, and these are of course only a fraction of the true damage vaccines have done, due to under-reporting, research has found.
There is no moral argument, in my opinion, for demanding that a medical treatment that carries the risk of death, however small, be state mandated. Can you think of any other government mandate with the same structure, basically a public health argument, that you would submit to? What about a drug that reduces violent aggression in society, surely that would be a good thing for public health, no?
This is about the fundamental human right to bodily self-determination, and nothing is more personal or sacred.
18
The problem with this argument is that it assumes that not vaccinating carries no risk of death. The reason this is mandated is that the risk of death from measles for the unvaccinated is higher than the risk of death for the vaccination.
The vaccination rates in California before the change in the law demonstrate that parents are ill equipped to compare risk and make reasonable judgements based on this. That is not to say that they can't make judgements about or decisions for their children. Instead, there is a large body of research that shows people are extremely poor at assessing relative levels of risk and this holds true even for those who are, or consider themselves to be well educated.
California is just a real life demonstration of this.
49
I absolutely believe that California has the right to decide who gets to go to public school...but for them to demand vaccine status in private schools is another matter. On first pass, it seems like overreach.
There is also no moral argument for allowing your unvaccinated, sick child to infect other kids with a "relatively mild disease."
11
This is great example of the ill-effects of fake news and made up data (see any statement by those who oppose vaccines). This is what happens when anecdotal stories are placed on par with Scientific data - a trend we see used over and over again - especially by the GOP and climate change. Lucky for Californians that their lawmakers responded to the calls from the medical and scientific community - we should all be so lucky.
36
As a former resident of Oregon whose kids attended a public Waldorf school in Portland and was in the minority of parents who didn't hide behind the baloney "personal belief" exemption and had my kids vaccinated out of a sense of civic duty, I can't help but see the laughable double standard at play in a state that legislates that Oregonians (however misinformed) can do whatever they please around vaccinating their children despite the consequences to public health, yet also, under the guise of public safety, legislates that Oregonians living in urban areas cannot pump their own gas.
26
Wow. You had your kids "vaccinated out of a sense of civic duty". You mean, instead of because you cared about them to live disease-free to the greatest extent possible?
2
Apples and oranges much?
6
The anti-vaxers is a group crying out for study. These parents assume that long established medical information is "fake news," and that vaccination exposes them to risk, rather than the reverse and they are willing to bet their children's health on that belief.
A physician colleague of mine is still in shock over his inability to convince his otherwise intelligent and college-educated daughter to vaccinate her children.
What are the means by which (actual) fake news convinces her to ignore science and her own physician-father?
Understanding how people behave foolishly could help us resist the harm from medical quackery as well as from bogus political messages.
Trump is a daily reminder of how important this is.
34
College, depending on the major chosen and the overall environment, can deepen ignorance and harm good thinking.
2
@tew - What utter nonsense.
If there were a well known outbreak of measles, with children dying all around, the daughter would decide differently. The anti-vaxxer mentality is one that (to mix a couple of metaphors) free rides on the herd immunity provided by others; it would not otherwise exist.
8
There is a certain conceit on the part of people toward the left end of the political spectrum... a group I belong to at least loosely... that irrationality is the domain of those on the right end of the spectrum. While the right clearly plays a role in a host of unpleasant realities we are subject to currently, the vaccination absurdity was driven by the left without more than a flimsy shred of real evidence. "Flimsy shred" might be more complimentary than is warranted. The reactive conspiracy mentality is ugly wherever it springs up.
9
@David Rosen
No, not vaccinating is also consistent with the "Libertarian" view of the world. But of course the virus acts regardless of political affiliation.
9
Similarly, the less harmful but mostly ridiculous gluten-free craze has taken hold.
4
I have read numerous articles about this outbreak over the past few years. Where is the analysis of those who contracted measles? Did the unvaccinated school kids in California contract it? How old were those who contracted it? Where were they from? I cannot find this reported.
2
An online summary by the CDC has some of your answers:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6406a5.htm
1
Here's one: http://time.com/27308/4-diseases-making-a-comeback-thanks-to-anti-vaxxers/
2
Two important follow-up questions.
1) In time, will the non-vaxxers who were forced by law to get their children and the community protected, change their minds and agree with science?
2) Can this approach--just write a strict law--be successful with other problems in which irrational individual beliefs degrade the public welfare?
12
In 1962 Roald Dahl, the children book author, lost his 7y/o daughter, Olivia, to measles. He wrote a letter regarding this that personalizes the heartbreak. Yeah, it's an anecdote but it happened 100% to him and his family;
http://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/timeline/1960s/november-1962
A heart wrenching story can go beyond statistics. Making sure the wrong thing doesn't happen is part of raising kids.
20
You can never make sure "the wrong thing doesn't happen." You can only take a risk, and hope your child doesn't become a statistic on the wrong side of health.
3
Two questions.
What happened to the infection rate?
What happened to the rate of autism diagnosis? And/or other reasons given for personal exemptions in the past.
The first question is a great question.
The second is unrelated and not worth studying, because there is no correlation or causation between vaccination and autism, and this has already been shown. Asking seems to imply that we still think there could be a relationship between the two. It would be the same as asking, "what happened to the rates of ice cream consumption after increased vaccination rates?" Completely unrelated.
10
This is the best piece of analysis and reporting on this topic I’ve seen in my 35 years as a public health professional. Thank you (and the Times) for putting it squarely in public view, rather than limiting its audience to medical or public health practitioners; we do not in the main require additional persuasion concerning the pernicious consequences of promiscuous issuance of “personal belief objections” to vaccination requirements.
14
This article reads like an advertisement for vaccination. This measles prevention basically ask everyone to have vaccine just in case something might happen. We don't know what kind of effect that vaccine might have on young children. So why not have a law to restrict movement of measles patients limiting the spread to other people rather than force vaccination on everyone? Has measles caused problems in other states? How about other countries? If it is so important, why not make it a law to have everyone vaccinated? Make the stats transparent & more open to the public.
2
The first basic fact that you apparently don't know about measles is that it is most contagious before symptoms even appear. Another fact is that the movements of measles patients generally are restricted. Unfortunately by the time that happens they've already had the opportunity to spread the illness to many others.
13
Usok, ya must of fallen off the turnip truck yesterday...you gotta get caught up on the history of infectious disease spread so you can ask better questions.
7
This entire post indicates a pretty gross misunderstanding of the conversation.
First, we do know "what kind of effect that vaccine might have on young children." It's negligible. There is simply no relation in the risks between a vaccine and a horrible, transmissible disease.
Second, you're advocating quarantine. Which sounds great. Until you try it. That's a labyrinth of legal issues, practical issues, public health issues and timing. That's even more messy than mandating vaccines.
Finally, let's be clear - measles sounds banal because of the efficacy of the vaccine. Before that, millions in the US were affected every year with hundreds dying. That's to say nothing of those suffering long-term effects. It is a HUGE public health danger in unvaccinated populations.
And herein lies the problem - people form opinions of these things without every informing themselves. Without knowing the kind of problems measles causes in untreated populations, you're still questioning the vaccine? That just seems ludicrous and irresponsible. But that's the sort of logic that underlies the entire "anti-vax" and "skepti-vax" movements. You don't need to know facts. You just need to have questions.
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No surprise here: laws matter. I am old enough to remember when people were saying the same about racial desegregation in the American South, all about hearts-and-minds. I have heard so many repugnant sentences begin with "But people will always ...". No. No they won't.
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$$$ talks. No legislative action on the issue until the Disneyland debacle. We all pay our taxes...
I can't understand why people working for The Times would even begin to think that a law prohibiting school attendance for unvaccinated children would be ineffective Apparently, one could still homeschool unvaccinated children.
And I am flabbergasted that herd immunity needs explanation.
However, unlike much of Times writing this article meets my standard of no slang expressions or verbal oddities that would make it difficult for a person who is not entirely fluent in English to be able to translate and understand it.
To those making the idiotic claim that vaccinating is against their religion, all I can say is that paying taxes and wearing a helmet when I drive a motorcycle are against my religion, but that’s the price I pay to live in a civilized society. Plus, there is not a scintilla of scientific evidence that the measles vaccine causes autism, whereas there is ample scientific evidence that the measles vaccine has reduced the incidence of measles infections, and serious illness or death from the virus, to near zero.
Anti-vaxxers have my permission to go live on an island somewhere where they won’t be able to expose the rest of us (who believe in facts) to their potentially life-threatening diseases.
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Why did the authors choose to refrain from explaining why parents didn't vaccinate their children? The main reason is the belief that vaccines cause Something Bad to happen. While this belief is shouted by unscientific actors and rock stars, the authors could have explained the rates of Something Bad and most especially, whether those rates went up since the 2016 Bill 277.
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Not everyone lives in a state where a law such as SB277 could pass. There's not enough being done to publicly by health groups to actively counter the lies put forth by anti-vaccinationists in the US. Anti-vaccine physicians are not sanctioned by their medical boards. Groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics refuse to expel anti-vaccine pediatricians from their membership. It's no wonder parents are confused. Compare this to Australia where well-coordinated counter attacks by government and heatlh groups against anti-vaccinationists are increasing vaccine rates there. And anti-vaccine physicians in Australia are being stripped of their licenses, as they should be.
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The people rejecting vaccinations are usually liberals--who would mock conservatives who reject global warming as science deniers! I would say that it is funny, but that would be much too mild of a term.
7
At the risk of being piled on once again about this topic, allow me to at least ask you the reader to educate yourself about the perils of vaccination before caving in to the scare tactics of the AMA and CDC. Now, are some vaccines helpful? Yes! Does that include the vaccine for measles? Maybe. In other words, are there exceptions to every rule in the human realm? Yes.
But that doesn't deal with the fact that an unbiased look at vaccination in general shows it is rife with problems, complications, negative side effects and lowered immune response. Not to mention that its use, especially in states like California, has turned into major overkill.
Are you aware, dear reader, that it's more and more common for states to insist on up to 26 vaccines for children starting with a series of vaccinations given to infants. Infants, whose immune systems are unformed. Infants who when they grow up will carry an impaired immune response with them throughout life making them more susceptible to various diseases.
So educate yourself, reader. And be prepared to deal with major pressure from the law, from school systems, from every direction if you say, "Hold on a minute, let's take a closer look at this." A good place to start is The Truth About Vaccines, an impeccably researched series of videos. Don't reject their conclusions out of hand. Educate yourselves!
7
Measles kills, the vaccination doesn’t.
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This comment should be held up as an synthesis of the anti-vax movement. A lot of incorrect statements, completely unsupported by even a single shred of scientific evidence.
Vaccines do not "impair" the immune system, they develop it. In particular, the immune system is exposed to thousands of pathogens and allergens every *hour* from the moment of birth. Adding 26 more does nothing to its ability to continue functioning, and adds protection against some of the most deadly diseases a child can be exposed to. But "an impeccably researched series of videos" on the internet must surely trump decades of established scientific research.
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I will take the experts at the CDC, people who have spent their lives researching vaccines, over a bunch of youtube videos any day.
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Proving that Andrew Wakefield is a charlatan is irrelevant to those who prefer fears over evidence. There are some things that public information campaigns just can’t overcome.
The way to convince some people that vaccines don’t cause autism is to give them no choice: require vaccination as a matter of law. Only then, when their children don’t become autistic, will people realize that vaccines don’t cause autism.
And maybe some will still be convinced, regardless. But at least their children will be vaccinated and a) won’t have to suffer with measles and b) can’t pass it on to someone else who has leukemia.
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Ah, yes, the old Wakefield conundrum. What has always baffled me is the apparent fact that the anti-vaxxers would rather have their child die of measles than be autistic. You might call it passive eugenics.
It would be helpful if the y-axes in these plots had axis labels. Thank you!
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Vaccines should be legally mandated, but steps could be taken to mitigate the fears of parents. When my son was born there was strong anti-vaccine hysteria, and the accounts of children transformed overnight with sudden severe autism -- granted, in extremely rare cases -- were terrifying. However I believed in the efficacy of vaccines and I wanted to vaccinate my child (and anyway, I live in a state that requires them for children to attend school). With some research, I discovered that breaking the MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) shot into three separate shots purportedly reduced the risk of the dreaded bad outcome, as did postponing some shots for newborns and spreading them out over the first year of life. Our pediatrician, who is affiliated with the main children's hospital in Houston, was kind and patient with me. She could offer the three separate MMR shots, but at astronomical cost. I found a reputable doctor who administered the shots separately for a third of the price. Whether this mitigated any real risk -- whether any real risk exists for the combined MMR shot -- was beside the point as this approach gave me peace of mind. Efficiencies of scale currently prevent splitting the shot into three over a large population, but given how many shots a child has to receive in their first years of life, it seems that adding two more (by splitting up the MMR) could easily be accomplished and help calm frightened parents far more than telling them they're hysterical crackpots.
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It did not mitigate risk, since there is no evidence that spacing vaccines results in fewer side affects. There is evidence that spacing vaccines results in a longer period of disease vulnerability in infants and children. While it may have made you feel better, there was no medical justification for it.
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There is no "risk of the dreaded outcome". Vaccines do not cause autism. In very, very rare cases they cause allergic reactions to one of their components. These are seldom life threatening (very very rare times seldom = extremely tiny risk - you exposed your child to much worse just by taking her out of the house today).
With hundreds of millions of children being vaccinated, a few will be diagnosed with autism in the weeks following the vaccination, just as a few will be punched in the face by a bullying classmate, will cut their hand while playing with a knife, will knock out a tooth on the school playground, or will be scalded by hot water. Vaccines don't cause any of those things.
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There's no evidence that spacing out vaccines has any health benefits, so it would be irresponsible of pediatricians to recommend that.
Requiring additional physician visits only makes it less likely that children will receive all of the necessary vaccines, because parents often forget or have scheduling issues, etc.
1
Really great reporting! Have these findings been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal? This is strong evidence for changing state policies to forbid vaccination exemptions for personal beliefs (aside from long-standing evidence from the few states that already have such laws in place!).
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This is a wonderfully written article explaining herd immunity to laypersons. Also, it is the responsibility of public health officials to prevent the spread of disease, especially preventable potentially fatal ones. There are very few medical reasons why a parent should reject childhood vaccinations and these can be vetted at the clinician's office. Bravo on this article and especially since it was written by an economist and not someone from public health!
16
I am disturbed by the comments attempting to justify autism-related anti-vaxxer behavior by contending that the state must provide better proof regarding vaccine safety. No connection has been shown between autism and vaccines. Zero. On the other hand, it has long been proven that vaccines contribute to the health and safety of the community. Anyone who wants to avoid vaccines and risk harm to the broader population has the moral burden to prove a real basis for doing so.
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It's a Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump world, my friend. Evidence and truth had zero value.
8
It's so unfortunate that herd immunity is so dependent on herd mentality.
Commenters like you -- and so many others -- cannot conceive of an infant who would not be a safe candidate for a triple dose MMR vaccine when only 8 months old.
Please cite a study in which a sizable number of infants with a pre-existing condition of diarrhea or other gut-related issues have received the vaccine.
Autism is increasing at an exponential rate and neither AMA nor the CDC can muster a cause. Let's rule out vaccines as a cause but do so with a global study that accounts for individual differences among infants now required by CA law to be vaccinated.
Is every person with cancer given only one therapeutic option? Aren't there pre-existing conditions or age-related considerations that would make one treatment better than another -- or no treatment at all?
Of course there are, but you want to strap every 8 month old in the same Procrustean bed.
Contrary to your one-size-fits all approach, I propose we treat each individual on a case by case basis, which is what good medicine is all about.
And let's do the point specific research that examines a variety of infant patients and determines all the pluses and negatives of the vaccine across a non-homogenous population.
That is what real science does. Your moral outrage at anyone who would question the pan-vaccination orthodoxy has a true-believer ring to it.
Let's not be tied to a herd mentality and instead do the real science.
7
@Gluscabi: It is possible both to do more science and to follow the most sensible approach known to science at the present time. There is no reason to equate lack of total knowledge with total lack of knowledge. Informed questions about the value of (near) universal vaccination are fine. Uninformed questions that engender threats to public health are a different matter. And the true unbelievers don't make a very convincing case.
3
Anytime you mandate something by law, most people will obey it.
When prohibition came in, most people obeyed the law and did not drink. The problem was that the minority of people who kept drinking indirectly help cause a crime wave.
Also it is different re vaccinations between child and adult. The state has more of a say re a child than an adult.
If you want the state to help convince adults to take something like a flu shot, change our health system from a de facto criminal totally for profit model to what the rest of our peer countries have.
5
I live in Canada where we have what many Americans refer to as socialized medicine. My late wife needed a hip replacement. Her Toronto surgeon was at that time orthopedist to the NHL's Maple Leafs and MLB's Blue Jays. When she woke up in recovery she shared a woman who was on welfare and she had the same surgeon. Could that happen in the USA? Not very likely.
2
Thank you for your reply Stephen. Yes, Canada is the envy of the world re health care. Technically it is not socialized like England but a mix of private enterprise and gov't over site. We dummies down here can't even do that. We have the policy of don't get sick, be rich and/or don't have a bad life event while billionaire HMO and drug czars get rich over the health of the patient.
Great article.
Vaccination hysteria is the one subject where the liberal communities are wrong. There are NO reputable studies linking vaccinations with autism and the benefits of vaccinations far outweigh the risks. Autism only appears to be increasing but really it is just being recognized more (discovery bias).
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Mr. Holcomb:
Please.... disease prevention and sensible vaccination policy is not political, it is medical. Political labels do not apply. Good health of all. Education, public health, and knowledge (not ignorance) do apply.
We agree linking vaccinations with autism or other disorder is completely bogus. That issue was thought up by a misguided (polite word, eh?) person who has been discredited many times over.
So far as autism is concerned, I do not know enough about it to have an opinion. But, I am sympathetic towards and support research (my tax dollars at work, eh?) that may illuminate and help those people and families that afflicted with it.
Let us be thankful that our USA culture (individually and group) encourages the largess and the commitment to deal with real and not phony medical issues. Cheers, Ted G
8
They’re also wrong about fluoride, as demonstrated in my hometown a few years back.
8
How and why you conflate anti-vaccine hysteria with liberalism is beyond me.
7
Great work. Thank you for the clear charts and kudos to the young student for helping in this article.
21
It's scandalous that the government would force you to inoculate your child when it's against your wishes or beliefs. If these vaccines really worked so well, you wouldn't need the "herd immunity" argument. Promoters of these multiple vaccines have not done research to find out what they really contain or what they do to the immune system of babies and young children. In fact, no one has done this research, especially to know what happens when multiple vaccines are given. There are not studies about this, only assumptions. Glad I don't live in California with small children and if I did I would move.
33
Herd immunity primarily protects people who cannot get vaccines- infants, people with compromised immune systems, etc., so your argument is just incorrect. These vaccines are incredibly effective, as shown by the data. In places where vaccination rates are high, you don't see outbreaks. If you don't want to get your child vaccinated, that's fine, but you then have a responsibility to keep your child away from every other child out there. Want to enjoy the benefits of living in a community? Then you also need to accept responsibilities that come along with that.
361
The government can force you to enroll your child in school, wear seat belts, and can even force you to treat with dangerous, toxic chemicals if your child were to be diagnosed with cancer. How is this different? Unvaccinated children are a public health hazard.
Also, yes, vaccines are not 100% effective, thus the need for herd immunity. Other things that aren't 100% effective: nearly everything.
114
Very disappointing that 10 folks recommend Daisy's ridiculous unfounded statements as I write. Search on PubMed for "(((measles) AND vaccination) AND benefit) AND children" turns up 185 articles. There is lots of research on measles and the other important vaccinations. The huge historical infant and child mortality was solved with advances in modern medicine, including especially vaccinations.
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Measles is the arch type contagious disease. All you have to do is occupy the same airspace (even outside) within two hours. People are spreading the disease before they get sick and up to 3 weeks afterward.
Ebola is less contagious because usually you have to touch a victim while he is sick, get secretions on you, even after they've died.
Vaccinations usually take a few weeks after multiple shots to become effective - protection takes time.
In this day and age there are more immune suppressed people up and about who are at risk for very serious complications from these childhood diseases and herd immunity there only option.
We are all in the same boat.
99
There are periodic measles outbreaks around the country. One in Minnesota spring 2017 in a mostly unvaccinated Somali population. No one died. Another at Boston University (1985) in a student demographic fully vaccinated. No one died. No one died in the Disney outbreak. Mortality rates for measles in the US have been essentially 0 since before the measles vaccination was introduced in 1963. Public health, improved sanitation, clean water, inspections of meat and foods all contributed more to the decline in common diseases than vaccinations did. This article about the Disney outbreak is worth reading:https://www.westonaprice.org/studies-show-that-vaccinated-individuals-sp...
6
Are you implying that we shouldn't worry about measles because it doesn't kill enough people? There haven't been fatalities in recent years in the US because the outbreaks among unvaccinated populations have fortuitously been contained to <1000 cases. This is because of overall herd immunity, not because of vast improvements in nutrition, food safety, and sanitation in the US in the last 15 years. Ask those living in Subsaharan Africa and South Asia what they think about the vaccination campaigns that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly children, every year.
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First of all, many of the people who got measles had partial or full vaccinations. A single measles shot gives most people around 70-80% protection. And measles is so infectious that the vaccine does not completely protect someone from infection. However, even partial immunity is usually enough to prevent the severe, deadly complications from infection. That's why nobody has died yet; most of them had at least some protection.
Sanitation, clean water and food safety are wonderful for preventing the spread of deadly bacteria and parasites, but it has no effect on a airborne virus like measles.
Finally, measles can take years to kill you. Some of those kids who appeared to have recovered from the virus may later die after the virus slowly destroys their brain. I expect that in a few years I'll be reading a medical journal and come across a case study on SSPE originating from one of these outbreaks.
77
Mortality from measles has not been zero. Mortality is highest in the elderly, and those who are chronically ill or have poor nutritional status. Serious fetal complications occur during pregnancy. Measles may cause death by pneumonia, encephalitis, myocarditis.
15
I wonder how much of the increase in vaccination rates was due to Californians witnessing a measles outbreak first hand, and realizing that measles posed a real risk for their children?
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I can answer that. It was definately the state law.
In 2015, after the outbreak had spread to in Marin--a county in the SF Bay Area with low vaccination rates--a Marin parent named Carl Krawitt, whose son was immune-compromised, lobbied for stricter vaccination requirements and enforcement in his school district. And parents fought it. Unvaccinated children in their own community contracting measles was not enough of a scare to get people to vaccinate. Only the state law eliminating PBE's got them to vaccinate their kids.
Similarly, even though parents here now have to vaccinate their school-aged children, vaccination rates for preschoolers still remain low. WIRED published a report last year about the day care centers of various tech companies. Vaccination rates had improved since the law went into effect, but in 2016, IBM, Google and Genentech all still had daycare facilities with vaccination rates under 90%...in one case under 70%.
So, nope--these parents are not scared of the risk, even after having had an outbreak in their area.
3
Correct me if I'm wrong but hadn't quite a lot of the people who contracted measles in that Disneyland outbreak been vaccinated? If so, this says to me that the vaccination doesn't work well. And...despite the fact that individual vaccines have been tested for safety, no study has been done on the cumulative effect of the highly toxic aluminum adjuvants on a young body-bodies that are now getting some 40 vaccinations by the age of 4. I'm all for science, but not incomplete or subsidized science.
31
The science is excellent, it is many people's understanding of it that is incomplete. That incomplete understanding would not be problematic if people recognized it. It is dangerous when those with an incomplete understanding don't recognize that and make arguments for policy that is known to be dangerous.
60
Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective.
This kind of disinformation is what causes preventable deaths due to a disease that has been effectively eradicated decades ago.
13
OK, I'll correct you. In the Disneyland outbreak there were 125 confirmed cases, and 110 of these were California residents for which vaccination data was obtained - of these, 45% were unvaccinated, 43 had "unknown or undocumented vaccination status" (which usually means unvaccinated), and 12% had received at least one dose of measles-containing vaccine - hardly "quite a lot".
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6406a5.htm?s_cid=mm6406a5_w
Also, according to the current CDC pediatric immunization schedule, by age 6 children should receive 10 vaccines that will protect them against 14 different diseases. If we assume a yearly dose of flu vaccine starting at six months of age, and a standard dosing schedule for all the others, then by age six the child will receive a maximum of about 35 total doses, fewer if certain formulations (e.g. MMRV) are used. About half of the doses (17) will be vaccines that may contain the adjuvant alum - of note, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is NOT one of these.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/easy-to-read/child-easyread.html
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/adjuvants.html
24
It is a maxim in psychology that it is easier to change a behavior than it is to change beliefs. Once behavior changes, beliefs follow. This has been repeatedly shown in study after study. The most difficult part is having a qualified person managing the behavior change. If done improperly it can backfire tragically. What are laws but the state's attempt to change behavior. It is proper and effective. We see how poor attempts are useless and dangerous, i.e. 'Just say No!' is a perfect example. I commend California for taking this action to protect its citizens.
111
Parents who do not have children vaccinated have many reasons for holding out, the fear of a vaccination induced case of autism perhaps the most predominant.
In addition to enacting mandatory vaccination laws, states should also do whatever possible to ease those fears or confront the data head on by doing scientific studies of their own.
However, rather than doing studies that seek to target an average degree of negative or positive correlation between vaccinations and autism, states should conduct studies that make note of pre-existing conditions -- like a child's propensity for ear infections or the existence of chronic diarrhea -- and the incidence of autism afterwards.
Many medications have warning labels if specific pre-existing conditions are present. However, to my knowledge chronic diarrhea does not rule out vaccinations.
Why not?
Autism has a strong positive correlation with disturbed gut activity, including diarrhea. Shouldn't infants being lined up for vaccinations at least be screened for pre-existing conditions before they receive MMR vaccinations –– three different antigens at one time –– at 8 months old, such an early age.
A thorough study could re-position the state as an all knowing autocratic entity that uses its power to force parents to take a path that has serious concerns.
When the CCD lists autism as a 1 in 68 chance and can cite no cause for the epidemic, then parents have a right to question a law that might lead to grave harm.
16
Nonsense. There is no relationship between the measles vaccine and autism. None. Zero. Andrew Wakefield's research was withdrawn because it was fake.
25
Seriously, you are promoting a theory that has long been discredited. Educate yourself and try to develop a basic understanding of science. And if nothing else, keep up.
15
OLDER FATHERS. There's your reason for a huge rise in autism. Aging sperm has been shown to contribute to a host of problems including autism.
Why a person would NOT have their child(ren) not vaccinated is beyond me except for the fact that commonsense is just not that common (Voltaire). The pseudoscience that vaccination creates autism has long been debunked. Then again, America has literally millions who believe the biblical myth of creation, believe Donald Trump, and vote Republican against their own best interests and you can't legislate about that.
176
"Common sense" is the explanation given by people when they have NO explanation and are not willing to think in order to create an explanation.
4
Stephen, although you are partially right, the article states Calif., as an example.
Probably the largest liberal state in the union, not a Trump state.
If you want to help solve the problem read my post.
2
Somehow I doubt there were very many Republican parents with kids at at the schools mentioned in this column.
Except at times of great peril, for example when a country is at war, folks generally do not respond to public education programs or appeals to their better nature, or to their sense of civic duty.
In general, humans respond to opportunity cost and to opportunity benefit.
25