12th May 2008
Don’t infect my kids with your diseases
I read an article this morning about an outbreak of pertussis in a California school which resulted in closing school to try to control the epidemic. Apparently, it’s a school where only about half the students have the normal required round of vaccinations; most parents had opted-out (presumably due to fears of autism).
This drives me up the wall. Autism is not caused by vaccines. The thimerasol (mercury-based preservative), which was initially blamed, has been out of vaccines for years now; multiple scientific studies show that the rate of autism has risen since then. Now anti-vaccinationists rely on the bugaboo of “toxins” without bothering to define them — no science, just fearmongering. Thus whooping cough is able to spread.
Pertussis isn’t just a “bad cough”, it’s agonizing. Similarly, chicken pox isn’t just a week of itching, it’s a ticket to shingles (agonizing pain, again). Polio is crippling (FDR wasn’t in a wheelchair for fun). Rubella causes dreadful complications in pregnant women. Diphtheria kills. Smallpox kills. I’m not a fan of putting all sorts of weird stuff in my kids bodies — I buy organic food, for example — but fuck, letting them die instead? Kinda defeats the purpose.
Modern medicine works. Let it. And in the meantime, keep your “wholesome” unvaccinated children the hell away from me and my family.
UPDATE: Bad Astronomy Blog was ranting about this at the same time I was today 
The reason the students in the Californian school weren’t vaccinated had very little to do with the (non-existant, but anyway) autism link. That particular school was a waldorf school–and those schools are based on a belief system called anthroposophy. Though these people avoid ‘poison’ and everything ‘unnatural,’ the real reasons for the whole popularity of non-vaccination in those circles are the teachings of a certain Rudolf Steiner at the beginning of the past century. Among other wacky things, he claimed childhood diseases–and virtually all diseases–are karmically caused and they should be endured to better one’s karma. This makes diseases good and welcome, and a beneficial obstacle to overcome in your personal/spiritual development. You don’t get autism from vaccinations, according to this belief, but from bad karma of your past life. Thus, these people won’t start vaccinating because all the ‘poisons’ are taken out of the vaccines or if all possible side-effects of the vaccine shots are conclusively ruled out by perfect evidence.
Waldorf schools, and communities surrounding waldorf schools, in Europe have seen recent (and documented) outbreaks of measles.
It’s sad and irresponsible.
Thank you — that is a good point, and a detail I was not aware of. I sort of figured “Waldorf School” was just the name of the place (e.g. it was paid for by a Mr. Waldorf). Nor had I heard of anthroposophy before… and reading the description of your Waldorf school experience is disgusting. Sorry.
I feel a little silly for blaming the autism branch of the anti-vaccinationists, I guess — but the point is still strong that whatever belief you have for “protecting” your children, you’re indirectly affecting the health of other people’s kids. Letting diseases flourish is harmful to everybody.
Thanks
Ah, well, blaming the autism-antivax-branch is probably right, to a certain extent, anyway–because those groups of people clearly influence each other. For example, I’m absolutely convinced that the anthroposophists are delighted that other groups go for similar agendas they do–for whatever reasons. They can sort of reinforce each others beliefs. And, also, I think they might view the anti-vaxers, the believers in anything that is ‘natural’ and the ‘poison-is-everywhere’-people as potential customers! Where will the anti-vaxers send their kids when public schools–or any school with a normal health policy–will require that children be vaccinated? Waldorf, of course! And anthroposophy sort of comes with a package that fits pretty well in with the general sentiments of the anti-vaccination bunch who at this point simply disbelieve ordinary medicine, but who could easily be encouraged to step further into the ‘alternative’ swamp of ignorance! (And anthroposophy’s got stuff and beliefs to sell them!)
So, I think it’s only fair to blame the anthroposophy-/waldorf bunch and the anti-vaccination-autism bunch collectively
(Waldorf was the name of the cigarette factory where the first Waldorf school was founded, a hundred years ago. In many countries, Waldorf schools are called Steiner schools instead, after the founder Steiner. In my country, Sweden, Waldorf schools are usually called Waldorf schools, as they are in the US and in Germany. In the UK and in Norway, they are often named Steiner schools. Waldorf, or Steiner, is like a trademark, I suppose!)
I think that we are really doing a bad job of convincing people to get their kids vaccinated. The focus on debunking the myth of vaccinations causing autism is, in my view, a big mistake. It’s approaching things from the wrong direction. People don’t dislike vaccinations because they think it causes autism; they think vaccines cause autism because they dislike the vaccines in the first place. They are just (largely unconsciously) looking for a reason to support an irrational belief that they already hold.
The strongest evidence of this is that lots of people have been opposed to vaccination since almost its earliest days. Yet as each piece of evidence these people put forward that vaccines are bad is debunked, a new one takes its place. The same body of people (and often the same vocal anti-vaccine activists) move on from one justification to another. Autism has proved to be a particularly effective thing to blame on vaccines, because it manifests itself right around the time kids are getting vaccinated. But just off the top of my head I can think of three supposed ways that the vaccines cause the autism; and since the mercury one is becoming pretty untenable, I’ll bet somebody is already formulating the next bogus link.
There will always be some true believers who will fight vaccination tooth and claw, coming up with an endless string of cockamamie reasons, which they use to justify to themselves their already held beliefs. However, most people who don’t get their kids vaccinated aren’t in this category. They are people who don’t like vaccines: they don’t like having their kids stuck with needles (probably having hated it themselves); or the notion of injecting any viral material into their children makes them uncomfortable. They are willing to grab onto anti-vaccine propaganda and justify not letting their children get shots. But if there were a strong societal opprobrium against doing that, they would go along with the vaccinations. These parents are, after all, not making this decision based on the merits, but entirely on psycho-social considerations.
The reason that vaccination rates are going down is that not having your kids vaccinated is becoming more socially acceptable. People who are now of child-bearing years are too far removed from the era when debilitating childhood diseases were commonplace to appreciate viscerally how important vaccination is. If you didn’t get your kids the polio vaccine in the 1960s, family members and other parents would get very upset with you. That doesn’t happen any more, and that’s why the (frankly) weak-willed people who don’t like vaccinations are actually following through on their stupid impulses nowadays in ever greater numbers.
So if we want to raise vaccination rates back up, we need to get the regular people who believe in vaccination angrier at the people who don’t. That is, I contend, what will really make the biggest difference.
We could also discuss the aluminum, electively aborted fetal cells, calf serum, etc. in vaccines, and how vaccinations are cultured in ground up monkey kidneys and other animal byproducts. Why don’t you all start looking outside the box instead of trying so hard to stay in. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that vaccines are not good for us. Our GOVERNMENT OWNED vaccine Gaurdisil has been killing young girls. Can we say population control? Just because you can’t see through the bullshit doesn’t mean that the people who can are crazy. Knowledge is power. You should really read more.
[blogger's note: this crazy person's tirade deserved its own post, and has been granted one.]
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