A Broken Trust: Lessons from the Vaccine - Autism Wars

[Alareth]

This thread shares a title with a paper recently published by the Public Library of Science.

It attempts to trace the origins of the augument and how it relates to the dissemination of scientific information to the public.

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000114

[krelnik]

Maybe I'm showing my age here, but it amazes me how many of these articles reviewing the recent history of vaccine denial completely gloss over events prior to 1998. I'm no vaccine expert, but it strikes me that there are two major events prior to then that set the stage for the current problem.

The earliest oral polio vaccines had a known problem where they actually gave people the disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine#Iatrogenic_.28vaccine-induced.29_polio) in a very small number of cases. This is why most countries switched to the injected vaccine in place of the oral one, but it still occurs in some countries. I believe there was a bit of a backlash in the U.S. at the time including lawsuits, but the memory of polio itself was still fresh so it didn't go too far.

In the mid 1980's, the airing of an NBC TV documentary "DPT: Vaccine Roulette" caused a scare regarding the pertussis vaccine due to known cases of side effects. This was a huge problem as it resulted in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers, shortages of the vaccines, and so on. It was a direct result of this scare that the U.S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created, to inoculate (pun intended) vaccine manufacturers against lawsuits to avoid shortages. The pertussis vaccine was also altered to avoid the problem that sparked this. This part of the story is mentioned in passing in this new paper, but the very relevant fact that the flames were fanned by a TV documentary was not.

Now granted, both of those events occurred during prior generations of parents/children, but people have memories and these stories get passed on. I believe both of these prior scares played an important role in "setting the stage" that Wakefield/Kirby/Handley/McCarthy now speak from.


P.S. Happy Birthday, Alareth!

[shuttlt]

There's the whole monkey virus think too, but maybe that doesn't have the same impact on public consciousness. I find the fact that hardly anybody feaks out about this at least as surprising as the arbitrary crap that people do freak out over.

[krelnik]

Here's an interesting tidbit about anti-vaccine sentiment in the U.S. that dates back a little further. Back before vaccines, even, when only "inoculations" existed. I found this story researching the "Skeptic History" items (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22Skeptic+History%22) that I post on Twitter (http://twitter.com/krelnik).

When a smallpox epidemic was raging through New England in 1721, religious leader Cotton Mather urged local doctors to begin inoculating people. He had heard of this practice from Africa and elsewhere. One local doctor began doing so in June of 1721.

Resistance to this practice was so strong, that at one point a grenade was thrown into Cotton Mather's house, and the doctor required a bodyguard (http://www.todayinsci.com/B/Boylston_Zabdiel/Boylston_Zabdiel.htm).

So in some sense, you can say U.S. anti-vaccine sentiment goes back over 280 years!

[Eos of the Eons]

Meh, this just goes to show how powerful lies and misinformation about toxins, autism, and dead kids along with other appeals to emotion are better at convincing people to not doing something rather than pointing out that vaccines actually save lives. Cheap ads, numerous junk sites, and millions of alternative "medicine" pushers have successfully marketed lies, and there are millions of THEM compared to anyone or any site that attempts to put the lies to rest. Just go to any parenting board and try to debunk any of that junk. You'll just get banned.

[laca]

The earliest oral polio vaccines had a known problem where they actually gave people the disease in a very small number of cases. This is why most countries switched to the injected vaccine in place of the oral one, but it still occurs in some countries. I believe there was a bit of a backlash in the U.S. at the time including lawsuits, but the memory of polio itself was still fresh so it didn't go too far.

In the mid 1980's, the airing of an NBC TV documentary "DPT: Vaccine Roulette" caused a scare regarding the pertussis vaccine due to known cases of side effects. This was a huge problem as it resulted in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers, shortages of the vaccines, and so on.

In that case why stop at vaccines? I'm sure that people died from *insert random medical procedure*, and doctors got sued over them.

[Eos of the Eons]

How do you think that doctors got sued for putting in silicone implants? Now saline is used instead because no doctor wants to get sued over rumors again.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-implants/WO00052


Okay, with mountains of evidence showing that saline implants won't cause auto-immune disease, they get used now, but they did get banned for a while, and women will still refuse them because of the rumors - and doctors did get sued over the rumor.

[wackyvorlon]

The problem is not vaccines being imperfect, it's ignoring the science. Anti-vaccinationists have developed this emotional belief that vaccines cause autism. The science simply does not agree. While other vaccines have caused problems, this problem is a fiction. A falsehood is not equal to the truth.

Let me restate: A falsehood is not equal to the truth. You cannot say that because X is true, and Y is similar to X, Y must also be true. It doesn't work that way.

[macdoc]

Of course one could take the approach that this is Darwinian and teh anti-vaxxers risk their progeny.

Problem is it costs all of us in terms of additional healthcare costs.

Is it really worth expending angst on this when you've got a sky daddy culture that is so much more damaging worldwide.

My kids are inoculated against disease and so far against the religion meme.....

It will be interesting once the baby boom - post WWII rigid religious power brokers disappear and more like Obama emerge who are pragmatic.

That said those actively promoting anti-vax to large audiences should be brought to light big time with both science and ridicule.....Ophrah notably.
I'd love to see one of them sued.

••

I just sent off an email to her outlining the kind of concern I see in the science forums ( I was nice :D )

http://www.oprah.com/contactus

suggesting perhaps a change of course and that a book like this might make it on her recommended reading list....

http://www.amazon.ca/Public-Health-Risk-Factor-Revolution/dp/1580462863

[pgwenthold]

Of course one could take the approach that this is Darwinian and teh anti-vaxxers risk their progeny.

Problem is it costs all of us in terms of additional healthcare costs.



Moreover, given the less than 100% efficacy of vaccines, it even puts our health at risk. Herd immunity is critical in many (if not most) cases.