Doubt and Denialism: Vaccine Myths Persist in the Face of Science
Last month, CDC officials reported more than 18,000 cases of whooping cough (or pertussis) across the country—a rate of infection they hadn’t seen so early in the year since 1959. So far, nine babies have died. California had its own epidemic in 2010, with more than 9,100 cases and 10 infant deaths.
Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable disease. But prevention depends on public compliance. And people like Schneider who doubt vaccine safety tend to consider their children’s vaccinations optional. In the 2011 poll, 86% of doubters opted out of some or all of their kids’ scheduled shots.
That’s why some blame vaccine skeptics for the current epidemic. With just 84% of toddlers fully vaccinated, it’s likely skeptics play some role.
But CDC officials aren’t sure what’s behind the epidemic, or why even vaccinated teenagers are getting sick. It’s possible that the vaccine isn’t as effective as researchers hoped or has been targeting the wrong pathogen strains.
What officials do know is that unvaccinated kids are eight times as likely to get pertussis as vaccinated kids. And when vaccinated kids do contract the disease, it’s much milder, doesn’t last as long, and tends to be less infectious.
That’s why public officials are urging adults, especially pregnant women, to get boosters to protect children still too young to be fully vaccinated. Kids get the first of five pertussis shots (plus a later booster) at 2 months.
Most pertussis deaths claim children younger than 3 months old. Nine of the 10 children who died in California during the 2010 outbreak were under 8 weeks old.
...Vaccines rarely provide 100% protection. But they’re the state-of-the-art defense against infectious disease.
What’s more, if vaccine-preventable diseases like pertussis become more virulent, and there’s some evidence that this may be true, those who refuse vaccination will have little recourse when their kids—or their neighbors’ kids—take ill.
Public health officials often say that parents who reject vaccination will realize they’ve made a terrible mistake only when these once rare childhood diseases, long controlled by vaccination, return, with tragic consequences.
Why on earth would anyone want to help a deadly agent hell-bent on survival get the upper hand?
http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/...vaccine-myths-persist-in-the-face-of-science/
Last month, CDC officials reported more than 18,000 cases of whooping cough (or pertussis) across the country—a rate of infection they hadn’t seen so early in the year since 1959. So far, nine babies have died. California had its own epidemic in 2010, with more than 9,100 cases and 10 infant deaths.
Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable disease. But prevention depends on public compliance. And people like Schneider who doubt vaccine safety tend to consider their children’s vaccinations optional. In the 2011 poll, 86% of doubters opted out of some or all of their kids’ scheduled shots.
That’s why some blame vaccine skeptics for the current epidemic. With just 84% of toddlers fully vaccinated, it’s likely skeptics play some role.
But CDC officials aren’t sure what’s behind the epidemic, or why even vaccinated teenagers are getting sick. It’s possible that the vaccine isn’t as effective as researchers hoped or has been targeting the wrong pathogen strains.
What officials do know is that unvaccinated kids are eight times as likely to get pertussis as vaccinated kids. And when vaccinated kids do contract the disease, it’s much milder, doesn’t last as long, and tends to be less infectious.
That’s why public officials are urging adults, especially pregnant women, to get boosters to protect children still too young to be fully vaccinated. Kids get the first of five pertussis shots (plus a later booster) at 2 months.
Most pertussis deaths claim children younger than 3 months old. Nine of the 10 children who died in California during the 2010 outbreak were under 8 weeks old.
...Vaccines rarely provide 100% protection. But they’re the state-of-the-art defense against infectious disease.
What’s more, if vaccine-preventable diseases like pertussis become more virulent, and there’s some evidence that this may be true, those who refuse vaccination will have little recourse when their kids—or their neighbors’ kids—take ill.
Public health officials often say that parents who reject vaccination will realize they’ve made a terrible mistake only when these once rare childhood diseases, long controlled by vaccination, return, with tragic consequences.
Why on earth would anyone want to help a deadly agent hell-bent on survival get the upper hand?
http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/...vaccine-myths-persist-in-the-face-of-science/