Before I start this little spiel, I need you all to know: Iâm not hating on people who donât vaccinate their kids, and while I know for a fact BASED ON facts that vaccines donât cause autism or other âdefectsâ, Iâm all for continuing research to make them even better and safer.
But you know what really, really scares me about the anti-vax movement? As a future Public Health Professional, the thing that scares me most about this is the fact that our cultural mindset has become so CHILL about vaccine-preventable/âchildhoodâ diseases that there is even room for such a movement. Let me explain.
Do yâall know what an R0 is? The R-naught, as it is called, is the basic reproduction rate of a disease. It tells you how many new infections can come from one existing infection. For example, an R-naught of 3 (R3) means that, on average, one sick person will infect three other people. Every disease has an R-naught, some greater and some lesser.
Do you remember when everyone was freaking out about Ebola? Everyone was terrified of catching it, because itâs SOOOOO contagious and deadly, right? Ebola has an R-naught of 2. Thatâs it. R2. One person with Ebola, on average, will get 2 more people sick. And we were freaking out about that.
Well guess what? Measles is the most contagious disease known to mankind, and it has an R-naught of 18. 18. One person with measles will give it to 18 new people, and those people will give it to 18 new people EACH, and so on. Thatâs what happened with the Disneyland outbreak; itâs so ridiculously contagious that just ONE sick child was enough to start an epidemic.
And yet very few people are as scared of measles as they are of Ebola. Why is that? One reason could be the nature of the disease, sure; Ebola is terrifying in its progression and symptoms. But I would suggest that a major reason is that measles has been so well-contained by vaccination that people no longer fear it. Itâs not a part of every-day life anymore; this disease is no big deal because nobody gets it, because so many people are vaccinated against it. Letâs put this another way.
What are the diseases that scare everyone the most: Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and SARS are pretty high on the list of terror diseases. But letâs look at the R0s, shall we: Ebola-R2. HIV/AIDS-R5. SARS-R5.Â
Now letâs look at diseases that people are voluntarily rejecting vaccinations against: Measles, Pertussis, and Diphtheria are the major ones. Their R0s? Measles-R18. Pertussis-R17. Diptheria-R7.
Everyone focuses on the former set of diseasesâ rightly so, I supposeâ because theyâre more dangerous at the present time. What makes them more dangerous? Not their R0; itâs the fact that there is no viable treatment, and NO VACCINE. Seriously, thatâs why the medical community is worried about them. Thereâs no way to treat or PREVENT their spread biologically. Well guess what? Thereâs no viable treatment for Measles or Pertussis, and only limited treatment options for Diphtheria. Thatâs why the medical community doesnât focus on them as much, because we can prevent them at the biological level, safely and effectively.
But now that the Anti-Vax movement has taken hold so firmly, the medical community is now being forced to once more worry about diseases it had almost eradicated. And not only that, itâs endangering herd immunity for the people who canât receive their own vaccines due to compromised immune systems. Iâm allergic to eggs, so I canât receive the flu shot, but Iâm also asthmatic so I canât get the inhaled vaccine. I rely entirely on the people I associate with to keep me safe from the flu by getting their yearly shot. This made public school a living nightmare, because almost NOBODY got their shot. They caught it, and while it didnât affect them TOO terribly because they were generally healthy, when I caught it, it was very dangerous because of my asthma. And then thereâs that time when I caught the flu, and then right after because of my weakened immune system, I caught Whooping Cough from someone who hadnât been vaccinated. I HAD been vaccinated, but my body was so fatigued from the flu that it couldnât keep up with immune demands. And so I caught it.
Have you ever had Pertussis (whooping cough)? Itâs hard enough on someone with full lung capacity; it can break ribs, it makes you cough so hard. You cough until there is literally no air in your lungs, and you have to inhale so forcefully it makes the âwhoopingâ sound that gives it the name. Itâs painful beyond belief, and it can last for weeks. Some people will survive it. But add that to asthma, or to a young child, or to an elderly person, and you are looking at either permanent damage or death, no exceptions. When I had it, I was about 6 years old, and asthmatic; I spent 81 hours awake because the coughing was so violent I physically couldnât sleep. I tore abdominal muscles. I vomited during coughing fits and aspirated the vomit. I was actively dying. The doctors could barely suppress the cough enough for me to breathe at all. My inhaler wasnât helping, none of the cough syrups or breathing treatments were helping; I was getting pneumonia on top of the virus. It was Hell. I was LUCKY that I didnât die.
Who would wish that on their child? Nobody, I hope. And if you KNEW you could keep your child from ever experiencing that, wouldnât you do whatever it took to ensure their safety?
Or would you look at the safeguard and say, âNah. Iâll take my chances with my childâs life.â?
That is what the anti-vax movement is doing. Perhaps not purposefully, but thatâs the end result. These arenât just names on syringes designed to make a child cry; the diseases are real, and real threats to health and life, and the vaccines are how you prevent them. Yet we are so far removed from the impact and effects of these diseases BECAUSE of the peace brought to us BY vaccines that people now feel no qualm about refusing vaccines.
Thatâs what scares me about the anti-vax movement; people have become so complacent that they no longer worry about these very real, very deadly diseases. Theyâd rather risk their childâs life than get a shot? The side effects of vaccines are unproven (nonexistent), but the efficacy of vaccines are very much proven.
When the pertussis vaccine first came out, people jumped on it right away. They were so grateful to have it, and for a while everything was smooth sailing, and whooping cough was on the decline. Then, in the 70s, some groups started claiming the pertussis vaccine was causing brain injury in young children. Less than 50 in 15 million cases were reported, but it was enough to scare people away from the vaccine. And children began dying again. It was later discovered that it was NOT the vaccine, but the result of infantile epilepsy, that caused the brain damage. People began once more vaccinating their children, but not before hundreds if not thousands had died.
And thatâs whatâs happening now. A falsified claim scared just enough people that time-tested, lab-tested, fully-proven, totally safe vaccines are being rejected, and weâre already starting to pay with lives. And Iâm scared itâs going to get worse. People donât really grasp the full import of these diseases and the necessity of the vaccines until they have experienced the disease. Iâm scared that itâs going to come down to new epidemics before people will realize the mistake of not vaccinating.
Right now weâre still in the semi-safe zone. Enough of the population is immunized that we could probably keep most pandemics of these diseases at bay. But if this movement keeps gaining momentum, there might come a day when measles and pertussis could once again destroy thousands of people yearly. Imagine if some terrorist group weaponized Ebola and used it against this country; so many people would die, because we have no vaccine for it, no way to prevent it. That is what could happen with diseases like mumps, rubella, measles, pertussis, Diphtheria, and polio. Except it wouldnât be terrorists using a disease as a weapon; it would be some kid in your childâs class, or your neighbor across the street, or the guy who delivers the mail to your office. Thatâs how life used to be, and if someone from the pre-vaccine era could see us now, theyâd weep for joy at the idea that we can prevent these horrific diseases; and then theyâd weep in sorrow at the idea that people are voluntarily turning down that safeguard.
Itâs true, vaccines arenât always 100% effective; I was immunized, but still got Whooping Cough (lowered immune function, if you recall). But you know who didnât get it? My baby sister. My big sister. My cousins. My mother and father. My classmates, the other kids at my doctorâs office. The nurses at the hospital. The pharmacy workers. Their children. The kids my mom taught at school. All those people were safe because of vaccines. And you know what else? When I was in India, I was exposed to polio. Didnât get it. Know why? I was vaccinated. I was exposed to chicken pox in 5th grade. One unvaccinated kid got it, and the other 4 kids in our class who werenât vaccinated got it. But you know who didnât? The rest of us who WERE vaccinated.
Vaccination may not be perfect, and the only way we will improve them is by continuing research. But the fact remains that as they are now, vaccines cause no lasting side effects (injection site pain goes away), and are extremely effective at preventing dangerous, painful, debilitating, often deadly diseases. Letâs keep researching, yes, but in the mean time, PLEASE vaccinate. Itâs not worth your life, or your childâs, or anyone elseâs. Vaccines save lives, not destroy them.
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