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Doc Who Tied Vaccine to Autism Ruled Unethical (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter perry147
- Start date
gianmarco
Footballguy
Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
When did Dr Who start practicing real medicine?
Joe Summer
Footballguy
Rate of autism in children has soared to 1-in-68
Hmmm. If vaccination rates have decreased, then how could the autism rate increase??
Hmmm. If vaccination rates have decreased, then how could the autism rate increase??
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St. Louis Bob
Footballguy
St. Louis Bob
Footballguy
Wait, what if vaccinations and Autism have NOTHING to do with each other? Maybe vaccainations have something to do with spreading diseases like Polio and Whooping Cough to all of us, even if you've been vaccinated but haven't received boost shots if rates fall below 95%.
Maybe Autism happens BEFORE vaccinations are ever even given? Nah.
Maybe Autism happens BEFORE vaccinations are ever even given? Nah.
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-fish-
Footballguy
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Quez
Footballguy
I have no idea if vaccines are linked to autism, but its important to have these discussions. There need to be more studies done.
Check out this wiki entry from polio vaccine. Who knows what can of worms we opened messing with monkeys.
In 1960, it was determined that the rhesus monkey kidney cells used to prepare the poliovirus vaccines were infected with the SV40 virus (Simian Virus-40).[58] SV40 was also discovered in 1960 and is a naturally occurring virus that infects monkeys. In 1961, SV40 was found to cause tumors in rodents.[59] More recently, the virus was found in certain forms of cancer in humans, for instance brain and bone tumors, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, and some types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.[60][61] However, it has not been determined that SV40 causes these cancers.[62]
SV40 was found to be present in stocks of the injected form of the polio vaccine (IPV) in use between 1955 to 1963.[58] It is not found in the OPV form.[58] Over 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine between 1955 to 1963 when a proportion of vaccine was contaminated with SV40; it has been estimated that 1030 million Americans may have received a dose of vaccine contaminated with SV40.[58] Later analysis suggested that vaccines produced by the former Soviet bloc countries until 1980, and used in the USSR, China, Japan, and several African countries, may have been contaminated; meaning hundreds of millions more may have been exposed to SV40.[63]
In 1998, the National Cancer Institute undertook a large study, using cancer case information from the Institute's SEER database. The published findings from the study revealed that there was no increased incidence of cancer in persons who may have received vaccine containing SV40.[64] Another large study in Sweden examined cancer rates of 700,000 individuals who had received potentially contaminated polio vaccine as late as 1957; the study again revealed no increased cancer incidence between persons who received polio vaccines containing SV40 and those who did not.[65] The question of whether SV40 causes cancer in humans remains controversial however, and the development of improved assays for detection of SV40 in human tissues will be needed to resolve the controversy.[62]
During the race to develop an oral polio vaccine several large scale human trials were undertaken. By 1958, the National Institutes of Health had determined that OPV produced using the Sabin strains were the safest.[16] Between 1957 and 1960, however, Hilary Koprowski continued to administer his vaccine around the world. In Africa, the vaccines were administered to roughly one million people in the Belgian territories, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.[66][67] The results of these human trials have been controversial,[68] and accusations in the 1990s arose that the vaccine had created the conditions necessary for transmission of SIV from chimpanzees to humans, causing HIV/AIDS. These hypotheses have, however, been refuted in some studies.[66] By 2004, cases of poliomyelitis in Africa had been reduced to just a small number of isolated regions in the western portion of the continent, with sporadic cases elsewhere. However, recent opposition to vaccination campaigns has evolved,[69][70] often relating to fears that the vaccine might induce sterility.[71] The disease has since resurged in Nigeria and in several other African nations, which epidemiologists believe is due to refusals by certain local populations to allow their children to receive the polio vaccine.[72]
Check out this wiki entry from polio vaccine. Who knows what can of worms we opened messing with monkeys.
In 1960, it was determined that the rhesus monkey kidney cells used to prepare the poliovirus vaccines were infected with the SV40 virus (Simian Virus-40).[58] SV40 was also discovered in 1960 and is a naturally occurring virus that infects monkeys. In 1961, SV40 was found to cause tumors in rodents.[59] More recently, the virus was found in certain forms of cancer in humans, for instance brain and bone tumors, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, and some types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.[60][61] However, it has not been determined that SV40 causes these cancers.[62]
SV40 was found to be present in stocks of the injected form of the polio vaccine (IPV) in use between 1955 to 1963.[58] It is not found in the OPV form.[58] Over 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine between 1955 to 1963 when a proportion of vaccine was contaminated with SV40; it has been estimated that 1030 million Americans may have received a dose of vaccine contaminated with SV40.[58] Later analysis suggested that vaccines produced by the former Soviet bloc countries until 1980, and used in the USSR, China, Japan, and several African countries, may have been contaminated; meaning hundreds of millions more may have been exposed to SV40.[63]
In 1998, the National Cancer Institute undertook a large study, using cancer case information from the Institute's SEER database. The published findings from the study revealed that there was no increased incidence of cancer in persons who may have received vaccine containing SV40.[64] Another large study in Sweden examined cancer rates of 700,000 individuals who had received potentially contaminated polio vaccine as late as 1957; the study again revealed no increased cancer incidence between persons who received polio vaccines containing SV40 and those who did not.[65] The question of whether SV40 causes cancer in humans remains controversial however, and the development of improved assays for detection of SV40 in human tissues will be needed to resolve the controversy.[62]
During the race to develop an oral polio vaccine several large scale human trials were undertaken. By 1958, the National Institutes of Health had determined that OPV produced using the Sabin strains were the safest.[16] Between 1957 and 1960, however, Hilary Koprowski continued to administer his vaccine around the world. In Africa, the vaccines were administered to roughly one million people in the Belgian territories, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.[66][67] The results of these human trials have been controversial,[68] and accusations in the 1990s arose that the vaccine had created the conditions necessary for transmission of SIV from chimpanzees to humans, causing HIV/AIDS. These hypotheses have, however, been refuted in some studies.[66] By 2004, cases of poliomyelitis in Africa had been reduced to just a small number of isolated regions in the western portion of the continent, with sporadic cases elsewhere. However, recent opposition to vaccination campaigns has evolved,[69][70] often relating to fears that the vaccine might induce sterility.[71] The disease has since resurged in Nigeria and in several other African nations, which epidemiologists believe is due to refusals by certain local populations to allow their children to receive the polio vaccine.[72]
Jules Winnfield
Footballguy
Lutherman2112
Footballguy
Donald Trump steps in it:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 14h
Autism WAY UP - I believe in vaccinations but not massive, all at once, shots. Too much for small child to handle. Govt. should stop NOW!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 14h
If I were President I would push for proper vaccinations but would not allow one time massive shots that a small child cannot take - AUTISM.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 1h
Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 31m
With autism being way up, what do we have to lose by having doctors give small dose vaccines vs. big pump doses into those tiny bodies?
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 14h
Autism WAY UP - I believe in vaccinations but not massive, all at once, shots. Too much for small child to handle. Govt. should stop NOW!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 14h
If I were President I would push for proper vaccinations but would not allow one time massive shots that a small child cannot take - AUTISM.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 1h
Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 31m
With autism being way up, what do we have to lose by having doctors give small dose vaccines vs. big pump doses into those tiny bodies?
timschochet
Footballguy
Worse than the Birther nonsense, because here he may be convincing some parents not to vaccinate their children.
General Malaise
Footballguy
tl;dr...cliffs notes?Quez said:
Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
Well obviously this means that the vaccinations MOTHERS received as a child cause autism in the the children they give birth to later in life. Duh
timschochet
Footballguy
That's very interesting. Wondering if it's something the mother is eating? (Possibly all the chemicals in our foods.)
Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
St. Louis Bob
Footballguy
My fists are going to cause some Autism soon.
Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
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The Commish
Footballguy
Focus is on the wrong thing....if a person is persuaded by Donald Trump on what's right for their kid, they probably shouldn't be allowed to have kids, much less make choices on their behalf.timschochet said:
I'm a firm believer in giving the necessary vaccines, but they don't have to be done all at once, so part of what he says is valid. Our doctors have always been willing to spread them out so a two month old doesn't have to be stuck 4-5 times per visit and be on ibuprofen for the rest of that day.
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cstu
Footballguy
I did exactly what Trump suggests for my daughter - her shots were all a month apart, with the exception of MMR which we gave her last. There's no reason beyond convenience to give babies that many shots all at once.
cstu
Footballguy
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
What's the collective IQ of Trump and McCarthey? 90?Lutherman2112 said:
gianmarco
Footballguy
No, there doesn't. It's been one of the most studied issue ever and the answer is CONCLUSIVE that vaccines do not cause autism. Not might not. Not possibly not. DEFINITELY not. There isn't a single peer reviewed (i.e. legitimate study) that has found any link whatsoever.Quez said:
Wasting time and money doing yet another study to prove what is already known is a terrible idea. This is akin to saying you're not sure if cigarettes cause lung cancer because you know some smokers that never got cancer so we need more studies to find if there's a link instead of studies trying to help treat the actual cancer.
The problem with this whole fiasco is that many have a harder time accepting that the negative has been proven.But it has been. Many times over. There's just so much misinformation out there thanks to people like McCarthy that people don't know what to believe. As if legions of pediatricians are out to poison kids all for the sake of making (actually losing) money. That's also why they vaccinate their own children too.
ETA--Watch this for a good summary as to why no more studies are needed
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gianmarco
Footballguy
Actually, there are definitely reasons beyond convenience to give them shots all at once.
First of all, more shots does not mean "massive dose". Just like most everything in life, things improve and become more efficient. The way vaccines work involves exposing the body to an antigen so that the body mounts an immune response to it. It's how natural immunity works--your body encounters an antigen and then your immune system works to fight it. Every time you get a cold, this happens. Every time ANYTHING foreign enters your body (even just a splinter), your immune system goes to work.
Well, recent vaccines are MUCH more efficient than the original polio vaccines. In fact, the combined antigenic load of all vaccines given at one time is lower than just the single original polio vaccine. The thought that babies are receiving some "massive dose" is absurd. It's less taxing on the immune system than many viruses that cause fever and days of illness.
But, more importantly, delaying vaccines is a big risk in and of itself. It is young infants that are most at risk to catch many of the vaccine-covered illnesses and suffer more severe complications. The longer vaccines are delayed, the more risk is being placed on them by potentially exposing them to dangerous but preventable illnesses. Why not delay until they are 2 years old? 4 years old? Why not just wait until they are 18 and they can decide themselves? Because any delay increases the risk they can catch something that is otherwise preventable.
Delaying vaccines isn't as bad as not vaccinating at all, but it similarly goes against mountains of studies that have shown delaying vaccinations is more dangerous and less effective than sticking to the vaccination schedule that has been put out.
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
The mammoth study in Europe disproved a link.Quez said:
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
It's important to remember that this mass hysteria began with a falsified study that has since been disproven. Every single subsequent study has proven there is no link between vaccines and autism.
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
Verygianmarco said:
I'm a pediatrician so my opinion is biased but to suggest that the only reason to adhere to the current vaccine schedule is for convenience is ludicrous. To put your infant at risk for pneumococcal bacteremia or H flu epiglottitis or whooping cough for any longer than they need to be is foolish. Please read and understand the science behind the recommended vaccine schedule before you choose to delay or defer immunizations for your infant.
St. Louis Bob
Footballguy
You doctors think you know everything.
St. Louis Bob
Footballguy
I bet I could fit both in her baby maker.Officer Pete Malloy said:
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
Anyone who doesn't want to vaccinate their child should be forced to sit in a room with a child with whooping cough. I hear it's heartbreaking.
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
cstu
Footballguy
My daughter got all of her shots by age 2. You think her chances of getting any of those were significantly higher because we took a few months longer?
A lot of FUD being spread IMO.
This is what we are doing too. While I do have concerns about the number of vaccines given now compared to what I had, I understand the reason for most of them. I just don't like the vaccine cocktails they give. Seems a little much at once I guess. Our doctor has been great in letting us space them out
gianmarco
Footballguy
Significantly higher? No, not in terms of actual chances of her getting sick. Of course, her chances, like most other infants, is low to begin with.
That being said, you don't get vaccinations because the chances of you getting sick without them is high. You get vaccinations because the badness that can occur if you do get sick can be very bad and completely preventable. It's similar to seat belts. Seat belts have been shown to save lives. They've been shown to decrease your chance of dying in an accident. Now, if you were to go out driving the next week without a seatbelt, are you significantly more likely to die as a result? No, because the chances of you getting in an accident THIS week are low. But every time you go out without a seat belt, you take a risk that if you were to get in an accident it could be much worse than if you had one on. So, do you wear your seatbelt 50% of the time? 60%? 90%?
That's up to you. But waiting until she was 2 to give her all her vaccinations put her at unnecessary risk. Again, minimal chance she'd actually get sick, but when you increase the numbers of people that do so, then it's just more likely that someone is going to lose in that Russian roulette. For what? Would you not strap your kid in a car seat every time you get in a car? I mean, the chances of an accident happening today if you put her in a car without being strapped in are very, very small. But, if it does happen, the results could be devastating. That's the risk you take when you leave your 3 month old or 5 month old or however month old not fully vaccinated for that age. And if you think that she's unlikely to be around someone with whooping cough, think again. Anywhere from 10-20% of adults with a prolonged cough have pertussis. And that's probably an underestimate. That's how infants get whooping cough. Similarly, that's only one of the preventable infections that vaccines protect against.
It's all about risk and benefits. If you want to put your child at risk, even if that risk is low, that's on you. But to do so just because you think vaccines are given out of convenience is ridiculous. Again, there's plenty of evidence supporting why they are given when they are and no good scientific reason to wait other than some false beliefs that it's nicer to wait or less of a burden on the baby. Again, the vaccine load is something a baby's immune system can easily handle. To think otherwise is going against what studies have proven otherwise. It's like believing that seat belts work but thinking it's ok to not wear it all the time. Doesn't really make much sense.
Jene Bramel
Footballguy
Define significantly higher.
In my community, the number of lab confirmed cases of pertussis is well over 100 in the past few months. That's ten times what it was last year. There was a similar outbreak a few years ago.
I've seen three cases myself this season.
One of those was a grade school aged child who was dropping to the ground pale and choking with coughing spells. The parents had stopped vaccinating their children because they'd been getting "sick" after those doctor visits. The mom was in tears after the diagnosis. She didn't think the risk was high either.
I'm very happy your children are fully vaccinated. I appreciate the concern I hear from families who feel that multiple vaccines stress their immune system too much. As Gian has posted, it's well known that the antigenic load from a set of vaccinations is lower than many other situations children are commonly exposed. In fact, parents who bring their children into a doctor's office for additional shot visits because they've spread out shots are exposing their kids to more potential illnesses than they would have by sticking to the schedule anyway.
I don't have a website. I'm not selling books. I'm not selling chelators or diet aids. I'm not getting rich providing vaccinations. I'm in this game to advocate for child health.
Vaccinate your kids. On time. And make sure they know how to wash their hands well anyway.
timschochet
Footballguy
Excellent posts by Gianmarco, The Dreaded Marco, and Jene Bramel. Some of you guys are being overly cautious for no reason at all, and it may be dangerous.
Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
Can I get a quick list of anybody that is arguing against vaccinations?
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
As gianmarco eloquently stated above, your daughter's chances of contracting a vaccine preventable disease was not "significantly" higher because you delayed her schedule but I can guarantee you it was higher than it needed to be.
And, IMO, the only FUD being spread is coming from Wakefield, McCarthy and other fraudulent quacks.
Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
Lutherman2112
Footballguy
Immune to Logic: Some New York City Private Schools Have Dismal Vaccination Rates
By Clint Rainey
In 2011, parents at a progressive Silicon Valley private school felt the nation's scorn when it was revealed that just 23 percent of the kindergartners there were fully vaccinated. Commentators savaged the rate as "shocking," the school as "very dangerous," and the moms and dads — many of them techies at Google, Apple, and HP — as "positively evil" for exempting their kids from a standard medical practice meant to prevent, say, a measles outbreak. This cluster of unvaccinated children, critics cried, was putting the lives of others at risk, including infants too young for shots, people with compromised immune systems, and compliant shot-takers whose vaccines didn't take or had waned. (The Waldorf School of the Peninsula's vaccination rate has since risen to 42 percent.)
Now the question of school immunization rates is in the news again, thanks to a spike this year in measles cases, including an infected rider on a Bay Area commuter train, a student diagnosed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an outbreak in Manhattan that infected at least 20 people, including nine children.
California has become a home base of sorts for vaccine refuseniks because of its loose immunization laws. New York, by contrast, has significantly tougher laws — one anti-vaccine group describes it as "probably the most difficult state in the U.S." for obtaining exemptions.
So would an NYC parent be right to think the city's schools are fully immunized safe zones?
Not at all, actually. School immunization data for the 2012-13 school year obtained by Daily Intelligencer from the New York State Department of Health shows that some 245 New York City private schools fell short of the 95 percent vaccination rate which experts say prevents measles from spreading — an effect known as "herd immunity." Of those schools, 125 had rates below 90 percent, and 37 fell below 70 percent. The nine private schools with the lowest rates — between 41.5 percent and 18.4 percent — were so underimmunized that if any one of them somehow seceded and became a Sealand-style micro-nation, it would literally have had the worst measles vaccination rate in the world, according to WHO numbers.
For comparison, among the more than 800 private schools in the city, the overall immunization rate last year was 97 percent. In public schools, the current immunization rate is above 98 percent, according to the New York City Department of Education. While the DOE wouldn't share rates for individual public schools, no district average falls below the herd-immunity threshold of 95 percent.
But the vulnerable pockets of students at schools with low rates are "a big cause for concern," says Roberto Posada, a Mount Sinai pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases. "It could have life-threatening implications." Measles, he notes, "can spread from within that context of a low rate into the larger community."
At least one local hospital knows what that looks like. Earlier this month, the Times reported that, in "an abundance of caution," New York–Presbyterian — which has treated ten of the city's 20 cases — is reaching out to 600 patients it thinks may have been inadvertently exposed to measles. Administrators there emailed around "graphic" photos of rash-ridden kids to aid in diagnosis, explaining (in a somewhat worrisome line probably meant never to leave the hospital) that "many of our clinical staff have never seen a case of measles." Considering that the United States eliminated indigenous cases of the disease in the year 2000, they may have thought they never would.
The resurgence of the disease can be attributed, in no small part, to the anti-vaccine movement, which argues that the shots pose health risks for children. Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy and ex-Hills star Kristin Cavallari (who recently has taken to TV to crank out anti-vax messages) are among the leading celebrity voices, but anti-vaxxers include parents across the socioeconomic and political spectrum.
In many cases, anti-vaccine parents favor certain schools. Like some of their West Coast cousins, New York's Waldorf schools — founded on the philosophy of Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner, who believed vaccines "drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people's souls" — lag on immunization rates. According to the Department of Health data, only 74.7 percent of the students at the Upper East Side's Rudolf Steiner School, the nation's first Waldorf school, were fully vaccinated last year. At Brooklyn Waldorf in Clinton Hill, the figure was 60.1 percent.
The Rudolf Steiner School disputes the government figure entirely, claiming a 90 percent immunization rate for its students (the Department of Health confirmed the 74.7 percent figure to Daily Intelligencer). According to a statement from Brian Kaplan, director of marketing and communications, the school "follows a rigorous policy regarding vaccine-preventable diseases." Brooklyn Waldorf said suggesting students are at risk because of its "holistic educational experience is the most ignorant form of stereotyping," adding that in its nine-year history "there has never been a reported case of measles." The school noted that in a routine audit last year, the NYC Department of Health found that 96.2 percent of Brooklyn Waldorf students complied with state immunization law. But a compliance rate is not an immunization rate — it only means that those students either proved they got vaccines or obtained an exemption. In theory, a school could have a 100 percent compliance rate and a zero percent immunization rate, if all the students had exemptions.
New York State allows two types of exemptions for parents who don't want their children immunized: medical and religious. To get a medical exemption, the state Health Department requires a letter from a doctor or other health professional certifying the student "has a health condition which is a valid contraindication." A religious exemption, however, is a lot easier, at least on paper: All that's required is a parent letter and the backing of the school that, "in the opinion of the institution," the student's family "holds genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary to the practice of immunization." The fact that each private school is entitled to its own opinion helps explain the wide variation in vaccination rates. (To be considered fully vaccinated, students need roughly half a dozen shots, including MMR, which covers measles.)
Among the other schools showing a low vaccination rate was Brooklyn Free, a Summerhill school started by Park Slope Food Co-op members who first suggested the idea in the co-op's newsletter, the Linewaiters' Gazette. It clocked in at 63.3 percent. Its Manhattan sister school, located in East Harlem, is even lower: 36.4 percent. Manhattan Free said that it is audited and in compliance with the law. "We are a small alternative school (less than 15 students) — a very small sample size for such a statistic to mean much," it said in an email.
Last year, the U.S. saw the second-most cases of measles in two decades, largely because of a single outbreak of 58 cases in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community. While the outbreak never spread to the larger public, the CDC still identified more than 3,500 contacts made by these 58 individuals.
At the time, Borough Park's state senator Simcha Felder promised "a unified effort by rabbis, synagogues, [and] schools" to get people vaccinated. While it's too early to say whether he has delivered, several large yeshivas had high rates, like Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin's 97.1 percent, and a perfect 100 percent score at Torah Vodaath. But Yeshiva Imrei Yosef Spinka, in Borough Park, stood at 61.8 percent and Midwood's Bais Yaakov Oz Vehodar at 56.8 percent.
In clusters of children that aren't immunized, all it takes to spread a contagious disease like measles "is one sick or incubating student who sees a friend or attends an event at another, more susceptible school," says David Perlman, associate chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. "Even in very tightly knit communities, no one is an island — measles spreads."
By Clint Rainey
In 2011, parents at a progressive Silicon Valley private school felt the nation's scorn when it was revealed that just 23 percent of the kindergartners there were fully vaccinated. Commentators savaged the rate as "shocking," the school as "very dangerous," and the moms and dads — many of them techies at Google, Apple, and HP — as "positively evil" for exempting their kids from a standard medical practice meant to prevent, say, a measles outbreak. This cluster of unvaccinated children, critics cried, was putting the lives of others at risk, including infants too young for shots, people with compromised immune systems, and compliant shot-takers whose vaccines didn't take or had waned. (The Waldorf School of the Peninsula's vaccination rate has since risen to 42 percent.)
Now the question of school immunization rates is in the news again, thanks to a spike this year in measles cases, including an infected rider on a Bay Area commuter train, a student diagnosed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an outbreak in Manhattan that infected at least 20 people, including nine children.
California has become a home base of sorts for vaccine refuseniks because of its loose immunization laws. New York, by contrast, has significantly tougher laws — one anti-vaccine group describes it as "probably the most difficult state in the U.S." for obtaining exemptions.
So would an NYC parent be right to think the city's schools are fully immunized safe zones?
Not at all, actually. School immunization data for the 2012-13 school year obtained by Daily Intelligencer from the New York State Department of Health shows that some 245 New York City private schools fell short of the 95 percent vaccination rate which experts say prevents measles from spreading — an effect known as "herd immunity." Of those schools, 125 had rates below 90 percent, and 37 fell below 70 percent. The nine private schools with the lowest rates — between 41.5 percent and 18.4 percent — were so underimmunized that if any one of them somehow seceded and became a Sealand-style micro-nation, it would literally have had the worst measles vaccination rate in the world, according to WHO numbers.
For comparison, among the more than 800 private schools in the city, the overall immunization rate last year was 97 percent. In public schools, the current immunization rate is above 98 percent, according to the New York City Department of Education. While the DOE wouldn't share rates for individual public schools, no district average falls below the herd-immunity threshold of 95 percent.
But the vulnerable pockets of students at schools with low rates are "a big cause for concern," says Roberto Posada, a Mount Sinai pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases. "It could have life-threatening implications." Measles, he notes, "can spread from within that context of a low rate into the larger community."
At least one local hospital knows what that looks like. Earlier this month, the Times reported that, in "an abundance of caution," New York–Presbyterian — which has treated ten of the city's 20 cases — is reaching out to 600 patients it thinks may have been inadvertently exposed to measles. Administrators there emailed around "graphic" photos of rash-ridden kids to aid in diagnosis, explaining (in a somewhat worrisome line probably meant never to leave the hospital) that "many of our clinical staff have never seen a case of measles." Considering that the United States eliminated indigenous cases of the disease in the year 2000, they may have thought they never would.
The resurgence of the disease can be attributed, in no small part, to the anti-vaccine movement, which argues that the shots pose health risks for children. Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy and ex-Hills star Kristin Cavallari (who recently has taken to TV to crank out anti-vax messages) are among the leading celebrity voices, but anti-vaxxers include parents across the socioeconomic and political spectrum.
In many cases, anti-vaccine parents favor certain schools. Like some of their West Coast cousins, New York's Waldorf schools — founded on the philosophy of Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner, who believed vaccines "drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people's souls" — lag on immunization rates. According to the Department of Health data, only 74.7 percent of the students at the Upper East Side's Rudolf Steiner School, the nation's first Waldorf school, were fully vaccinated last year. At Brooklyn Waldorf in Clinton Hill, the figure was 60.1 percent.
The Rudolf Steiner School disputes the government figure entirely, claiming a 90 percent immunization rate for its students (the Department of Health confirmed the 74.7 percent figure to Daily Intelligencer). According to a statement from Brian Kaplan, director of marketing and communications, the school "follows a rigorous policy regarding vaccine-preventable diseases." Brooklyn Waldorf said suggesting students are at risk because of its "holistic educational experience is the most ignorant form of stereotyping," adding that in its nine-year history "there has never been a reported case of measles." The school noted that in a routine audit last year, the NYC Department of Health found that 96.2 percent of Brooklyn Waldorf students complied with state immunization law. But a compliance rate is not an immunization rate — it only means that those students either proved they got vaccines or obtained an exemption. In theory, a school could have a 100 percent compliance rate and a zero percent immunization rate, if all the students had exemptions.
New York State allows two types of exemptions for parents who don't want their children immunized: medical and religious. To get a medical exemption, the state Health Department requires a letter from a doctor or other health professional certifying the student "has a health condition which is a valid contraindication." A religious exemption, however, is a lot easier, at least on paper: All that's required is a parent letter and the backing of the school that, "in the opinion of the institution," the student's family "holds genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary to the practice of immunization." The fact that each private school is entitled to its own opinion helps explain the wide variation in vaccination rates. (To be considered fully vaccinated, students need roughly half a dozen shots, including MMR, which covers measles.)
Among the other schools showing a low vaccination rate was Brooklyn Free, a Summerhill school started by Park Slope Food Co-op members who first suggested the idea in the co-op's newsletter, the Linewaiters' Gazette. It clocked in at 63.3 percent. Its Manhattan sister school, located in East Harlem, is even lower: 36.4 percent. Manhattan Free said that it is audited and in compliance with the law. "We are a small alternative school (less than 15 students) — a very small sample size for such a statistic to mean much," it said in an email.
Last year, the U.S. saw the second-most cases of measles in two decades, largely because of a single outbreak of 58 cases in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community. While the outbreak never spread to the larger public, the CDC still identified more than 3,500 contacts made by these 58 individuals.
At the time, Borough Park's state senator Simcha Felder promised "a unified effort by rabbis, synagogues, [and] schools" to get people vaccinated. While it's too early to say whether he has delivered, several large yeshivas had high rates, like Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin's 97.1 percent, and a perfect 100 percent score at Torah Vodaath. But Yeshiva Imrei Yosef Spinka, in Borough Park, stood at 61.8 percent and Midwood's Bais Yaakov Oz Vehodar at 56.8 percent.
In clusters of children that aren't immunized, all it takes to spread a contagious disease like measles "is one sick or incubating student who sees a friend or attends an event at another, more susceptible school," says David Perlman, associate chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. "Even in very tightly knit communities, no one is an island — measles spreads."
Lutherman2112
Footballguy
Great graphic (Press Attention vs. the Scientific Evidence) in the opinion piece:
How to Think About the Risk of Autism
How to Think About the Risk of Autism
timschochet
Footballguy
A couple of books I've read recently, Reality Check and Idiot America, have made a connection between these "anti-vaccine" people and anti- evolutionists, global warming deniers, paranoid gun owners, 911 Truthers, Birthers, etc. (Personally I would add those who believe the NSA is deliberately out to get us to the list, but the books weren't quite recent enough to do so.)
What these groups have in common, according to the two authors, is a rejection of any fact that is put out by the "establishment" because of an intuitive belief that the "establishment" is itself corrupt and evil.
What these groups have in common, according to the two authors, is a rejection of any fact that is put out by the "establishment" because of an intuitive belief that the "establishment" is itself corrupt and evil.
cstu
Footballguy
I didn't do it based on anything those people said. My daughter was at home during that time, not in day care, and only had infrequent contact with other children. I was fine, and still am, with the risks of having her finish her shots a couple months later than the schedule.
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