Vaccination

I firmly believe in vaccination.  My kids are vaccinated.  I am vaccinated.  My husband is vaccinated.  (Even our cats are vaccinated!)  I actually think everyone who isn’t immune-compromised (or otherwise medically unable to be vaccinated) should be vaccinated.  (Yes, everyone.)

I think vaccines are fantastic.  We modern parents can revel in the sniffles and coughs and colds our children bring home.  Our kids have the luxury of passing such minor nastiness around to each other over and over and over because, unlike millions of children in past generations, they will likely survive through childhood and adolescence to adulthood and have plenty of time to suffer the coughs and colds along the way.  We have the benefit of being able to focus on other things – like understanding, treating, and maybe even eradicating diseases and disorders that cannot be vaccinated for, like childhood leukemia, autism, genetic disorders, and birth defects – because we don’t have to worry about our children being maimed by or dying of completely preventable diseases like polio, chicken pox, mumps, measles, rubella, and diphtheria.  This is an amazing thing.

The other day, I saw a vague Facebook post about vaccines.  I clicked the link.  I read the article.  It turned out to be another “what if vaccines really do cause autism?” piece that left me scratching my head.  It seems that this furor dies down only to rear its head again when I least expect it.   I don’t understand it.

All the research indicates that vaccines don’t cause autism.  I trust the research.  I know, some people are frustrated because we can’t PROVE that vaccines don’t cause autism.  But, we can’t prove that vaccines don’t cause autism because the scientific method isn’t intended to prove such things; it’s intended to suss out causal connections.  A scientist may posit that “vaccines cause autism” and then set out to do original research or compile and analyze completed research results to see if the evidence supports the proposition.  In this case, the evidence doesn’t support the proposition.  The first line of this paragraph is a firm statement even if it doesn’t sound like it in our day-to-day speech.  This is how scientists talk. 

I understand the urge to demand PROOF that vaccines don’t cause autism rather than a statement that there’s no evidence that vaccines do cause autism.  I’m a parent.  I get it.  When our children are suffering, what we parents do is worry and fret and demand answers about why.  I truly, truly understand that inclination to blame vaccines because kids manifest many of the most diagnosable autistic symptoms around the same time they get a number of key vaccinations.  But that inclination is not productive, and correlation is not causation.

This constant focus on the correlation of the timing of autism’s onset and vaccinations tires me.  It tires me and frustrates me.  It actually makes me want to shake people sometimes.  Here’s why I think the constant tilting at the windmill of “vaccines MAY cause autism because you can’t PROVE it doesn’t,” is truly, truly harmful:

1.  It diverts attention, resources, and research from true vaccine injuries.  Like chemotherapy, radiation treatment, surgery, and a host of other medical interventions, vaccination is not without risk.  That’s why my pediatrician provides information on all vaccines and requires me to sign an acknowledgment that I’ve read them EVERY TIME my child gets a vaccination.  The attention, resources, and research should focus on reducing these risks and identifying children at risk.  Parents should be able to make informed decisions on proven risks to specific children.  To do otherwise discounts and denigrates the needs of the small group of children who are actually harmed by vaccines and jeopardizes the prevention of such harm.

2.  It diverts attention, resources, and research from understanding the true causes of and the best treatments for autism.  The anti-vaccine movement is so LOUD that it’s hard to pay attention to anything else going on in the community of autism.  The desire to blame something/anything cannot be allowed to drown out the call to find the real cause (or, more likely causes) or to divert needed funding and time from research into the best prevention and treatment measures.  To do otherwise is a travesty for the children and families dealing with autism each day.

3.  It leaves our most vulnerable children, well, more vulnerable.  Healthy children should be immunized.  Why?  To protect the unhealthy and most vulnerable.  Most vaccinations require that more than 85% of a population be vaccinated in order to provide “herd immunity” to those who are not vaccinated.  Some require vaccination levels over 95%.  Ever person who chooses not to vaccinate their non-immune-compromised child places an immune-compromised child (or adult) at greater risk of preventable illness and death.  In my view, that’s morally unsupportable.   The only people who should be “hiding in the herd”  of the immunized are those who NEED to hide in the herd because they cannot receive vaccinations .  We must insulate our most vulnerable members of society from sickness via inoculation of those who are not vulnerable.  Ask a parent who has a child with leukemia or HIV/AIDS how important it is that all the children around their immune-compromised child be vaccinated against preventable (and deadly) childhood diseases.  Hell, ask the parent of a six-month-old who isn’t old enough for vaccination whether they want their six-month-old to hang around with an infected child after a “chicken pox party.”  (For that matter, with regard to chicken pox, talk to someone who’s had shingles.  My sisters and I all three had chicken pox as a child.  One of us developed shingles.  It was the most horrible, excruciating, and pathetic thing I have ever witnessed.  I can’t think back on seeing my baby sister like that without my eyes welling up.  Sure, lots of kids survive chicken pox (though some don’t) but if a kid (or adult) develops shingles down the road because their parents thought vaccination was risky in spite of all the evidence, I’m just saying those parents shouldn’t expect a big thank you note for the chicken pox party.  Why would you subject someone you love to the risk of something as horrible as shingles??)

So, I stand firm in my support of vaccination.  It’s the right decision medically and morally.