Since I set off a firestorm on my facebook page this afternoon regarding the notion of immunization, I figured I'd come over here and at least string together a couple of links with my thoughts on the subject.
Here are the two Wired articles that got the whole thing started:
An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All
How to Win an Argument About Vaccines
Some more digging around found me a slightly more even-handed article in Newsweek featuring an interview with Paul Offit (mentioned in one of the Wired articles):
Stomping Through A Medical Minefield
In going through this, there was a tangent in the conversation that went towards flu vaccines with an interesting analysis of how the numbers that justify them seem slightly inflated. This article is good stuff but is really tangentially-related at best to the discussion of infant immunizations:
Let me just say, to those who are on the other side of this issue, I would really like to see some cogent and well-documented, well-researched argumentation. The problem is that I can't find it. I'm not sure if it's not there because the research is expensive and hasn't been done yet or simply because my Google-fu can't slice through 70,000 autism/anti-vaccination conspiracy whacko websites (and, make no bones about it, Jenny McCarthy is a freaking whacko), but if anyone can find me any well-researched argumentation, I'm all-ears.
In the mean-time, I'll toss you this fascinating Wikipedia article in closing. Of particular interest are the half-dozen cases in the last 150 or so years since widespread vaccination where isolated communities stopped vaccinating and the results. And before you start mouthing about Wikipedia, note that all of this article's really interesting and salient points are well-documented with outside reference materials. In fact, I encourage you to look over this article's reference section... it's a real treasure-trove of myth-debunking links.
*note: I hard-linked to the Wikipedia entry as posted at time of my posting this so that you don't get there to see "penis" scrawled all over the page and question my sanity. This is STILL Wikipedia after all.
I can't remember if I've touched on this with you before, but I'm decidedly in the "what the hell just happened?" camp on this subject. I've got two kids, and in general they're getting their shots. At this point, though, it's more because a particular individual who I have decided to trust (my children's physician) has recommended it. We might pull one or two here or there, but in general we're following the idea that if we can't know one way or another, we're going to go on our individual doctor's advice.
Mollie is the one who has looked in to this for a meaningful amount of time, but her reports and my own experience is that any attempt to get a reasonable answer, on either side of the argument, devolves almost immediately into "shots kill/cripple kids" or "unimmunized kids kill/cripple society" from the respective sides.
I know that ideologically, Mollie and I fall on the more holistic side of the fence. If a chemical treatment is unnecessary for our childrens' health and that of those around them, we'd rather avoid it. That said, we recognize that significant life expectancy and quality of life changes have accompanied modern medicine and we are not about to chuck the whole idea out the window without due consideration.
For my own part, I suspect that the answer is likely very far from what either camp suggests. I doubt very much that all -- maybe even many -- of the vaccines we give our kids are necessary either for their health or for that of those around them. On the other hand, I doubt very much that there is a direct, causal relationship between for example vaccines and autism (or any other disorder). That said, I feel my hands are against action in either direction by a severe lack of objective information from either camp, so until then I have no choice but to talk to individual people that I know, and make my decision based on their advice.
Posted by: Toad at October 22, 2009 03:37 PM