Anti-vaxxers in our own backyard

Like most of you, I’ve heard and read about the anti-vaxers. I don’t want to beat this dead horse, but I did want to share my recent experience. I’d never heard the dark side first hand…until now. I found out about an information session at a “clinic” that treats autism and various other children’s neurological issues. The clinic is only about 3 miles from my house so I said “Why not? It’ll get me out of the house for a while.” The woman (I will call her Ms. Information) who runs the clinic is an RN from South Africa. Her office had wall to wall shelving full of homeopathic bottles. Other services offered include “bioenergetic assessment,” “neurointegration therapy,” and “craniosacral therapy.” These are just big, fancy words that mean “crap that doesn’t work, but you still have to pay me.” I should mention that she does recommend legitimate neurotherapy in addition to all the other expensive unscientific treatments.

Ms. Information began by stating that her objective was to provide balanced information about vaccines.  At first she presented things objectively, but this deteriorated into the usual abyss of lies, misinformation, and partial information. She said that Americans have the sickest kids in the world. I got the impression that she considers asthma and food allergies to be worse than malaria or yellow fever. She feels that diseases like the measles and whooping cough are childhood rites of passage. That is easy to say for someone who has access to good healthcare, but what about the ones who don’t and then suffer complications form these preventable illnesses? Although she did not overtly recommend that parents not vaccinate, it was certainly heavily implied. Her recommendation not to vaccinate until they’re 5 became don’t vaccinate until they’re 13 at which time it’s too late to prevent the spread of most childhood diseases.  Although she never actually said “don’t vaccinate” she did show show two YouTube videos by Barbara Loe Fisher, head of the National Vaccine Injury Corporation (NVIC) and an all around big fat liar. Ms Fisher was not as delicate about the issue. She was very clear about not getting your children vaccinated…ever. She took special issue with the H1N1 vaccine and Gardasil, saying that the H1N1 vaccine was not safe because of…you guessed it, Thimerosal. I think these videos were included so the clinic could not be accused of advising parents not to vaccinate, and could, therefore, be absolved of any responsibility. Of course, there was the obligatory mention of Big Pharma and government conspiracy which I find highly amusing since Wakefield was found to have been paid about a million dollars by lawyers suing a vaccine manufacturer.

Some people do suffer side effects from vaccines and she gave a list of 8 things that parents should look for such as high fever, seizures, and listlessness. She also advocates parents being educated about the vaccines and I agree, parents should be educated, but there is a difference between being educated and being lied to. She thinks parents should have the right not to get their children vaccinated. Well, I would like the right not to get sick. There are babies too young to get vaccines and people (like me) who have compromised immune systems who depend on herd immunity to protect us.

I found it ironic that at the end of her talk she mentioned the need for good science. I could not agree more. It’s just that when they do get good science, it’s not the right science for them.

An autism diagnosis can be devastating to a parent and I understand the need to find a reason for the disease and a cure. Unfortunately, autism is complicated, and there are no easy answers. I think people have mistakenly gotten the idea that science should give definitive answers to all our medical problems, and if it can’t then they move on to other less reliable and unproven treatments. As skeptics, one of the best things we can do is to educate people about what science is, how it works, and what its limits are. By doing this we might be able to avoid the influences of the Wakefields of the world.

If you want a very good read about how the anti-vax movement got started, I strongly recommend Paul Offit’s book Autism’s False Prophets.