The state of the antivaccine movement in the United States

PLOS Medicine ^ | 6/12/2018 | Jacqueline K. Olive, Peter J. Hotez , Ashish Damania, Melissa S. Nolan

[spintreebob]

A social movement of public health vaccine opposition has been growing in the United States in recent years; subsequently, measles outbreaks have also increased. Since 2009, the number of “philosophical-belief” vaccine nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) has risen in 12 of the 18 states that currently allow this policy:

Arkansas (AR), Arizona (AZ), Idaho (ID), Maine (ME), Minnesota (MN), North Dakota (ND), Ohio (OH), Oklahoma (OK), Oregon (OR), Pennsylvania (PA), Texas (TX), and Utah (UT).

Several US “hotspot” metropolitan areas stand out for their very large numbers of NMEs. They include Seattle, WA, Spokane, WA, and Portland, OR in the Northwest; Phoenix, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, Provo, UT, Houston, TX, Fort Worth, TX, Plano, TX, and Austin, TX in the Southwest; Troy, MI, Warren, MI, Detroit, MI, and Kansas City, MO in the Midwest; and Pittsburgh, PA in the Northeast.

Additional smaller counties—especially in ID, WI, and UT—also stand out for their high exemption rates.

[House Atreides]

“....1400 word vocabulary at 2, becoming mutilingial at 2,started learning violin at 2.5, and basically at kindergarten level at 28 months. And physically absolutely beautiful (thanks mom) to the point many of our friends dont believe that jr. Is NOT a CRISPR baby (they exist in our peer group)...”
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LOL — CRISPR babies in your peer group? Sure, we believe you. /sarc

[Bulwyf]

There’s a huge difference between material objects and altering your immune system or cell structure.

[Antoninus]

Now that I’ve had four, you will not be surprised to learn that only the vaccinated baby had constant ear infections and colds. The unvaccinated kids were never sick. Just anecdotal, but it was my anecdote so I see something to that.

You're not the only one with such anecdotes. My older kids were vaccinated until the schedule started becoming ridiculous. None of them had reactions that I remember. My 5th kid had a bad reaction to one of his first vaccinations and we stopped after that for all of them. My oldest boy, who got the most vaccinations, has asthma and allergies. The one who had the bad reaction has dyslexia and developmental/behavioral issues. The rest, who received few vaccinations/had no reactions, are all fine.

So again, these are just anecdotes. But the number of kids out there with asthma, serious food allergies, ASDs, and other neurological and gastrointestinal issues is staggering. Something we're doing is very, very wrong.

[Yaelle]

I appreciate that you are an MD. Thank Gd for all doctors who care about their patients. I personally am grateful to medicine and wouldn’t be here without it.

But this is what I am talking about: you can prevent group strep b exposure in the baby, and at the same time increase baby’s and your health if he does get exposed somehow, so that he won’t be in the tiny fraction of babies with strep b colonization with serious sequelae like meningitis.
https://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/prevent-group-b-strep/

I’m sure not your cup of tea, but it is a way to maximize baby’s health.

[Yaelle]

But the number of kids out there with asthma, serious food allergies, ASDs, and other neurological and gastrointestinal issues is staggering. Something we're doing is very, very wrong.

Exactly. Best at this point to listen to a 4000 year old doctor and “First, Do No Harm.”

[Antoninus]

Real science would let your child die of hemophilus meningitis at 6 mos old because they were waiting until what you scientists think is a safe age to vaccinate. Right

Until you geniuses in the medical community come up with a viable, testable, predictable reason why so many kids suddenly have dangerous allergies, asthma, autism, and other serious neurological conditions that weren't this common in past generations, you're going to have parents looking for other answers. The anti-vax thing didn't just spring out of thin air. It was built upon a basic distrust of the average person for medical and scientific professionals who don't have good answers for their kids' problems.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Until you geniuses in the medical community come up with a viable, testable, predictable reason why so many kids suddenly have dangerous allergies, asthma, autism, and other serious neurological conditions...

The geniuses in the medical community have come up with a way for kids to live long enough to get allergies, etc. It's called vaccines. Most kids in times past didn't live long enough to worry about allergies. Thankfully, they do now.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Today’s irony: If not for vaccines, most of the people arguing against vaccines would be dead now.

[Manuel OKelley]

Laugh all you want but it’s not beyond the reach of most of the uppper middle class if you go to south Korea or Thailand

Couple hundred thousand ia nothing to a lot of people who waited until their forties to have children

If we have another that’s definitely part of the plan but it’s ok...your kids can work for mine

[House Atreides]

Sorry Manuel, it’s CURRENTLY extant for humans only in your imagination. And you should know that Free Republic has many people with finely tuned Bullshit detectors.

[Antoninus]

The geniuses in the medical community have come up with a way for kids to live long enough to get allergies, etc. It's called vaccines. Most kids in times past didn't live long enough to worry about allergies. Thankfully, they do now.

Tell me, has life expectancy increased much since 1980s? At that point, kids were expected to less than a dozen childhood inoculations. Now, we're up to...what? 50? 60? And we're vaccinating against things are not life-threatening for those with healthy immune systems, or are difficult to get if you live a normal lifestyle. Sorry, but I don't believe that putting that many foreign agents into an otherwise healthy developing body is a good idea.

[Spitzensparkin1]

Also, these “hotbed” states mentioned are full of illegal aliens and their non citizen anchor baby children. But let’s just blame the anti-vax American parents who resist the poison.
SS1

[HiTech RedNeck]

This works for a while, until herd immunity goes down.

[HiTech RedNeck]

But at the same time — are THOSE people anti-vaxxers? All the health care welfare spent on them, don’t they have the vaccinations?

[HiTech RedNeck]

The agents still get there, it’s in a different manner.

There will always be tensions about vaccination programs. Enough people exempting themselves from the herd, and herd immunity goes down. Virtue signaling, however, never made a single virus go away.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I wonder if high vaccination compliance is often tied to a super-sanitary mindset, in which kids are highly discouraged from playing around in dirt and doing other things by which they might see small doses of environmental pollutants sufficient to serve as natural inoculations against allergies.

[PLMerite]

My mother told me that when they announced the polio vaccine, they rang the church bells.

[Antoninus]

The agents still get there, it’s in a different manner.

True. But take the chicken pox vaccination as an example. If a child gets chicken pox naturally, he's got lifetime immunity, almost guaranteed. With the vaccine, he will need to get regular boosters or his immunity may wear off. In this case, at least, the immunity conferred by a natural infection ends up being better than that from the vaccine. One wonders if that's the case for some other vaccines as well.

That said, I do agree that for illnesses that have higher rates of death and disabilities associated with them, it's better to get the shot. No one would suggest it's better to get something like polio naturally.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Older methods of warding off smallpox involved inducing a mild chicken pox infection.

A major tenet of modern medicine is that it’s better to control something than not to control it. Controlling something automatically implies a science. But the option to get so much chicken pox “inoculation” that one comes down with a mild case, is ruled out by modern medicine as unethical. What to do, what to do. It’s a conundrum. Universal vaccination opponents have some great points to make. But I could also hope to be heard when I ask them please don’t take their natural chicken pox cases to me.

[spintreebob]

Again supports my Public Health Thesis.

Those in the US of Mexican ancestry have the best/lowest birth mortality and maternal mortality rates at one end, the the best longevity at the other end, of any demographic group, better than whites, who are better than Asians, who are better than Blacks, who are better than Native Americans.

And they have the highest rate of uninsured of any demographic group.

And they have the highest rate and numbers of people who qualify for welfare, Medicaid/S-CHIP and reject it.

Don’t let these facts destroy the navigator’s fantasies of being needed.