Killing the kids: victuals for vaccinations

There are two types of things that kill kids these days: real danger, and fear of danger. This is about how when you protect kids from the first, they’ll fall victim to the second.

One of the cruellest ironies of modern life is that, as we eliminate the truly fearful from our society (hunger, cholera, etc.), we become increasingly fearful of what’s left - even when these have little or no evidence of harm (EMF, vaccines, E numbers). In fact, it’s especially the fact that these have no evidence of harm that makes for such rich irony - as if humans have some inbuilt quotient of fear that needs to be spent on something, anything.

Let’s look at vaccines in particular. There are two main bugaboos in particular, and I’ll look at one “solution”. Firstly, some vaccines have used thimerosal, a mercury containing preservative. They say it causes autism and point to the House of Representatives report calling for its use to be discontinued. Meanwhile, the CDC says:

There is no convincing scientific evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site. However, in July 1999, the Public Health Service agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure.

That would be “precautionary” as in, “it’ll win some soccer mom votes”. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, a certain doctor whipped the nation into hysteria by insisting a loose, flawed correlation between autism and MMR jabs counted as conclusive evidence that vaccinating your child was the equivalent of slamming its head in a car door. The result has been a steep drop in not just combined but all vaccinations in Britain. Measles outbreak, here we come.

Perversely, when the public decides to reject a very decent treatment against a very real danger, they also demand a different treatment, and so usually end up with a very dubious one. Here’s my pick of the bunch: HealthyChild.com. Before they even get onto the subject of alternatives to childhood vaccinations, they posit this interesting question:

What would induce me to vaccinate my children? The answer: only a completely new technology that proved to be both safe and effective.

Hmm. Safe and effective? Where will we find such a technology? Anyway, in the absence of a proven, safe, effective (and arguably, new) treatment, what does Randall Neustaedter - a bona fide 9 canard quack - suggest in its place?

Promote the strength of your child’s immune system instead, and avoid things that can weaken it.

This translates as “eat like a hippy”, which means no saturated fats, added sugar or antibiotics(?), plenty of organic food (”your child will not be eating pesticides that injure the liver” - o rly?), homeopathy, acupuncture, bovine colostrum, and knocking back vitamins. Let’s leave aside the complete inanity of abandoning a safe and effective treatment in favour of outdated mysticism and magic water, and focus on the nutrition.

In the Third World, with its associated poor nutrition (and healthcare), mortality rates from measles are around 10%. That means if you’ve got three kids, and they all become infected (pretty likely with measles’ 90% infection rate), there’s a 25% chance one of them will die. Man, I bet those Third Worlders wish they had themselves some vaccines.

In good old Blighty, fatalities from measles are much rarer, clocking in at around 1 in a 1,000 or 0.1%. Of course, our superior nutrition is down to an abundance of cheap carbohydrates - the very same sugar and fat that you’ve cut out of your child’s diet. Congratulations, you’re doubly stupid.

Even with adequate nutrition, your child faces a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying from measles. That sounds pretty good until you realise that thanks largely to Dr Wakefield, there were 449 cases of measles last year, compared with 77 the previous year. So 2008 should definitely see some kids die from a completely preventable disease. In fact, it’s already begun. Congratulations Dr Wakefield, congratulations Randall Neustaedter. In some grim irony, I expect that once the soccer moms see the empty seats appearing in the back seats of SUVs, they might think again about which is the greatest danger.

Truly, there is nothing to fear, but fear itself.

6 comments October 23rd, 2007