Vampire vaccinator: Why vaccination fighting is deadly
We have repeatedly talked about the dangers of anti-scientific movements, including homeopathy, HIV dissidence and non-vaccination. The Corpus publishing house together with the Evolution Foundation publishes Paul Offit's book A Deadly Dangerous Choice. Than the fight against vaccines threatens us all, translated by Anastasia Brodotskaya. We studied this book about the history of the anti-vaccination movement and selected ten interesting facts about vaccines, the arguments of their opponents and the reasons for which they are mistaken.
Anti-vaccinations have always put pressure on emotions.
The first opponents of vaccination appeared at the same time as the vaccines themselves - and from the very beginning, being unable to scientifically substantiate their ideas, they simply tried to intimidate the population. Back in 1881, the first anti-vaccination brochure entitled "Vampire Vaccinator" was published, which stated that the smallpox vaccine contains "viper venom, blood, entrails and excrement of bats, toads and blind puppies" and all these components will certainly turn the child into multi-headed hydra, minotaur or dragon.
Emotional statements, loud phrases like "a vaccine is a syringe with a ready-made disease" and a juggling of facts when the unproved danger of vaccines is asserted and the real risk of infectious diseases is silenced is a common work tool of anti-vaccination agents. In addition, they are prone to paranoia and are ready to blame "conspiracy to destroy our children" and pharmaceutical companies, and doctors, and governments of different countries.
Vaccines do not damage the brain
Typical adverse events in the first couple of days after vaccination are redness, pain or swelling at the injection site, and sometimes fever, general malaise, and lethargy. Opponents of vaccination like to say that these systemic manifestations (fever and weakness) are nothing but the result of the harmful effects of vaccination on the brain. The development of febrile (high-temperature) seizures gave anti-vaccination agents a reason to say that the vaccine caused epilepsy.
In fact, the human brain is protected by complex barriers and is very resistant to external influences: if severe cold and abuses at parties do not cause irreversible changes, then a slight fever or weakness is not associated with them exactly. Raising the temperature in a small child is a common thing for colds, and only the temperature of 42 degrees is really dangerous; after vaccination such a pronounced fever practically does not happen. Febrile seizures, although they look frightening, are not associated with epilepsy and do not have any long-term effects.
Most got the pertussis vaccine
If with some other bacteria it was quickly possible to figure out exactly which substance to use for the development of immunity, then the most harmful protein could not be isolated from the pertussis pathogen, and whole cells of bacteria were used for vaccination, although inactivated. Since any foreign protein causes a reaction on the part of the immune system (for example, in the form of signs of inflammation or allergies), it is not surprising that the vaccine containing several thousand proteins was rather difficult to tolerate.
Decades have passed, times have changed, and the anti-vaccines still claim that vaccination is an infection by living microbes. Another reason is to say that vaccines contain human blood protein, which means that they are made from donated blood and may contain hepatitis viruses or HIV. True, anti-vaccinators forget that the same albumin (human blood protein) vaccines contain synthetic, that is, created in the laboratory. As for the arguments against such "toxic" metals as aluminum, the composition of vaccines - in the normal human diet for the day contains more aluminum than all vaccines administered to the child in the first few years of life.
The first anti-vaccines generally denied the existence of microbes.
Back in 1877, Robert Koch identified the anthrax pathogen, the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, and by the beginning of the twentieth century, bacteria were known to cause more than twenty different infections. Unfortunately, vaccination fighters simply refused to believe in the existence of microbes. They argued: "We are intimidated by microbes to death. Everywhere bacteria, bacteria, bacteria ... Now what - to refuse handshakes, kisses, food and drink? If the microbes are everywhere, it's amazing that we are still alive." One hundred years have passed, bacteria and viruses have been studied in detail under the lenses of powerful microscopes, and their deniers have not gone away.
In the eighties, when several people died of AIDS and it was revealed that HIV was the cause, one of the well-known opponents of vaccination, Gordon Stewart, began to declare that no virus existed. He argued that AIDS does not cause immunodeficiency virus, but sperm proteins that enter the rectum - that is, it is the homosexual lifestyle that blamed the disease. Stewart took the position of victim lambing: "We should treat AIDS without any sentiment and recognize that this disease is caused directly by the behavior of the victim." Unfortunately, at present, those who deny HIV infection resemble a sect, and their efforts lead to the death of many patients, including children.
Tragedy due to substandard vaccines and the truth were
When the control of production processes was not as strict as today, real disasters occurred. In the fifties, a vaccine against polio, which was finally registered as safe, was investigated in the USA for a long time. After registration, this vaccine was manufactured not only at the factories of the companies that developed it, but also at others - and Cutter Laboratories in California produced a low-quality batch of the drug, without having achieved complete inactivation of the virus. One hundred twenty thousand children received vaccine from this party, two hundred of whom remained paralyzed, and ten died of polio.
Even with the high-quality manufacturing of the polio vaccine used in the United States, there was a risk - and the child lawyer John Salamone fell ill with polio after vaccination. Salamone examined the issue and found out that there is another vaccine against this infection, much safer, which is used in Europe. Although a change in vaccine meant a significant increase in the budget (the American drug was taken orally, and for Europe, injections were needed - that is, materials for them and the work of the staff who could give injections), Salamone managed to change the polio vaccination policy in his country, as well as improve the registration system and tracking unwanted effects. In general, anti-vaccinations are not condemned because they allow themselves to doubt the safety of vaccines, but for exaggeration, lies and juggling of facts.
Anti-vaccines challenge even the achievements of Nobel Prize winners
The Nobel Prize in 2008 was awarded to two scientists: Luc Montagnier for discovering HIV (retrospectively, since the virus was found as early as 1983) and Haralda zur Hausen, who proved that human papillomavirus is the cause of cervical cancer. Identifying virtually the only preventable cause of the fatal disease is a great success, and scientists immediately set about developing a vaccine against HPV. Now such vaccines exist and effectively prevent cervical cancer, one of the most frequent and very dangerous tumors in young women.
Of course, the anti-vaccination activists could not pass by: they claimed (and continue to assert) that doctors together with pharmaceutical companies and governments "harass" adolescent girls with a dangerous vaccine, wishing to cause them to be infertile, and then completely wipe humanity from the face of the earth. Activist Barbara Lo Fisher called the vaccine against HPV a “whore vaccine” at all, without taking into account that 70% of women are infected with the virus in the first years of sexual activity.
Theory about the relationship of vaccines with autism brought money
By 2002, about five thousand applications to the court about vaccines that allegedly caused autism had accumulated. The so-called Joint Autism Process began, since there was simply no resource available for separate consideration of each application. It was a colossal trial, which lasted until 2010 and included an incredible amount of documents - one of the children’s case histories contained 7,700 pages. Nevertheless, the court adhered to scientific evidence and ruled that there was no connection between vaccines and autism.
Moreover, in the course of the investigation, it turned out that the propaganda of the connection between vaccines and autism brought money to its ideologues. For example, a doctor who tried to treat him for autism spoke as a witness in the case of a boy with autism, allegedly caused by a vaccine. It turned out that he prescribed a large number of unnecessary drugs, sold some biologically active supplements directly in his office, and also conducted unnecessary examinations. For eight years, the child visited his office one hundred and sixty times, and for each visit the doctor received money.
Collective immunity does not protect against tetanus.
One of the arguments of anti-vaccination handlers is to let the children vaccinate those who want it and are not afraid, and we will decide for our children, and you should not worry about them. Unfortunately, vaccination works not only at the individual, but also at the collective level, and the permissible number of people without vaccines is limited: if it is exceeded, the infection will begin to spread. The more children vaccinated, the harder it is for viruses and bacteria to spread. To eradicate polio, 70% of children need to be vaccinated, and 95% are much more easily transmitted measles. Tetanus is an exception, because its pathogens are transmitted not from one person to another, but from earth to person. This means that even a single unvaccinated among all vaccinated people can get sick.
The "limit" on the possibility of not being vaccinated is important - there are children for whom vaccinations are really contraindicated. Contraindications are not banal colds or snot, but serious diseases like leukemia. For a child with leukemia, being in a class where there are children who have not been vaccinated against chickenpox or rubella is a deadly risk, so anti-vaccination people are cunning when they say that refusing vaccinations is their own business and does not concern others.
There are Hollywood stars among the activists.
Model and actress Jenny McCarthy - the mother of a child with autism. At first, she argued that there was no such disease at all, and her son was the so-called indigo child, but then changed her point of view. Now she recognizes that autism exists, and it is considered to be the cause of toxins in vaccines. Paradoxically, McCarthy publicly admitted his love for Botox, which is certainly more toxic than any vaccine. This is not the only contradiction in the position of the actress: despising the pharmaceutical companies for greed, she actively advertises nutritional supplements that bring them millions of dollars to manufacturers.
Famous people have the opportunity to speak to a very wide audience, besides trusting them - but this does not mean that the stars can not be wrong. Unfortunately, Cindy Crawford, Matthew McConaughey, and Jim Carrey talked about the dangers of vaccines at different times. Fortunately, celebrities are also in favor of vaccinations: Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra took this position back in the fifties, and now Amanda Pete, Carey Russell and Jennifer Garner, Salma Hayek, Kim Kardashian speak about the importance of vaccination , Bill Gates, Jennifer Lopez, Michelle Obama and others.
Deviation from the vaccination plan can not be
All sorts of recommendations to postpone the vaccine until later, “when the child gets stronger body” or break them into several stages - this is also, in fact, the anti-vaccine movement, and such measures cause serious harm to children. One of the popularizers of the “alternative vaccination calendar,” Robert Sears, never participated in the development of vaccines or their research - but it is presumptuous that his vaccination plan is better than that developed by experts based on scientific evidence. In fact, the decision to postpone vaccinations or “break vaccines” in order to administer no more than one or two at a time is contrary to the recommendations of specialists and puts the child at risk of serious illness or even death.
The entire history of vaccination shows that attitudes towards it in society change in waves. As vaccines spread, infections cease to spread, and people lose their fear of these infections, and now the fear of redness at the injection site becomes more fear of hypothetical polio. More and more people are refusing vaccinations; when their number reaches a critical threshold, an outbreak of the disease develops. Unfortunately, each new wave of confidence in vaccines arises after such outbreaks leading to the death of children; it would be good for humanity to remember this and start learning from its mistakes, not repeating them.
Photo: Africa Studio - stock.adobe.com, sveta - stock.adobe.com, redfox331 - stock.adobe.com
