Wow, 10 Years Flew By Fast, Thanks Jenny McCarthy!

Earlier this week I blogged about the U.K.'s return to endemic measles status, which can be traced back to one man, Andrew Wakefield (the U.K. forced him to move, and guess where he ended up? Texas!). At the same time I told Jenny McCarthy to "pack her shit up and head to Europe where people have already decided to stop vaccinating their children," but it looks as if I spoke too soon.

On the back of the 'vaccines cause autism and I don't care what your fucking science says cause moms know best' crusade there has been a decline in childhood vaccination, and guess what happened?

In the U.S. since May, 127 cases of confirmed measles in 15 states has been confirmed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has traced the outbreak to travelers who became sick overseas and then returned to the U.S. and infected others.

This is significant because in 1963 a vaccination campaign began in the U.S. to eliminate measles, endemic spread of the disease was halted in the 1980's and in 2000 the ongoing transmission of the virus was declared eliminated!

But here we are again, because people who have lived privileged lives don't understand the suffering that a contagion can cause. I don't know for sure and I can't look into medical records to prove it but I bet Jenny McCarthy was vaccinated when she was a child. Unfortunately the 250,000 children under the age of 5 that die yearly from measles don't have that same opportunity. And now that the continuity in the vaccination scheme has been interrupted and herd immunity has been undermined the chances for epidemic mechanics to set in have been brought back.

Fox News (of all the places) has a very good report on the situation and a good fact page for Measles. I'll cherry pick a few of the facts here:

-Worldwide, 20 million cases of measles still occur every year, and the disease is a significant cause of vaccine-preventable death among children.

-In 2005, 311,000 children under the age of 5 died from the disease.

-Measles vaccine can prevent this disease.

The most striking fact to me is the 20 million new cases every year. Think of how many personal interactions just one of those 20 million carriers has everyday, how many chances there are to spread to another individual. If the disease is brought back to the U.S. (which it does daily; illegal border crossings, plane, boat, by mail) then those people who were not vaccinated are at serious risk of infection. To a healthy young adult this may not mean much as a healthy body can deal with the infection and treatments rather well, but those who are compromised, in bad health, or who are very young are at a great risk of having their lives put in danger. Even if death doesn't occur, about 1 in 1,000 measles cases presents with inflammation of the brain, a condition which could affect the mental or physical capacities of someone for the rest of their lives.

Some selected quotes from the reports:

"With the whole debate about vaccines — and now parents due to their personal beliefs not vaccinating their children — what we are seeing now is that we are going to have these epidemic outbreaks throughout the country," said Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing editor of health at FOXNews.com.

"If this continues, we will see outbreaks throughout the entire developed world — something we have never seen before," he added. "What you have to remember is that 250,000 children die from this virus every year," Alvarez added. "So, vaccinations have to be a priority for parents because at the end of the day if you get measles, you can live through it, but in some particular cases you're going to have complications."

"The primary reason for lack of vaccination is personal belief exemptions," the CDC's Dr. Larry Pickering told a news conference arranged by the National Foundation for Infectious
Diseases.

"Until better global control is achieved, cases will continue to be imported into the United States and outbreaks
will persist as long as there are communities of unvaccinated people," Pickering said.

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The Amount of Stupid is Painful..."Green our Vaccines"

This week Washington played host to the anti-vaccination movement. Everybody was decked out in their "Green our Vaccines" shirts talking about the harm vaccines are doing around the US. I still have yet to find out what the absolute goal of the march was but according to their website the purpose was to:

"Demand Congress take action to Green our Vaccine Supply while reassessing our current vaccine schedule. Ask Congress to reenact legislation that would eliminate mercury and other toxins from our children's vaccines, study the instance of Autism and other neurological disorders in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children, and to extend the state of limitations to allow all children affected by vaccine induced Autism to file in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)."

First, you demand that Congress take action on vaccine includants and schedules. I'm not entirely sure what Congress has to do with either of these issues as there is a full agency set up to deal with chemical threats (whether in Food or Drugs, aptly named the Food and Drug Administration). They happen to have a whole host of scientists and policy makers that use the science (I know, what an ugly word) to determine the best benefit to society.

Secondly you ask that Congress "reenact legislation that would eliminate mercury and other toxins from our children's vaccines. Now Jenny, I'm trying to give you some leeway on the science aspect of this whole argument since Google University usually puts out some pretty weak scientists, but take a fucking history lesson. In 2003 all mercury and mercury derivatives were removed from vaccines, and yet autism rates continue to climb (its what we in the science community like to call a negative association). Now as for these "toxins" in vaccines, do you mean that list of "chemicals" in some of your literature---since everything is "chemicals", I'm not sure which ones are "greener".

In your push to find harmful substances in vaccines your website lists "anti-freeze", and yet there isn't any in vaccines. Now some do have a compound with a similar name (polyethylene glycol vs. ethylene glycol---that little part "poly" makes a big difference, but its kind of "scienc-y" so I'll leave it out). There is also mention of "formaldehyde", which is used to inactivate the viruses in some vaccines, but its present in such small amounts, that common environmental exposures are much more significant.

My favorite in the list of chemicals if probably "chick embryos". Jenny, I'll share a little secret with ya, that's just a synonym (that means "means the same as") "egg". Eggs (yeah, the kind we eat, totally) are used to make flu vaccines. Maybe we should consider taking them out of supermarkets too if they're so harmful.

The next statement just kills me too. "Study the instance of Autism and other neurological disorders in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children". To complete a study of "vaccinated vs unvaccinated" children is possibly one of the most morally reprehensible studies that could be conducted. Maybe this is a bad analogy but a study like this is equivalent to placing two groups of people in a room. One group surrounded by a cage and the other group not. A lion is then released into the room and you measure how many people hit their head on the bars of the cage, ignoring how many people outside the cage get mauled or eaten. This is a classic example of placing an unethical and unrealistic goalpost on researchers and then claiming failure that the researchers cannot morally institute the experiment. Anyone who would willingly submit a very large group of children to the dangers of being unvaccinated (I truly hope I don't have to enumerate those dangers) should question their integrity. I would be ok with the study if the children could consent with their own volition, but that isn't the case. Does anyone else not see how stupid this goal is?

Jenny, a bit of advice, you are probably a good mom, a mediocre actress, and a damn good naked blonde bimbo with fake tits, but what you aren't is a science person. Your degree from Google University doesn't mean you're good at understanding any of what science has to offer. If anything you are giving hope to a bunch of people in a false location, they don't deserve that. Hopefully I can stop writing about why one of my Playboy Playmate fantasies keeps popping up in the news spouting stupid opinions about stuff she doesn't understand, but I sincerely doubt Jenny has any intention of doing so.

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An Open Letter to Congress on Immunization Policy

Tomorrow Jenny McCarthy is going to be throwing an antivaccination-fest on Capitol hill. The medical community roused itself just long enough to write an open letter to Congress about immunizations. It's not much, but at least it's something. I hope all the signatories are ready for a P.R. blitz to counter Jenny McCarthy (how fucking ridiculous does that sound?)

I was glad to see the Texas Public Health Association was a signator.

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What Does the Hannah Poling Case Prove?

I figured I'd take a minute to address the Hannah Poling case since it deals with a topic I've covered here multiple times; the link (or non-link) of vaccines and autism. Earlier this year the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was sued by the Poling family under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and won. They successfully argued that vaccines Hannah had received, specifically diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), varicella, and inactivated polio, caused her to develop autism spectrum disorder.

Ok, that's a lot of medical mumbo jumbo, here's the important part; the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). This program was created in 1986 because lawyers had sued almost all pharmaceutical companies out of existence, claiming vaccines were the reason for cases of sudden infant death syndrome to epilepsy. By the time it came into existence there was only one manufacturer of the diptheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine left in the market. The government stepped in with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which included the creation of the VICP. The Act called for an excise tax on every vaccine and the VICP compiled a list of compensable injuries. If studies supported the notion that vaccines caused a negative reaction -- thrombocytopenia after receipt of measles containing vaccine -- children and their families were given a fair reimbursement quickly and fairly. The number of lawsuits against vaccine makers decreased.

Unfortunately the VICP has recently turned its back on science. In 2005 a woman successfully claimed that a tetanus vaccine caused her optic neuritis. Although there was no evidence, published or otherwise, to support her claim, the VICP ruled that if a petitioner proposed a biologically "plausible" mechanism by which a vaccine could cause harm, as well as a logical sequence of cause and effect, an award should be granted. This opened the door to compensation being given for a whole new host of conditions which have no set of data to prove or disprove the claims.

In 2006 the VICP deviated farther from its original standards than it ever had before when Dorothy Werderitsh successfully claimed that a hepatitis B vaccine caused her multiple sclerosis. By the time of the ruling, several studies had shown that the hep B vaccine neither caused nor exacerbated the disease, and the Institute of Medicine even concluded that "evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the two." But the VICP was less impressed by the scientific literature than it was with an expert's proposal of a mechanism by which hep B vaccine could induce autoimmunity (an ironic conclusion, given that Dorothy Wederitsh never had a detectable immune response to the vaccine).

Here are some facts: Natural infections will exacerbate autism spectrum disorder in patients with mitochondrial enzyme deficiencies (what Hannah Poling has), vaccines haven't shown the same. Children with this disorder are especially susceptible to infection so it is recommended they receive all vaccines.

A belief that multiple vaccines overwhelm the immune system is floating around the anti-vax camp. But a century ago children received one vaccine, smallpox, which contained 200 structural and nonstructural proteins. Today, the 14 vaccines given to children contain a total of 150 immunologic components.

Maybe the most important point of this case is that the government has eroded the confidence in the vaccination system without any concrete evidence of mass panic. The problem with letting a few kids skip out or having parents opt out of vaccination compromises herd immunity, a pillar of the vaccination theory. Consequences should be weighed next time a decision like this is made instead of caving to media and political pressure, a precedent has been laid down.

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Huffington Post is a Denialist Website

There's no other explanation for a site that regularly publishes David Kirby's anti-vaccination denialism, Jenny McCarthy's insanity, and conspiracy theories from the like of Diedre Imus.

The latest came this weekend from David Kirby and his goalpost-moving piece, which based on the egregious misinterpretation of the Hannah Poling case, represents the new front of anti-vaccination denialists in their war on reason. In the never-ending quest to pin autism on vaccines no mater what the evidence, the anti-vaccine denialists now are trying to make autism a mitochondrial disorder in order to fit their latest imagined victory. Despite the obvious fact that the disorder in the Poling case was a pre-existing genetic dysfunction that was possibly aggravated by vaccines, Kirby has decided to add to the confusion by now suggesting that this was a "concession" by the government of a causative link between vaccines and autism.

There is no evidence of a link between autism and vaccines.

This post from Kirby is joined by this article from Barbara Fischkin which has the chutzpah to blame autism on thimerosal:

These people were poisoned. One of the culprits is, no doubt, the mercury preservative that was put willy-nilly into so many vaccines.

Let's make this completely clear, the thimerosal-autism link is one of the clearest examples of a failed hypothesis that I can think of. It was extensively studied, and roundly disproven by the fact that 6 years after it's removal autism diagnoses continue to increase (A longer discussion for why this is). Even Kirby won't support this nonsense, yet the HuffPo will gladly let other cranky celebrities and other morons write whatever the hell they want about science as if they have any idea what they are talking about.

This is something that concerns the scientific community as all overvalued ideology ultimately represents a threat to scientific or rational thinking. Science doesn't respect political values or preconceived notions about how the world works. Liberals may side with global warming because it fits with their preconceived paranoia of corporations and technology, and conservatives may love evidence-based medicine because it protects Dick Cheney from the Grim Reaper but its clear no matter what the ideology, whenever there is a conflict between science and politics there is always a constituency that favors rejection of fact to maintain a fixed belief.

Medicine is no exception. Conservatives don't generally object to medicine, but are happy to lie about contraception, abortion, embryonic stem cell science or the evil FDA regulators when it conflicts with their pro-life or fundamentalist free market agenda.

Public policy should be informed by the evidence first, and ideology should always play a second fiddle to what can be demonstrated by facts. When that order is reversed you are playing a dangerous game. HuffPo, by supporting this denialist claptrap is risking its reputation on writers who are little more than kooks. I hope that contributors to HuffPo who care about science will realize that HuffPo shouldn't get a pass just because they might happen to be right on global warming or evolution. These types of posts from pseudoscientific crackpots are an embarrassment, and the inclusion of these kooks undermines the legitimacy of the site as a whole. If there are people who care about making HuffPo sound like a source of legitimate opinion and analysis, they should take a stand, now, before its too late.

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