I’ll start by introducing myself and trying to explain why on earth you would trust my opinion.   I live in California.  I have a Ph.D. in environmental and molecular toxicology.  I studied the effects of environmental contaminants on fetal and neonatal health as an academic.  I now work in biotech, and it is my job to assess the safety of drugs prior to testing in humans.  I don’t work on vaccines currently, and the company I work for does not produce or profit from any pediatric vaccines.  I do, however, assess safety for a living, and I am very familiar with how the safety of vaccines is determined.

There is another reason I have educated myself on this topic.  I have an autistic daughter.

She is almost 10 years old.  She loves science – particularly geology, biology, and astronomy.  She’s smart, adorable, super fun, and I can’t imagine life without her.  Being a parent of an autistic child is very hard, but it’s rewarding too, and she’s doing just fine.  I have high hopes for her future.  I don’t think there will ever be a “cure” for autism, but maybe she’ll figure out what causes it, or invent a better way to manage it.

I hope you’ll believe me when I say that I have no agenda here other than to educate and contribute to the safety of all children.  I take this issue personally.  I don’t want my daughter to face erroneous theories about how she “got autism”.  She didn’t “catch” autism – she just IS autistic, and she has learned to self-advocate with the help of her parents, teachers, and friends.  I also don’t want my children (I have a son as well) exposed to dangerous diseases from un-vaccinated children.

OK, here’s the story.

The advent of vaccines is perhaps the crowning achievement in the history of medical science.  Along with the institution of basic sanitary measures (maintaining clean drinking water, proper disposal of sewage and the dead, etc…) vaccines have saved more lives than any other scientific discovery in the history of mankind.  I’ll say that one more time for effect – vaccines have saved more lives than any other scientific  discovery in the history of mankind.  It’s also important to note that we’re not just talking about humans here.  Millions of animals – mainly dogs, cats, horses, and livestock such as cows, sheep, and pigs are protected from disease every year by vaccinations. 

This all began in the 1700’s, when people started to inoculate themselves with cowpox in order to reduce the effects of the deadly smallpox virus.  Today there are more than 70 different vaccines approved for human use in the US, and many more approved for use in animals.  How do these vaccines impact human health?  Here are some examples:

Tetanus before vaccines: 25%-100% fatal.

Tetanus now: Approx. 60,000 people/year (mostly children) die in areas without vaccination availability 50-100 people get tetanus per year in the US.  Almost all were unvaccinated, or allowed their vaccinations to lapse.

Serious side effects: <0.0001%

Hepatitis B before vaccines: 1-25% fatal.

Hepatitis B now: Vaccine is 95% effective at preventing hepatitis B infection

Serious side effects: None reported

Anthrax before vaccines: 80-90% mortality rate if inhaled by an unvaccinated person

Anthrax now: vaccine is 92.5% effective

Serious side effects: Unknown: 14 serious adverse reactions out of millions dosed. No known deaths

Poliovirus before vaccines: Endemic prior to vaccinations. ~10% of cases leads to paralysis or death

Poliovirus now: Disease close to eliminated – less than 2,000 cases worldwide in 2007.

Serious side effects: Rare

Rabies before vaccines: Close to 100% fatal in infected persons

Rabies now: Close to 100% effective

Serious side effects: Extremely rare

Smallpox before vaccines: Endemic before vaccinations.  Overall, ~30% fatal, with some forms 100% fatal.

Smallpox now: Vaccine is 95% effective.  Vaccinations has eradicated smallpox worldwide.

Serious side effects: ~0.1% had serious relations. Death in <0.0001%.

That’s a whole lot of lives saved.  Even when you take into account the low rate of serious adverse events, vaccinations are save many, many, many, many more lives than they deleteriously affect.  It is important to note that those serious adverse events are generally allergic reactions. Allergic reactions can be triggered by many things – medications (pills, injections, topical), food, insects, pets, plants.   You can’t avoid potential allergens any more than you can avoid living a normal life, and just because you are allergic to one thing generally has no impact on whether you could be allergic to vaccines (the exception being eggs – tell your doctor if your child is allergic to eggs).  If a person is dead-set on reducing their risk of allergic reactions (which makes no statistical sense, since most people will never have a severe allergic reaction in their lives), it would make more sense to avoid things that are not likely to save your life – like eating new foods, owning pets, or going outside where there are plants and bugs.

One side effect not caused by vaccines is Autism.  Why, you may ask, do so many people seem to think there is a direct link between the two?  Well, that is a very sad story.

In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a study linking autism to vaccinations (in particular, the measles, mumps, rubella, or MMR vaccine).  This was an epidemiological study, meaning it claimed that there a statistical link suggesting children who had the MMR vaccinate had a higher risk for developing autism.  He made no effort to identify the mechanism of this supposed link on a cellular or molecular level.  Some postulated it might have to do with the Thermsol (which is actually not present in the MMR vaccine), a mercury-based preservative found in many vaccines. Mercury is bad, autism is bad – it all sounded bad.

Of course this was a huge story in the scientific and general news cycles.  Nobody likes autism.  Scientists took this very seriously and set out to repeat his work and look for possible mechanisms.  But a funny thing happened when other experts began to investigate the problem.  They discovered it was a lie.  Dr. Wakefield had fabricated much of his data.  Follow-up studies (over 25 of them!) failed to confirm the link.  A very large study in Japan of unvaccinated children showed no effect on autism rates.  Let us be perfectly clear here: there is no scientific data to suggest that vaccinations can cause autism, other than the data fabricated by Dr. Wakefield.

Dr. Wakefield’s paper was retracted, and his career destroyed.  His medical license was revoked. But the damage was done.  Vaccination rates dropped worldwide.  A number of measles and mumps outbreaks occurred – – costing at least 10 (and probably many more) children their lives and hospitalizing countless more.  One has to wonder why he did it.  Certainly, he understood that his work would be repeated by experts in the field.  Did he think he would get away with his fraud and be a hero?  Perhaps he really thought the link was there for some illogical reason, and was willing to fabricate data in order to “sound an alarm”?  Did he do it for money? Maybe he was just plain crazy.  One thing is for sure, those children who died from measles and mumps after their parents refused vaccinations based on his study – their deaths are on his hands.

The problem is that some people still believe Dr. Wakefield’s lies.  Despite the scientific consensus, despite the retraction of his study, large groups still believe.  There is no need to get into the “why” for now, but it is certainly an indictment of the science education system in this country as well as a commentary on how people get their news and who they choose to place their trust in.  I’ve heard some say that “Big Pharma” is to blame – as if there is somehow a profit to be made from injuring people when there is no treatment for autism to sell.

Bad things happen – autism happens.  I understand the fundamental desire to blame someone or something when tragedy strikes, but sometimes we have to admit that we just don’t have the answers.  No one knows what causes autism or why the rates are increasing.  I don’t know why my daughter has autism. We know genetics are a factor, and we know that better diagnosis has helped push the rates up, but that’s about all we know.  We need to accept this.

I vaccinated my daughter, just like I did my son.  I would do it again, because I know this had nothing to do with her autism.  My children had no adverse responses to the vaccines they have received, and importantly, have also not contracted measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, diphtheria, tetanus, or polio.

One question I get a lot is why a parent would take ANY risk and vaccinate their children when the vast majority of the rest of the population is vaccinated already.  Doesn’t this mean that there is no way that their kid could ever get the disease?  This is a great question.  The problem with this approach is that most vaccines are NOT 100% effective – a very small percentage of kids will still get measles, for instance.  Most will shake it off more easily because the vaccine is partially effective.  But if your child is not vaccinated, he or she could become seriously ill.  Additionally, there will be children who are sick for other reasons, and for whom the vaccine may not offer protection because their immune system is too weak to fight the disease.  These children could die if exposed to a sick, non-vaccinated child.   You need to vaccinate your children for their safety and the safety of all of their young friends.

So let’s recap.  Vaccinations are one of the single most important medical advancements in human history.  One bad (dishonest) scientist in the internet age was somehow able to convince millions of people to skip vaccinations for their children by publishing a single bad study and letting the counter culture rumor mill run wild.   Certainly, it’s Dr. Wakefield’s fault – but it’s scientists fault too – the fault of those around the world unable or unwilling to stand up and educate others in a more rapid and effective manner.  I’d like to try and help the cause of truth and science, and I hope you will choose to join me.

References for vaccine information quoted above:

http://www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccines/typhoid-fever

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/facts.asp

http://www.who.int/immunization/rabies_grad_efficacy.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002310/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002375/

http://www.drugs.com/enc/dtap-immunization-vaccine.html