Trump energizes the anti-vaccine movement in Texas

[still_one]

AUSTIN — The group of 40 people gathered at a popular burger and fish taco restaurant in San Antonio listened eagerly to the latest news about the anti-vaccine fight taking place in the Texas legislature.

Some mothers in the group had stopped immunizing their young children because of doubts about vaccine safety. Heads nodded as the woman giving the statehouse update warned that vaccine advocates wanted to “chip away” at parents’ right to choose. But she also had encouraging news.

“We have 30 champions in that statehouse,” boasted Jackie Schlegel, executive director of Texans for Vaccine Choice. “Last session, we had two.”

Now they also have one in the White House.

President Trump’s embrace of discredited theories linking vaccines to autism has energized the anti-vaccine movement. Once fringe, the movement is becoming more popular, raising doubts about basic childhood health care among politically and geographically diverse groups.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-energizes-the-anti-vaccine-movement-in-texas/2017/02/20/795bd3ae-ef08-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_texasvaccine-820pm-winner%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[Docreed2003]

1. Children will and have died from this foolishness

Saddest case during my pediatrics rotation as a medical student in 2002 was a 2 yr old with pertussis in the Pediatric ICU who died because her parents didn't want her vaccinated. They had whooping cough and unwittingly exposed their susceptible child to it and the result was devastating. Stories like this have become all to common and I fear will become more so if there isn't push back against this nonsense.

[Initech]

4. Republicans flat out don't care about children.

I think we need to shout this from the rooftops. They think the murder of 22 innocent children was an act, they joke about child rape, they shoot up pizza parlors, and they ignore vaccines. And they don't believe in public education either. I think education is the key to pushing back against this nonsense.

[Docreed2003]

6. Agree 1000%

[Tanuki]

7. And as you know, parents like that weaken the whole "herd immunity"

and also increase the risk of infants in other families who are too young to be vaccinated.

[Docreed2003]

9. And not just infants...

There was a pertussis outbreak in the area where we lived in 2012. Our daughter at the time was 11 and she came down with pertussis. The cause was believed to be from an unvaccinated child. Our daughter missed two weeks of school and was as sick as I had ever seen her. She had been immunized years earlier but the immunizations effect only lasts about a decade. She was susceptible and we ended up having to turn our house into a quarantine!

[Tanuki]

12. Wow. I'm sorry she had to go through this! But it sure does

illustrate the need for making a choice as a society to do everything we can to decrease the risk for every one of us. I recall a measles outbreak a few years ago which if I remember correctly was traced to an unvaccinated child visiting Disney World.

[Docreed2003]

13. Exactly...

the decisions that we make are never in isolation and have repercussions to those around us, even if we don't intend them to do so. Immunizations are a key example of this.

[HockeyMom]

22. Waning Immunity after Pertussis Vaccination

http://www.webmd.com/children/news/20160205/waning-whooping-cough-immunity-blamed-in-outbreaks#1

This new vaccine, introduced in the 90's, is not as effective as the older DTP. Besides teens needing boosters, adults are now recommended to get Tdap, but according to CDC only 20% have gotten it. Your child could have gotten whooping cough from an adult who had been vaccinated 20+ years ago who now has waning immunity to whooping cough. This happened to a Miami Congressman with whooping cough who said, "But I was vaccinated as a child."

Far too simplistic and easy to blame only on unvaccinated children.

[Docreed2003]

23. True...

Except in our case it COULD be traced to an unvaccinated child. You are correct though: Adults get whooping cough frequently and don't even know it. The issue with pertussis is that, while benign in adults, it can be deadly to infants and young children. See my first post above. No child should suffer from a preventable death like that!

[ProudLib72]

2. I was surprised

the other day when I saw a bumper sticker about vaccination being a parent's choice. I live in what I had believed to be a sane neighborhood.

[Initech]

3. Yeah because we all want polio, measles and mumps.

I know I sure as shit don't want any of those diseases! They were eradicated thanks to vaccines and they should stay that way. God, what will it take to rid us of these idiots?

[TrekLuver]

5. If they don't want to vaccinate...OK...fine..you have the choice...and be prepared for your

children to suffer the consequences.

[NurseJackie]

8. It's not that simple. Their kids also need to be

... removed from civilized society. They are a danger to vaccinated kids too.

[MrPurple]

15. I'm pro-science, but if they kids are vaccinated, shouldn't they be safe from the ones that aren't?

[Maru Kitteh]

17. Not always. Vaccines are not 100% effective in all people

They are effective in the vast majority of people, and that is why they work when nearly everyone is vaccinated. It's a matter of the odds, part of the proven concept of herd immunity.

[Mariana]

18. No vaccine is 100% effective.

Some people will take the vaccine and it won't work. This happened to me and to one of my classmates with measles. We were vaccinated but we still got sick (from an unvaccinated person). However, enough of the other students were immune that our little epidemic stopped there.

[Tanuki]

19. Infants below the age when they can be vaccinated are at risk,

as are children and others with compromised immune systems. Also, as others have said, vaccines are never 100% effective, so keeping the rate of outbreaks as low as possible through universal vaccination decreases the overall risk for anyone even if vaccinated getting sick. Many pediatricians are refusing to accept children from non-vaccinating families into their practices or putting them on notice that they will need to find another provider. They do not want to place their other patients at unnecessary risk.

[msanthrope]

20. Herd immunity. It's how vaccines work. nt

[NurseJackie]

21. It's my understanding that ...

... not all vaccines work on all individuals. For various reasons, some vaccinated individuals are as vulnerable as if they hadn't been vaccinated at all. Therefore, these individuals are still at risk. They are LESS at risk when part of a "herd" that is comprised of individuals whose vaccines ARE working. They are MORE at risk when the "herd" contains significant numbers of (intentionally) un-vaccinated individuals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/02/03/why-a-few-unvaccinated-children-are-an-even-bigger-threat-than-you-think/?utm_term=.d4b319271885
Herd immunity against measles requires that 90 percent to 95 percent of theentire population are immune, whereas vaccination coverage is measured as the percentage vaccinated of the target population – which only includes people who are eligible for vaccination.

http://www.aappublications.org/content/36/5/14.1

In theory, herd immunity means not everyone in a community needs to be immune to prevent spread of disease. If a high enough proportion of individuals in a population are immune, the majority will protect the few susceptible people because the pathogen is less likely to find a susceptible person.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

[Doreen]

10. my friend said after being in 3rd world

countries where these vaccinations are not available or not enough he has seen the horror of what they can do to a child and stands strongly by the vaccine law. He thinks we would be asking for a disaster to not have them.

[Solly Mack]

11. Walking little petri-dishes of diseases.

[Canoe52]

14. popular burger and FISH TACO restaurant...

Something about the words "Fish Taco" just ain't right...

[Maru Kitteh]

16. This is crushing. Babies, children will die.

[AgadorSparticus]

24. Wow. Glad we don't live in Texas anymore.

[ck4829]

25. Sigh