Measles Outbreak Traced to Super Bowl, Anti-Vaccination Fanatics

[xchrom]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/02/24/the_super_bowl_outbreak_demonstrates_the_dangers_of_anti_vaccination_advocacy_.html


There was a measles outbreak traced to this year's Super Bowl in Indiana
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Could this be the case that breaks the hold that anti-vaccination idiocy has over certain sectors of our country? Janice D'Arcy reports at the Washington Post on the latest measles outbreak traced back to anti-vaccination fanatics, but this time, instead of an outbreak being traced back to a Whole Foods or a nursery school---the usual places where the kids of yuppie anti-vaxxers have a chance to expose and be exposed---the trail for this one leads back to the Super Bowl. Indiana has had 14 cases of measles since the game, and 13 of those have been confirmed as occurring in anti-vaccination families. The outbreak started with two infected people who went to the Super Bowl village, visited a few places, and thereby set off the mini-epidemic. As D'Arcy points out, if not for widespread vaccination, the numbers of exposed would have reached the hundreds of thousands.

In most cases, measles just creates a few days of utter misery for the patient---which is reason enough to vaccinate, unless you have some sadistic streak---but in some cases, it can lead to pneumonia or encephalitis, causing brain damage or death. I genuinely don't think anti-vaccination parents want their kids to get sick, even though some of them act disturbingly blase about that possibility or minimize the suffering these diseases can cause. (I still can recall with great clarity what torture the chicken pox was, and curse any parent who thinks it's better to put a kid through that than simply give them a shot.) The problem is that anti-vaccination parents are making a virtue out of selfishness, imagining that they're doing right by their kid by making them a free rider that uses herd immunity. This is wrong-headed thinking. To be a proper free rider, you have to be accruing benefits without making sacrifices, but outside of a little pain and maybe a slight fever, getting vaccinated is not a sacrifice. Unlike with other competitive yuppie child-rearing practices, such as trying to get your kid into the right preschool, someone else's loss isn't your gain. As painful as it is for anyone in the 21st century to admit, there is such thing as a win/win solution, and vaccination is it. You help others while helping yourself. The victims in this case are, after all, people who opted out of vaccinations. Additionally, anti-vaccination fanatics are aggressive at recruiting. With every successful convert to the cause, the herd immunity they rely on diminishes, as demonstrated by the fact that this particular outbreak spread through a group of people who ran in similar social circles.

The Super Bowl example also demonstrates the limits of herd immunity for protecting the unvaccinated. In our modern era of plane travel, dense cities, and events like the Super Bowl, the average person has plenty of opportunities to inhale the germs of a large and diverse group of people---and take those germs further faster than ever before. Considering that the exposure point was the Super Bowl, we should all be very concerned. These cases are so far limited to Indiana, but think of how many people were exposed and then got on a plane after the game to return home to every corner of the U.S. Luckily, the vast majority of them are vaccinated against the measles, but with the growing ranks of anti-vaccination converts, our luck may not hold out forever.


Super Bowl Measles Outbreak Update: 13 People Admit They Weren't Vaccinated
http://gothamist.com/2012/02/24/super_bowl_measles_outbreak_update.php

Remember how New York health officials were contacted because of a measles outbreak in Indiana last month—and one of the infected individuals had gone to Super Bowl Village festivities before the big game? Well, now you can mull on this factoid: Most of the people afflicted admitted they were never vaccinated.

PBS NewsHour reports that Indiana health commissioner Dr. Gregory Larkin said 13 cases (there are 14 reported) were "confined to families in the same social group.... According to Larkin, [they] had all chosen not to be vaccinated." Larkin said, "This is just so highly infectious and so significantly preventable."

The Washington Post's parenting blog notes:

'The most disturbing element of the mini outbreak is the potential for might have been. Measles has an incubation period of more than a week, so hundreds of thousands of fans might have been exposed... In fact, the reason there was an outbreak at all was apparently because of the small but persistent group of people who refuse to vaccinate their children....

The latest figures from the journal Pediatrics show that as many as ten percent of parents do not follow vaccination guidelines. That’s lead to outbreaks of both measles and pertussis, also known as whooping cough, across the country. Last year, for instance, California saw a major outbreak of whooping cough. Virginia, also last year, saw a rash of whooping cough cases that officials linked to several students, from one private school, who had not been vaccinated.

From a public health perspective, the decision to decline vaccinations is more than an individual choice. It’s one that’s dangerous for the child and the greater general public, especially the most vulnerable populations, such as younger children who are not yet old enough for vaccinations.'

[MarkCharles]

1. Amazing, the stupidity of some parents concerning...

the science of vaccinations.

Parents should have their kids taken away if they refuse to vaccinate them.

Well, I wish, kind of, because it is child endangerment in the most stupid form.

[keithjx]

3. surely you jest

Why is it that we are so suspicious of certain industries (insurance, financial) yet Big Pharma gets a pass on vaccines? Is it so difficult to believe that the same financial motives that lead pharmacuticals to push drugs to market before adequate testing is completed also apply to vaccines? I'm not taking the absolutist position that ALL vaccines are bad, but this industry deserves all the same scrutiny we level at any other profit-motivated health group. While the reasoning behind vaccination is sound, the error is, as usual, in placing blind faith in the nexus of government and Big Pharma acting in concert.
KJ

[elias7]

4. Ok, fair enough, but in your scrutiny, which vaccines are bad?

No one is putting blind faith in the industry, some of us have done some basic research into the issue and reached a fairly inescapable conclusion.

[MarkCharles]

5. Big PHARMA gets no pass. Science triumphs over

irrational fear mongering.

I was a child when there was a polio epidemic.

It was such a wonderful world, RIGHT!

Actually the nexus of government and the lobbying of PHARMA had nothing at all to do with the development of the polio vaccine. The government actually paid for inoculations for all children under 18!


That was the 1950's, this is an era virtually without polio in western nations.

Here's a British scientist's view of the Wakefield and other irrational scares.

[Irishonly]

9. I remember getting my polio vaccine

My mom took me to my elementary school on a Saturday morning and there was a massive crowd. We sat at the lunch room tables and it was like an assembly line. It went on for several hours.

[jeff47]

8. Vaccines cut into big pharma's profits

Pharma makes way more money treating diseases than vaccinating against them. So if you're going to warn about the evils of profit-seeking big pharma, vaccines are not the place to do so.

And just how many new vaccines do you think are actually used each year? MMR, the big evil of the anti-vaxxers, was developed in the 1960s, approved in 1971. The "booster shot" version is the newest, approved in 1989.

[keithjx]

6. Obviously I'm not in favor of polio.

The hyperbole isn't necessary and detracts from fruitful dialogue.

Science should win. But, as we see all too often, when science theory leads to the breakthrough, greed overcomes implementation of that triumph, resulting in corners being cut and unforseen consequences (primarily because they are not looked for or intentionally ignored).

To tell you the truth, I haven't done the research - I've relied on my wife to do that and I trust her analysis. The point of my post was to object to the strident statement that my children should be taken from me under the auspices that this is a black and white issue. The scientific theory behind vaccination is an inescapable conclusion. The implementation of that theory is (and should be) the subject of scrutiny and, hopefully, open for debate.
Thanks,
KJ

[Warpy]

10. Measles kills too. Look up "measles encephalitis"

I had that one. I bloody nearly died. One of my playmates did die.

Save children's lives. Vaccines work. Get them vaccinated.

[uppityperson]

11. Scientific theory behind vx's is solid but implementation should be scrutinized?

Is this what you are saying?

From your other post :
"Is it so difficult to believe that the same financial motives that lead pharmacuticals to push drugs to market before adequate testing is completed also apply to vaccines? I'm not taking the absolutist position that ALL vaccines are bad, but this industry deserves all the same scrutiny we level at any other profit-motivated health group. While the reasoning behind vaccination is sound, the error is, as usual, in placing blind faith in the nexus of government and Big Pharma acting in concert. "

Since "Big Pharma" makes most its money on drugs, on treating diseases, why assume they are making huge profits off preventing them? Also, you seem to be saying that vaccines aren't tested adequately, is this right?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

12. If parents did most any other thing to endanger the lives of their children

Those children would be taken away from them. Why should it be different with vaccines?

[Gman]

2. Its nothing short of child abuse

To intentionally make a kid sick with those is child abuse.

[hedgehog]

7. My youngest has absolutely perfect skin -

except for the scar next to her eye left by her bout with chicken pox. My second youngest was feeling just fine as she recovered from chicken pox, then went down in an hour with a kidney infection. Trust me, vaccinations are far, far less risky!

[mzmolly]

13. I wonder if anyone considered the (likely) majority of adults in the audience

who have not had booster shots, and are no longer immune?

http://women.webmd.com/guide/adult-immunizations