Fewer Kids Get Vaccinated As Parents Worry About Side Effects

[HuckleB]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/13/130542873/fewer-kids-get-vaccinated-as-fears-mount

"After years of steady progress, the percentage of 2-year-olds in private health plans getting immunized dropped last year.

The findings come in a report released Wednesday by the National Committee on Quality Assurance, which keeps track of how well health insurers are doing at getting the right care for the people they cover.


Some details on the drop in vaccinations:

* Measles, mumps and rubella rates fell to 90.6 percent in 2009 from 93.5 percent in 2008.
* Diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough fell to 85.4 percent last year from 87.2 percent in 2008.
* Chickenpox slipped to 90.6 percent in 2009 from 92 percent in 2008.

Insurers attribute the decline to parents' fears that vaccinations could be linked to autism. Though public health experts and government studies have found no evidence that vaccinations cause autism, the subject has been subject of fierce debate on the Internet and outspoken celebrities have fueled the controversy.

..."


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Meanwhile, the big "Vaccine “Mis”Information Week" looms...
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2409


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Just FYI...

:hi:

[Ian David]

1. K&R

[Stargazer99]

2. Mercury is used in the vaccinations instead of a more

expensive substitute that isn't dangerous. It is a matter of profits. a testimony as to why health care should not be a business.

[trotsky]

3. No, it's not anymore.

Please try to keep up.

[sharp_stick]

4. Something we discussed when I was in Grad School

was the inevitable decline in vaccination rates. The hypothesis was that as the number of visible cases of vaccinated disease (Pertussis, Measles etc.) decreased parents would tend to start thinking that the cure was worse than the disease.

This was just before the Mercury/Autism crap started up by Wakefield.

My thought was that people would forget how bad these diseases were and how important it is to keep them under wraps, they would start to see the vaccine as unnecessary in this day and age.

One of the things I always made early med students see were videos of as many of these diseases as I could. In my opinion Pertusis and Diphtheria in kids were always the hardest to watch, even though they are no longer as fatal as they once were the site of a little girl unable to breath or sleep because of Whooping Cough for several days in a row still is hard to watch.

We didn't anticipate the good Dr. Wakefield coming in with a bunch of doctored numbers to scare the shit out of people who couldn't know better. That, in my opinion, just made the drop in vaccination rates more rapid.

[trotsky]

5. I wish I could recommend your post in addition to the thread.

You are exactly right, vaccination is a victim of its own success. A stroll through a turn-of-the-20th-century graveyard is also sobering, to see all the gravestones whose dates span just a few months or a couple of years.

Why, some anti-vaxers I have encountered think that we could easily control all vaccine-preventable diseases with quarantine and Tylenol. (Not to mention a little eugenics in the form of letting the weak die. I wish I could say I was kidding.)

[HuckleB]

11. Indeed. This is a very informative reply. Thank you. -eom-

[mzmolly]

6. The actual study suggests that children on medicaid had an increase in coverage.

Children

One of the most striking developments in this year’s The State of Health Care Quality Report is
the contrast in performance on childhood vaccinations rates between commercial and Medicaid
populations. The vaccination rate declined by almost four percentage points among commercial
enrollees while it actually improved by nearly three percentage points among Medicaid plan
members. Information obtained by NCQA from medical societies and Federal research agencies
indicates that their data show similar shifts.

Why would a twenty year old study on Autism, cause only those with health insurance to opt out of a few vaccines? There is no evidence to support the bogus assertion in your OP. Again, vaccination coverage levels vary slightly from year to year. The same article, using one segment of the population (those on medicaid) could tout in increase in vaccine coverage.

Also "Federal Research Agencies" like the CDC do NOT show "similar shifts," whatever that means. The CDC's comprehensive surveillance, once again shows RECORD HIGH VACCINATION COVERAGE LEVELS.

From the CDC - http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/16/news/la-heb-childhood-vaccinations-20100916

September 16, 2010 - "U.S. immunization rates for the most common childhood vaccines continue to remain near or above the target level of 90% coverage, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday."

Bottom line, Wakefields 1998 study is not causing a decline in vaccination coverage to spite what Paul Offit (vaccine profiteer and AAP adviser) is shoving down our throats this week, in order to stifle debate and discussion.

[HuckleB]

7. Actually there is plenty of evidence to support it, and it's been shown to you repeatedly.

Thank you for the very predictable repeat of your usual rant. And for ignoring the reality that vaccination rates for those on medicaid are still quite a bit lower than for those on private plans. Ah, it's always fun to watch the selective things you put in your posts.

The bit about the "20 year old study" is quite funny as well, considering the constant advocacy that the anti-vaccination community promotes, often at DU itself. In fact, the OP includes a link to the first week in November. What is that about?

Dr. Offit is an honorable man. Your constant red herring vilification of him does nothing to support your posts.

I won't be responding to you again. There is no point. You've made it clear that evidence means nothing to you.

Bye.

[mzmolly]

8. There isn't any evidence to support the non-scientific, bogus conclusion

in your OP, period.

Dr. Offit lost any honor he may have had, when he advised that formaldehyde doesn't "appear" to cause cancer in humans. He's an industry hack, with a vaccine to sell.

[HuckleB]

9. An Interview With The Evil Dr. Paul Offit, MD...

http://www.babble.com/Dr-Paul-Offit-says-vaccines-dont-cause-autism-and-yes-he-can-prove-it-Autisms-False-Prophets/

AND even more on The Evil Dr. Paul Offit, MD:

Amy Wallace in Wired on Dr Paul Offit and the Anti-Vaccination Movement: Superb, Engaging Science Journalism
http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2009/10/one_of_the_most_engaging.php

He's clearly evil, because the anti-vaxers told me so.

[HuckleB]

10. Where vaccine doubt persists (a more narrative piece on the study)

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/20/why.not.vaccinate/

[Odin2005]

12. People are do stupid.