https://www.aljazeera.net/news/healthmedicine/2016/10/19/15-%D8%B3%D8%A4%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B5%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B5%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%81

Thanks dear colleagues for your sharing your insights.

It is a widespread concept among many parents that some vaccines are harmful, so it needs more efforts to educate them and share the true info on the social media about what are the actual side effects.

In Germany, compulsory measles vaccination is currently discussed

We have the same problem in Africa. To deal with this situation it's good to engage with community leaders and to have a good health communication via social media, churches, professional associations etc. This will improve understanding and community engagement for the acceptability of the vaccination.

This should be treated as a public health problem, not one of individual rights or freedom. Hence for the overall protection of society, vaccination should be compulsory. This is under active consideration in the UK.

Provaccionationists should be more honest in acknowledging that not all antivaccination arguments are irrational:

"Volume 16, Number 4—April 2010

Historical Review

Alfred Russel Wallace and the Antivaccination Movement in Victorian England

Thomas P. Weber...

Abstract

Alfred Russel Wallace, eminent naturalist and codiscoverer of the principle of natural selection, was a major participant in the antivaccination campaigns in late 19th-century England. Wallace combined social reformism and quantitative arguments to undermine the claims of provaccinationists and had a major impact on the debate. A brief account of Wallace’s background, his role in the campaign, and a summary of his quantitative arguments leads to the conclusion that it is unwarranted to portray Victorian antivaccination campaigners in general as irrational and antiscience. Public health policy can benefit from history, but the proper context of the evidence used should always be kept in mind."

I think the greatest medical advance in the 20th C was the elimination of smallpox. Fortunately so, since it was done by a campaign and methods that would be regarded as unethical nowadays.

When smallpox was very uncommon, it was undoubtedly the case that the (rare) side effects of the vaccine were more probable than catching the disease. The paradox and conflict of interest needs to be recognised on all sides, in that what is potentially harmful to an individual is nonetheless highly beneficial to society in general.

Using local health provider campaign and concurrent media awareness on the benefit and impact of the vaccine to the young ones

Anthony G Gordon . What antivax arguments are rational?

Old document, but still true (from CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm4812.pdf :

Ten Great Public Health Achievements — United States, 1900–1999

· Vaccination

· Motor-vehicle safety

· Safer workplaces

· Control of infectious diseases

· Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke

· Safer and healthier foods

· Healthier mothers and babies

· Family planning

· Fluoridation of drinking water

· Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard

There is not a single reasonable argument against vaccinations!

"What antivax arguments are rational?"

In some circumstances the side effects of the vaccination are more likely than the effects of catching the disease, as was the case just before smallpox was eliminated. I think the benefits to society outweigh any individual harm, but ethical committees will disagree.

If most of the population is vaccinated against measles, say, persons can rely on herd immunity and not bother to go to the trouble, discomfort and possible side effects of being vaccinated themselves.

The "fewer" real contraindications for some vaccines should be addressed by a health care provider on case by case basis.

For example : some children with immune deficiency should not get some vaccine types.

However, keeping in mind that these are few, so actually most of the community will be vaccinated and the herd immunity will be protecting everyone.

"In some circumstances the side effects of the vaccination are more likely than the effects of catching the disease, as was the case just before smallpox was eliminated."

I dont understand this sentance. Is something worse than permanent disfigurement and 30% mortality rates cause by smallpox?

"I think the benefits to society outweigh any individual harm, but ethical committees will disagree."

What ethical committees?

"If most of the population is vaccinated against measles, say, persons can rely on herd immunity and not bother to go to the trouble, discomfort and possible side effects of being vaccinated themselves."

Herd immunity only works if about 90% are vaccinated and this should only apply for people who can't get vaccinated due to medical reasons. Refusing vaccination based on some bogus internet claptrap is not a medical reason.

"I dont understand this sentance. Is something worse than permanent disfigurement and 30% mortality rates cause by smallpox?"

Yes, in the USA in the 1960s more people died from the vaccine than the disease.

There is a fundamental paradox, a conflict of rights, between those of individual citizens and the good of society in general.

"Clin Med Res. 2003 Apr; 1(2): 87–92.PMCID: PMC1069029PMID: 15931293

Smallpox Vaccine: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Edward A. Belongia...

ABSTRACT

Smallpox inarguably shaped the course of human history by killing countless millions in both the Old World and the New World. Dr. Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination in the late 18th century, and the global eradication of smallpox in the 1970s, rank among the greatest achievements in human history. Amidst recent growing concerns about bioterrorism, smallpox vaccination has resurfaced from the history books to become a topic of major importance. Inoculation with vaccinia virus is highly effective for the prevention of smallpox infection, but it is associated with several known side effects that range from mild and self-limited to severe and life-threatening. As the United States moves forward with plans to vaccinate selected health care workers and the military, and perhaps offer the vaccination to all citizens in the future, it is important to fully understand and appreciate the history, risks, and benefits of smallpox vaccination.

Keywords: Smallpox, Vaccine, Vaccinia, Adverse events...:

The World Health Assembly declared that smallpox had been eradicated from the earth in 1980. Although the significance of this event may be under appreciated, it stands as one of the greatest accomplishments of the 20th century, if not one of the greatest human accomplishments of all time. Several factors unique to smallpox contributed to the success of this effort, including easily-diagnosed clinical disease, lack of subclinical infections, absence of transmission during prodrome, and lack of an animal reservoir.1..

Frequency and Clinical Features

Smallpox vaccine is less safe than other vaccines routinely used today. The vaccine is associated with known adverse effects that range from mild to severe. Mild vaccine reactions include formation of satellite lesions, fever, muscle aches, regional lymphadenopathy, fatigue, headache, nausea, rashes, and soreness at the vaccination site.13,18,19 A recent clinical trial reported that more than one-third of vaccine recipients missed days of work or school because of these mild vaccine-related symptoms.18

In the 1960s, serious adverse events associated with smallpox vaccination in the United States included death (1/million vaccinations), progressive vaccinia (1.5/million vaccinations), eczema vaccinatum (39/million vaccinations), postvaccinial encephalitis (12/million vaccinations), and generalized vaccinia (241/million vaccinations).20 Adverse events were approximately ten times more common among those vaccinated for the first time compared to revaccinees.20 Fatality rates were also four times higher for primary vaccinees compared to revaccinees...

Improvements in intensive care therapy during the 1960s likely contributed to the lowering of the fatality rate for eczema vaccinatum from 10% to 1% to 2%.26,27

Post-vaccinial encephalitis is a rare adverse event that frequently leads to death, especially in infants and young children. Reported case fatality rates range from 9% to 40%.25,28 Ten to twenty-five percent of surviving patients have permanent neurologic sequelae."

"I think the benefits to society outweigh any individual harm, but ethical committees will disagree."

What ethical committees?

The highly successful campaign to eradicate smallpox employed fairly robust methods which I think were justified for the common good. However, if smallpox reemerged, I do not think a similar eradication program would pass ethical approval today.

Why did not the smallpox program receive a Nobel Prize?

"Refusing vaccination based on some bogus internet claptrap is not a medical reason."

Agreed. But is not irrational, though very selfish and antisocial, for say a parent in a developed country to refuse on the grounds that their own children are more likely to get polio from a vaccine than from nature.

"Polio vaccine

From Wikipedia..."

Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio).[1] Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV).[1] The World Health Organization recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio.[1] The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world,[2][3] and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.[4][5]

The inactivated polio vaccines are very safe.[1] Mild redness or pain may occur at the site of injection.[1] Oral polio vaccines cause about three cases of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis per million doses given.[1] This compares with 5,000 cases per million who are paralysed following a polio infection."[

"Yes, in the USA in the 1960s more people died from the vaccine than the disease."

..........the last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States occurred in 1949.

https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/index.html

I could say that in the 1860s more people in the US died from smallpox than the vaccine.

In 1967, 15 million contracted smallpox and 2 million died.

https://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/

How does that compare to smallpox vaccination deaths in 1967?

"Why did not the smallpox program receive a Nobel Prize?"

Jenner died 1823, Nobel prizes started 1895 and they are not awarded posthumously. Smallpox eradication took 100+ years and Nobel prizes are awarded for recent discoveries.

"However, if smallpox reemerged, I do not think a similar eradication program would pass ethical approval today."

How does the smallpox eradication program differ from those set on eradicating polio, rinderpest, measels, malaria, rubella, syphlis., etc.?

"Agreed. But is not irrational, though very selfish and antisocial, for say a parent in a developed country to refuse on the grounds that their own children are more likely to get polio from a vaccine than from nature."

Paranoia that "the establisment" is out to harm you and your children through vaccination now is irrational.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/vaccine-hesitancy-muslim-problem-190218092533092.html

"Why did not the smallpox program receive a Nobel Prize?"

"Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Nov; 17(11): 2085–2086.doi: 10.3201/eid1711.111229PMCID: PMC3310594

Smallpox: The Death of a Disease and

House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox

Reviewed by Parker A. Small, Jr...

Smallpox eradication is one of humankind’s greatest accomplishments, but like all great successes, it was the result of many individual efforts. For >3,500, years smallpox (variola major strain of the virus) had killed, scared, or blinded most inhabitants of the world. In the past century, it killed more than half a billion persons, and death was dreadful. In large cities, it was a childhood disease infecting almost every child and killing 30% of them. In isolated smaller communities, the disease would strike periodically, killing one third of those who had not previously had smallpox. When introduced into the Western Hemisphere, it killed >80% of the native population. Smallpox changed history, impacted monarchies, and affected outcomes of wars. Its detailed history is told in Smallpox and Its Eradication by Fenner et al., and is available on the World Health Organization (WHO) website (1), but the story is now available in more readable forms....

These 2 books tell the story of humankind’s most remarkable achievement, the eradication of the most dreaded infectious disease in history. I have never understood how the Nobel Prize Committee has avoided recognizing this achievement. Two men played the 2 most critical roles. Foege showed that surveillance and containment worked. Henderson helped create and then direct the program and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Perhaps the greatest obstacle was the “knowledge” that eradication was impossible, but as Foege said, “Something must be believed to be seen.” Although hundreds of thousands of persons were involved in the eradication of smallpox, Henderson provided the leadership to get it completed and Foege showed how it should be conducted, even in the most challenging of settings. It is time for their contributions to be recognized!"

"How does that compare to smallpox vaccination deaths in 1967?"

The risks versus benefits of vaccination vary with time and place, so the fact that 2 million died in the rest of the world was irrelevant to the situation in the USA in 1967.

I am at present very unlikely to get rabies, so the (very small) harm from vaccination is still greater than the expected harm from the disease. Were I travelling to a rabies endemic country, then of course it is rational to be inoculated.

"Paranoia that "the establisment" is out to harm you and your children through vaccination now is irrational."

The best way to combat paranoia and conspiracy theories is by being careful not to perpetuate fake news

I have recently declined my flu shots for what I think are perfectly good medical reasons.

"The risks versus benefits of vaccination vary with time and place, so the fact that 2 million died in the rest of the world was irrelevant to the situation in the USA in 1967."

The US hadn't seen a natural smallpox outbreak since 1949 and the risk of contracting the disease domestically in 1967, let alone dying from it, was almost nil because of vaccinations. Dismissing smallpox deaths in regions where the disease was endemic in 1967 due to lack of vaccinations is odd.

"I am at present very unlikely to get rabies, so the (very small) harm from vaccination is still greater than the expected harm from the disease. Were I travelling to a rabies endemic country, then of course it is rational to be inoculated."

So if you travel to countries where a disease is endemic you get shots?

"World-renowned cancer specialist praised by Prince William died of rare reaction to yellow fever jab, inquest finds

• TRISTAN KIRK Courts correspondent The Evening Standard [May 28 2019]

Professor Martin Gore CBE, below, died eight days after being inoculated at a clinic in Chelsea earlier this year, ahead of a week-long trip to Tanzania. 

The 67-year-old, who was medical director for 10 years at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea and a Trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, went to hospital when he felt lethargic and cold. 

He was rushed into intensive care after suffering multiple organ failure and died the following morning, St Pancras coroner’s court heard... 

He went to a Boots clinic on January 2 and was recommended the yellow fever vaccination after telling the pharmacist he may travel to areas where mosquitoes breed. “A yellow fever vaccination certificate is generally not required for people travelling to Tanzania”, coroner Mary Hassell said. “It might be recommended for a small sub-set of travellers who are at an increased risk because of prolonged travel or who may have extensive exposure to mosquitoes.”

Boots said in a statement it is updating its World Health Organisation-based vaccination advice software to change “recommended” to “to be considered” for travellers in the same category as Professor Gore. 

Dr Sanjay Bhagani, an infectious disease consultant, said contracting yellow fever as a result of a vaccination is very rare and there is currently no cure for the disease. “In a small percentage of people, especially people with immune deficiencies, the virus can replicate ... As far as we were aware Professor Gore did not have any immune deficiency.”

Professor Gore’s son Alex said his father was a specialist in immunisation and would not have wanted his death to put people off vaccinations. 

Ms Hassell recorded a narrative verdict, saying he “died of a rare but recognised complication of yellow fever vaccination”.

Comment

The risk/benefit balance of vaccination for an individual are not always clear cut.

How the anti-vaccine movement crept into the GOP mainstream

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/27/anti-vaccine-republican-mainstream-1344955

By ARTHUR ALLEN | 05/27/2019

"The anti-vaccine movement, which swelled with discredited theories that blamed vaccines for autism and other ills, has morphed and grown into a libertarian political rebellion that is drawing in state Republican officials who distrust government medical mandates.

Anti-vaccine sentiments are as old as vaccines themselves — and it’s been nearly 300 years since smallpox immunization began in what is now the United States. Liberal enclaves from Boulder, Colo., to Marin County, Calif., have long been pockets of vaccine skepticism. But the current measles epidemic, with more than 880 cases reported across 25 states of a disease declared eradicated in the U.S. 19 years ago, shows it gaining power within the GOP mainstream."..........

Comment

Pseudoscience is being politicized.

"But the current measles epidemic... shows it gaining power within the GOP mainstream."

I think religious objections to vaccines are still the dominant players. As for politics, very damaging and influential anti-science views are prominent amongst left wing activists who ought to know better, eg re GM foods, nuclear energy, etc.

"What the Measles Epidemic Really Says About America

The return of a vanquished disease reflects historical amnesia, declining faith in institutions, and a troubling lack of concern for the public good.

PETER BEINART AUGUST 2019 ISSUE [The Atlantic]

...One answer is that contemporary America suffers from a dangerous lack of historical memory. Most of the parents who are today skipping or delaying their children’s combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine don’t remember life with measles, much less that it used to kill more children than drowning does today. Nor do they recall how other diseases stamped out by vaccines—most prominently smallpox and polio—took lives and disfigured bodies...

Our amnesia about vaccines is part of a broader forgetting. Prior generations of Americans understood the danger of zero-sum economic nationalism, for instance, because its results remained visible in their lifetimes. ..

Declining vaccination rates not only reflect a great forgetting; they also reveal a population that suffers from overconfidence in its own amateur knowledge. In her book Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines, the University of Colorado at Denver’s Jennifer Reich notes that starting in the 1970s, alternative-health movements “repositioned expertise as residing within the individual.” This ethos has grown dramatically in the internet age, so much so that “in arenas as diverse as medicine, mental health, law, education, business, and food, self-help or do-it-yourself movements encourage individuals to reject expert advice or follow it selectively.” Autodidacticism can be valuable. But it’s one thing to Google a food to see whether it’s healthy. It’s quite another to dismiss decades of studies on the benefits of vaccines because you’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos. In an interview, Reich told me that some anti-vaccine activists describe themselves as “researchers,” thus equating their scouring of the internet on behalf of their families with the work of scientists who publish in peer-reviewed journals.

In many ways, the post-1960s emphasis on autonomy and personal choice has been liberating. But it can threaten public health. Considered solely in terms of the benefits to one’s own child, the case for vaccinating against measles may not be obvious. Yes, the vaccine poses little risk to healthy children, but measles isn’t necessarily that dangerous to them either. The problem is that for others in society—such as children with a compromised immune system—measles may be deadly. By vaccinating their own children, and thus ensuring that they don’t spread the disease, parents contribute to the “herd immunity” that protects the vulnerable. But this requires thinking more about the collective and less about one’s own child. And this mentality is growing rarer in an era of what Reich calls “individualist parenting,” in which well-off parents spend “immense time and energy strategizing how to keep their children healthy while often ignoring the larger, harder-to-solve questions around them.”"

I had not realized that there is a well-organised right-wing conspiracy component to the anti-vax campaign -- see below.

Apparently the bacteria [sic] that causes whooping cough has mutated and caused a single-letter mutation in the spelling of the disease!

"Tea Party 247 [Aug 2019)

Still Think Vaccines Are “Safe And Effective?” You Won’t After You Read This

(Tea Party 247) – As if we need any more reasons to question the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, new news stories continue to pop up giving them to us. There is nothing safe or effective about vaccines and as we have reported on before, there are a myriad of reasons why this is factual (Click here and check out some of our past articles on the insidious vaccine industry). There is more scientific and medical evidence to prove the dangers of vaccines than there is to back up Big Pharma’s claims of safety and effectiveness.

The very fact that children can be severely damaged from vaccines and have to live with lifelong conditions but are not allowed to sue vaccine manufacturers should be enough to raise red flags with every parent in the country. Yet, Big Pharma propaganda has been extremely effective at scaring parents into thinking their children will most definitely die if they do not inject them with toxic, dangerous concoctions, directly into their bloodstreams.

Anyone willing to think independently and critically for the safety and protection of their children are blasted by vehement pro-vaccine society as irresponsible and dangerous. It can be extremely intimidating to attempt to go against your doctor, friends, and family when they have all bought the lie.

Here are some current news stories that further prove why questioning vaccines is actually the responsible, and necessary, thing to do.

Big Pharma loves to tout vaccines as “safe and effective” but it turns out they aren’t effective at all. March 29, 2019, the Business Insider reported on 27 Navy sailors being “quarantined at sea for several months” because of what they claimed was a “probable case of the mumps.”..

Here’s another. As Humans Are Free reports, On March 14, 2019 reports came out that “CDC researchers analyzed lab samples from whopping cough patients between 2000 and 2013 and determined that the bacteria that causes whopping cough has undergone genetic changes over time.” So, to put it plainly, the current vaccine, the DTaP vaccine, doctors are administering to their patients to allegedly prevent them from getting whopping cough a.k.a. pertussis won’t actually work because the bacteria has mutated.

So, not only is the vaccine futile but it also presents validity to the argument that infectious diseases have been naturally eradicated thanks to increased cleanliness in society. It’s the same reason why we don’t see massive, devastating plagues anymore. Society is cleaner, we have indoor plumbing, and access to clean running water. This is a topic for another day, but nonetheless important to point out considering millions of children are receiving a pointless, toxic vaccine and yet we aren’t seeing sky rocketing numbers of whopping cough occurrences."