This Will Only Hurt for a Minute

The antivaccine movement would be laughable - if it weren't so dangerous

It's back-to-school time and because all states now require proof of student
immunization, the anti-vaccine forces are again in full cry. Warnings about
dangers of vaccination abound on the Internet, in press and in the literature of
alternative medicine. Not only are vaccinations unnecessary to ward off
epidemics of infectious diseases, but they are also responsible for such scourges
as AIDS, sudden-infant-death syndrome and autism.

Preposterous? Sure. But these ``theories'' are being taken seriously by parents and
politicians. In Europe such claims have led to significantly lower vaccination
rates - and new outbreaks of measles and diphtheria. British medical authorities
warn that measles could become epidemic if rates of three-in-one MMR
(measles, mumps and rubella) shots continua to fall.

In reality, the antivaccine activists demonstrate both medical illiteracy and
appalling ignorance of history. What happened to the quarantine notices that
were once routinely posted on houses afflicted by measles, mumps or whooping
cough? Or the long rows of iron lungs filled with polio victims unable to breathe
on their own? Why do the words diphtheria and scarlet fever draw only blank
stares from today's kids? Because of vaccinations, that's why.

Critics insist that these diseases were already being conquered by better nutrition
and sanitation before vaccines came along, and that the epidemics would
eventually have petered out on their own. Oh, really? Then why hasn't the
incidence of common colds declined and the number of chicken-pox cases (for
which a vaccine was licensed only five years ago) been reduced? The sharp decline
in communicable diseases has coincided, in each case, with the introduction of an
appropriate vaccine.

And the dangers? Earlier this month researchers at a medical Conference in
London torpedoed the widely publicized claim that the AIDS epidemic began in
Africa with the application 40 years ago of an oral-polio vaccine made from
chimpanzee tissue. Tests of remaining samples of that vaccine revealed no
evidence  of chimp DNA. In fact, the best hope for combating AIDS, and
perhaps Alzheimer's too, lies in vaccines now under development.

As for autism, experts suspect the cause is genetic and note that even before
vaccines were available, symptoms of the disorder appeared around the age at
which vaccinations are now given. In other words, any relationship between
vaccinations to autism is almost certainly coincidental, not causal.

Still, facts do not deter quacks or fanatics and the parents they dupe. School
boards across the country this fall were again pressured to admit unvaccinated
students. That would be a disservice not only to these kids, who would be
vulnerable to a host of diseases, but to their classmates whose shots didn't take
or who were excused from vaccinations for medical or religious reasons.

School boards and wavering legislators should stand fast. Vaccines are one of
medicine's proudest achievements, and they have stood the test of time.
 

Leon Jaroff, for Time Magazine, October 2, 2000.