Measles shmeasles!
The measles outbreak that originated in Disneyland is now big news, but should it be? Should it be used by public health officials and pediatricians to create a panic, to push the MMR vaccine, which includes measles?
There are plenty of people old enough to remember when they were kids and got measles, and all their friends got measles, and that no one died. The constant bleating of public health officials claiming that measles is not trivial, that it can have serious, even fatal consequences, is a lie of outrageous magnitude. On the local TV news, I have seen a clip of a well-meaning, but confused mother talking about the “tragedy” of measles. It’s a childhood disease … not a tragedy. Research has shown that exposure to childhood diseases confers a certain amount of protection to cancer. Childhood diseases help a child’s immune system to develop, to mature.
“Authorities” are using the measles outbreak from Disneyland to stigmatize the anti-vaccination movement and, eventually, to prevent parental choice. Media sources have even referred to Orange County, California, the location of Disneyland, as a “hotbed of the anti-vaccine movement.” This sort of offensive language is meant to suggest a cult. No, it is the pro-vaccination crowd who are the unscientific cultists, who follow whatever the doctor says, whatever the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, no matter how blatantly dangerous and wrong-headed.
The obvious truth is that, in the last 50 years, children are far sicker than ever. The biggest change has been the number of vaccinations, from four or five, to now 70-plus vaccinations by the first grade. Besides questionable biological material, every vaccine contains neurotoxins and immunotoxins, chemicals that poison the nervous and immune systems, respectively. It is common sense that putting poisons into a child’s body, over and over, will cause serious disease. Yes, I know, you have been told, over and over, that the link between vaccines and autism has been discredited. How can you poison a child to health?
The whole concept of herd immunity is a blatant fiction. Either vaccines work, or they do not. If a vaccine is supposed to prevent a particular disease, why does nearly everyone have to be vaccinated for it to work?
This isn’t science; this is marketing. To top it off, outbreaks of measles and other diseases have been documented in fully vaccinated populations. This disproves the efficacy of vaccination, and of herd immunity, simultaneously.
The “authorities,” who I consider “medical Nazis,” are telling you that not vaccinating your child is not a personal choice, because it, allegedly, affects others. This is pseudoscience, just like the eugenics movement in the early part of the 20th century, where those considered physically or medically unfit, were forcibly sterilized by government. Some were even killed. “They” want to take away your choice as a parent and as an individual. Laws have been passed, and are being proposed, in California and other states, to further restrict health freedom. Stand against the tyranny of Big Brother in a White Coat!
What to do to protect your children’s health? Make sure that they eat right, and, most importantly, free their immune systems by freeing their nervous systems through regular, wellness chiropractic care. Instead of fighting disease, pursue health!
Don Harte, Corte Madera
Hi Mr. Harte,
When an otherwise healthy child suffers through a case of the measles, it likely isn’t a tragedy. However, if that otherwise healthy child exposed an infant or a child with a compromised immune system to the measles, that scenario could end in tragedy. Herd mentality? I think not. Behaving responsibly for your child’s benefit and the good of your entire community doesn’t make a parent a lemming, it means that the parent understands basic science and the sanctity of life. Go bellow about something that could actually help others. Global warming, terrorism, lack of gun control, homelessness. But, please, enough complaining about measles and vaccinations. We’ve actually already solved those issues, as long as we all participate. Be well.
Best,
Nikki
What utter nonsense.
So much ignorance and misunderstanding.
1. Vaccines are not 100% effective for any one person. “Either vaccines work or they do not” is ridiculous. Referring to the “chiropractor” suggestion in the letter, even for those who believe in the benefits of chiropractic, do they claim it helps everyone in every circumstance? If not, then it doesn’t work at all?
Some people cannot have vaccines due to other illnesses or health issues. But if nearly all of the “herd” is vaccinated, the disease cannot hold on and stay around to infect those for whom the vaccine wasn’t effective nor those who cannot have the vaccines.
2. “There are plenty of people old enough to remember when they were kids and got measles, and all their friends got measles, and that no one died. ”
Wrong.
“In 2013, there were 145 700 measles deaths globally – about 400 deaths every day or 16 deaths every hour.” WHO.
“Nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles before there was a vaccine, and hundreds died from it each year. Today, most doctors have never seen a case of measles.” CDC
“More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only one case of diphtheria has been reported to CDC since 2004.” CDC
“An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages.”
And that doesn’t count all of the other injuries – such as blindness, sterility, and brain damage – that people can suffer.
These diseases were constant 100 years ago, 200 years ago, when we were supposedly eating so much more natural food without all of today’s “toxins”.
And as for those “toxins”, is the letter writer aware of the tiny amounts of “scary” chemicals in these shots? And is there any comparison to “natural” foods that also contain such stuff? Fish that has far more mercury than any shot (mercury largely from human activities)…radioactive elements in every banana and Brazil nut (naturally there, not from human activities)…formaldehyde in apples, pears, cauliflower, mushrooms (naturally there, not from human activities).
It’s unfortunate that we can’t use “track change” to add a comment to the letter above, because it would be easier to read. There are so many factual errors in the letter that any reader would lose interest in so many rebuttals.
Instead, I would ask a question that we should have learned how to answer in our critical thinking classes in college. “How do you know what you know?” What sources inform your thinking? How reliable and how valid are your sources? Is there any truth in the argument you are arguing against–any at all? If you can’t find any, you should consider that your sources aren’t information, so much as brainwashing, and it would be wise to check other sources.
The unfortunate thing is, of course, when someone is accused of doing something wrong or foolish, the first response is to defend, which escalates the rhetoric from the accusing side. Rational decision making is lost in the noise.
The important thing for parents who decline to vaccinate their children is to take responsibility for those choices, and act to protect other children, and adults, who may be negatively impacted by their decision. Mature people are willing to take responsibility for their actions. This should be not only encouraged, but insisted upon, so all children, and adults, can feel safe in public places. Until parents take that responsibility that their child may not only get sick (or die), or make others sick (or die), it is appropriate for institutions who are entrusted with the public’s safety to insist on either vaccinations, or quarantining unvaccinated children.
Margaret Bannerman, MD
There are a number of logical problems in this article.
The author states that “There are plenty of people old enough to remember when they were kids and got measles, and all their friends got measles, and that no one died.”
I don’t remember anyone dying. But that does not mean that no one died. Measles can kill. According to WHO, “in 2013, there were 145,700 measles deaths globally”. The numbers are much lower than they used to be because of vaccines. WHO estimates that “during 2000-2013, measles vaccination prevented an estimated 15.6 million deaths”.
The author also tries to use his own lack of knowledge as support for his arguments. He states “The whole concept of herd immunity is a blatant fiction. Either vaccines work, or they do not. If a vaccine is supposed to prevent a particular disease, why does nearly everyone have to be vaccinated for it to work?”. The author may not know the answer to this question but there is an answer. The spread of disease can be described mathematically. If one infected person infects more than 1.0 people, on average, then the disease spreads. For example, if a person can infect 2 people on average, then 1 will grow to 2 then 4 then 8, 16, 32 and so on. If they infect less than 1.0 people then the disease will die out. 32 people becomes 16, then 8 then eventually zero. When most of a population is vaccinated then the number of people that will get infected by one person drops below 1.0 and outbreaks die out. If too few people are vaccinated then the number can be above 1.0 and an outbreak can grow.
The author also states “The obvious truth is that, in the last 50 years, children are far sicker than ever.”. Not so obvious really. Smallpox has been eradicated because of vaccines. Parents no longer fear seeing their kids paralyzed by polio, also because of vaccines. Vaccines help prevent disease.
I hope that parents will listen to people who have devoted their life to studying disease prevention instead of people who reject science. Please vaccinate your children, to protect them and others.
If you want to learn more about measles and vaccines visit the WHO website:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/
Where does Don Harte get his medical information? Measles was one of the great killers of children before the disease was controlled with vaccination. It still kills or maims about 1/1000 infected normal children and plays havoc with those who are immune deficient. Go to the web and look up measles deaths worldwide: 145,700 in 2013 in the unimmunized. If parents don’t want to vaccinate their children they should at least be aware of the real risks of the disease.
The anti-vaccine movement is a cult. It has no scientific basis, and is founded on “mother’s instincts” and psuedo-science gobbledy gook from the “alternative medicine” for-profit industry.
100 years of proven medical science have cured these diseases. Before the vaccine, 3000 – 4000 people, mostly infants, died of the measles.
Smallpox? Eradicated. Polio? Eliminated. Measles? Well, it had been eliminated from the US before Jenny McCarthy and a team of chiropractors and homeopaths brought it back from the brink of extinction by created thousands of hosts out of the children of ignorant hippie-dipshit parents.
I would assume this entire letter was a “Poe” – satire so deep it is hard to tell it’s satire, but no, it’s from a “real” chiropractor, here to endanger the communities health with pure fiction.
Too bad he is not a real doctor, because we can’t get his license yanked or sue him for malpractice.
The chiropractor claims, “There are plenty of people old enough to remember when they were kids and got measles, and all their friends got measles, and that no one died.”
I’m one of those people. No, none of my friends died, but in the pre-vaccine era, between 400 – 600 people a year did die. Not trivial to their families.
Death isn’t the only bad outcome from measles — encephalitis, hearing loss, vision loss — all of which happened to my classmates and to people I met later in life. Why not protect your children from a miserable disease by vaccination, which is orders of magnitude safer than the disease?
Well, mostly I would say that the people who do not vaccinate also do not understand what an “order of magnitude” is, because incorrect risk assessment is the hallmark of the cult.
gee, who to trust? Immunologists and epidemiologists that actually know what they’re talking about, or a quack who makes all his scratch by bilking scared ableist rich white folks that would rather have a dead child than one that they feel isn’t “perfect”?
Yeeeeah, I’ll stick with the actual scientists over the chiroquacktor.
Thank you Don Harte. People are being whipped up into an hysteria about vaccines. Enough!
Is there a factually correct statement in this gish gallop. Measles is a childhood disease that is often tragic. 1-3 in 1000 measles infections are fatal. That is an unacceptable level of risk even before the vaccine and a driver towards its creation. Measles has numerous and frequent complications. Measles is so mild only 30% require hospitalization. Otis media occurs in 1 in 10 and can lead to deafness in children because of their small ear canals. Privileged people in modern nations may dismiss measles and falsely believe that complications are only for the “little” people who are malnourished. Some complications like post infectious encephalitis are actually more common in previously healthy children with robust immune systems.
The Corpus Christi measles outbreak in 1989 showed that MMR is highly effective at both prevention of disease and of limiting disease severity but despite that and very high vaccine uptake it was insufficient to stop measles outbreaks; measles is just that virulent. Only one dose was standard at that time and 96% developed sufficient immunity to measles. In the outbreak measles occurred only in the 4% that hadn’t developed immunity yet the vaccine still providing some protection with the infections being mild. The second dose was added to the schedule shortly afterwards to catch most of the 4% that didn’t develop immunity after only one dose and measles was eliminated from North America soon after.
Chiropractic “care” obviously has no effect on infectious disease. Eating well is great but has next to no effect on infections either. Malnourishment may cause diminished immune response but once that is sufficiently corrected to normal no further improvement is possible(nor even desirable).
So you dont know anyone who had polio. its a disease that has been wiped out, but could come back if more kids dont get vaccinated. you dont vaccinate your kids, you’re opening them up for all the diseases that were once gone from our lexicon. i can tell you from experience, polio is a bitch. and what about whopping cough. that was once gone, and now its back. same reason as the measles. your unvaccinated kids are now opened up to getting this terrible disease, because you don’t believe in “science”. the cdc, the doctors, the scientists arent lying to you. millions of kids get these vaccinations, very few of them have adverse reactions. if you keep your kid from being vaccinated because they may have an adverse reaction, i feel sorry for your kid. these vaccinations are necessary for the health of your child and the health of your community. ultimately its your decision, but i propose this, keep your kids home. dont send them to public school. homeschool your kid. dont put anyone at danger because of your decision.