Who are the Anti-Vaccine People?

A recent article in the Chicago-Sun Times with the title, “Why do rich people hate vaccines?” brought the anti-vaccination movement back to the forefront of media discussion. The author noted that anti-vaccination was picking up steam in many of the country’s wealthier, educated enclaves where parents are interested in living “natural” lifestyles.

For instance, a public elementary school in Malibu reported that only 58 percent of their students are immunized, which is well below the recommended 90 percent. Even worse, at some of Los Angeles’ private schools, only 20 percent of kids are vaccinated.

“Yes, that’s right,” Nina Shapiro, a professor at UCLA medical school and mother of two states. “Parents are willingly paying up to $25,000 a year to schools at which fewer than 1 in 5 kindergartners has been immunized against the pathogens causing such life-threatening illnesses as measles, polio, meningitis and pertussis (whooping cough).”

The situation is not unique to California. In Boulder, Colorado close to 30 percent of children are exempted from at least one vaccine. Ashland, Oregon has some schools where two-thirds of students have exemptions. Michigan, Vermont, Idaho and Oregon all now have more than 5 percent of people choosing not to get vaccines. Illinois is close with 4.8 percent. The national median is 1.8 percent.

Paul Offit is a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and notes that a high education level can enhance anti-vax beliefs. “They’re people who believe that they can know anything and know as much as their doctor – if not more – by simply studying it, reading about it,” he said.

This is a well-known problem in Australia. “These are parents who have good information available and yet they are not vaccinating their children,” states Steve Hambleton, president of the Austalian Medical Association. “People have forgotten about the devastating effects of diseases like mumps and measles. That’s probably one reason they are willing to take chances.”

Vaccine Watch encourages people to look for more sources of information about vaccines than information available on the Internet. Doctors and pediatricians have years of education and first-hand knowledge of the dangers of disease and safety and benefits of vaccines. Parents should consult their pediatrician when making vaccine choices for their children.

When Measles Strikes

The media has been full of reports on the Texas mega-church with a measles outbreak because their pastor preaches against vaccination. The irony and coincidence of the situation has caused national news outlets, blogs and others to comment.

The Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark is a division TV evangelist Kenneth Copeland, who advocates faith healing and has talked of his belief in the vaccine-autism link. His daughter Terri Pearsons is the senior pastor at Eagle Mountain. The measles outbreak at the church has infected 21 people ranging in age from 4-months to 44-years old. The majority of the infected people were never vaccinated. Health officials expect the outbreak to grow.

A person who contracted measles in Indonesia visited the church and caused the outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) notes that measles is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact. It is recommended that children get two doses of the MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella.

Measles is a highly contagious disease, 90% of people who aren’t vaccinated or immune to it will get sick if exposed to the disease. Symptoms of measles include a fever, cough and rash. The outbreak has led the church to hold vaccination clinics and encourage those who won’t be vaccinated to self-quarantine.

Health officials across the country have taken note and urge precaution. “We don’t take chances with our kids when we have them in a car, we should not take chances with our kids when they’re out in the world,” Dr. Ken Haller of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in Missouri states. “Kids need to be vaccinated. I feel so sorry for these people who got measles down in Texas and I hope none of them end up dying as a result of it.”

“It is really important, as parents, if you have fears for your kid’s safety, for those fears to be rational; the fear of the diseases we’re trying to prevent and not the best means of preventing it,” Dr. Haller adds.

Vaccine Watch encourages everyone to get vaccinated. Diseases like measles are serious and can lead to death – but vaccination is a simple and safe preventative action. Ask your doctor if you have questions about vaccines, don’t depend on the wisdom of the non-medical community or the Internet. 

Vaccine Confidence Project

Dr. Heidi Larson

The internet and its rapid spread of information can magnify and expand a vaccine scare in a short amount of time. Now, the internet can also combat misinformation. Dr. Heidi Larson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a team of colleagues adapted the HealthMap automated data collection system to track rumors and online sentiments about vaccines on the internet. HealthMap was originally developed to track disease outbreaks.

“The internet has sped up the global spread of unchecked rumors and misinformation about vaccines and can seriously undermine public confidence, leading to low rates of vaccine uptake and even disease outbreaks,” Dr. Larson said.

The surveillance system covers 144 countries and looks at online articles, blogs and reports about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases. By identifying the first signs of the negative reports, Dr. Larson and her colleagues hope to take preventative action on anti-vaccine sentiment before it becomes a larger problem like the recent measles outbreak in Wales or the polio outbreak in Nigeria that re-introduced polio to 20 countries that had been free of the disease.

The original data collection for the Vaccine Confidence Project took place from May 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012 and identified 10,380 online mentions of human vaccines. 3,209 of these reports, or 31%, were negative and included fears about adverse events and vaccine distrust. The negative reports focused on vaccination programs, disease outbreaks, attitudes about vaccine believes, awareness and perception and vaccine safety.

“Bad news stories damage vaccination programs as much as biological hazards, and these stories evolve over minutes or hours, needing immediate action,” said University of Toronto public health specialists Natasha Crowcroft and Kwame McKenzie. “By the time a detailed specific analysis of vaccine safety issue is completed, the story is no longer newsworthy.”

Ideally, the Vaccine Confidence Project will identify early signs of vaccine misinformation in real time and enable public health officials to act immediately to dispel unfounded fears. “Public health systems need to move beyond passive responses to vaccine safety events towards active preparedness,” Crowcroft and McKenzie continue. “It is important for researchers to discover how to make communities resilient to bad science and interest-driven scare stories.”

By continuing to build public belief and trust in vaccines, health officials can avoid unfortunate situations like the recent measles outbreak and Nigeria’s polio epidemic. HealthMap and other tools available will be beneficial in containing vaccine fear tactics and enhancing education systems.