Anti-vaccination movement
Whooping cough–back again
Jun/27/10 23:24 Filed in: Vaccines | Pseudoscience
Last week, the California Department of Public Health made this announcement:
WHOOPING COUGH EPIDEMIC MAY BE WORST IN 50 YEARS
Date: 6/23/2010
Number: 10-041
Contact: Al Lundeen (916) 440-7259
SACRAMENTO
Urging Californians to get vaccinated now, Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), warned today that the state is on pace to suffer the most illnesses and deaths due to pertussis, also known as whooping cough, in 50 years.
“Whooping cough is now an epidemic in California,” Horton said. “Children should be vaccinated against the disease and parents, family members and caregivers of infants need a booster shot.”
As of June 15, California had recorded 910 cases of pertussis, a four-fold increase from the same period last year when 219 cases were recorded. Five infants — all under three months of age — have died from the disease this year. In addition, 600 more possible cases of pertussis are being investigated by local health departments.
Pertussis is cyclical. Cases tend to peak every two to five years. In 2005, California recorded 3,182 cases and eight deaths.
Pertussis is a highly contagious disease. Unimmunized or incompletely immunized young infants are particularly vulnerable. Since 1998, more than 80 percent of the infants in California who have died from pertussis have been Hispanic.
The pertussis vaccine is safe for children and adults. Pertussis vaccination begins at two months of age, but young infants are not adequately protected until the initial series of three shots is complete at 6 months of age. The series of shots that most children receive wears off by the time they finish middle school. Neither vaccination nor illness from pertussis provides lifetime immunity.
Pregnant women may be vaccinated against pertussis before pregnancy, during pregnancy or after giving birth. Fathers may be vaccinated at any time, but preferably before the birth of their baby. CDPH encourages birthing hospitals to implement policies to vaccinate new mothers and fathers before sending newborns home. CDPH is providing vaccine free of charge to hospitals.
Others who may have contact with infants, including family members, healthcare workers, and childcare workers, should also be vaccinated. Individuals should contact their regular health care provider or local health department to inquire about pertussis vaccination.
A typical case of pertussis in children and adults starts with a cough and runny nose for one-to-two weeks, followed by weeks to months of rapid coughing fits that sometimes end with a whooping sound. Fever is rare. Read More...
WHOOPING COUGH EPIDEMIC MAY BE WORST IN 50 YEARS
Date: 6/23/2010
Number: 10-041
Contact: Al Lundeen (916) 440-7259
SACRAMENTO
Urging Californians to get vaccinated now, Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), warned today that the state is on pace to suffer the most illnesses and deaths due to pertussis, also known as whooping cough, in 50 years.
“Whooping cough is now an epidemic in California,” Horton said. “Children should be vaccinated against the disease and parents, family members and caregivers of infants need a booster shot.”
As of June 15, California had recorded 910 cases of pertussis, a four-fold increase from the same period last year when 219 cases were recorded. Five infants — all under three months of age — have died from the disease this year. In addition, 600 more possible cases of pertussis are being investigated by local health departments.
Pertussis is cyclical. Cases tend to peak every two to five years. In 2005, California recorded 3,182 cases and eight deaths.
Pertussis is a highly contagious disease. Unimmunized or incompletely immunized young infants are particularly vulnerable. Since 1998, more than 80 percent of the infants in California who have died from pertussis have been Hispanic.
The pertussis vaccine is safe for children and adults. Pertussis vaccination begins at two months of age, but young infants are not adequately protected until the initial series of three shots is complete at 6 months of age. The series of shots that most children receive wears off by the time they finish middle school. Neither vaccination nor illness from pertussis provides lifetime immunity.
Pregnant women may be vaccinated against pertussis before pregnancy, during pregnancy or after giving birth. Fathers may be vaccinated at any time, but preferably before the birth of their baby. CDPH encourages birthing hospitals to implement policies to vaccinate new mothers and fathers before sending newborns home. CDPH is providing vaccine free of charge to hospitals.
Others who may have contact with infants, including family members, healthcare workers, and childcare workers, should also be vaccinated. Individuals should contact their regular health care provider or local health department to inquire about pertussis vaccination.
A typical case of pertussis in children and adults starts with a cough and runny nose for one-to-two weeks, followed by weeks to months of rapid coughing fits that sometimes end with a whooping sound. Fever is rare. Read More...
Case closed
I’ve been off-line for awhile, attending to some other issues in life. However, it’s time for a celebration about the anti-vaccination crowd, including Jenny McCarthy. The US Vaccine Court has ruled that there is no scientific evidence linking vaccinations to autism. To quote ruling:
Petitioners' theory of vaccine-related causation is scientifically unsupportable. In the absence of a sound medical theory causally connecting William's received vaccines to his autistic condition, the undersigned cannot find the proposed sequence of cause and effect to be logical or temporally appropriate. Having failed to satisfy their burden of proof under the articulated legal standard, petitioners cannot prevail on their claim of vaccine-related causation. Read More...
Petitioners' theory of vaccine-related causation is scientifically unsupportable. In the absence of a sound medical theory causally connecting William's received vaccines to his autistic condition, the undersigned cannot find the proposed sequence of cause and effect to be logical or temporally appropriate. Having failed to satisfy their burden of proof under the articulated legal standard, petitioners cannot prevail on their claim of vaccine-related causation. Read More...
Book review–Don't Swallow Your Gum!: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health
I just finished reading Don't Swallow Your Gum!: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health (ISBN:031253387X, 2009) written by Aaron Carroll MD and Rachel Vreeman MD, both pediatricians and researchers at the University of Indiana School of Medicine.
First of all, the book is an amusing, easy read, using terms like “snot” and “poo” to describe bodily secretions. At some 200 pages, it was a quick read, not requiring a lot of time. Obviously, the book was written for a wide audience, debunking many pseudoscientific myths about health. For those of us who demand supporting research, it has a vast list of primary and secondary research citations for further reading. In fact, for me, those citations are going to be invaluable in future articles.
The book goes about debunking silly myths such as “don’t swallow your gum because it will get stuck in your intestine for 5 (10, 20, whatever) years” or the old “five second rule” which we all suspected wasn’t wise. There was one chapter on “double dipping”, which was popularized on a Seinfeld episode many years ago, in which the authors discussed research that showed that double dipping does in fact transfer a lot of germs from the chip to the dip. Not that I would confess to being a double dipper, but I may not be a single-dipper at a party after reading this book! Read More...
First of all, the book is an amusing, easy read, using terms like “snot” and “poo” to describe bodily secretions. At some 200 pages, it was a quick read, not requiring a lot of time. Obviously, the book was written for a wide audience, debunking many pseudoscientific myths about health. For those of us who demand supporting research, it has a vast list of primary and secondary research citations for further reading. In fact, for me, those citations are going to be invaluable in future articles.
The book goes about debunking silly myths such as “don’t swallow your gum because it will get stuck in your intestine for 5 (10, 20, whatever) years” or the old “five second rule” which we all suspected wasn’t wise. There was one chapter on “double dipping”, which was popularized on a Seinfeld episode many years ago, in which the authors discussed research that showed that double dipping does in fact transfer a lot of germs from the chip to the dip. Not that I would confess to being a double dipper, but I may not be a single-dipper at a party after reading this book! Read More...
How pseudoscience makes its case, Part 3
Nov/19/09 09:12 Filed in: Pseudoscience | Science | Vaccines | Alternative medicine | Evidence based medicine
This is part of my ongoing discussion on how quacks use pseudoscience to push their myths and potions on the world. Part 1 discussed the scientific method, which allows us to objectively analyze the natural world. Part 2 discussed the best way for us to examine the difference between science and pseudoscience.
I just read an outstanding analysis, by Steven Novella, MD, a clinical neurologist at Yale University, of how pseudoscience (those who pretend to praise the scientific method, yet do it in a way that is not actually science) and anti-science (those who repudiate science outright, or even undermine science, with subjective analysis and untestable spirituality) to reject evidence-based medicine.
Dr. Novella clearly states how science in medicine works:
I just read an outstanding analysis, by Steven Novella, MD, a clinical neurologist at Yale University, of how pseudoscience (those who pretend to praise the scientific method, yet do it in a way that is not actually science) and anti-science (those who repudiate science outright, or even undermine science, with subjective analysis and untestable spirituality) to reject evidence-based medicine.
Dr. Novella clearly states how science in medicine works:
This leads us to the final continuum – the consensus of expert opinion based upon systematic reviews can either result in a solid and confident unanimous opinion, a reliable opinion with serious minority objections, a genuine controversy with no objective resolution, or simply the conclusion that we currently lack sufficient evidence and do not know the answer. It can also lead, of course, to a solid consensus of expert opinion combined with a fake controversy manufactured by a group driven by ideology or greed and not science. The tobacco industry’s campaign of doubt against the conclusion that smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer is one example.The anti-vaccine movement’s fear-mongering about vaccines and autism is another. Read More...
Bill Maher is a science denialist
Bill Maher, a rather liberal talk show host, has recently been joining the anti-vaccination crowd, adding his voice to the Hollywood centered vaccination denialists. He is a typical science denialist, ignoring the vast wealth of science, research and publications, to make statements, in this case about promoting pseudoscience in his dismissal of the value of vaccines. Moreover, Mr. Maher spends time denying he is a denialist, which usually is an indicator that one is a denialist.
Interestingly, Maher is usually in sync with my feelings about global warming and evolution denialists, who use pseudoscience and outright denial to "prove" that there is no global warming or evolution. Usually, skeptics or anti-denialists (one day we need to get this terminology right) are consistent, we dismiss pseudoscience outright. I have no clue why he has chosen this particular pseudoscience and quackery to support, but maybe he just thinks Jenny McCarthy knows more than real scientists. Read More...
Interestingly, Maher is usually in sync with my feelings about global warming and evolution denialists, who use pseudoscience and outright denial to "prove" that there is no global warming or evolution. Usually, skeptics or anti-denialists (one day we need to get this terminology right) are consistent, we dismiss pseudoscience outright. I have no clue why he has chosen this particular pseudoscience and quackery to support, but maybe he just thinks Jenny McCarthy knows more than real scientists. Read More...
Debunking H1N1 Vaccine Myths
The internet is a wonderful place for getting information. But it's also a disaster in finding good information. The problem is that if you read medical facts on the internet, you tend to give equal value to both scientifically supported and outright pseudoscientific statements. I read a few posts on Facebook, which seems to be the modern world's gossip center, that spouted all sorts of conspiracy theories and ridiculous myths about the H1N1 Vaccine. Read More...
How pseudoscience makes its case, Part 2
Nov/04/09 16:30 Filed in: Pseudoscience | Science | Vaccines | Alternative medicine | Evidence based medicine
A few days ago, I discussed how science works. It's not a belief. It's not a random set of rules. It is a rational and logical process to determine cause and effect in the natural world. Pseudoscience, by its very nature, ignores the scientific process; instead, it pretends to come to conclusions through science, although it does not.
Again, be very wary if you hear someone say, "it's proven." I've heard those words from both alternative medicine pushers and from well-trained physicians. I have previously discussed the ineffectiveness of almost every alternative medicine therapy. But what about your physician? They are, by far, devoted to your health and well-being. But they cannot know everything about medicine (thus, why we have specialists), so they may repeat information that is not valid. Read More...
Again, be very wary if you hear someone say, "it's proven." I've heard those words from both alternative medicine pushers and from well-trained physicians. I have previously discussed the ineffectiveness of almost every alternative medicine therapy. But what about your physician? They are, by far, devoted to your health and well-being. But they cannot know everything about medicine (thus, why we have specialists), so they may repeat information that is not valid. Read More...
Fox News and the flu vaccine
Fox News is not even close to being a reliable source for anything. They've been reporting about a young woman who claims that she developed dystonia after receiving the season flu vaccination. Of course, Fox News is trying to make a story where there is none. Read More...
How pseudoscience makes its case, Part 1
Nov/02/09 09:38 Filed in: Pseudoscience | Science | Vaccines | Alternative medicine | Evidence based medicine
I always get suspicious when someone makes an argument with the statement of "it's been proven to work", "the link is proven", or, alternatively, they state the negative. Typically, I hear these kinds of statements from the pseudoscience pushing group. Many of us have debunked the "there is a proven link between vaccines and autism." Or that any number of alternative medicine (CAM) therapies don't actually work. In fact, science rarely uses the term "proven", because the scientific method is not a system to make a definitive answer on any question–scientists always leave open the possibility of an alternative hypothesis that can be tested. If the alternate hypothesis can be supported through experimentation, then it can replace the original one. When an alternative medicine or junk science supporter states "it has been proven" then you can be assured that conclusion is unsupported by scientific research. Read More...
Immunization–get the facts
Just when I thought that the whole anti-vaccination movement was going to be eclipsed by the whole healthcare reform debate (or myth-pushing, depending on your point of view), I still realize that there are groups who think that vaccines are not usesful. People are starting to stand up to the pseudoscience-based woo-pushing crowd: Read More...
The Jenny McCarthy Song
Without making excuses, I really try to keep this blog focused on issues that might impact the medical business world. I am, however, strongly offended by pseudoscience, the primary “authority” for most quack remedies, alternative medicine, and the anti-vaccine movement. I have previously discussed Ms. McCarthy a number of times, and without a doubt, I believe she’s a danger to healthcare. The consequences of the anti-vaccination push is evident by real science. Read More...
Harold Varmus interviewed on C-span
May/11/09 07:59
Yesterday morning, I was listening to Harold Varmus being interviewed live (interspersed with listener calls) on C-SPAN Radio. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Varmus, he is currently the co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1989. In other words, Dr. Varmus has all of the credentials of a scientists, if not one of the great scientists of our era.
I have been unable to find a transcript of the program, but a couple of points from the interview were particularly memorable to me. First, he made a full-throated support of vaccination of children, and made a diplomatic criticism of the anti-vaccination movement. The second point that stuck with me followed a call from an individual who had one of those “my friend was dying of this, and they went to this website and was cured of that” stories. In this case, the caller said a “friend” of hers was suffering from diabetes (not sure how bad or what type), and her friend went to some website (I was driving, so I didn’t have a chance to write it down) that told her to switch from a high carbohydrate diet to one with lots of proteins and fresh vegetables. Only this diet would “cure” the diabetes. Of course, my thought when I heard this story was, “well, switching to a low carb diet may have been the reason.” Read More...
I have been unable to find a transcript of the program, but a couple of points from the interview were particularly memorable to me. First, he made a full-throated support of vaccination of children, and made a diplomatic criticism of the anti-vaccination movement. The second point that stuck with me followed a call from an individual who had one of those “my friend was dying of this, and they went to this website and was cured of that” stories. In this case, the caller said a “friend” of hers was suffering from diabetes (not sure how bad or what type), and her friend went to some website (I was driving, so I didn’t have a chance to write it down) that told her to switch from a high carbohydrate diet to one with lots of proteins and fresh vegetables. Only this diet would “cure” the diabetes. Of course, my thought when I heard this story was, “well, switching to a low carb diet may have been the reason.” Read More...
Denialism and pseudoscience
Apr/21/09 14:18 Filed in: Pseudoscience | Healthcare Policy
Today, I commented to a blog entry at Beyond the Short Coat, which is one of my daily stops on the medical blogosphere. The author, like a lot of bloggers in the medical arena, has been taking on the world of medical woo, that is, those ideas in medicine that completely lack verifiability and scientific credibility. I have a similar disdain for woo, for essentially the same reasons as the physicians who write in those various blogs. Mostly, they are troubled that patients turn to these useless therapies because they may not be getting adequate medical care, or even that those fake therapies may have terrible consequences for the patient. I take it a step further in that I believe that this woo has a substantial economic consequence with increased costs for patients, providers, and third-party payors. Read More...
The cost of medical woo
Apr/15/09 22:45 Filed in: Pseudoscience | Pharmaceuticals | Quackery | Vaccines | Evidence based medicine
My blog entries wander between three broad topics: medical woo (pseudoscience, science denialism, vaccine denialism, and alternative medicine), market opportunities for medical products and healthcare policy. And one discussion about my beloved Syracuse Orange. My three broad interests in the medical arena are interrelated in such a fashion that medical companies (both pharmaceutical and medical devices) need to prepare strategic plans that maximize their success despite some difficult market forces.
First, let’s talk about the whole area of medical woo. The anti-vaccine movement (which I will continue to label as vaccine denialism), if it continues to gain traction in social consciousness, will require more investment in studies that continue to confirm that there is no link between vaccines and autism (OK, yes the proper scientific method would force me to say that there is a possibility that a link could be found, but after 100’s of clinical papers, I’m firmly on the side that this issue has been decided). If this movement becomes problematic, we might be dealing with infectious disease epidemics unseen in a generation. Can hospitals and clinics deal with these diseases? How large are the infectious disease wards in hospitals? How many infectious disease specialists are there? And what kinds of medical products will need to be available to treat these diseases? Read More...
First, let’s talk about the whole area of medical woo. The anti-vaccine movement (which I will continue to label as vaccine denialism), if it continues to gain traction in social consciousness, will require more investment in studies that continue to confirm that there is no link between vaccines and autism (OK, yes the proper scientific method would force me to say that there is a possibility that a link could be found, but after 100’s of clinical papers, I’m firmly on the side that this issue has been decided). If this movement becomes problematic, we might be dealing with infectious disease epidemics unseen in a generation. Can hospitals and clinics deal with these diseases? How large are the infectious disease wards in hospitals? How many infectious disease specialists are there? And what kinds of medical products will need to be available to treat these diseases? Read More...
Scientific medicine and Big Pharma
Apr/08/09 08:42 Filed in: Medical devices | Pharmaceuticals | Pseudoscience | Healthcare Policy | Evidence based medicine | Medical products
I keep reading across the blogosphere that Big Pharma (for the sake of this discussion, defined as all medical products companies, including ones that don’t manufacture or market pharmaceuticals) somehow blocks either positive or negative results to further their profits. The accusations come from a wide variety of sources, some of the more vocal being the anti-science proponents, such as the anti-vaccination movement. Utilizing an ad hominem argument of personalizing the issues and then attacking the motives or character of others, usually those who dispute the claims made by pseudoscience. Read More...
Jenny says....
If you read my blog, you know I don’t have much respect for the anti-vaccination movement, and I have contempt for Jenny McCarthy, JB Handley, Andrew Wakefield, Generation Rescue and others for the damage they have done to health care. One of my favorite blogs to read is Science Based Medicine, which has several physicians editors (and guest editors) who discuss medicine from a scientific perspective. I share their point-of-view on medicine, and since my background is from the industry perspective, I cannot obviate the need for good scientific reasoning for product development. In Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends: The Jenny and Jim antivaccine propaganda tour has begun, David Gorski, MD, tears apart, in about as civil a manner as he can, Jenny’s recent interview. Read More...
Jenny McCarthy again!
Why is anyone listening to Jenny McCarthy? She just published a new books continuing her unscientific and unsupported rants about how vaccines cause autism. As of today, there are still no links between the two, but because she was a Playboy Playmate of the Year, she has a soapbox to promote her views. Read More...
The anti-vaccination tragedy
Mar/31/09 10:07 Filed in: Vaccines | Healthcare Policy | Pseudoscience | Pharmaceuticals | Evidence based medicine
I have written about the anti-vaccination movement several times recently, yet every day, I read another article or another comment somewhere that reminds me of this situation. Today, I came across a recently published article in The Lancet, one of the most respected peer-reviewed medical journals, which reinforced one of the consequences of the anti-vaccination movement. The article, Measles in Europe: an epidemiological assessment, states that there were 12,232 cases of measles in Europe during 2006 and 2007. Most cases were unvaccinated or improperly vaccinated children. Read More...
Vaccines, once again and a bit irreverent
As I’ve discussed previously, I find the anti-vaccine movement, linking cases of autism to pediatric vaccinations, to be based on pseudoscientific principles. There are several individuals that have pushed this quackery, but one of the more visible is Jenny McCarthy, ex-Playboy Playmate of the Year (no, I’m not going to link to it), bad actress, and failed game-show host. I am flabbergasted that anyone would listen to this woman, a scientific illiterate, about anything outside of how to model and possibly how to choose bad movies. That parents are making decisions about vaccinating their children based on her bogus beliefs is beyond my simple understanding of the world.
There are always consequences to every action, and there are many by delaying or refusing vaccinations. The Jenny McCarthy Body Count is a website that lists every vaccine-preventable case and death that has occurred since Jenny made public her belief that vaccines caused autism in her son (which many believe is a misdiagnosis) in June 2007. Since then, there have been 720 preventable cases and 142 preventable deaths (as of today). As the website says, she’s not responsible for everyone one of these cases or deaths. But if she convinces just one person to not adhere to a vaccine schedule for their children, then it’s one too many.
Read More...
There are always consequences to every action, and there are many by delaying or refusing vaccinations. The Jenny McCarthy Body Count is a website that lists every vaccine-preventable case and death that has occurred since Jenny made public her belief that vaccines caused autism in her son (which many believe is a misdiagnosis) in June 2007. Since then, there have been 720 preventable cases and 142 preventable deaths (as of today). As the website says, she’s not responsible for everyone one of these cases or deaths. But if she convinces just one person to not adhere to a vaccine schedule for their children, then it’s one too many.
Read More...