The failure of parents to vaccinate their children can be caused by concern that the vaccinations cause autism. Although that link has been thoroughly disproven by dozens of scientific studies, some parents remain scared to vaccinate their children.
Bryan L. Burke, Jr., MD, FAAP, a pediatrician who is a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), said he can’t comprehend why parents wouldn’t want to get their child immunized on time.
“The sources of information that confuse parents are so unreliable,” Burke said. “Jenny McCarthy has a child with autism. Her experience has led her to speak out on her feeling that autism is linked to vaccines. Although I feel sorry for her experience, being the parent of a child with autism doesn’t make you an expert on the disease, any more than being the parent of a child with an ear infection makes you an expert on ear infections.
“I’m confused by the public trust of celebrities over experts. Why would you choose to believe what Jenny McCarthy says and not believe the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is the NASA of infectious diseases. If you were planning a flight to the moon, would you rather use the path suggested by NASA or Jenny McCarthy? So why would you trust her for medical advice?”
Burke has found that arguing the science or statistics with parents isn’t the best tactic. Instead, he relies on stories.
“I can tell them stories about children who were not vaccinated who have permanent damage,” Burke said. “They have died, become deaf, had permanent seizure disorders, become brain damaged, required tube feeding or tracheostomy tubes, all for the want of a vaccine. And in my 37 years as a pediatrician, I have never seen a child permanently damaged by a vaccine. I’ve seen arm soreness and fever, but nothing that is going to harm them long term.”
Burke also tells people that if you don’t trust your doctor’s advice on vaccinations, you shouldn’t trust your doctor on anything else.
“We don’t have as much evidence for anything else as we have in favor of immunizations,” Burke said. “If immunizations are not the right thing to do, then water is not wet and the sun is not hot.”
Burke said autism symptoms can appear after a child’s vaccination, thus giving the illusion that the vaccine caused the autism. However, autism symptoms appear frequently during the age that vaccinations are most commonly given – whether a child is vaccinated or not.
“The vaccination does not cause the autism any more than any other new experience for the child – like going into a swimming pool for the first time, or eating a new food – causes the autism,” he said. “No one knows the cause of autism. In areas and countries that have decreased the rate of vaccination administration, there has been no change in the rate of autism. Vaccines don’t cause autism.”
Another story he tells is that when the incidence of smallpox fell to less than one in seven million, and one in seven million receiving the vaccine got smallpox, the decision was made to discontinue vaccinating for smallpox.
“It was safer to avoid that vaccine than to give it,” he said. “Smallpox has been eliminated from the world–one of vaccination’s greatest triumphs.”
One of his earliest memories is of being herded into the school auditorium to get a polio vaccine on a sugar cube. He asked his mother why she was crying. She told him she was crying for joy over the fact her child would never get polio.
“If I had to crawl to the top of Pike’s Peak to get my grandkids vaccinated, I would have bloody knees,” Burke said. “They ought to be begging for the opportunity to get the vaccine.
But it is easier than that.”
Jennifer Dillaha, MD, medical director for immunizations, Arkansas Department of Health, is also concerned about parents who are delaying vaccinations.
“They are hesitant to get them on schedule because they are concerned with the myth that the immune system will be overwhelmed,” Dillaha said. “Part of that is not understanding how immunizations and the immune system work.
Some parents ask to space out the vaccines thinking that provides protection. But Dillaha said the current recommendations for immunization at what age and how far apart is set by the Advisory Committee for Immunizations Practices.
“This is a large group of healthcare professionals who review the scientific articles, and based on that evidence, make recommendations to the CDC about what age a child should receive the vaccine, how many doses, and how far apart the doses should be. That schedule has the best science behind it about what works for kids the best. The alternative schedule essentially has no science behind it. It is really people’s best guesses or philosophical input about delaying them. It is often times based on concerns that are scary, but not dangerous.”
As a mother, Dillaha has empathy for parents who are scared of vaccines, but in reality, vaccines are not risky.
“There is a distinction between how scary something is and in reality how dangerous it is,” she said. “What we see is that people overestimate the risk of vaccines and underestimate the importance of using vaccines to prevent diseases, which are the real dangers. They find it difficult to realistically compare them.”
Today children receive more vaccinations than in the past, and parents can question why that is so. But Dillaha said because of the refined technology used to make vaccines today, children can be protected against more disease with less risk.
“The actual number of antigens and polysaccharides is fewer because of the advanced technology that has allowed scientists to figure out why part of a bacteria or virus needs to be used for the immune system to identify this as a foreign invader. They just take that piece and put it in the vaccine.
“Years ago, they were not able to hone in the exact antigens like they are today,” Dillaha said. “Children are actually being exposed to fewer antigens, but it is protecting them against more diseases. People think their immune system is going to get overwhelmed. Actually, when you get sick is when the immune system is overwhelmed. Vaccines give the immune system a head start in recognizing the invading bacteria or viruses so the immune system can keep from being overwhelmed if an infection occurs.”
There have been measles outbreaks linked to failure to vaccinate. She said the trouble with measles is it is a viral illness that is probably the most contagious disease known to humankind. When there have been outbreaks, people have gotten measles from even passing through the same gate at the airport or riding in an elevator after someone with measles has been in it.
“If a child with measles goes to the doctor and sits in the waiting room, and goes back to the exam room, they can’t use that exam room for two hours,” Dillaha said. “Everyone in the clinic was likely exposed including children in those clinics who are too young to get the measles vaccine or have some health condition where they can’t get it. It exposes people unnecessarily to the disease when people don’t get their children vaccinated.”
Because measles is so contagious, 95 percent of population has to be vaccinated in order for unvaccinated people to be protected. In Arkansas, only about 88 percent are vaccinated on the recommended schedule.
“That means we have a lot of unvaccinated people that would allow disease to circulate if there was a breakout,” she said.
Dillaha said parents should make their decisions about vaccinations based on what medical experts conclude—not what they read on the Internet or on social media.
“You wouldn’t want a doctor who makes a recommendation based on what is on social media,” she said.
For more go online to
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, For Parents: Vaccines for Your Children
