Tag: shedding

Do Unvaccinated Kids Spread More Disease?

Is this really a question?

Unvaccinated kids do spread more disease than those who are vaccinated and protected.

The assertion, by Rita Palma, that the unvaccinated don’t spread disease any more than the vaccinated is simply absurd.

Do Unvaccinated Kids Spread More Disease?

Before we get to the studies, let’s just think about this for a second.

If you are vaccinated and aren’t getting sick, then how would you spread disease?

And if vaccinated folks spread so much disease, then how do we control and eliminate diseases when vaccination rates are high?

So yes, the consensus thinking would be, of course the unvaccinated spread disease more than the vaccinated!

And not surprisingly, the science confirms that idea:

Association between vaccine refusal and vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States: a review of measles and pertussis – found that “a substantial proportion of the US measles cases in the era after elimination were intentionally unvaccinated” and that “vaccine refusal was still associated with an increased risk for pertussis in some populations”
Religious exemptions for immunization and risk of pertussis in New York state, 2000–2011 – found that “counties with higher exemption rates had higher rates of reported pertussis among exempted and vaccinated children when compared with the low-exemption counties.”
Nonmedical vaccine exemptions and pertussis in California, 2010 – found that clusters of non-medical vaccine exemptions were a factor in pertussis outbreaks
Parental refusal of pertussis vaccination is associated with an increased risk of pertussis infection in children – found that intentionally unvaccinated children are “at high risk for pertussis infection relative to vaccinated children.”
Geographic clustering of nonmedical exemptions to school immunization requirements and associations with geographic clustering of pertussis – found that “geographic pockets of vaccine exemptors pose a risk to the whole community.”
Nonmedical exemptions to school immunization requirements: secular trends and association of state policies with pertussis incidence – found that “state policies granting personal belief exemptions and states that easily grant exemptions are associated with increased pertussis incidence”
Individual and community risk of measles and pertussis associated with personal exemptions to immunizations – found an elevated risk for measles and pertussis in those who are intentionally unvaccinated
Health consequences of religious and philosophical exemptions from immunization laws: individual and societal risk of measles – found that those with vaccine exemptions “were 35 times more likely to contract measles than were vaccinated persons”
Parental refusal of varicella vaccination and the associated risk of varicella infection in children – found that intentionally unvaccinated children are “at high risk for varicella infection relative to vaccinated children.”
Measles outbreak in a highly vaccinated population, San Diego, 2008: role of the intentionally undervaccinated – an unvaccinated child spread measles to 11 other kids, including an infant who was too young to be vaccinated and who ended up hospitalized

It is clearly the unvaccinated who are at greater risk to get vaccine-preventable diseases.

And it is clearly the unvaccinated who start and keep most outbreaks going.

And when they spread disease, it is often to those who are most at risk, including those who are too young to be vaccinated or fully vaccinated, and those with true medical exemptions, including cancer and immune system problems.

What else is clear?

Misinformation about vaccines is what likely scares parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids. Don’t listen to these folks anymore.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are obviously necessary.

About Those Binders of Anti-Vaccine Misinformation

Anti-vaccine folks don’t have to just turn to Facebook or the Sears Vaccine Book anymore – they are preparing their own binders of anti-vaccine misinformation.

How does that work?

Binders of Anti-Vaccine Misinformation

Apparently, they just collect and print all of the anti-vaccine articles from their typical copypasta arguments and load them all up into binders.

Including copyrighted material in your binders might make you want to stop selling them too... — Including copyrighted material in your binders might make you want to stop selling them too…

Here is one the entries from Ashley Everly‘s binder, from the section on “asymptomatic transmission and shedding:”

The rash started two days after his fever, too short a time for measles, and there wasn't even any documentation of prolonged fever. — The rash started two days after his fever, too short a time for measles, and there wasn’t even any documentation of prolonged fever.

Does it provide evidence for asymptomatic transmission or shedding of measles?

Nope.

The child had a rash after having his measles vaccine and had the flu. He likely didn’t have measles. Not even vaccine-associated measles.

Anyway, as is typical for these binders, they only use one example that might reinforce their argument, but leave out all of the ones that don’t.

“In the end we are left with a powerful sense of knowledge – false knowledge. Confirmation bias leads to a high level of confidence, we feel we are right in our gut. And when confronted with someone saying we are wrong, or promoting an alternate view, some people become hostile.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is not just a curiosity of psychology, it touches on a critical aspect of the default mode of human thought, and a major flaw in our thinking. It also applies to everyone – we are all at various places on that curve with respect to different areas of knowledge. You may be an expert in some things, and competent in others, but will also be toward the bottom of the curve in some areas of knowledge.”
Steven Novella on Lessons from Dunning-Kruger

These binders are just like their Facebook groups – echo chambers of anti-vaccine misinformation.

They won’t help you do research about vaccines and they certainly won’t help you win any debates or arguments with someone who truly knows something about vaccines.

About Those Anti-Vaccine Signs Some Folks Are Making

Sadly, even as some of us are working to fight measles outbreaks, others are actually protesting against getting kids vaccinated and protected. And they have gotten someone to finance the making of hundreds of anti-vaccine signs.

Signs that list the typical anti-vaccine talking points that we have been refuted a thousand times…

About Those Anti-Vaccine Signs Some Folks Are Making

Not surprisingly, there is nothing new about these signs.

It will be nearly impossible to eradicate measles with all of these folks scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids!

Remember, every anti-vaccine argument is essentially a PRATT, a point refuted a thousand times.

72 vaccines??? Kids routinely get 14 different vaccines to protect them against 16 different vaccine-preventable diseases.

Whether it is in a book, on Facebook or Twitter, or on a sign, don’t let this type of anti-vaccine misinformation keep you from vaccinating and protecting your kids.

Childhood Vaccines 24 in 1988 72 in 2019 – inflating the vaccine dose count is simply a propaganda technique
Vaccine Makers Are Exempt From Liability – this is not true
Live Virus Vaccines Shed and Spread – while some live vaccines can shed, shedding is not the problem that these folks make it out to be, often going so far as describing a shedding season among other things
Vaccines Can Cause Injury and Death – although possible, it is extremely rare for vaccines to cause serious, life-threatening injuries
Vaccine Mandates Violate Bodily Autonomy – since vaccine mandates don’t actually force anyone to get vaccinated, they don’t violate anyone’s bodily autonomy…
Vaccines Known to Cause Seizures Encephalitis Autoimmunity – you only believe this if you misread the package insert…
Vaccines Are Not Placebo Safety Tested – except for all of those times when they are, including saline placebos…
Vaccines Are Made With Aborted Fetal Cells – a cell line whose descendant cells has been copied over and over for over 50 years and are removed before the final vaccine is produced.
US Law Classifies Vaccines As Unavoidably Unsafe – but that legal term doesn’t in any way mean that vaccines are dangerous or extra risky!
Impossible to Eradicate Measles With Live Virus Vaccine – this is mischaracterizing something that Gregory Poland said about the difficulty of eradicating measles

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are obviously necessary.

“One is morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion. The reason is that the risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine. This is especially important for parents, who have a moral obligation to protect the life and health of their children and those around them.”
National Catholic Bioethics Center FAQ on the Use of Vaccines

“A moral obligation” to vaccinate your kids…

Maybe we should put that on a sign!

Should I Blame the Vaccine If I’m Sick and I Just Got Vaccinated?

We all know the saying, correlation equals causation, right?

So if you get an MMR vaccine and get the measles a week later, it has to be the vaccine, right?

Should I Blame the Vaccine If I’m Sick and I Just Got Vaccinated?

Actually, no.

“Correlation does not imply causation.”

Although it would be very easy to blame the vaccine, if you keep in mind that the saying is actually “correlation does not imply causation,” maybe you will do a little investigating and see if something else is to blame.

Some things to consider and ask yourself:

Do I really have measles? Remember that it is not uncommon to develop a fever and a rash about 7 to 12 days after getting an MMR vaccine. This is a very common, mild vaccine reaction. It doesn’t mean that you have measles or even a mild case of the measles.
Was I recently exposed to someone with measles? If you were vaccinated because you were exposed to measles during an outbreak, then there is a good chance that the vaccine hasn’t had a chance to work yet and you actually developed measles from being exposed to the wild virus.
Do I have the wild type or a vaccine strain of measles? Testing can be done to tell which strain of measles you have and to see if it is a wild type or vaccine strain.

Are there any examples of folks having wild type disease if they get sick shortly after being vaccinated?

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of these types of examples.

“Vaccine strains are poorly or not transmissible and prompt differentiation between wild-type and vaccine strains allows for optimal management and public health action.”
Pabbaraju et al on Simultaneous Detection and Differentiation between Wild-Type and Vaccine Measles Viruses by a Multiplex Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay

What about examples of folks getting sick with vaccine strain measles and other diseases? Not so many.

The clinical diagnosis could just as easily have been wild type measles and not a vaccine strain, as there was a lot of measles in the the UK in 1988. — The clinical diagnosis could just as easily have been wild type measles, as there was a lot of measles in the the UK in 1988.

Most of the published examples are case reports without evidence of a vaccine strain.

What about the kid in Canada that got measles after her MMR vaccine?

“We describe a case of vaccine-associated measles in a two-year-old patient from British Columbia, Canada, in October 2013, who received her first dose of measles-containing vaccine 37 days prior to onset of prodromal symptoms.”
Murti et al on Case of vaccine-associated measles five weeks post-immunisation, British Columbia, Canada, October 2013.

She had symptoms of measles and a vaccine strain and was reported as “the first case of MMR vaccine-associated measles.” Well, at least the first case that occurred so long after getting vaccinated. Still, they note that “clinically significant vaccine-associated illness is rare.”

What about all of the people in California and Michigan who supposedly had vaccine-strain measles?

This is not vaccine strain measles! It is people with a rash or fever after being vaccinated. They don't have measles though. — This is not vaccine strain measles! It is people with a rash or fever after being vaccinated. They don’t have measles though.

Anti-vaccine folks made that up!

When It’s a Wild-Type Virus

What’s the most obvious evidence against the idea that vaccines and shedding are responsible for causing outbreaks?

For one thing, despite the recent uptick, cases of vaccine-preventable diseases are way down from the pre-vaccine era. That’s not what you would expect if vaccine-induced disease was common or if contacts of those who were recently vaccinated could easily get sick from shedding.

And we have evidence against vaccine induced disease.

When kids get chicken pox shortly after being vaccinated, they often have a wild strain. They don’t have breakthrough chicken pox.

“All of 57 vaccinees with breakthrough varicella, clinically diagnosed on the basis of a generalized maculopapular or vesicular rash, in which there was amplifiable DNA [corrected], had wild-type VZV infection based on analysis of viral DNA. “
LaRussa on Viral strain identification in varicella vaccinees with disseminated rashes.

Same thing with measles.

Want to avoid these situations in which you could get a wild strain of a vaccine-preventable disease?

Don’t skip or delay your child’s vaccines!

VAXOPEDIA

Do Unvaccinated Kids Spread More Disease?

Do Unvaccinated Kids Spread More Disease?

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