I’ve just returned from a week in Idaho where I had the privilege to do a series of talks for the Idaho Department of Health (DOH) about using social media to communicate about vaccines. The best part of the week was all of the education I received. I traveled around the state (see those photos!), witnessed the DOH at work, connected with Idaho physicians & politicians & advocates & volunteers, and talked with many Idahoans about changing the understanding of vaccine science. Three times I heard Dr Melinda Wharton from the CDC present on vaccine safety. And more, in a matter of 4 days we talked with a clinician, nurse, or medical assistant from every single office in the state that provides vaccines to children. I mean, that’s a wow–a sincerely networked community circa 2012.
If all states had the opportunity to convene like they do in Idaho we’d really improve understanding, communication, and opportunities in health care surrounding vaccine safety and decision-making.
After arriving home to my boys, I’m compelled to share 3 things I learned in Idaho:
ONE:
I think it’s essential that we talk about the risks associated with vaccines when we give them–each and every time. Dr Wharton discussed known risks to vaccines and the science to support those risks. She also talked about inferred risks that aren’t backed up with science (autism, for example).
Take fainting: we know teens faint after shots sometimes. However we also know that infants & toddlers don’t. It’s not the fainting that’s really worrisome (no longterm side effect other than the terrible memory!), rather the injuries that arise from a fall when a teen faints. If you know your teen is concerned, anxious, or worried about the shots, the likelihood of fainting increases. So, ask to wait in the exam room or waiting area for 15 minutes after the shots are done. Monitor for any wooziness or dizziness. We can better prepare to avoid the risks (injuries) from vaccines by controlling the side effect (fainting). While most of the risks Dr Wharton reviewed were known to me, a few were new. And it got me thinking, we must update, list out, and discuss risks of immunizations, just like we discuss the benefits. We can’t be scared to detail what we know. We all need an annual update like they get in Idaho.
Over the years, I’ve heard physicians, nurses, and assistants discussing their opinion that detailing risks and side effects from vaccines only scares families. I tend to disagree. Dr Wharton stated, “Vaccine safety is a shared responsibility.” She asserted it’s our (physicians’) responsibility to share what we know, to have clinicians and staff observe protocol and carefully store and dose vaccines, and the family’s responsibility to discuss side effects, allergies, and family history/medical conditions. Together we improve safety.
It’s when we have an open, informed discussion about vaccines that we increase trust in our partnerships. Yesterday in clinic I listed out more risks than I typically do when helping families with immunization decisions. This is because of my week in Idaho. I think it’s these risks, coupled with the nod to the profound benefit of vaccinations, that allows families to make truly informed decisions. As a mom, I also sincerely believe this is when we feel good about immunizing our children.
TWO:
Idaho is exceptionally beautiful. The land is arid in Southern Idaho, but brushed with snow-trimmed mountaintops in the distance. There is space to breathe and a pace to roam. After a talk in Idaho Falls, we traveled across the state by car on a small highway. On our way to Boise, we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, we spotted elk and antelope, we ate pickles from a small town diner, and we traveled through many rural communities. Again, I was reminded how the world looks very different in each of its corners. Travel is education.
THREE:
Vaccine-preventable diseases still occur. On Friday I got to hear Dr Jean Prince, a pediatrician in Coeur d’Alene, present 3 cases of vaccine-preventable diseases she’d seen in her own personal practice. She discussed a 6 week-old baby hospitalized in the ICU with pertussis (whooping cough), an infant in the ICU with rotavirus and severe neurologic complications, and a 1 year-old with meningitis.
She had a parent from her practice, Greg, tell Maddy’s story. Maddy is a little girl who died of meningococcal septicemia, a deadly complication to bacterial meningitis. Her father told the story of her getting sick the day after Christmas and essentially dying later that night. Although the story was agonizing to hear, it was empowering to see a father tell the story of his beloved little girl. I was once again reminded that those stories, those of horrific disease, need to shared, too. I’m fortunate I’ve only seen meningococcal septicemia once in my lifetime. Thanks in part to immunization, I have limited experience with meningococcal disease.
But it was a father’s love for truth and celebration that sticks with me today. Midway through his story, Greg provided the true staccato to his talk, “Oh, I love to talk about Maddy.”
It’s those moments that define unconditional love and remind us of the enduring power of stories and great luxury to raise our children in a time of vaccines. Like so many who have endured unthinkable illness, he wants no parent to suffer the loss he did. By telling Maddy’s story he changes the odds. We immunize for meningococcal infections at age 11 years and then again at age 16. All of us have improved protection when our adolescents get vaccinated.
So I wonder, will you travel to Idaho? Does your pediatrician list out side effects to shots? Does your state have an annual forum for sharing vaccine information like Idaho? Let’s make this happen nationwide…
Becky says
I loved your talk during lunch in Boise at BSU! I am trying to wrap my head around social media and believe you have very strong points you made for it! Thanks for sharing! We do indeed learn from others stories!
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Thank you, Becky! Look forward to seeing you online.
Yolanda Wong says
Inspiring! I’m switching roles in a month to work as a pediatrician at a school-based clinic. This has me thinking of how we can collaborate even on a local community level. Most of my pt population isn’t opposed to getting vaccinated, but there are definitely fears brewing — trickled down from word of mouth and mass media.
Terri Lindemann says
Dr. Swanson, thank you for taking time to visit our great state and to talk about it on your blog. (So nice to be mentioned in a positive manner for once!) I will be sharing with my school nurse colleagues. Thank you for taking time to be with us. It was a very helpful conference!
Julie says
I am curious when you speak of risks not supported by science how do you argue or counter the arguments put forth by those hesitant or against vaccinating because they are convinced their children were damanged or died from vaccincation or vaccination isn’t necessary for all the usual reasons they typcially state? What is the best way to counter their continued proliferation of anti-vaccine statements not supported by 99 percent of the medical/scientific community. A quick glance at the comments section of any news article about Washington state’s whooping cough epidemic (facebook is an excellent or resource) or even links like this would prove the provaccine side has a lot of work to do and I am often perplexed just where to start: https://www.intellipissies.com/nonvaxers-risking-childrens-health-because-of-herd-immunity-concerns-oh-i-beg-to-differ/
Theresa Willett says
Thanks for sharing, as always! I had a quick look at the Idaho DOH website, and specifically the list of ShotSmarts presentations, but I did not see anything referencing Dr. Wharton. Do you have any links that can help us track down more info on the established immunization risks, other than the common ‘side effects’ that we usually review? Thanks again!
Shane Ellison says
As an organic chemist, Im surprised that this blog is so rich with cliche, emotional arguments in favor of vaccination, and void of any scientific proof. At best, vaccines only temporarily boost our defenses. Our immune system was programmed to recognize foreign invaders coming through our biological front door—our nose, mouth, and eyes—not via our back door, which is through our skin with a needle. Therefore, most vaccines fly below our immunity radar, rendering many of them ineffective. Vaccine history proves this in shocking detail.
Polio is the most feared childhood illness. It has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. The world experienced a dramatic increase in polio cases beginning in 1910. Frequent epidemics became regular events. They were the impetus for a great race toward the development of a polio vaccine. It was developed in 1953 and an oral version soon after.
But the vaccines came too late. Polio infection plummeted before the vaccines were introduced, thanks to better sanitation and nutrition. Good thing, because both forms of vaccine were a total failure. They caused the same infection they were supposed to prevent—polio. Medical journals around the world were discussing “the relation of prophylactic inoculations [polio vaccines] to the onset of poliomyelitis” as far back as 1951. The trend continued.
In a 2007 article entitled “Nigeria Fights Rare Vaccine-Derived Polio Outbreak,” Reuters News showed how polio vaccine programs ignited outbreaks among children in Nigeria, Chad, Angola, and Niger. Vaccine programs continued, thanks to hype from Bruce Aylward, MD, MPH, director of World Health Organization’s polio-eradication campaign. He insisted that “recent advances against polio in some of its most stubborn strongholds mean it may be possible to wipe it out worldwide by the end of 2009.”
The polio virus still exists today. But few of us suffer from it. Our protection resides in the same things that were responsible for its decline: a healthy immune system, courtesy of proper sanitation and nutrition. That highlights what third-world countries really need—food and sanitation.
This same scenario was repeated in the case of the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine. Between 1900 and 1935, mortality rates due to whooping cough dropped by 79 percent in the United States. Yet, the vaccine (DTP and DTaP) wasn’t introduced until 1940. Today, those most susceptible to whooping cough are the “immunized.”
In 2002, researchers with the CDC publicly stated that “the number of infants dying from whooping cough, once a major killer of children in the United States, is rising despite record high vaccination levels in the nation.” In 2009, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recognized the trend too. In the article “Whooping cough vaccine not as powerful as thought,” the publication highlighted a recent cluster of 18 whooping cough-infected students. Seventeen were properly immunized with five doses of DTaP vaccine.”
The measles vaccine is no different. In 1957, the MMR vaccine became widely used in an effort to eradicate measles, mumps, and rubella. Rather than preventing measles, it elicited a widespread epidemic. Between 1983 and 1990, there was a 423 percent increase in measles cases among those vaccinated. Today, the World Health Organization actually warns that vaccinated individuals are 14 times more likely to contract this disease than the unvaccinated.
The CDC insisted that the MMR vaccine would also eliminate mumps in the United States by the year 2010. Then in 2006, the largest mumps outbreak in twenty years occurred. Among those who suffered from mumps, 63 percent were “immunized.”
From its inception to now, the flu vaccine has proven just as worthless. In 2007, the CDC reported that the vaccine had “no or low effectiveness” against influenza or influenza-like illnesses. The analysis of data showed that the flu vaccine protected no more than 14 percent of vaccine participants.[ft91] This is a repeat of all previous and future years. “The influenza vaccine, which has been strongly recommended for people over 65 for more than four decades, is losing its reputation as an effective way to ward off the virus in the elderly,”[ft92] insisted the New York Times in 2008.
Considering the overt failure of vaccination, the idea of mainlining my kids with an ineffective and dangerous vaccine is chilling. But more shocking is that the side effect go ignored by doctors on the front lines of the vaccine tragedy!
Mitch Scoggins says
Dr. Swanson, thanks for the time you took to visit us here in Idaho, and for the additional time you took to write about it. I took a second to Google some phrases from the post of the anti-vaxxer who showed up in your comments section, and tha post is a copy-n-paste that s/he seems to post on any vaccine-related story s/he can find – with maybe a few minor tweaks.
Anyway, that aside, I appreciate the approach you’re advocating for, where parents are given the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth while they are making medical decisions about their children (and themselves).
Shane Ellison says
Duh…Since they are all saying the same thing, they will by default get the same response…That’s how science works.