It used to be that parents rarely disputed any of the recommended vaccinations that schools required for incoming or continuing students. After all, vaccines have eradicated polio in the US, ended mumps and measles, and made chicken pox a disease only us old-timers remember suffering through.
But then came a startling increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism, and celebrity mom Jenny McCarthy started campaigning against childhood vaccines citing a study that linked autism with vaccinations. Suddenly parents balked when it came time for their child's MMR vaccination, and vaccines became suspect, even though the "much ballyhooed 1998 paper" that McCarthy based her campaign on was debunked. And because of this, the Washington Post reported in 2008 that measles are on the rise as parents shunned vaccines.
This is the environment into which the HPV vaccine was introduced in June 2006. And when medical professionals began suggesting that girls as young as 11 and 12 get the vaccine, many parents were disgusted by the idea that the human papillomavirus would in any way be associated with their daughters. These girls were just too young to be involved in that! Even now, five years later, hinting that that age group might be on the cusp of sexual exploration qualifies as fightin' words.
So in last week's Republican presidential debate, of course Texas Governor Rick Perry's misstep involving the HPV vaccine came up. He'd previously issued an executive order mandating the HPV vaccine be given to girls in the state, only to see it toppled by the state legislature. Yet a public health issue was turned into a political battering ram by Michele Bachmann who announced, "To have innocent little 12-year-old girls...have an injection is just flat out wrong." Unfortunately, her statement invoked a Josef Mengele image of cruel experimentation, when in reality two significant facts were overlooked: the HPV vaccine can prevent these girls from being infected with several forms of HPV, and many 12 year olds are a lot less innocent than their parents might think.
We hold fast to our ideals of childhood, but we'd be better served watching an evening of MTV to know what our tweens and teens are exposed to. Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant are popular for a reason; they depict girls (and young women) doing some not very smart things in an attempt to try and take control of their lives and prove how mature they are and how much they can handle. In the case of 16 and Pregnant, where were the cameras when they were 15 and having unprotected sex?
A couple of months ago I ran into an acquaintance at an art gallery event who told me how she'd finally let her 12 year old daughter Alex onto Facebook, only to be shocked at what had popped up on a message screen -- Alex's best friend Samantha describing how she'd engaged in oral sex. "Can you believe this girl is giving out blow jobs?" Maureen whispered angrily.
Yes I can. And that's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is just one prominent group backing up the recommended age for the HPV vaccine. There's a real chance to stop the spread of infection if the vaccine is administered prior to a girl (or boy's) first sexual experimentation.
They're going to do it whether they're inoculated or not, and having your daughter get the vaccine is not tantamount to saying, "Go out and have sex," although a fair segment of society would like to have you believe that's so. There's no shame in preventing the spread of STDs and reducing the risk of cancer. There is shame in not doing so because you're ashamed and embarrassed and don't want to think of your child in those terms.
The decision to get or not get the HPV vaccine should be a choice rooted in science, medicine, and public health concerns, not a political weapon one side wields to bludgeon the other. Responsible public servants should not say what isn't true and promote inaccuracies to get attention. Likewise they shouldn't bow to political pressure or the influx of contributions from special interest groups that would benefit from mandated requirements.
The HPV vaccine has been a hot button since the day it was approved by the FDA, but this most recent go-round had me wondering how much parents are being influenced by media and politics.
The result of my poking around can be found in "Should My Daughter Get the HPV Vaccine? A Look at the Issues Surrounding the Controversial Vaccine."
See also Readers Respond: Why I Did/Didn't Choose the HPV Vaccine For My Child
Comments
It’s ridiculous to blame the most heated controversy in medicine, the question of vaccines and autism, on Jenny McCarthy and a paper published in 1998. In truth the real source of this controversy is the tens of thousands of parents report that their children were born healthy and were developing normally until they received certain routine vaccinations. Suddenly they got sick with things like seizures, bowel disease, and sleep disorders. Many stopped talking and lost learned skills, ending up with an autism diagnosis. Doctors can’t explain this. They say autism has no known cause. They only thing they’re sure of is that their ever-expanding vaccine schedule isn’t to blame and they have lots of pharma-funded studies to prove it.
Anne Dachel, Media editor: Age of Autism
A recent investigative report on HDNet TV exposed the fact that while health officials continue to tell us studies show no link, the federal government has paid out millions of dollars for compensation for vaccine injuries that included autism. Seeing these children who were born healthy and were suddenly and dramatically affected by their vaccinations should give us all pause. The U.S. Vaccine Court has paid out over $2 billion for severe injuries, including death over the two 20 years. We are now learning that the Court has recognized autism as part of the damage.
http://www.ebcala.org/news/video
Parents need to educate themselves. See the book, Vaccine Epidemic http://www.amazon.com/Vaccine-Epidemic-Corporate-Coercive-Government/dp/1616082720 and the National Vaccine Information Center http://www.nvic.org/.
Anne Dachel, Media editor: Age of Autism
Thank you Anne for your input and your contribution of other source material for readers to consider. No, Jenny McCarthy is not the only one opposing the widespread use (and some say abuse) of childhood vaccinations, but for the ordinary reader who is not as immersed in the subject as you are, she is the most easily recognized figure. My concern is that individuals like her – who don’t present solid information and rely too much on one source to the exclusion of all others – do a disservice to others who have multiple sources and stacks of support materials to back up their arguments. Going against the status quo is never easy, is it?
There is not “one paper”. If one goes to Pubmed (Library of the Institute of Medicine) and does a search for “vaccines autism” they will get references to over 520 published, peer-reviewed papers. Many of these papers support a link. Unlike this blogger who repeats the same “one paper” nonsense, parents actually do some real research.
JJ, click through the link and you’ll see the quote is excerpted from Salon, where staff writer Mary Elizabeth Williams writes, “Lancet retracted Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s much-ballyhooed 1998 paper that first suggested a correlation between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and autism.” I invite you to share links to these peer-reviewed papers you mention — the more information, the better –as I’m sure readers would appreciate vetted source materials from those who oppose vaccines.
Here’s a sampling of the work that backs up Wakefield. How many do you want? I’ve found over a 100. The reporter from Salon did about as much research on this subject as you.
Melmed RD, Schneider CK, Fabes RA. Metabolic markers and gastrointestinal symptoms in children with autism and related disorders. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2000:31;S31-32.
Nikolov, RN, et al, Gastrointestinal symptoms in a sample of children with pervasive developmental disorders. J Autism Dev Disord. 2009;39:405-13.
Parracho HM, Bingham MO, Gibson GR, McCartney AL. Differences between the gut microflora of children with autistic spectrum disorders and that of healthy children. J Med Microbiol. 2005;54:987-91.
Reichelt KL, Knivsberg AM. The possibility and probability of a gut-to-brain connection in autism. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2009;21:205-11.
Horvath K et al. Gastrointestinal abnormalities in children with autistic disorder. J Pediatr. 1999;135:559-63. (US replication)
Horvath K, Perman JA. Autism and gastrointestinal symptoms. Curr Gastroenterol Rep.2002;4:251-8.
Horvath K, Perman JA. Autistic disorder and gastrointestinal disease. Curr Opin Pediatr.2002;14:583-7.
Kawashima H et al. Detection and sequencing of measles virus from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism. Dig Dis Sci. 2000;45:723-9.
D’Eufemia P, Celli M, Finnochiaro R, et al. Abnormal intestinal permeability in children with autism. Acta Pediatrica. 1996;85:1076-1079.
De Magistris L, Familiari V, Pascotto A, et al. Alterations of the intestinal barrier in patients with autism spectrum disorders and in their first-degree relatives. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2010;51:418-24.
CBS Evening News (Aug 29, 2009) reported one of the lead researchers for the Merck vaccine Gardasil spoke out about its risks, benefits and the aggressive marketing that Merck has taken. Dr. Diane Harper helped design and carry out Phase II and Phase III safety and effectiveness studies to get Gardasil approved, and authored many of the published and scholarly papers about it. She has been a paid speaker and consultant to Merck .. and .. it is highly unusual for a researcher to publicly criticize a medicine or vaccine she helped get approved.
In other words .. even those who worked closely in creating Gardasil have critical reasons to question the safety of this vaccine. That is a FACT worth reporting on.
I would imagine that jenny McCarthy would have more solid information on autism than your neighborhood pediatrician unless he/she also had a child with autism. If you are referring to solid information as that being studies by the CDC and other gov’t groups that pay for the studies, run the studies, mandate the vaccine programs, as unbiased –to see if vaccine are safe-that’s a joke.
We were a large group questioning vaccine safety long before Jenny came on the scene and she has helped us geet the word out and we are so grateful.
Wakfield has been disgussed and most media reports have it all wrong because the writers never bother to read his book, check information that comes directly from those who support the vaccine program even if the sky falls down.
Maurine meleck