{"id":57,"date":"2015-02-08T15:38:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T21:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/shared-on-facebook-anti-vaxxers-arent-being-cowed.html"},"modified":"2015-02-24T21:19:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T03:19:29","slug":"shared-on-facebook-anti-vaxxers-arent-being-cowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/shared-on-facebook-anti-vaxxers-arent-being-cowed.html","title":{"rendered":"Shared on facebook: anti-vaxxers aren’t being cowed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Linked to by a second-cousin who\u2019s very big on alternative medicine: \u00a0\u201cMeasles Matter<\/a>s,\u201d published on February 3rd.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 I wish they [journalists] would actually listen to the testimonials given to me by parents of autistic children who were obviously affected by these vaccines adversely. \u00a0I wish they would tell parents that the risk of dying from the measles in the United States is around zero.
. . .
If we discount emotion and fear, we would realize that a child may have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning, accidental drowning or possibly from adverse side effects of the MMR vaccination itself than from acquiring live measles infection.
. . .
Stop hyping the safety of MMR vaccines which may actually be more dangerous than live measles and may be ineffective in preventing the illness which they are so anxious to report as a dangerous epidemic itself. \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So: \u00a0wow. \u00a0Public awareness of the concept of herd immunity and the widespread recognition that the Wakefield MMR-autism link study was a fraud isn\u2019t stopping this guy, and his adherents and co-religionists.<\/p>\n

(Incidental thought\/postscript: \u00a0I am of the opinion that, a couple generations from now, scientific understanding of autism will be radically different than it is now \u2014 perhaps even to the point that the label \u201cautism\u201d is wholly discarded in favor of terms that differentiate between types with different causes and\/or treatments. \u00a0Here\u2019s an old post<\/a> based on a conversation with a friend.)<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/p>\n

So I pulled up the vaccination rates as published by the CDC<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as I wondered whether anti-vaccination attitudes were really the main driver behind the lower-than-they-should-be vaccination rates (91.9% in 2013), or whether there was some low-hanging fruit, rather than these perpetual arguments with free-rider parents. <\/p>\n

Are low-income children less likely to be vaccinated? \u00a0Not by much. \u00a0The CDC says this isn\u2019t an issue due to the federally-funded vaccines program, and the data bears this out: \u00a092.5% of non-poverty families vs. 90.5% of poverty families \u2014 though perhaps some additional breakpoints would be useful.<\/p>\n

What about different races\/ethnic groups? \u00a0Actually, more Hispanics (92.1%) than whites (91.5%) are vaccinated. \u00a0Blacks have the lowest rate of the major ethnic groups, at 90.9%. \u00a0(In all cases, the confidence intervals of +- 2.5, 2.5, and 1.1% respectively, mean that these rates are near-equal.)<\/p>\n

Which leaves us with states, though, since this table isn\u2019t sortable, it\u2019s a pain to work with.<\/p>\n

Rates are pretty high on the East Coast. \u00a0 The South and Midwest are about average, except that \u00a0West Virginia and Ohio are both low, at 86% (though with a 5.8% and 5.2% 95% confidence interval), and Colorado is also at 86%. \u00a0California? \u00a0They\u2019re slightly below average, at 90.7%.<\/p>\n

Now, these are vaccination rates of 3 year olds, so this data doesn\u2019t say anything about the percentage of parents who ultimately comply when it\u2019s time to start school.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a separate survey for that, again from the CDC<\/a>. \u00a0According to this survey, WV and Ohio had both boosted their rates considerably by kindergarten entry, to 96.3% for both, but Colorado remained low, still stuck at the same 86%. \u00a0But these two surveys don\u2019t line up: \u00a0Arkansas supposedly had fewer children vaccinated at kindergarten entry (85.9%) than age 3 (88.3%) \u2013 though this may be a matter of two doses vs. a single dose. <\/p>\n

So what are my conclusions? \u00a0Only that nothing really stands out from this data; the clusters with low vaccination rates are pretty well hidden in this statewide data. \u00a0For a study on these clusters<\/a>, here\u2019s an NPR article, which links to that rare bird of a free journal article<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And here\u2019s another NPR article<\/a>, \u201cTo Get Parents To Vaccinate Their Kids, Don\u2019t Ask. Just Tell,\u201d which actually does suggest some very simple low-hanging fruit:<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s surprising results: When doctors assumed parents would be OK with vaccines, they were. More than 70 percent had their child vaccinated.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, when physicians were more flexible and allowed for discussion, most of the parents \u2014 83 percent \u2014 decided against vaccination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though both of these numbers are shockingly low rates (what is wrong with Seattle parents?), 70% is better than 17%. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linked to by a second-cousin who\u2019s very big on alternative medicine: \u00a0\u201cMeasles Matters,\u201d published on February 3rd. \u00a0 I wish they [journalists] would actually listen to the testimonials given to me by parents of autistic children who were obviously affected by these vaccines adversely. \u00a0I wish they would tell parents that the risk of dying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-vaccinations"],"yoast_head":"\nShared on facebook: anti-vaxxers aren't being cowed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Linked to by a second-cousin who's very big on alternative medicine:  "Measles Matters," published on February 3rd.  I wish they would actually\" \/>\n<meta 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