Facts about vaccines? Here are some worthy of notice. One hundred years ago, on May 2, 1925, the Journal of the American Medical Society cited W. W. Keen’s personal experiences with three epidemics of “the most loathsome, nauseating, sickening disease,” smallpox. To summarize his experiences, JAMA reported that before the use of Edward Jenner’s protective vaccination, there were about 40,000 deaths in the Philippines every year from smallpox. Yet in the twelve months after a vigorous campaign of vaccination, not a single death occurred. It’s worth remembering that smallpox was no lightweight. About three of every ten people who got the disease died. Others were scarred, or suffered blindness. Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated from our world (see here). A simple fact about vaccines.

In the 1940s and 1950s, epidemics of polio were an annual occurrence in the US and around the world.  Fear of polio was so great that many people avoided crowds and public gatherings. I remember those days. Everyone seemed worried about getting polio. Many parents wouldn’t let their children play with new friends and regularly checked them for symptoms (see here). The worst outbreak, in 1952, resulted in over 3,000 deaths, and numerous cases of paralysis. However, with the development of effective vaccines by Salk (1955) and Sabin (1961), the number of cases was dramatically lowered. Thanks to vaccines, by 1994, polio was considered eliminated in North and South America. A simple fact about vaccines.

 When I was in medical school in the 1960s, I was surprised to learn that a daughter of one of my professors had died of a complication of measles (she developed encephalitis). I had not known that measles could be lethal. I and nearly all of my friends had contracted the highly contagious measles virus and recovered with no problems. In year 2000, thanks to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, the U.S. declared that measles had been eradicated. What happened since then? Well, childhood vaccinations are down. This year, over 1,000 cases of measles have been reported in at least 30 states (see here). At least three children have died. Yes, all were unvaccinated.

What does our country’s top health official have to say about this? Well, he claims the outbreak of measles is “not unusual.”  This is the same man who co-founded an anti-vaccine group and urged parents not to vaccinate their children. He even encouraged parents to use vitamin A and cod liver oil to treat or prevent measles. Where did that come from? His claim has been disputed by doctors, other experts, and health officials. And he’s in charge of our health?

Where did all of these silly anti-vaccine notions come from? Much of it undoubtedly can be attributed to Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced Brit who in 1998 published a fraudulent paper in the British medical journal, Lancet, claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism (see here). When his original paper was published, it was widely reported in the press, thus spreading his dishonest results to readers throughout the world. What many seem not to know is that the Wakefield paper was retracted in 2010. At the time Lancet‘s editor-in-chief Richard Horton described it as “utterly false.” The scientific consensus is clear: There is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The vaccine’s benefits greatly outweigh its potential risks. I’ve written about this issue before, because I believe it is important. Those posts, with slightly different slants, may be found here, here, and here, all simple facts about vaccines.