When was the last time you had polio? How about whooping cough? Diphtheria? Smallpox? Tetanus? If your answer is that you've never had any of those things, it's probably because your parents, or your government, had you vaccinated when you were a kid.
The AP reported on Friday that 76 American children have died of swine flu (H1N1) since April (sixteen in the past week) - "more evidence the new virus is unusually dangerous in kids" - and yet an AP/GfK poll reports that over a third of parents polled don't want to have their children vaccinated against the virus. Many adults don't want the vaccine either. And to think, just a few months ago, people were clambering to have the border with Mexico closed to protect us from disease. In 1952 America's worst polio epidemic occurred, according to Wikipedia, "of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis." There was no polio vaccine at the time.
My grandmother, born in 1890, used to tell us about how hard it was for her to get educated, besides for the usual ranch chores, there were the epidemics. Every year, she explained, an epidemic, of one kind or another, closed the schools, and when they reopened, there was always an empty chair or two. The 1918 flu pandemic infected half a billion people, killing an estimated 25 - 100 million of them. There was no vaccine. People have short memories.
But a lot of us remember the swine flu vaccinations from the 70's, and a lot of us remember it incorrectly, that is, we remember the hysteria, but don't remember that it was all a tempest in a teapot. Again with the Wikipedia: 'October 1, 1976, immunizations began and three senior citizens died soon after receiving their injections. This resulted in a media outcry that linked these deaths to the immunizations, despite the lack of any proof that the vaccine was the cause. According to science writer Patrick Di Justo, however, by the time the truth was known-that the deaths were not proven to be related to the vaccine-it was too late. "' It was a public relations disaster that is hurting us to this very day.
The 2009 vaccine is not without its risks, most vaccines carry an element of risk, the question is: does that risk outweigh the disease itself? Here's an interesting tidbit from the BBC, "Other very rare events that have been seen with routine flu vaccines include seizures and temporary bleeding disorders. In the past Guillian-Barré syndrome (a rare disorder of nerves) has been associated with flu vaccines but the relationship remains uncertain, with some studies suggesting a possible link but others not finding it. One large study in the UK found that influenza-like illness itself was associated with an increased risk of the Guillian-Barré syndrome but there was no link with the seasonal influenza vaccines, suggesting that vaccination might actually protect against the disorder by preventing flu."
There is also an ethical dimension to all this. Vaccines aren't contagious, but the flu is. Maybe you'll get it and maybe you won't, maybe you'll get it and die from it. But maybe you'll get it and recover, only to pass it on to somebody else, and it kills them - maybe somebody you don't know, or maybe someone close to you. Living responsibly isn't just about buying trendy green widgets, signing petitions, and scowling at that nasty smoker outside your office, sometimes you have to put your own self on the line - no matter how small the risk.
Photo: Dr. Schreiber of San Augustine giving a typhoid innoculation at a rural school, San Augustine County, Texas, 1943 (John Vachon/FSA/Library of Congress)
