By Richard Tarbill
In early March, I went to Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle to consult with Physician Assistant Susan Holt about the required vaccinations for our little row across the pond. Well, more accurately, vaccinations and medicines that are needed in order to safely visit West Africa and South America. Walking into the small examination room, I found she had already laid out a sweet new 2010 Atlas of the locations we were going to visit, and put together a nice packet of material she explained in welcoming detail to me. What a nice woman. The vaccination list was large. I had gotten some during childhood, and some for a trip to Nicaragua in high school.
Here’s a list:
Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Polio adult booster (to supplement my childhood shot), Yellow Fever, Tetanus, Typhoid oral pills, Malaria oral pills (we won’t start using them until right before we leave), Rabies (we probably won’t get this, unless your dog bites me!), and Measles.
As a young Caucasian guy living in North America, the odds of me contracting diseases like Yellow Fever or Polio are extremely improbable. In fact, Polio is something that virtually has been eradicated from North America.
Remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only four term President of the USA? Ever wonder why he is always pictured sitting in a car, or a chair behind a desk, and not walking about ‘presidentially’? He contracted Polio in the 1920s, temporarily delaying his almost ordained accent as a Democratic politician, as some biographers would describe it.
Check out this link Smithsonian link about Polio.
Or consider the smallpox epidemic in the USA around 1900. 30% of individuals who contracted the disease died. Holy crap! I listened to an NPR interview on the Kingston ferry about this subject and fully intend to read the new book by Michael Willrich, “POX: An American History”.
Recently I watched on CSPN2’s @BOOKTV special by Seth Mnookin, author of “The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear”. First I suppose you would ask why I would subject myself to this type of “entertainment” while there is so much on TV? I downgraded to basic cable, and I’m sick (figures), so my options were limited for non-physical things to do (plus I enjoy watching the occasional cry by John Boehner daily on CSPAN). The central idea I pulled out of this was stated simply on the author’s website, sethmnookin.com, by The Wall Street Journal; “The Panic Virus is a lesson on how fear hijacks reason and emotion trumps logic.”
To those who have kept at least a passing concern about the reduction in vaccinations in the developed world, you need only remember the British doctor who falsified data to create an illusional foundation for this fiasco. People are legitimately fearful of autism afflicting their children. This anti-vaccine idea is almost predatory upon concerned parents who are trying to understand what has happened and how, taking a very personal and emotional situation and warping it into something that doesn’t necessarily pass the sniff test.
Sure, science isn’t perfect, and the theories put forward by its’ community are often later supplemented with corollaries or even overturned. However, one of the fundamental tenets of science is that you CAN change your answer. It’s just that this new position must be supported by a large amount of data, studies, and peer review (at least in this case). When people can go to a website, latch onto something that appears simple, has the semblance of professional legitimacy to it, and is vigorously pushed, they latch onto the idea. And to me it seems many are absolute in their positions, with no room for Socratic questioning, and no quarter is given to any flaws or potential failures in our understanding of the absolute effects of vaccinations. As in many things in life, people find more comfort in passionate half-truths rather than cold, statistical probabilities(Paul Giamatti/John Adams on Facts).
An so, in attempting to round the corner here on the old soap box, and not invite further wrath of conspiracy folk who no doubt would have a field day with me, I received all the vaccination shots for our trip in the left arm, and then complained to my OAR Northwest buddies about the pain over the next couple days in Canada. What a winy-goat! At least I didn’t faint like these guys!
Cheers!