Rabidly pro-vaccination anti-choice article from todays Telegraph

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Losing focus in a vaccine hocus-pocus

Article from: The Daily Telegraph

By Garry Linnell, Editor-at-large

October 10, 2008 12:00am

GO figure. We live in a time when science can tell us how old and large the

universe is, yet the demand for psychics, fortune tellers and horoscopes has

never been higher.

We live in an age where technology allows us instant communication anywhere

on the planet, yet more people are flocking to coastal villages to play

drums under a full moon and hug trees in the belief this improves their

chances of communing with nature.

Even more bizarrely, we live in an advanced society that has eradicated so

many of the old diseases that once plagued our kind, yet there are still

those who walk among us who do not believe in immunising their children.

Take this recent Saturday afternoon barbecue conversation stopper. A nice

day is being had by all. The wine is chilled, the steaks are perfect.

Everyone is relaxed until one couple embarks on a lamentable whine.

They refuse to have their kids vaccinated. The risks are too great, they

say, the scientific research overwhelming.

One of the people being bored witless by this conversation happens to be a

veterinarian who decides to interrupt. " Really? " asks the vet. " If you're

against it so much, then why did you get me to immunise your dog? "

The vet never received a response. But what else can you expect in a debate

that remains so mired in myth, irrationality and Dark Ages superstition?

It really should not even be a continuing argument in this country - or

anywhere else. The scientific and social worth of immunisation was proven

long ago and the numbers cannot be argued against. Until 1963 in the US when

the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine was introduced, more than 45,000

were hospitalised annually and the death toll from measles often reached

more than 400.

Within a handful of years, deaths had been reduced to just 24.

The same statistics have been mirrored here and throughout the western

world. Anti-immunisation arguments have been debunked as often as UFO

sightings; so-called scientific research supporting the theory that

immunising children is bad has also been discredited.

Yet what do we find? In an age where medicine and science is rewarding us

with longer, healthier lives, an increasing number of Australian parents are

choosing not to immunise their children.

Oh, and guess which town has the lowest percentage of children fully

immunised by the age of two?

Byron Bay, which at 70.8 per cent is more than 20 per cent behind the rest

of the country. Beat those drums a little harder, people.

Best way to keep those microbes and nasty infections at bay, apparently.

Not far behind on the list of so-called immunisation blackspots is the city

of Sydney and then Mosman - home to what you might have thought was a fairly

educated and responsible section of society. What do doctor's wives know

that we don't?

By halfway through this year, Australia had witnessed an alarming five-fold

increase in the number of reported measles cases. In 2007 there had been

only 11 confirmed examples of the disease, which led many to believe an

affliction that in the early 1990s hit thousands of youngsters was all but

eradicated.

But this year, while the numbers remain low, there is growing concern that

measles are making a comeback as more parents elect not to vaccinate their

children after conducting their own research on, yes, that veritable home of

truth and indisputable fact, the internet.

It's a trend that matches those in other developed countries, particularly

the US which many experts believe may be close to the tipping point of a

major measles outbreak.

The threat that this virus-generated illness could return - measles is

highly contagious and triggers high fevers and itchy rashes - mirrors the

whooping cough epidemic of the early 1980s when fears about the vaccine

prompted many to decide against vaccination.

Now comes another development that will not help the cause of vaccination.

Doctors were yesterday warning that the Federal Government's decision to

withdraw the GPII SIP payment of $18.50 per childhood vaccine notification

will further undermine efforts to lift our national vaccination rates.

Dr Eizenberg, a former member of the national immunisation committee,

reportedly said the " stupid " move could affect up to 800,000 children around

the country.

Here, surely, is a blunder we can ill afford. It makes you wonder why a

federal government would even conceive of such a move.

It's almost as inconceivable as those parents who put their children's

health at risk by exposing them to an array of diseases we could so easily

eradicate completely.

But in an age when we are supposedly so much better informed and have far

greater access to information, ignorance flourishes.

And so far, no-one has come up with a vaccine that will rid us of stupidity.

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