Six myths about vaccination and why they’re wrong

Six myths about vaccination and why they’re wrong. 

Vaccines are one of the most effective public health measures ever introduced.

Recently released government figures show levels of childhood vaccination have fallen to dangerously low levels in some areas of Australia, resulting in some corners of the media claiming re-ignition of “the vaccine debate”.

Well, scientifically, there’s no debate. In combination with clean water and sanitation, vaccines are one of the most effective public health measures ever introduced, saving millions of lives every year.

Those who claim there is a “debate” will cite a series of canards designed to scare people away from vaccinating, but, if you’re not familiar with their claims, you could easily be convinced by anti-vaccine rhetoric.

So what is true and what is not?

Let’s address just a few of the common vaccine myths and explain why they’re wrong.

1. Vaccines cause autism

The myth that vaccines are somehow linked to autism is an unsinkable rubber duck. Initiated in 1998 following the publication of the now notorious Lancet paper, (not-a-Dr) Andrew Wakefield was the first to suggest that the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to autism.

What he didn’t reveal was that he had multiple conflicts of interest including that he was being paid by lawyers assembling a class action against the manufacturers of MMR, and that he himself had submitted an application for a patent for a single measles vaccine.

It eventually unravelled for Wakefield when the paper wasretracted in 2010. He was struck from the medical register for behavior classified as “dishonest, unethical and callous” and the British Medical Journal accused him of deliberate fraud.

But once the idea was floated, scientists were compelled to investigate, particularly when it stood to impact public health so dramatically. One of the most powerful pieces of evidenceto show that there is no link between vaccines and autism comes from Japan where the MMR was replaced with single vaccines mid-1993. Guess what happened? Autism continued to rise.

We currently don’t know what causes autism.
But we do know what doesn’t: vaccines.

After this door closed, anti-vaxers shifted the blame to thiomersal, a mercury-containing component (not be confused with the scary type that accumulates in the body). Small amounts of thiomersal were used as a preservative in some vaccines, but this never included MMR.

Thiomersal or ethyl-mercury was removed from all scheduled childhood vaccines in 2000, so if it were contributing to rising cases of autism, you would expect a dramatic drop following its removal. Instead, like the MMR in Japan, the opposite happened, and autism continues to rise.

Further evidence comes from a recently published exhaustive review examining 12,000 research articles covering eight different vaccines which also concluded there was no link between vaccines and autism.

Yet the myth persists and probably for several reasons, one being that the time of diagnosis for autism coincides with kids receiving several vaccinations and also, we currently don’t know what causes autism. But we do know what doesn’t, and that’s vaccines.

2. Smallpox and polio have disappeared so there’s no need to vaccinate anymore

It’s precisely because of vaccines that diseases such as smallpox have disappeared.

India recently experienced two years without a single case of polio because of a concerted vaccination campaign.

Australia was declared measles-free in 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO) – before we stopped being so vigilant about vaccinating and outbreaks began to reappear.

The impact of vaccine complacency can be observed in the current measles epidemic in Wales where there are now over 800 cases and one death, and many people presenting are of the age who missed out on MMR vaccination following the Wakefield scare.

In many ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success, leading us to forget just how debilitating preventable diseases can be – not seeing kids in calipers or hospital wards full of iron lungs means we forget just how serious these diseases can be.

3. More vaccinated people get the disease than the unvaccinated

Although this sounds counter-intuitive, it’s actually true, but it doesn’t mean that vaccines don’t work as anti-vaxers will conflate. Remember that no vaccine is 100% effective and vaccines are not a force field. So while it’s still possible to get the disease you’ve been vaccinated against, disease severity and duration will be reduced.

Those who are vaccinated have fewer
complications than people who aren’t.

With pertussis (whooping cough), for example, severecomplications such as pneumonia and encephalitis (brain inflammation) occur almost exclusively in the unvaccinated.

So since the majority of the population is vaccinated, it follows that most people who get a particular disease will be vaccinated, but critically, they will suffer fewer complications and long-term effects than those who are completely unprotected.

4. My unvaccinated child should be of no concern to your vaccinated one

Vaccination is not just a personal issue, it’s a community responsibility, largely because of a concept known as “community immunity”. This describes a level of vaccination that prevents epidemics or outbreaks from taking hold and spreading.

Some people question the validity of this concept, sometimes referred to as herd immunity, but the impact of it breaking down can be easily observed in places where vaccination levels fall dangerously low – take the current measlesoutbreak in Wales, for example.

The other important factor about community immunity is it protects those who, for whatever reason, can’t be vaccinated or are not fully vaccinated. This includes very young children, immunocompromised people (such as cancer sufferers) and elderly people.

5. Vaccines contain toxins

A cursory search of Google for vaccine ingredients pulls up a mishmash of scary-sounding ingredients that to the uninitiated can sound like “franken-science”.

A pear has 600 times more formaldehyde than a vaccine.

Some of these claims are patently untrue (there is no anti-freeze in vaccines), or are simple scaremongering (aborted foetuses – in the 1960s some cells were extracted from a foetus to establish a cell line that is still used in labs today). Some of the claimed chemicals (and remember everything is made of chemicals) are present, but are at such low levels as to never reach toxicity.

The simple thing to remember is the poison is in the dose – in high enough doses even water can kill you. And there’s 600 times more formaldehyde in a pear than a vaccine.

Also, if you ever read the claim that “vaccines are injected directly into the blood stream” (they’re not), be skeptical of any other claims made.

6. Vaccines will overwhelm kids’ undeveloped immune systems

The concept of “too many too soon” was recently examined in a detailed analysis of the US childhood immunisation schedule by The Institute of Medicine. Experts specifically looked for evidence that vaccination was linked to “autoimmune diseases, asthma, hypersensitivity, seizures, child developmental disorders, learning or developmental disorders, or attention deficit or disruptive disorders”, including autism. The researchers confirmed that the childhood vaccination schedule was safe.

The amount of immune challenges that children fight every day (between 2,000 to 6,000) in the environment is significantly greater than the number of antigens or reactive particles in all their vaccinations combined (about 150 for the entire vaccination schedule).

So the next time you hear these myths about vaccination, hopefully you’ll have some evidence up your sleeve to debunk them.

You can find this article here.

Cloth Diapering 101: Myths

Today’s cloth diapers are very different from the diapers our parents and grandparents used. If the thought of using pins, plastic pants, and dirty wet pails is turning you off of using cloth diapers, read on! I’m going to address some of the nasty rumors that are out there!

1. Disposable diapers are better for the environment because washing cloth diapers wastes energy, water, and soap.

Disposable diapers are far more harmful to the environment than cloth diapers. First of all, stop and think about the amount of energy, water, wood, oil, etc. that goes into manufacturing and shipping disposable diapers. Plus, disposable diapers can take 100-500 years to decompose. That means every single disposable diaper we have used since their invention in the 60s is still sitting in a landfill somewhere. And guess what is sitting with them… human waste! It is illegal to throw human waste into the garbage – disposable users are required to throw poop into the toilet before trashing the diaper but how many people aren’t doing that? Then there is the packaging from each pack of diposable diapers, and don’t forget the dangerous chemicals leaking into the ground water from landfills and the manufacturing process: dioxin, sodium polyacrylate (the absorbant gel), and TBT or Trybutylin, which is ranked by the WHO as one of the most toxic substances used in consumer products in the world today.

2. Cloth diapers are hard to wash.

Not true! Laundering cloth diapers is no more difficult than washing your regular laundry. There is no need to soak diapers in a wet pail, dunk them in a toilet, or scrub them. The washing machine takes care of all the work for you! Click here for my blog on washing your diapers.

3. Using cloth diapers will make my home smell bad.

Not true! Most parents who have used both cloth and disposable diapers agree that disposable diapers stink far worse than cloth diapers.

4. Cloth diapers leak.

Cloth diapers have come a long way! Cloth diapers are made from very absorbent materials such as cotton, hemp and even bamboo. Most diapers and covers have elasticized leg gussets for holding in leaks. Cloth diapers are totally customizable also, meaning that if you need extra absorbency for overnight or a long car trip, you can add an extra absorbent insert or doubler.

If your new cloth diapers are leaking, this could be because they haven’t been pre-washed enough. You’ll find that your new diapers become more and more absorbent after each wash. Pre-washing in hot water will help your diapers reach maximum absorbency.

5. I have to use a nasty wet pail.

Not true! I do not know any cloth diapering parents who soak their diapers in a wet pail. Most parents choose the dry pail method which involves tossing your dirty diapers into a washable, waterproof pail liner. On wash day just dump the contents along with the liner into the washing machine. No poop soup necessary!

6. Cloth diapers are too expensive.

Not true! Cloth diapering is much more cost effective than using disposables.

***Going to post comparison chart here soon***

7. Cloth diapers are hard to use- I don’t want to have to use pins.

Cloth diapers today are easier to use than ever! The only people I know who use pins do it for enjoyment and not out of neccesity (I have yet to understand the love with using pins, myself…). Check out our products – Our diapers are elasticized and use fasteners such as Aplix (Velcro) or snaps. Prefold and flat users have alternatives to pins also. Prefolds can easily be folded in three and laid inside a snug-fitting diaper cover. Also available are Snappi’s a little clip instead of using pins.

8. Cloth diapers will give my baby a diaper rash.

The percentage of (American) babies who experienced diaper rash in 1955 (before disposable diapers) was 7.1%. In 1991 it was 78%! Cloth diapers allow your baby’s skin to breathe and heal more quickly. This helps prevent and treat diaper rash. Cloth diapers are also free of the many skin-irritating chemicals that are found in disposables. Some might argue that disposables are better for baby because the absorbent gel (ew) wicks moisture away from baby's skin. Well, this is a problem for two reasons: one - parents change their babies less often, facilitating the growth of bacteria, which causes diaper rash, and two - the super-absorbent gel also pulls baby's natural skin moisture away along with the urine, which also causes skin irritation. If babies could talk I believe they would ask for cloth diapers! Would you want to wear paper underwear (wearable garbage) full of chemicals? Not me!

9. Cloth diapers have to be dunked in the toilet.

Not true! A breastfed baby’s poop can go straight into the diaper pail and then into the wash with not rinsing required. For a baby with more solid poop, shake the excess into the toilet and place in the pail – the washing machine will take care of the rest. You could also purchase flushable liners on a roll to place inside the diaper. Then just lift it off and toss in the toilet. Ensure that, whichever diapering system you choose (cloth or disposables), you flush the waste down the toilet. The instructions on disposable diaper packages advise you to flush the solid waste before tossing the diaper in the garbage.

10. You have to change cloth diapers more often.

How often you change your baby’s diaper is up to you. Adding absorbency to the diaper will allow longer stretches in between changes. Many diapers have microfleece liners which provide a dry barrier in between the absorbent cloth and the bum so that your baby’s skin stays dry (you can also purchase these liners to lay inside those diapers that don’t have them). Some parents (myself included) like to change baby more often anyway, whether using disposables or cloth. I feel that just because a diaper can go 3-4 hours between changes doesn’t mean that your baby should have to wear it for that long. Every baby is different and you will find the diaper changing routine that works for you!