More Than Just Infectious Excitement at Super Bowl 46

This past weekend saw a huge annual event here in the United States: the Super Bowl. Two football (that's American football, not the rest of the world's football, aka soccer) teams face off to do battle to determine who will come out on top, and like Highlander, there can be only one. This event draws thousands of people from all over the country, and probably even some from around the world. It is, quite simply, an epic event. They even had a whole "village" erected in the middle of Indianapolis, this year's host to the game. The village provided over a week of activities, both indoors and out, for tourists and fans.

Where's rubeola? (Image by Mike Fender/The Indy Star)

But it wasn't just football fans that paid a visit. Something else had some fun in the village on Friday, February 3, two days before the big game.

Contagion of Fear: A Review of The Panic Virus

Several months ago, I took a look at Michael Willrich's excellent book, Pox: An American History. Pox examines the social and political climate of the early 20th century United States' smallpox epidemic and many of the anti-vaccination sentiments and governmental responses that made controlling the outbreaks so problematic. Many of the arguments used and fears expressed by our ancestors of that era are strikingly similar to the worries and claims promulgated by today's vocal anti-vaccine activists. But while the appearance is the same, the reasons today's activists came to their position is different.

Enter journalist Seth Mnookin, author of the blog The Panic Virus and the book of the same name. I recently had the pleasure of reading the recently released paperback edition of The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy, Mnookin's investigation into the origins of the modern anti-vaccine movement.

Of Wood and Woo

I've done some work as a carpenter. If you have never done it, you should give it a try. You can get lost in the work. Measuring, cutting, assembling. I've built sets for plays, taking simple pieces of wood and shaping them into imaginary lands that transport the audience into a different world, a different time. There is a simple sort of pleasure in woodworking: the feel of tools in your hands, the focus on the project. All of the stresses and annoyances of everyday life fade into the background. True, there are other pressures there. Get the structure done before first tech rehearsal. Finish painting and dressing the set before first full dress, or, when things really get down to the wire, before opening. There are also a lot of different issues revolving around personalities and egos, but all in all, those are relatively minor things with which to deal.

As I was reflecting on this, I thought of how there are some similarities to how we may interact with those with whom we disagree. When we argue with anti-vaccine activists, promoters of pseudoscience and so forth, there are techniques we use to make our point, to convince others.

Dropping the Ball at Day Care

For as long as humans have gathered in societies, perhaps even before we evolved into homo sapiens, we have engaged in the communal care of our children. Whether it is a collection of parents, sharing responsibility for the care and upbringing of the youth; a single parent caring for several neighborhood kids; or even modern professional facilities; to one degree or another, there has always been a need, on occasion, for a division of labor when it comes to taking care of infants, toddlers and older children.

Today, this most often takes the form of day care. The demands of working life lead us to put our trust in others to watch after our children while we go off to earn a living to provide for our families. The opportunity to stay at home, to spend time with our kids, is often a luxury that few can afford. This may be due to the necessity of simply earning enough money to pay for rent and other bills or the need to advance in our careers. Whatever the reason, there are many for whom day care is a necessity, and as such, we trust that those in charge will take appropriate measures and put in place certain rules to ensure the well-being of those under their care. We also trust that all parents who use those resources will abide by the rules.

When the system breaks down, the repercussions frequently ripple outward, affecting more than just one or two people who failed to uphold that trust.

Pertussis Toxin, Aiding and Abetting Influenza

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is bad. In infants, it can kill or lead to neurological impairment or other permanent injuries. In adults, the 100-day cough can range from a persistent annoyance to bone-wracking agony. As bacteria go, it's a pretty nasty one. Less than two years ago, an outbreak in California resulted in the deaths of 10 babies. In the mid- to late-1970s, vaccination rates plummeted in many countries after reports of neurological damage following immunization, leaving the immunocompromised at much greater risk. The reports were ultimately mistaken. We are currently seeing another downward trend in vaccine uptake rates, as well as reminders that immunity wanes with time. Outbreaks continue to spread across the United States and other nations as teens and adults fail to get timely boosters and parents opt out of immunizing their children.

Avoiding the agony and loss of time, not to mention possible heartache, that accompanies whooping cough would seem to be a good idea regardless of any other factors. But a new study published in PLoS One hints at another reason to immunize.

Defending a Fearful Magic

I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.

-- Sir John Mortimer, Clinging to the Wreckage, p. 183

I've been debating with myself whether or not to write this post. In fact, it's taken me a very long time to put my thoughts down, and I've even held this post back even after I finished it. You see, a recent post of mine was received somewhat, shall we say, unfavorably by someone. I had put down my thoughts on some general rules to follow when writing things on the internet, whether it's in a blog, comments on a newspaper article, Facebook, what have you. As some illustrative examples of what not to do, I included some screen shots of this individual's tweets and other comments, but never actually used the person's name in my own composition, though she did identify herself in the comments, later on. In fact, she left her comments only minutes after sending me an e-mail.

I had tried to inject some humor into the post as a means of keeping the issue light while still providing an educational point. But, as anyone who has done extensive writing or reading in the skeptical community, you can probably see where this is going.

A Lesson from History

There are many reasons people are opposed to vaccines. They may have some fear of needles, oppose them for ideological or political reasons, confused a coincidental change in health with a vaccine reaction or simply read and believed propaganda put out by anti-vaccine organizations like the National Vaccine Information Center, Age of Autism, SANEVax and so on. Whatever the reasons for their dislike of vaccines, a frequent question that they ask is, "If your kid is vaccinated, then what does it matter whether or not my kid gets his shots? If vaccines work, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

This is a very naive and simplistic question. I addressed this question a while ago and reposted it recently. After presenting some numbers showing what happens when people refuse immunizations, I briefly talked about some people from my own life who could be negatively affected, as well as some hypothetical talk about others that could be harmed.

Recently, a comment at Respectful Insolence brought up a story that I felt should be presented more fully. This is a story of a parent whose child could not be vaccinated and how declines in immunization rates affected the family. Due to the harassing nature of some anti-vaccine activists, identifying details have been altered.