We are in for quite a storm

 

We are in for quite a storm.

We thought the anti-vaccination mis-information was rough when we were vaccinating adults. Just wait until we see the plethora of terrifying rhetoric as we start to immunize kids. Stay focused. Stay away from social media rabbit holes. Trust the scientists and MD's who have carried you this far. Trust the science. I learned something about one of my patient's today. It broke my heart. Her oldest son died of the mumps at the age of 3. He was running around playing outside with other kids ( as was the custom in the 1950's ) one day and gone a week later. Viruses kill. Have you heard of anyone who has died of the mumps in the last 35 years or since 1967 when vaccines against mumps were widely available? In 1963, a star researcher at the pharmaceutical company Merck took a swab of his own daughter’s throat to begin cultivating a weakened form of the mumps virus. And just four years later, in 'record time', Merck licensed Mumpsvax as the world’s first effective vaccine against mumps. The success of the mumps vaccine did not start with research in 1963. There was a decades long search for a mumps cure that began during World War II. Researchers in the 1940s and 1950s were developing the vaccine technologies for polio and measles and it was these incremental breakthroughs in lab techniques that ultimately allowed for the swift development of the 1960s Mumpsvax. Hmmmm. This sounds familiar. Decades of research and development that allowed for the development of vaccines for polio, measles and mumps. Decades of research and development in mRNA technology THAT ALLOWED FOR THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF VACCINES FOR COVID-19. We did not pull the mRNA vaccines out of thin air. The mRNA vaccines were not rushed. They were resourced. They were built on decades of science and technology. The same science and technology that brought us vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis......the list goes on. No one should or can dispute the lifesaving effects of these vaccines. So, why are we questioning the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines? Perhaps because many of us on this planet have never had to lose a child to a deadly childhood virus. Perhaps because we have been so free of most infectious diseases for so long that we take for granted that the absence of these diseases is not because our immune systems are somehow more equipped to manage these illnesses now than they were decades ago. They are not. Perhaps because we feel a sense of unfounded resilience against these diseases because, no one has ever seen a case or been close to someone seriously effected by these viruses. Perhaps because, in today's world, everyone has google at their fingertips and Facebook at the ready which give us all this idea that we know more than highly educated scientists and physicians. Believe me. We do not. And most of all, these same social media platforms allow for the rampant spread of mis-information that makes us question our own shadows. The serious consequences of mumps include meningitis, testicular inflammation in males who have reached puberty, among whom about half experience infertility; inflammation of the ovaries or breasts in females who have reached puberty also leading to infertility in some cases and permanent deafness. Ahhh. Is that it? Is this where the conspiracy theorists got the ridiculous idea that COVID-19 vaccination causes infertility? Could very well be. The massive leaps in ideas and information are unbelievable to me. If mumps causes infertility.....vaccines against COVID-19 do too? Who knows how the infertility theories got started. We are not entitled to our health. Health is something that takes work. For some, health is a gift. A healthcare system that promotes health and treats disease is a gift. Science and technology that creates a very effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine is a gift that everyone on this planet should have access to. But, not so. It is the wealthy nations of the world that benefit the most from these vaccines and it is in these wealthy nations that mis-information about these vaccines spreads like butter. My children were never playing one minute and dying of an infectious disease the next. My children were immunized and most of yours were too. In the Pfizer vaccine trials in kids aged 5-11 there were NO serious adverse events. Amongst the 2.4 million vaccinated children in this age group in the USA, there has not been a SINGLE serious adverse event. The vaccine in this age group is 90 % effective. That's astounding. That's decades and decades of science and technology the we benefit from whether we take it for granted or not. Sixty-five hundred children have died of COVID-19 in the USA. Not one has died as a consequence of a COVID vaccine. And mark my words and the words of people in my field who are much, much smarter than I am; we will not get out of this pandemic without immunizing our children. Immunizing them not only protects them against a vicious virus but it will protect the population and it will get allow us to get this virus under control. I do not envy any parent of young or adolescent children who has had to navigate this pandemic and the non-sensical mis-information that surrounds it. The stress you have lived with is unimaginable to the rest of us. But please, don't stop now. Keep going. Get your kids immunized. Please share. Anne-Marie For non-Facebook users, you can find this post here: https://braceletofhope.blogspot.com/