A Double Loss for Anti-Vaxxers

How Anti-Vaccination Can and Does Kill - A Case Example

Earlier last week I came across an tragic article on how a child died of meningitis at the hands of anti-vaccination and naturopathic  parents. Sadly, this is one of many. Too many. The article was titled ‘Toddler died from meningitis after anti-vaxx parents treated him with maple syrup instead of medicine’ – which is pretty much a summation of the story (Bias, I know. There are other headlines, however, I chose this for its accuracy). I have avoided writing a full blog on vaccines for one reason – it really isn’t bloody necessary. Vaccinate.

The story varies ever so slightly from article to article, but the gist remains the same. Two Mormons, David and Collet Stephen from Canada, who own a nutrition business, denied their 18-month child proper healthcare, ultimately leading to his death. Their midwife testified in court stating that the child had been suffering from meningitis and had ‘advised that they consult a doctor’ – a perfectly reasonable suggestion. Meningitis is an infection of the membranes around the spinal cord, causing damage to nerves.  The NHS reports that in 2012 there were 2350 registered cases of meningitis in the UK – a figure which has dropped with the introduction of vaccines. The Men C Vaccine is the vaccine used for the protection of meningococcal bacteria – which leads to meningitis. Currently, the vaccine is only distributed to children under 5 (as they are most at risk) and a booster is administered to people aged 15-19. Here in the UK, there is currently a petition underway to get an advance to the vaccine to be administered at any time.

The Stephens, however, decided to treat the lethargic 18-month old that had started to become stiff with supplements using an eye dropper. The supplements included; frozen berries, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, mashed onion, garlic, ginger, peppers and horseradish as well as their own manufactured supplements from their ‘company’. I guess there are two questions here; Why didn’t they vaccinate and what the hell were they thinking? One can only hope they have had lobotomies of some form, but given their professions, it is pretty clear they are on the side of pseudoscience. Meningitis C has an excellent safety record, there is no reason to not vaccinate. Unless you, of course, are a complete moron.

So, who is at fault here? The parents who neglected to get their child appropriate medical care? The courts appear to disagree, with many articles stating that the prosecutors have said:

“I am not saying they killed him, abused him or ignored him. They loved him. They didn’t get to a doctor until it was too late.’

Apparently they believed they are being persecuted by social media and are ‘being treated unfairly’. I guess the question becomes, are they being treated unfairly? They ‘feel’ they acted in a way that was suitable. Ignorant to the fact that they have no medical knowledge and there is absolutely no scientific evidence that any of those remedies would work. So then, is the ignorance okay? No, they went directly against the advice of the midwife. At the end of all this, they made a decision. To treat him with natural ‘remedies’ and not make the orthodox decision to take him to a doctor was a decision they made together, which lead to his death. They even have a *ahem* ‘support group’ set up to help them in response to the trial. 

 

A Win For the Vaccinators

A more uplifting story however, I came across today, was the story of a mother who refused to get her child vaccinated after she thought that the vaccines the child was receiving contained pork gelatin. The mother in question was indeed Muslim and claimed that on religious grounds, she would not vaccinate her children. Not that uplifting you are thinking? Well, after reviewing the case the judge in the UK ruled that the children get vaccinations after telling her she had ‘a paranoid view of the world’. It was, apparently, clearly communicated to her that the vaccines she was actually denying her children, do not actually contain the gelatin. She still refused, after, reportedly, a lot of excuses. Evermore, the children have been removed from her care and put into the care of their father. I’d like to point out here, this decision wasn’t solely based on her ridiculous reasons not to vaccinate. There are vaccines that do contain porcine gelatin, which is used as a drug stabiliser; Fluenz Tetra, Zostavax and MMR – If you ask my opinion on not vaccinating on the grounds of religious reasons, I’m sure you could just guess it?

Why Worry?

I will address one thing with regards to vaccines. I CONSTANTLY come into the argument of ‘If your child is vaccinated, what are you worried about?’. On the links to the news articles, if you scroll to the comments, you will see that people have actually commented with this. Not shockingly, vaccines, like everything in medicine, are not 100% effective. Meaning that, an un-vaccinated child can increase the risk of disease for everyone that is exposed. This includes the children that cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. According to the Journal of American Medicine Association, 56% of recent measles cases in the USA occurred in choice induced un-vaccinated children – the other percentage of cases were located in areas with densely populated un-vaccinated children (through parents’ choice). This pretty much speaks for itself. A found a video which perfectly explains the concept of herd immunity, it is really worth a watch. 

 

Conclusion

We clearly have some discord the in justice systems across the ponds. It is a terrible loss that a child died because two parents were untrusting of medicine in this day. I’m not going to get into the logistic minds of vaccine-deniers, mainly because I can’t get my head that far up my own ass that I can’t read a textbook, but also because it is a subject that is covered time and time again by excellent bloggers and doctors. I will however, take an example posted in one of the comment sections of the news articles:

“there's more than pork fat to worry about in vaccines. I wouldn't inflict these on my kids. My youngest is the healthiest person I know and he's had none! Look at the religious communities across the USA who shut themselves off from the main stream, they don't vaccinate their kids and they are healthier than most (no autism either!) “

I can’t even begin to dissect this, it is beyond derisory. I will say this, anti-vaxxers are the pinnacle of anti-science, they argue without fact, shift goalposts and argue from ignorance – they will never be satisfied in the face of science, but how many people have to die before they turn? One is even too many. Also, there is no association of autism with vaccines. Vaccinate.