vaccines
A recent article in Scientific American upends the conventional wisdom about what caused the recent spike in mumps in the US. In 2016 there were about 4,000 cases across the US; in 2010, there were about 2,000.

If you followed the mainstream press and a number of opportunistic politicians, the answer was clear: unvaccinated kids were the cause. Parents who didn't vaccinate their kids according to the government's schedule were vilified and derided in the opinion columns of newspapers and magazines, and state politicians like Sen. Richard Pan of California used the hysteria to enact legislation (SB 277) that eliminated parents' right to decide whether and how to vaccinate their children.

The idea that unvaccinated kids was the cause of the uptick in mumps cases doesn't hold up. According even to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a staunch supporter of the government vaccination schedule, most mumps patients said they had received both shots of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. The states with the most cases of mumps had vaccination rates of 90% or higher—a threshold where herd immunity should exist if it is ever going to exist. (The herd immunity hypothesis states that a very high percentage of a community must be vaccinated in order to protect everyone (the herd) from a disease. This is supposed to work because there are not enough vulnerable individuals to allow the disease to spread. The hypothesis does not hold up.

Mumps has occurred in schools that have a 98% vaccination rate. It is also spreading among vaccinated kids on college campuses. At the University of Missouri, there were 193 reported cases of mumps, and all patients treated by the university had received two MMR shots.

If it wasn't unvaccinated kids spreading mumps, then what caused the outbreak? Some scientists—including Dr. Paul Offit, who wants to expand the government schedule of vaccines even more and who has a notorious conflict of interest—are suggesting that the reason for the increase in mumps cases is due to the waning effectiveness of the vaccine. Some think that the vaccine may not fit the current strain of mumps. Of course, those who think, like Offit, that kids could get 10,000 vaccines at once and be perfectly fine will see this evidence and suggest that kids should get an additional MMR shot! Note that the MMR has been considered perhaps the second riskiest shot. Note also that the mumps vaccine might be safer if it weren't combined with the others, but no one in the medical establishment wants to acknowledge that point.

Without the false herd immunity argument, the case for forcing all kids to get vaccinated collapses. If the underlying assumption is false, then there's no rationale for removing non-medical exemptions to vaccination—unless the true goal is not to increase public safety, but to guarantee profits for the vaccine industry!


Comment: : More nonsense: Vaccines and "herd immunity"

From another point of view, herd immunity is the idea that people who "can't be" vaccinated (for example, those who are obviously allergic to elements contained in vaccines) will gain a measure of protection, if larger and larger numbers of others are vaccinated.

The vaccinated protecting the unvaccinated.

This is foolish, because what actually protects people against disease is the strength of their immune systems, and that strength has nothing to do with vaccination.

Key points to consider when addressing the idea of 'Herd immunity'
  • Even though endemic outbreaks of common childhood diseases, such as measles, have been eliminated in some regions after prolonged mass-vaccination efforts, we are still being constantly reminded that reducing vaccination coverage of children in a community poses the risk of a reimported disease outbreak with potentially dire consequences to infants and immuno-compromised individuals. We are also being persuaded that implementing strict vaccination compliance will prevent an outbreak and protect vaccine-ineligible infants via the herd-immunity effect.
  • There is no question that a disease outbreak can happen in a non-immune community, if a virus gets there. The real question is, how well can high-vaccination compliance ensure herd immunity and protect a community from an outbreak?
  • The belief in herd immunity has no doubt been influencing vaccine-related legislation in many U.S. states and other countries. This notion is used as a trump card to justify and mandate legal measures aiming to increase vaccination compliance. An implicit assumption is that liberal vaccine exemptions somehow compromise this precious herd immunity, which the public-health authorities strive to establish and maintain via vaccination.
  • The medical establishment got it all in reverse: it is not vaccine-exempt children who endanger us all, it is the effects of prolonged mass-vaccination campaigns that have done so. When will the medical establishment (and the media) start paying attention to the long-term consequences of mass-vaccination measures instead of hastily and unjustifiably blaming every outbreak on the unvaccinated?