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Vaccines May Soon Be Mandatory For Children In France (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Last week, the French Health Ministry announced plans to make 11 vaccines mandatory for young children by 2018. French law currently mandates three vaccines -- diphtheria, tetanus, and polio -- for children under the age of two. The government's proposal would expand that list to include eight other vaccines -- including those against Hepatitis B, whooping cough, and measles -- that were previously only recommended. The proposal, which is to be presented to lawmakers by the end of this year, comes amid an ongoing measles outbreak across Europe, which the World Health Organization (WHO) attributed to low immunization rates. Italy passed a similar decree in May, requiring children to receive 10 vaccines as a condition for school enrollment. Germany, while stopping short of a mandate, has moved to tighten its laws on child immunization. But some experts question whether a vaccination mandate will sway public opinion in France, where distrust in vaccines has risen alarmingly in recent years. In a survey published last year, 41 percent of respondents in France disagreed with the statement that vaccines are safe -- the highest rate of distrust among the 67 countries that were surveyed, and more than three times higher than the global average.
Polio. Measles. Tuberculosis. Influenza. Rubella. Hepatitis. Smallpox.
Sadly, vaccines are a victim of their own success. Vaccines are indisputably the single most lifesaving medical development in the entire course of human history, more than surgery or anesthesia or pharmaceuticals. And perhaps it is the ultimate irony that it is only because they have worked so spectacularly well that humans, in their seemingly infinite capacity for stupidity, have somehow managed to grow to distrust them, because people in industrialized nations have almost entirely forgotten what it was like to live in a time when these diseases were not only common, but pervasive in the general population. Entire communities were decimated by polio. People have forgotten the death and the panic and the fear of these diseases.
The present situation is the result of a failure to educate. Every single child, as soon as they are able to comprehend, must be taught of the history of these pandemics. Not just a recitation of statistics; people need to be SHOWN IN GRAPHIC DETAIL what these diseases did to humanity throughout history.
People built museums to remind ourselves of the Holocaust; of the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge. Yet, for the most part, we do not educate younger generations about the horrific scope of deaths these diseases have wrought on society. Why is that? Is it really only because we care when people die at the hands of despots? Dead is dead. A virus doesn't care who you are.
This could be a big nail in the lid of the anti-vax movement.
They're as immune to facts as the anti-evolution movement.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
For fucks sake, did you actually read my post *at all*?!
Yes, vaccines *work* in the same way - I didn't say they don't. What I did say is that in quite a few cases it can be easier to produce a vaccine for a child than for an adult - and it is, in quite a few cases you can't simply use the child vaccine in an adult, it simply won't work due to the immunological response the adult body will have. There is a reason why Chicken Pox is a *serious* illness in adulthood that can cause death but not really considered a fatal illness for children - because children's bodies work differently! Which is why the shingles vaccination has to be done very carefully for older patients (its a much higher concentration than children are given for chicken pox).
Vaccinating adults is entirely possible, but what can be effective for a child isn't necessarily so for an adult - and in any case, vaccinating in an underdeveloped immune system will always produce better long term results than vaccinating in a developed immune system. That is why we target kids - for both the immediate benefit and for the long term benefits.
My wife (a doctor) is currently laughing her head off at your post...
Take a look at how Tdap vaccine is given based on age - the adult vaccine is formulated differently with a lesser quantity of antigens than the child vaccine, because the vaccine in adults can trigger swelling of the arm its given in, while that doesn't occur in children. Other vaccines require significantly more active ingredient in the adult vaccine because of the immunological response - but increasing the concentration means the formulation of preservative etc has to also change...
There are many many ways in which the age contributes to the vaccine given. Doesn't mean the process of vaccination works differently, but it does mean that the same treatments may be ineffective in an adult, requiring a different vaccine to be developed.
My (standard set of )vaccines are up to date, and then some. Still working on getting a few (that are considered 'optional' by our lovely US insurance companies...price of a vaccine is in the hundreds, price of a hospital stay is in the tens of thousands, yet which option do they seem to promote?), some of them will be tricky to get since they aren't available in this country yet (Hepatitis E, etc.), and others you seem to need to know the secret handshake to get (Bubonic Plague, possibly Smallpox).
On the bright side, I've been vaccinated against things like: Hepatitis A &B (as I said, completely caught up), Rabies, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Tetanus, Diphtheria...
The Cholera vaccine, Vaxchora, seems to be a bit of a disappointment, as its potency drops off in months (may be useful for a short trip, but for those of us who want to get at least a year of decent immunity out of it...no). There's another, Dukoral, which appears to improve in immunity over time, so I might go for that, but there's a question of whether it will be easily available.
And then there's the Anthrax vaccine, which Passport Health offers to the general public, which I have on my list of things to get. Multiple shots, I grant you, and realistically, like The Plague (Black Death), chances are you are a goner if you inhale the spores, as opposed to drink something laced with them or touch something covered in them, but some immunity can be better than none.
The Hepatitis E vaccine is made available via the Chinese, but I believe Mexico (and some other Central American countries) may have it available, so it might be worth picking up while on vacation.
The US military has a vaccine for the Adenovirus, through a singular supplier, though I am not sure how to get access to that. Same with The Plague (Bubonic Plague, The Black Death) as the vaccines for these are still being produced, but the manufacturer isn't listed (from what little I've glanced), and nobody is offering it (i.e. you can't walk into a travel clinic and ask for it, nor is it something that you can ask your family doctor to order for you...).
Additional diseases that we have vaccines for, but are not available to the general public in this country (this is not a complete list): Tick-Borne Encephalitis, Q Fever, Dengue Fever, Tuberculosis, Smallpox.
There are also many vaccines being developed, such as the vaccine for Malaria, Zika, etc.
When the anti-vaccine hysteria was peaking about 15 years ago, the consensus was that it would last until a bunch of children all died from a preventable disease. 35 dead in the current outbreak - we get mandatory vaccines.It's sucks to be right sometimes.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
No, autism is not caused by anything. You are born with it (or well, you even have it before you are born). It's likely genetics, causing the brain to be wired differently (literally). Greetings from the spectrum!
Brain damage can cause autism symptoms in persons with no genetic disposition towards autism.
Oh, and measles can cause encephalitis, which can leave permanent damage, which can result in autism-like symptoms.