This post is written in response to Senator Mullin’s opinion letter of today, which you can read here: http://vtdigger.org/2012/12/
Here are our concerns.
Vermont vaccination rates are not a secret and are available for all to see on the VT Health Department website. These data show that last year, 93% of all Vermont kindergartners were up to date on their pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines. The data also reveal that the total number of children who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons is 43.
To get to the Vermont Immunization surveillance data, click on this link: http://healthvermont.gov/hc/imm/ImmSurv.aspx and scroll down for Data Sources for Vaccine Coverage. The most recent data can be found by clicking on “2011-2012 Report Data.”
As you can easily see, school vaccination rates are increasing – not decreasing.
This is true for all required vaccines in Vermont, and is especially true for whooping cough vaccine.
Obviously Senator Kevin Mullin means well and wants to do the right thing by Vermonters. But how can he do so if he is being fed incorrect statistics and assumptions? From the “highlights of the report” tab in the most recent data report, one can read summary information, which states:
- “The philosophical exemption rate decreased from 5.1% to 4.7% in public schools.”
- “The percentage of students entering kindergarten who were fully immunized (all required vaccinations) was 87.0%. This is an increase from the 83.2% who were fully immunized in the 2010-11 academic year.”
Vermonters – the healthiest in the nation several years running – deserve much, much better than repeated efforts to limit our rights based on incorrect statistics and false assumptions. Don’t you agree?
Perhaps you have time to read more on pertussis. Here is a summary:
“Pertussis vaccine is not our best vaccine, regardless of mutations,” admitted Vermont Health Commissioner Harry Chen during House Testimony in April 2012. Despite making drastically falling vaccination rates and rising exemption rates the cornerstone of an argument for removing the philosophical exemption, data that the Vermont Department of Health had in their files told a different story. In fact, the % of schoolchildren vaccinated against whooping cough has risen steadily for years
Reports are coming in from all over rural America about increases in the number of whooping cough cases. No wonder. Scientists have found – and Vermont Health Department’s own data shows – that, despite high and rising vaccination rates, the Whooping Cough (acellular pertussis) vaccine is failing. Over the summer, the Vermont Health Department was collecting and sharing data on the cases of whooping cough and numbers of vaccines each person had received. You can view the last data chart made available to the public, here:
Given that the whooping cough vaccine product performance is poor, why not work together to better ensure the most positive of health outcomes? Vermonters need to be equipped to deal with the possibility of illness.
“The acellular pertussis vaccine’s failure to deliver durable infection protection to children aged 7-10 years led to the 2010 California pertussis epidemic” said Dr. Tartof, an epidemic intelligence officer in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in Atlanta at the 2011 Infectious Disease Society of America Annual Meeting.
Problems with acellular pertussis vaccines, also known as “DTaP,” are nothing new. Over the last decade the DTaP vaccine has been shown to have “waning immunity” – meaning that it is not protecting from infection, as it should. Many recently published studies indicate not only problems with vaccine performance but also the danger of vaccinated persons serving as silent reservoirs for infection.
According to Tracy Dolan, Deputy Health Commissioner for Vermont, “We do not have any official explanation for the outbreak and have not linked it to the philosophical exemption issue.” She adds that the high number of vaccinated people catching whooping cough this year is, “generally consistent with the national trends.” Dolan’s opinion echoes that of Anne Schuchat, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease who said recently: “We know there are places around the country where there are large numbers of people who aren’t vaccinated. However, we don’t think those exemptors are driving this current wave.”
It is dangerous to propose that vaccinating might protect another person, especially as regards pertussis. This is because people vaccinated for pertussis are still capable of carrying the organism in their respiratory tract and can unknowingly spread pertussis. Informing Vermonters on the facts – #1 that the vaccine is failing and #2 that cases of pertussis can be mild – may be very helpful in protecting the vulnerable. For example, if you have been vaccinated, and have a cough, you may have a mild case of pertussis and should take precautions not to kiss baby.
We all share the common goal of health – for ourselves, for our children and for our community members. Rather than expending more state time and money on regressive legislation and more vaccines, I hope that we can work together to find effective alternatives to support the health of Vermonters.