We already knew Donald Trump didn’t
understand medicine. He once again
parroted the tired falsehood that autism
and vaccines have anything to do with
each other. They don’t . He added insult
to injury by also repeating the tired
falsehood that “autism has become an
epidemic.” Not only is that untrue , it’s
offensive to the millions of autistic
individuals living rich lives and the
families and friends who love them. But
sweeping inaccurate statements and
being offensive are nothing new for
Trump.
What I found far more disturbing were
the contributions of the only two people
on stage for last night’s CNN Republican
debate who actually have medical
licenses (as opposed to the one man who
thinks he does). Ben Carson, a
neurosurgeon, and Rand Paul, an
ophthalmologist, weighed in on vaccines
when the moderator asked Carson
whether Trump should stop beating his
autism-vaccines drum. (Yes, he should.)
Carson correctly responded that “We
have extremely well documented proof
that there’s no autism associated with
vaccinations.” Anyone can see a
summary of more than two dozen of
these studies at the American Academy
of Pediatrics (AAP) website. The problem
is that he didn’t stop there.
“Vaccines are very important, certain
ones — the ones that would prevent
death or crippling,” he said. “There are
others, a multitude of vaccines that don’t
fit in that category, and there should be
some discretion in those cases.”
The problem is, our country doesn’t
make or recommend vaccines that aren’t
important, that don’t prevent death. So, I
have a question for Dr. Carson. Below
are the vaccines recommended through
age 18. I’d like to know which one of
these we should “use discretion” with.
Which ones are not important enough to
administer?
Let’s review the vaccines on the CDC
childhood schedule from birth to age 18 :
Hepatitis B — Prevents a chronic
infection which can lead to liver
cancer. And kill you.
Rotavirus — Prevents a
gastrointestinal virus which kills
nearly a half million children across
the world annually. Death is rare in
the U.S. Instead, your child will
spend a week in the hospital,
miserable, crying, with severe
diarrhea, while you look on
helplessly.
DTaP — Prevents diphtheria, which
killed a child in Spain last year;
prevents tetanus, which kills 1 in 8
who get it; prevents pertussis
(whooping cough), which killed 10
babies in California in the 2010
epidemic. (Babies under 3 months
old are most likely to die from
pertussis.)
Hib — Prevents Haemophilus
influenzae type b, a type of
meningitis which killed 1,000 U.S.
children a year before the vaccine.
Pneumococcal — Prevents
pneumonia and meningitis. Which
kills 1 in 15 children who get it.
Inactivated polio vaccine — Prevents
polio. Which can paralyze you. Or
kill you.
Influenza — Prevents the flu. Which
kills children every year. It killed
healthy 3-year-old Emily Lastinger .
And 13-year-old Brittney Peters .
And 9-year-old Brandon Gonzales .
MMR — Prevents measles, which
can cause brain damage and killed
123 children during the 1989-90
epidemic in the U.S.; prevents
mumps, which rarely kills (though
it can) but can cause deafness and
infertility; prevents rubella, which
can cause miscarriage, stillbirth,
birth defects… and autism .
Hepatitis A — Prevents hepatitis ,
which, yes, rarely, can kill you.
Varicella — Prevents chickenpox,
which killed about 100 children a
year before the vaccine. It also
killed this girl’s father.
Meningococcal — Prevents
meningitis, which maims and kills
children and teens. It killed Texas
A&M student Nicolis Williams .
HPV — Prevents human
papillomavirus, which can lead to
cervical, vaginal, vulval, anal,
penile and throat and neck cancers .
Which can kill you .
That’s it. Those are the only vaccines
that the CDC recommends families give
their child, barring any medical
contraindications. Which ones should we
stop administering, Ben Carson?
But he still wasn’t done. He had to
address Trump’s other nonsense when
Trump claimed “I am totally in favor of
vaccines, but I want smaller doses over a
longer period of time.” Vaccines are very
precisely manufactured to include only
what is absolutely necessary to induce
enough of an immune response that the
body can protect itself against those
diseases. So a smaller dose wouldn’t
protect a child. It would stick a child
with a needle for no reason at all. And
spreading out vaccines? That just
increases the risks to the children,
including leaving them more susceptible
to the diseases for a longer period of
time. Trump is not “totally in favor of
vaccines” if he doesn’t want children
protected from the diseases above as
early as possible.
But Carson’s pandering response was
worse: “But it is true that we are
probably giving way too many in too
short a period of time, and a lot of
pediatricians now recognize that and, I
think, are cutting down on the number
and the proximity in which those are
done.” Again, the CDC schedule is
calibrated to give children the most
protection from the most diseases as
early and safely as possible . And that
second part? That’s flat out false.
The only pediatricians who promote
delaying vaccines are the irresponsible
ones who would leave children more
vulnerable to disease for longer. The
policy statements of the AAP make it
very clear that the largest organization of
pediatricians in the U.S. supports the
CDC schedule, does not support any
delayed schedule, and wants to help
pediatricians in ensuring that all the
children in their practice are fully
protected.
So the only thing “a lot of pediatricians”
recognize is that low immunization rates
can cause serious outbreaks like the
Disneyland measles outbreak last year.
Any responsible pediatrician is
encouraging parents to follow the CDC
recommended schedule.
Finally it was time for Paul to jump in:
“I’m all for vaccines, but I’m also for
freedom,” he said. “Even if the science
doesn’t say bunching them up is a
problem, I ought to have the right to say
I want to spread them out.”
I’m for freedom too, Rand Paul. I’m for
freedom from disease. I’m in favor of
ensuring that my child and those in my
community don’t get sick from measles
and die because fear has led others in
the community not to vaccinate their
children. As former Supreme Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said,
“The right to swing my fist ends where
the other man’s nose begins.” And the
problem when someone else spreads out
vaccines and gets sick in the interim is
that that person can spread the disease
to others. As the libertarian magazine
Reason noted on this issue, the right to
make up your own schedule becomes
problematic when your child is
“swinging their microbes at other
people.”
Perhaps it’s too much to ask for
presidential candidates to understand
even basic medical concepts, such as
vaccines. But at the very least, we should
expect the two men who have practiced
medicine to understand them. If they
don’t understand the subject matter
they’ve made careers out of, what
confidence does that offer for their
leadership of a nation?
And for what I wish were the last time.
Vaccines don’t cause autism. They just
don’t .
understand medicine. He once again
parroted the tired falsehood that autism
and vaccines have anything to do with
each other. They don’t . He added insult
to injury by also repeating the tired
falsehood that “autism has become an
epidemic.” Not only is that untrue , it’s
offensive to the millions of autistic
individuals living rich lives and the
families and friends who love them. But
sweeping inaccurate statements and
being offensive are nothing new for
Trump.
What I found far more disturbing were
the contributions of the only two people
on stage for last night’s CNN Republican
debate who actually have medical
licenses (as opposed to the one man who
thinks he does). Ben Carson, a
neurosurgeon, and Rand Paul, an
ophthalmologist, weighed in on vaccines
when the moderator asked Carson
whether Trump should stop beating his
autism-vaccines drum. (Yes, he should.)
Carson correctly responded that “We
have extremely well documented proof
that there’s no autism associated with
vaccinations.” Anyone can see a
summary of more than two dozen of
these studies at the American Academy
of Pediatrics (AAP) website. The problem
is that he didn’t stop there.
“Vaccines are very important, certain
ones — the ones that would prevent
death or crippling,” he said. “There are
others, a multitude of vaccines that don’t
fit in that category, and there should be
some discretion in those cases.”
The problem is, our country doesn’t
make or recommend vaccines that aren’t
important, that don’t prevent death. So, I
have a question for Dr. Carson. Below
are the vaccines recommended through
age 18. I’d like to know which one of
these we should “use discretion” with.
Which ones are not important enough to
administer?
Let’s review the vaccines on the CDC
childhood schedule from birth to age 18 :
Hepatitis B — Prevents a chronic
infection which can lead to liver
cancer. And kill you.
Rotavirus — Prevents a
gastrointestinal virus which kills
nearly a half million children across
the world annually. Death is rare in
the U.S. Instead, your child will
spend a week in the hospital,
miserable, crying, with severe
diarrhea, while you look on
helplessly.
DTaP — Prevents diphtheria, which
killed a child in Spain last year;
prevents tetanus, which kills 1 in 8
who get it; prevents pertussis
(whooping cough), which killed 10
babies in California in the 2010
epidemic. (Babies under 3 months
old are most likely to die from
pertussis.)
Hib — Prevents Haemophilus
influenzae type b, a type of
meningitis which killed 1,000 U.S.
children a year before the vaccine.
Pneumococcal — Prevents
pneumonia and meningitis. Which
kills 1 in 15 children who get it.
Inactivated polio vaccine — Prevents
polio. Which can paralyze you. Or
kill you.
Influenza — Prevents the flu. Which
kills children every year. It killed
healthy 3-year-old Emily Lastinger .
And 13-year-old Brittney Peters .
And 9-year-old Brandon Gonzales .
MMR — Prevents measles, which
can cause brain damage and killed
123 children during the 1989-90
epidemic in the U.S.; prevents
mumps, which rarely kills (though
it can) but can cause deafness and
infertility; prevents rubella, which
can cause miscarriage, stillbirth,
birth defects… and autism .
Hepatitis A — Prevents hepatitis ,
which, yes, rarely, can kill you.
Varicella — Prevents chickenpox,
which killed about 100 children a
year before the vaccine. It also
killed this girl’s father.
Meningococcal — Prevents
meningitis, which maims and kills
children and teens. It killed Texas
A&M student Nicolis Williams .
HPV — Prevents human
papillomavirus, which can lead to
cervical, vaginal, vulval, anal,
penile and throat and neck cancers .
Which can kill you .
That’s it. Those are the only vaccines
that the CDC recommends families give
their child, barring any medical
contraindications. Which ones should we
stop administering, Ben Carson?
But he still wasn’t done. He had to
address Trump’s other nonsense when
Trump claimed “I am totally in favor of
vaccines, but I want smaller doses over a
longer period of time.” Vaccines are very
precisely manufactured to include only
what is absolutely necessary to induce
enough of an immune response that the
body can protect itself against those
diseases. So a smaller dose wouldn’t
protect a child. It would stick a child
with a needle for no reason at all. And
spreading out vaccines? That just
increases the risks to the children,
including leaving them more susceptible
to the diseases for a longer period of
time. Trump is not “totally in favor of
vaccines” if he doesn’t want children
protected from the diseases above as
early as possible.
But Carson’s pandering response was
worse: “But it is true that we are
probably giving way too many in too
short a period of time, and a lot of
pediatricians now recognize that and, I
think, are cutting down on the number
and the proximity in which those are
done.” Again, the CDC schedule is
calibrated to give children the most
protection from the most diseases as
early and safely as possible . And that
second part? That’s flat out false.
The only pediatricians who promote
delaying vaccines are the irresponsible
ones who would leave children more
vulnerable to disease for longer. The
policy statements of the AAP make it
very clear that the largest organization of
pediatricians in the U.S. supports the
CDC schedule, does not support any
delayed schedule, and wants to help
pediatricians in ensuring that all the
children in their practice are fully
protected.
So the only thing “a lot of pediatricians”
recognize is that low immunization rates
can cause serious outbreaks like the
Disneyland measles outbreak last year.
Any responsible pediatrician is
encouraging parents to follow the CDC
recommended schedule.
Finally it was time for Paul to jump in:
“I’m all for vaccines, but I’m also for
freedom,” he said. “Even if the science
doesn’t say bunching them up is a
problem, I ought to have the right to say
I want to spread them out.”
I’m for freedom too, Rand Paul. I’m for
freedom from disease. I’m in favor of
ensuring that my child and those in my
community don’t get sick from measles
and die because fear has led others in
the community not to vaccinate their
children. As former Supreme Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said,
“The right to swing my fist ends where
the other man’s nose begins.” And the
problem when someone else spreads out
vaccines and gets sick in the interim is
that that person can spread the disease
to others. As the libertarian magazine
Reason noted on this issue, the right to
make up your own schedule becomes
problematic when your child is
“swinging their microbes at other
people.”
Perhaps it’s too much to ask for
presidential candidates to understand
even basic medical concepts, such as
vaccines. But at the very least, we should
expect the two men who have practiced
medicine to understand them. If they
don’t understand the subject matter
they’ve made careers out of, what
confidence does that offer for their
leadership of a nation?
And for what I wish were the last time.
Vaccines don’t cause autism. They just
don’t .
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