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Growing anti-vaccination trend causes concern in region, state of Michigan

It’s easy to label anti-vaccine rhetoric spouted by a tiny handful of outspoken activists as gullible, short-sighted and even dangerous.

But the natural next step – to say parents who seek waivers to prevent their children from getting vaccinated are also gullible and short-sighted – is an overbroad generalization.

But given the lack of scientific support for anti-vaccine claims, and the possible repercussions, it’s not unfair or even unreasonable for parents and school officials to urge those who seek waivers to perform the due diligence required before making such a decision.

Like the vocal opposition to fluoridating drinking water, the anti-vaccine movement is based on pseudo-science that doesn’t stand up to even basic scrutiny.

The anti-vaccine movement hangs its hat mostly on claims that thimerosal, a preservative that had been added to vaccines for more than 70 years – it has been removed from most childhood vaccines in the United States in an effort to mollify anti-vaccine crusaders – can cause autism.

Over the past 15 years or more, studies at a number of major medical institutions have concluded there’s no link between autism and exposure to Thimerosal.

The nearest the anti-vaccine community comes to a scientific basis comes from Mark Geier, M.D., a former researcher at the National Institutes of Health who now is best known as an expert witness in vaccine injury lawsuits.

His claims have been widely and almost universally debunked by fellow scientists, but some anti-vaccine activists still claim the U.S. government has conspired with vaccine manufacturers to cover up the truth.

Today, the movement depends mostly on the celebrity of Jenny McCarthy, a model, TV talker and actress who has said her son has autism caused by vaccines (a claim she has recently backed away from.)

McCarthy has exposed her son to a host of treatments, including gluten-free and casein-free diets, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, chelation therapy, aromatherapies, electromagnetics, spoons rubbed on his body, multivitamin therapy, B-12 shots and numerous prescription drugs.

Obviously, McCarthy’s efforts lack a basis in science, just as her anti-vaccine campaign does. But she still gets air time to spout.

The lack of immunizations is moving toward a crisis level here. The percentage of students whose parents have sought immunization waivers in the Grand Traverse area is one of the highest in the state. Grand Traverse ranks 74th and Leelanau 82nd out of 83 Michigan counties. Antrim, Benzie and Kalkaska are 26th, 32nd and 52nd, respectively.

Michigan parents can waive vaccinations for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. Health officials say the number of families opting out is on the rise.

“In order to prevent an outbreak from happening in a group, you need to have generally 90 percent (of them) immunized,” said Michael Collins, medical director for the Grand Traverse, Benzie and Leelanau county health departments.

State data from public and private schools in Grand Traverse County show 11 percent of kindergarten, sixth-grade and new students waived vaccination. The state average is 6.3 percent.

Traverse City Area Public Schools’ Montessori School at Glenn Loomis Elementary has waivers for 25 percent of its 97 kindergarten, sixth-grade and new students. That’s frightening.

Parents need to decide what’s best for their own children but they must also consider the wider public good. There is virtually no scientific support for not allowing kids to be vaccinated and parents owe it to their children and the community to give as much credence to solid, peer-reviewed, widely accepted science as they do the claims of a tiny handful of activists.

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