Debate

I've been following, with interest, the increasingly contentious debate over whether vaccinations cause autism. Last week's special court ruling denying three families compensation from the federal vaccine-injury fund is considered a significant victory by the pro-vaccination camp.

The ruling came on the heels of a February 8, 2009 article published in the Sunday Times Online, revealing that the leader of the never replicated, now discredited 1998 Lancet study concealed and falsified data to create the appearance of a link between autism and the MMR vaccination.

My interested in the debate is more than academic, as I am part of the 0.01% of the population who had a severe allergic reaction to the first dose of the MMR vaccination and, on the advice of the family doctor, never received the second booster shot. As such, I must rely on herd immunity to protect me from getting sick.

I can't say that my life has been complicated all that much by the fact that I have minimal to no immunity to these three diseases. But there have been several minor inconveniences over the years and the increasing number of otherwise educated and rational parents who have elected to not vaccinate their kids because they fail to understand the concept of risk, leaves me a little bit angry with them.

There has been the inconvenience of having blood drawn done my junior year of high school, after a classmate caught rubella* from a distant cousin. To protect the school population from a potential widespread outbreak, the members of my class were advised to get a booster shot.

Except I can't have the booster. Instead my brother** and I had our blood drawn and sent to the CDC to be tested for immunity. If our immunity fell below a specified level, we would be quarantined and not permitted to return to school for several weeks, as we were not only potential victims, we were also potential carriers.

The tests came back at the lowest acceptable level of immunity. We able to continue attending school.

A year later I had to submit a signed affidavit from my doctor attesting that I was allergic to the vaccination, in order to attend the college of my choice. Four years later I had to get a second affidavit in order to attend graduate school in a different state.

Minor inconveniences. As much as I would like to visit England, it is not an option right now because the rate of measles infections is steadily rising and herd immunity is falling, putting me at potential risk for infection. I have to commit to being more aware of the types of infectious diseases occurring in the places I would like to visit, in the United States and abroad.

Minor inconveniences. An outbreak in Pittsburgh would mean voluntary quarantine to protect myself and members of the immune suppressed population from exposure. Good thing I have the capability of working from home.

I understand and respect the arguments from those who elect to delay vaccinations until their children are a little bit older or spread out the shots in order to mitigate any potential reactions. I even agree with them. I might not have had such a bad reaction to the MMR if I had just had the M, then the other M, then the R.

I have near zero compassion for parents who outright refuse to vaccinate their kids. I believe them to be short-sighted and selfish with no sense of obligation to contributing to the greater good of the general public. Their demand for scientific absolutes is unreasonable. There is no such thing. In science or in life.

*Her vaccination failed. Which is rare, but does happen.
**My twin brother also had a severe allergic reaction to the first shot. Both of us had a high fever of several days duration and hives. He also had convulsions. Less you think a high fever is not a big deal, I must remind you that it lasted several days and we were 13 months old.