Anti-vax campaign reaches a dreadful new low
IT is a bereaved parent’s right to reject science in favour of feelings, but it’s not their right to frighten other parents away from life-saving vaccinations, writes Jane Hansen.
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“VACCINES killed my baby.”
That’s the alarming headline on a pamphlet currently being dropped in letter boxes around the country. It’s emotive, terrifying, and wrong.
The person behind the pamphlet is anti-vaccine campaigner Stephanie Messenger who also penned a book “written to educate children on the benefits of having measles” which claims carrot and melon juice are effective treatments.
It is a terrifying story she shares on the pamphlet: that she did the right thing and vaccinated her baby and then he started to slowly die. It is a powerful story capable of instilling fear for any prospective mother.
“Deaths from vaccines are being hidden from the public,” the pamphlet states.
But sadly, the story Ms Messenger shares, and no doubt truly believes, is not the full story.
There is an Adverse Events Following Immunisation register monitored by health officials. All are investigated. If vaccines are involved in serious side effects, systems are in place to investigate, as was the case with Fluvax in 2010 which causes a spate of febrile convulsions in children. It was banned and remains so for all children under 5. If a death is recorded within days of vaccination, again there is an investigation. In the rare event of a death, there is always another cause. Vaccines are under incredible scrutiny for safety.
There is no “cover-up” as Ms Messenger alleges.
The pamphlet links to Ms Messenger’s blog where she tells the heartbreaking story of her son Jason Drew, whose health started to deteriorate around six months of age. He was subjected to months of medical examination at the Children’s Hospital in Camperdown in 1977 before he was diagnosed with an inherited genetic disorder called Alexander’s Disease which in its “neonatal form leads to severe disability or death within two years.”
Jason’s illness started to present around six months of age, which coincided with his routine triple antigen vaccination, but the timing, and the symptoms she describes her baby suffering, are in line with the symptoms of Alexander’s Disease.
Alexander’s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes seizures, hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain) and severe motor and intellectual disability. The symptoms get progressively worse until death. It is not something you would wish on anyone.
“He started arching his back and crying out in pain. He was as stiff as a board. His eyes would roll into the back of his head. He didn’t have a temperature. He had also started shuddering but he wasn’t cold. (I later learnt from the doctor these were convulsions and seizures),” Ms Messenger writes.
“Vaccination killed him, I have no doubt.”
Ms Messenger states that doctors told her that her son’s condition was Alexander’s Disease — “They said it was genetic. They went on to explain why I should never have any more children as they could all be inflicted with this condition.”
Ms Messenger’s husband at the time, and Jason’s father, Gary Drew, told me he was devastated by his son’s diagnosis.
“They said it was Alexander’s disease, they told us not to have any more kids as it would happen again and it broke my heart in half,” Mr Drew said. “I know it ruined my marriage.”
Asked if he agreed with his ex-wife that vaccines were at fault, Mr Drew said “all I know is he died, I’m a motor mechanic, not a doctor.”
I’m a bereaved parent myself, so I am the last to take aim at another mother who has lived such a hell. But claiming vaccines killed your child, and using that as ammunition in a war on vaccines when there is a likely medical explanation is just plain wrong.
It is Ms Messenger’s prerogative to reject the scientific explanation in favour of her own feelings, but she does not have the right to frighten other vulnerable new parents off the proven benefits of vaccination.
When I called Ms Messenger about the pamphlet, she said “I don’t want to speak to you, I know who you are,” and then hung up.
Ms Messenger has also linked vaccination with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
This is the credibility problem the antivax brigade has. They use fear as a weapon and claim vaccines are the root cause of just about every ailment: cancer, allergies, ADHD, SIDS, you name it, but they do so without any scientific backing and contrary to existing evidence. It’s just a scary story.
Scientists now know autism has a genetic component and no-one knows just what else comes into play, but they do know vaccination is not one of them because they have looked, time and time again. The link has been disproved 100 times over, even by a 500,000 strong Norwegian study that showed autism rates in unvaccinated children are the same as the vaccinated community. But this fact is rejected by antivaxxers in favour of a fraudulent paper by a struck off doctor who looked at just 11 kids. (Andrew Wakefield was stuck off for medical fraud, and failed to disclose he accepted over $500,000 from lawyers representing the 11 autistic children in a suit again the MMR vaccine). He is now the producer on another fact-devoid story called Vaxxed, currently travelling around Australia regurgitating the same nonsense about cover-ups and catastrophes. The fact white children in the USA have a higher rate of autism is the essential fact that blows the Vaxxed “conspiracy” — that African American children are more prone to autism post vaccination — out of the water.
Cancer is on the rise too they say, again blaming vaccines. Improved diagnostic tests and screening is part of the story, but the real causes of many cancers are now well-known: smoking, obesity, excessive alcohol, too much red meat, and chemical and pesticide exposure. The science is pointing to viruses actually triggering some cancers, like the human papilloma virus. The fact the vaccine is the reason cervical cancer will diminish is also ignored. Again, facts.
All these facts have a habit of ruining a really scary story.