I better open by making you aware of where this is going – I’m very pro-vaccine.
I’m pulling together an insight using two sources.
The first comes via a CDC report released on Aug 8 and titled “Health and Economic Benefits of Routine Childhood Immunizations in the Era of the Vaccines for Children Program — United States, 1994–2023“. It identifies the huge benefits of childhood vaccinations.
The other comes via a very recent gallup poll released on Aug 7 that used data gathered in July – Far Fewer in U.S. Regard Childhood Vaccinations as Important. Via this poll there are some truly jaw-dropping examples of raw stupidity now being embraced by many.
When we get to the subsection titled “The Very Very Ugly” then you might want to pop a cushion under your jaw to prevent injury as it rapidly descends in response to what that Gallup poll reveals.
First, let’s cover the basics.
The Good
There is very robust evidence that the most successful medical intervention ever created by humans has been vaccinations.
The abundance of evidence for this is available for anybody that cares to actually check.
Polio …
Measles …
Covid …
Yes I know, for that last one some pop up with an “Ah but …“.
OK, let’s briefly cover that as well.
Many of the tinfoil-hat brigade do acknowledge that COVID deaths have been reduced by the vaccine, but they also then claim that there has been an increase in all cause mortality. This is not a factual claim … or to put that another way … they have been lied to, and never bothered to actually check but instead believed the lie.
Here is the truth via an actual objective study: COVID vaccination was associated with LOWER all cause mortality & non-COVID mortality.
I’m really only scratching the surface of the deep impact that vaccines have had. Before the rise of vaccines, which really is not too long ago, the world was a very different place. Once, many had large families, and many did not survive to adulthood …
- Via Child Mortality in the Past: “The chances that a newborn survives childhood have increased from 50% to 96% globally” … “Even as recently as 1950 – a time that some readers might well remember – one in four children died globally.“
Tetanus, Diphtheria, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, HiB, Meningococcus, for most of us, are now no longer a concern.
Smallpox anybody?
Totally eradicated.
Let’s now briefly cover what the new CDC report reveals.
For a bit of context, there’s been a US program called Vaccines for Children (VFC). This has covered the cost of vaccines for children if their families would not otherwise have been able to afford the vaccines. What this CDC study did was to look at the health benefits and the economic impact of routine immunization among both VFC eligible and non eligible children born between 1994 and 2023.
The outcome is very very positive. Here is the high-level summary of it …
What is already known about this topic?
Broad access and availability of vaccines is critical for immunization programs to avert disease. Since 1994, the U.S. Vaccines for Children (VFC) program has covered the cost of vaccines for children whose families might not otherwise be able to afford them.
What is added by this report?
Among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths, resulting in direct savings of $540 billion and societal savings of $2.7 trillion.
What are the implications for public health practice?
During the VFC program era, routine childhood immunizations in the United States have been an important cost-saving public health strategy. Childhood immunizations continue to provide substantial health and economic benefits and promote health equity.
Bottom line: Vaccines are highly beneficial. If you can’t afford them for your kids, no worries, you can have them for free.
For those that argue, but doing that cost me the tax payer money. Nope, that argument simply does not fly. The report reveals that doing VFC actually saw a direct savings of $540 billion and a wider societal saving of $2.7 trillion.
Doing it really is a total win-win no-brainer.
The Bad
But wait, many are now vocally opposed to vaccines, so where does all this Anti-vaccine rhetoric come from?
The Center for Countering Digital Hate conducted a study in 2021 and discovered that there were just 12 people wholly responsible for up to 65% of the utterly false anti-vaccine content on social media platforms.
RFK Jnr was No.2 on that list.
RFK Jnr?
Yes, the brain-worm guy who just threw his support behind Trump after previously assuring his fans that he would never ever do that.
If Kennedy is saying something about vaccines, or for that matter anything at all, then you can more or less guarantee that he is lying. In the context of his Anti-vaccine claims that have been very robustly debunked, he continues in the full knowledge that what he is saying is a lie.
Now this is the really scary part.
If Trump wins, then RFK Jnr will now be in a position of influence – This is not speculation, Trump has acknowledged that this is the deal they made – that would be very very bad.
Speaking of “very very” here comes the ugly part.
The Very Very Ugly
OK, so here it is, this is where we now get into what the Gallup poll reveals, and so here is where you need to fold away your tray tables, buckle up tightly, and brace for impact..
The essence of it is this …
Yes, that’s really bad, but dig a bit and this is what is really going on …
One political party more or less retains the status quo with 63% ticking “Extremely Important”, another 30% ticking “Very Important”, and another 6% opting for “Somewhat important”.
Meanwhile, 11% of the other party have gone for “Not important at all”, 8% “Not very important” and only 26% go for “Extremely Important”.
The charge that they are weird is not just opinion, it is an empirically founded fact. Vast numbers of a party that often expresses the desire to protect kids, also takes the totally bonkers stance of doing the exact opposite.
If you think all that is crazy, well … pause that thought because it gets far worse.
The poll also finds that 20% now hold the view that Vaccines Are More Dangerous Than the Diseases They Are Designed to Prevent.
Shall we do the Republican vs Democrat thing for this as well?
Of course we will.
If asked to guess, well you can see where this is going, and so your thought on how it pans out is of course spot on …
Gallup sum it up like this …
Republicans’ confidence in childhood vaccines has plunged over the past five years, resulting in a significant decline in Americans’ overall belief that these vaccines are important. The changes in attitudes about childhood vaccines were presaged during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Gallup found far fewer Republican (19%) than Democratic parents (90%) saying they would have a young child of theirs (under age 12) vaccinated for COVID-19 once the vaccine was approved for that age group.
This political divide reflected the tendency for Democratic elected officials and party supporters to follow guidance on COVID-19 provided by medical authorities, while Republican elected officials and Republican identifiers were often skeptical of the reliability of that information.
Now, those doubts appear to be extending to childhood vaccines that have long been used to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, as well as the field of science in general.
Gallup are being polite … I’m not inclined to do so.
These people are totally bonkers.
We have already seen the impact of this.
COVID-19 killed over 1 million US citizens.
A vaccine was developed, and it really worked, yet despite that, vast numbers refused it for political reasons (literally stupidity incarnate). A study published in 2023 within the European Journal of Epidemiology estimates that the number of people that need not have died was at least 232,000…
When it comes to political battles and picking a metaphorical hill to die on, refusing the COVID vaccine was a choice. For many, at least 232,000, that metaphorical hill to die on became a literal one.
We can’t ask the 232,000 if they have now changed their mind … because they are dead … by choice.
The madness continues. Many more will now face the consequences of this rising tide of utter lunacy.
Remember the good old days, a time when contagious diseases spread rapidly … well … it looks like we are on track to return to those “happy times”.
“Oh Joy!” (I’ll leave it up to you dear reader to substitute a far stronger term there).