(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Do Vaccines Work? Why do we even ask? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-17 Do vaccines work? Why do we even have to ask this question well into the 21st century? Of course they do, they have been working for well over a century with civilization saving results. Do we not remember the millions of people that used to die of or be incapacitated by infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, mumps, polio and Rubella? How many people die of such diseases now? The decline is mainly due to the discovery and deployment of vaccines. Let’s take a look at some eye-opening stats from Project Tycho, neatly graphed at graphics.wsj.com/… The following “heat map” graphics show the number of cases per 100,000 people for a few diseases measured over 70-some years and across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Note how the prevalence of the diseases declined very rapidly after vaccines were introduced. graphics.wsj.com/... Here is a graphic of the number of lives saved globally in the 50 years between 1974 and 2004. Since 1974, vaccination has averted 154 million deaths, including 146 million among children younger than 5 years of whom 101 million were infants younger than 1 year. For every death averted, 66 years of full health were gained on average, translating to 10·2 billion years of full health gained. Of course, many more millions of lives were saved before 1974. www.thelancet.com/... www.gavi.org/... Let’s show this data to our vaccine-denying friends and family and hope it opens some eyes. The website has additional such graphics for Hepatitis A, Mumps, Pertussis (Whooping Cough) and Rubella. What are vaccines? Vaccines are biological preparations, that work by imitating an infection to engage the body's natural defenses. The active ingredient in all vaccines is an antigen, the name for any substance that causes the immune system to begin producing antibodies. In a vaccine, the antigen could be either - Weakened or killed bacteria or viruses Bits of their exterior surface or genetic material, or Bacterial toxin treated to make it non-toxic. The immune system recognizes vaccine agents as foreign, destroys them, and "remembers" them. When the virulent version of an agent is encountered, the body recognizes the protein coat on the agent, and thus is prepared to respond, by first neutralizing the target agent before it can enter cells, and secondly by recognizing and destroying infected cells before that agent can multiply to vast numbers. Sources: www.cdc.gov/… en.wikipedia.org/… The graphic illustrates how mRNA vaccines work. mRNA vaccines work slightly differently than other vaccines in that they induce normal cells into producing bits of proteins found on the surface of a virus that the immune system then recognizes and produces antibodies against them. Vaccines are based on science. Scientific discoveries are not made and peddled by vested individuals; they are studied, investigated, replicated, tested, and improved by thousands of scientists, experts and organizations worldwide. A vaccine takes many years of development and clinical trials before it is introduced to the general public. Vaccines can eradicate a disease when enough people take it, so that the pathogen runs out of hosts and stops spreading. Vaccines are not perfect; they may be ineffective or produce adverse effects in a small number of cases. But that is true of any major medicine or procedure of modern life. That does not mean you reject the entire science of vaccines and resort to voodoo medicine. It means we let scientists study the underlying reasons, make advancements and develop improvements. The far-right disinformation campaign The far-right (the republican party) and its media apparatus has been very successful in sowing doubts and fear about vaccines (and about science and scientists) over many decades. Social media is rampant with posts describing vaccines as harmful, causing autism, etc. The disinformation campaign ramped up during the trump COVID years, even though trump thankfully helped fast-track the development of COVID vaccines. RFK Jr. has made a career out of vaccine denialism and now he is about to become the head of HHS (which includes the NIH, CDC and the FDA). E.g., one often sees posts of Xitter about how kids are pumped with 72 doses of vaccines. The reality is quite different - Check out the bluesky account of Biomedical Scientist and Immunologist Andrea Love, PhD for lots of additional, easy-to-understand info on vaccines and vaccine education. We are sure there is more than ideology behind these campaigns; there is the profit motive in being able to peddle junk medicine (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, home remedies, vitamins and supplements) at inflated prices and which can be developed and produced at very low cost. Why disinformation campaigns work. There are many reasons why such campaigns work — the overall lack of education and science literacy esp. among republicans the lack of critical thinking abilities to distinguish between rigorous science based results vs anecdotal often false information the relentless right-wing media echo system, the susceptibility of many to junk-science which offers quick solutions a feeling of superiority over scientists and other educated folks and an opportunity to “own the libs” the failure of the MSM to educate the public This survey by PEW shows the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans on how much they trust scientists. 34% of republicans do not trust scientists; who do they trust instead? Talk-show hosts, social media trolls, Republican politicians? 65% of Republicans say that scientists should stay out of science-related policy debates. And leave science-related policy to whom — the clergy and snake-oil salesmen? Coincidence vs Causation A lot of the disinformation about vaccines and science is based on non-scientists creating correlations between say a disease and some other factor. Andrea Love perfectly illustrates the stupidity and danger of such campaigns by showing the silly correlation between autism and organic food sales. A modern case of the effects of vaccine denial The following line charts show cumulative death rates by COVID for counties, categorized based on Donald Trump's share of votes received in 2020 election. After the December 2020 introduction of COVID vaccines, there is a stark gap in death rates between Democrats and Republicans. Why? As of March 2024, more than 30 percent of Republicans had not received a Covid vaccine, compared with less than 10 percent of Democrats. This is the price republican voters have paid for listening to quacks and snake-oil peddlers; the price is about to get much higher with the new trump administration. But most of them will continue to stay oblivious of the facts. Epilogue We are currently in a dark place, not just because of trump but also because the wider right-wing ecosystem that has taken over like a virus in a sizeable fraction of our population. It will take time and a concerted effort to bring America back to the 21st century. We have to do our part in staying energized, educating to the public and helping strengthen the anti-disinformation immune system of the country. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/17/2286661/-Do-Vaccines-Work-Why-do-we-even-ask?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/