Healthy scepticism is feeding irrational vaccination fears

Any parent who has ever brought a baby for an injection will be familiar with the look of utter betrayal on the little one’s face when sharp needle pierces chubby flesh.

The combination of shock and temporary pain inflicted on the youngster, and the sting of guilt felt by the parent holding them firmly to preventing wriggling as nurse wields vaccine, means the whole experience is not pleasant for either party.

But a small number of Irish parents have allowed mild and reasonable concerns about the side effects of routine immunisations to spiral into an “anti-vax” mindset and are delaying or refusing routine jabs.

At a toddler group in the heart of middle-class south county Dublin recently, one of the mothers told me her children had not been vaccinated because she didn’t believe in putting “poisons” into their bodies.

A healthy scepticism in the face of authority is a good thing. In our dealings with health professionals, the old-fashioned and deferential “doctor knows best” attitude has been largely replaced with a more informed and, if necessary, assertive approach.

Modern medics are generally empathetic and welcoming of queries from worried parents.

Many have children of their own and have asked exactly the same questions at some stage.

It is no exaggeration to say the internet has revolutionised the experience of early parenthood for mothers and, increasingly, fathers, perhaps deprived of a nearby network of experienced extended family members relied upon by previous generations.

Facebook groups and forums on Irish parenting websites can provide reassuring peer-to-peer advice on everything from feeding to comforting a baby.

They don’t teach that kind of stuff in journalism school, or any other sort of school for that matter.

Such consolation, often offered anonymously, can provide a lifeline, particularly in those overwhelming “housebound” early days and nights with a baby when it can feel like the walls are closing in.

But there are also the comments of forlorn Irish mothers who admit to being confused and scared after endless hours of online research, and now worry constantly having decided against vaccines.

Others are more confident in their decision and undoubtedly work hard at building up the strength of their children’s immune systems in other ways. Some have decided to allow vaccines they believe to be the most important.

How do they choose?

Any of us could go on the internet right now and scare ourselves by reading tragic stories or unearthing studies that appear to turn our worst fears into scientific fact.

Suspicion about the power and influence of “Big Pharma” is growing. Trust in information provided by government agencies is in short supply.

But while some concerns are undoubtedly legitimate, I simply do not believe the state is trying to poison or damage our children in other ways through an immunisation schedule.

Others fear or believe vaccines can cause autism, asthma or attention deficit disorder.

The HSE says: “when things happen to our children around the same time as they are immunised, we can wrongly presume that there is a link”.

The signs of autism usually become noticeable at around the age when children are given the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, “but one does not cause the other”.

The experts who guide on vaccines, members of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, are independent of both the HSE and Department of Health.

Complacent attitude

Ironically, the success of the free immunisation programme in Ireland may have led to something of a complacent attitude to serious childhood diseases, although the take-up rate here remains higher than 90 per cent.

The cruel effects of polio in 1950s Ireland were so visible that the vaccine was readily accepted. The disease has now been eradicated in Europe.

Measles and whooping cough are still with us. Very few people see children with measles these days, thankfully. But the disease hasn’t changed.

It is still one of the most infectious in the world and it can cause deafness, pneumonia and, in a small number of cases, it can kill. An outbreak in 2000 saw more than 1,600 cases reported, most in the east of the country, and three associated deaths.

The risks facing unvaccinated children should not be overstated. Although there is an outside chance they could pick up a disease that could damage their health long-term or even kill them, they are likely to be fine because the majority continue to avail of vaccines.

This so-called “herd” immunity also protects children who cannot be vaccinated because they are having treatment for cancer, for example, or have congenital immune deficiency.

Vulnerable elderly people who have neither had measles, offering lifelong immunity, nor been vaccinated against it can also be said to depend on this community behaviour.

Anyone is entitled to be a conscientious objector to a non-compulsory immunisation scheme. But we’re sharing a small island, and we live in an increasingly globalised world.

Mary Minihan works on The Irish Times’ political staff.