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Let's Address Tomorrow's Antivax Arguments Today: Pediatrics Expert
- January 8, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Public health officials must prepare to counter ongoing anti-vaccine sentiment in coming years, argues a leading pediatrician-scientist.
“Antivaccine activism became a major lethal force in America” during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an estimated 200,000 deaths among the unvaccinated, according to an article in the journal PLOS Global Public Health written by Dr. Peter Hotez.
These antivaccine views have gained currency with many Americans, making vaccine resistance an issue that will continue to simmer throughout the upcoming four-year term of President-elect Donald Trump, wrote Hotez, who is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.
Evidence shows that vaccine resistance already is having an effect on American health, Hotez said:
There’s been a fivefold rise in U.S. pertussis (whooping cough) cases between 2023 and 2024.
15 measles outbreaks occurred in 2024, versus four in 2023.
Poliovirus has been detected in New York state wastewater, following a case of paralytic polio in a 20-year-old unvaccinated man in 2022.
“These trends could portend the beginning of regular breakthrough childhood infections due to low immunization coverage,” Hotez wrote.
The state of Idaho has the highest rate of kindergarten children whose parents requested exemptions from school vaccine mandates, with more than 12% asking to have those requirements waived.
“This number is a potential red flag for highly contagious illnesses such as measles that can spread through schools where vaccination coverage drops below 90–95%,” Hotez wrote.
Worse, exemption rates go as high as 30% when looking at individual counties within states, he added.
Hotez recommends a multi-pronged approach to countering antivaccine claims and arguments.
Public health officials should update and disseminate information on local vaccination rates, so people understand the personal stakes regarding vaccine resistance in their community, Hotez said.
They also should work on better ways of explaining how an infection will cause much worse illness than any potential side effects from vaccination, Hotez said.
For example, a graphic he helped design shows what will happen to 10,000 kids infected with measles, compared to 10,000 kids who get the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine.
About 2,000 of the kids infected with measles will require hospitalization, 1,000 will develop potential hearing loss, 500 will suffer life-threatening cases of pneumonia, and 10 to 30 kids will die or suffer from encephalitis, the graphic shows.
By comparison, fewer than one of the kids who get the MMR vaccine will suffer abnormal blood clotting or allergic reactions, and three will have fever-related seizures. None will develop autism from the vaccine, the graphic says.
“I believe such analyses should be undertaken for all childhood immunizations and graphics presented,” Hotez wrote. “From my experience this representation has been highly persuasive for parents on the cusp of vaccinating their children.”
The federal government also must show greater resolve at debunking false claims and misinformation about vaccines, Hotez added.
Currently, U.S. health agencies “do not routinely identify high-profile pieces of vaccine disinformation and then attempt to correct the science,” Hotez wrote.
“While I understand their rationale, I believe debunking disinformation in real time is essential."
Hotez pointed to the false claim in January by the Florida State Surgeon General that mRNA COVID vaccines could cause “turbo-cancer.”
He said that he refuted the claim in media appearances, but noted that “relying on a handful of scientists working in universities or academic health centers is not enough.”
“I propose the establishment of a well-vetted publicly accessible website, preferably one created and established by a U.S. government…agency, which can create a continuously updated virtual encyclopedia of vaccine myths and explain in straightforward language why they lack scientific merit,” Hotez concluded.
More information
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology has more on vaccine myths and facts.
SOURCE: PLOS, news release, Jan. 8, 2025
