Mumps is back, in New York City and its environs. About 400 kids have got sick, most of them from an Orthodox Jewish summer camp where one child arrived bearing the virus. It appears that the large majority of infected children had been vaccinated.
How can that be, you say? Because the mumps vaccine (according to a CDC study) is about 85 percent effective. That’s enough when the disease is extremely rare. But once it gets a foothold, that’s not enough–and that, folks, is exactly the point I was pounding on a few weeks ago, about herd immunity. Add to that The Lancet‘s recent retraction of its much-discussed autism study, and you come to the only possible conclusion: It is profoundly senseless not to vaccinate your kid (the patient zero at the summer camp had come from the UK, where the mumps outbreak had reached 4000 mostly unvaccinated kids). Please, folks, let’s let this particular back-to-the-land instinct go.
Wow, Thanks for this write up!
I am a dad to 2 boys under the age of 3 and my wife and I are always contemplating the pros and cons of vaccination (in man different instances).
We have made sure to vaccinate our children for all major causes including Mumps but I still worry in the back of my mind about the long term negative effects.
Having said that, the vaccines seem to really help and for the most part there has been little evidence to suggest they are dangerous. For that reason, I agree with you.
Nice blog!
Took the family to Florida a few years ago – me, the wife, and the MMR-vaccinated son. Guess what happened. (HINT: it rhymes with “he bought humps”.) Upon our return to San Diego, we had to do all sorts of CDC interviews, keep the kid out of daycare for a few days, and explain the whole herd immunity thing to people. Of course, I’m one of the people that goes with the opinions of highly trained doctors and scientists over those of, say, former Playboy Playmates-turned MTV game show hostesses and rubber-faced fartsmiths-turned “serious actors”.
That’s why I would skip Florida, if that wasn’t where I’m from.