Children Vaccinated Early Not Unhealthier than Children With Spaced Vaccines

Many parents these days are worried about the effects of vaccines on their children, so another strategy to mitigate these effects as much as possible has arisen. Instead of potentially overwhelming the immune system of the child, parents have chosen to spread out the normal vaccines to give the children’s immune system more time to adjust. However, a recent study by Glanz, Newcomer, and Daley et al. has found that children who receive their vaccines according to the schedule professed by doctors, where the child gets a number of vaccines as soon as it is safe are just as healthy as the children who haven’t received the same vaccines. The researchers found that “the estimated mean cumulative antigen exposure from birth through age 23 months was 240.6 for cases and 242.9 for controls, a difference that was not statistically significant” (Glanz et al.).

I believe this study should be even more reassuring to parents that are worried about the health of their children. Even when children aren’t given vaccines, it’s usually due to the parents’ fear of their children becoming unhealthy.  After last week’s post, we know that there is no relation between vaccines and developing autism, and this week would suggest that there is in fact no scientifically-based concern that should deter parents from promptly vaccinating their children, preventing them and those they interact with from developing terrible diseases that have become much less common due to vaccines, at least in the first twenty-three months of life.

 

Works Cited

Glanz, J. M., Newcomer, S. R., Daley, et al. (2018). Association Between Estimated Cumulative Vaccine Antigen Exposure Through the First 23 Months of Life and Non–Vaccine-Targeted Infections From 24 Through 47 Months of Age. Jama, 319(9), 906. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0708

Andrew Wakefield

Andrew Wakefield is notorious for being the first person to assert a link between receiving a vaccine (specifically, the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella, that most children must get before schooling) and the development of autism in children (Rao and Andrade). Wakefield began by attempting to find the cause of both physical and behavioral symptoms in what had previously been normally developing boys younger than twelve years old. He did a battery of tests on them, including “ileocolonoscopy and biopsy sampling, magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and lumbar puncture,” where the children were sedated (Wakefield et. al).

Many have criticized Wakefield’s conclusions, suggesting that although there may have appeared to be correlation in his study, it did not imply causation. Even worse, it came to light that the researchers involved had deliberately picked evidence to support their hypothesis of vaccines causing autism and intestinal issues, going as far as to flatly lie about the truth of data they presented as fact (Rao and Andrade). To prevent this type or even accusation of researcher tampering, a method called “double blind” testing is employed. In this situation, not only does the patient not know whether they are in the control or test group, but the researchers are not aware of which subjects are in which group as well. Clearly, this was not part of the Wakefield autism study, as the researchers had full knowledge of every aspect of their “study.” By searching out children that specifically fit their small definition of patient, and further only using twelve patients in total and extrapolating from that, their sampling methods completely negated any conclusions that they may have presented. Sure enough, the study was later discredited and retracted due to these very reasons, in addition to having further stomped ethical boundaries by not getting complete consent for some of the procedures they performed on the children (Rao and Andrade).

 

Works Cited

Picture: https://images.thestar.com/pUwD071fmLH6i2nYHl4sgNkMD1I=/1086×819/smart/filters:cb(1512546339944)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/life/health_wellness/2011/01/07/andrew_wakefields_fraudulent_vaccine_research/wakefield3.jpeg

 

Rao, T. S., & Andrade, C. (2011). The MMR vaccine and autism: Sensation, refutation, retraction, and fraud. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(2), 95. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.82529

Wakefield, A., et al. (1998). Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. The Lancet, 352(9123), 234-235. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)77837-5