This is part of a three-part series delving into the issue of vaccination and the debate surrounding it. Find the rest of the series here.
By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
“These are things that we can completely protect. There’s no reason why these diseases should be popping up,” said Cooper University Health Care Epidemiologist Dr. Henry Fraimow.
But they are popping up. There’s a resurgence in outbreaks of measles and pertussis, diseases that were effectively wiped out. And doctors claim it’s due to a rising number of parents opting out of vaccinations for personal beliefs. They also say there’s good reason to be concerned.
“The higher the number of non-immune people in the population, the higher the risk that when you have an exposure to something unusual, that those people will get infected and then they’ll take it with them,” Fraimow said.
That’s what the health field calls herd immunity. The vast majority protects those who are either too young, too old or too weak for vaccinations. It’s compromised if numbers go down and that poses a serious public health threat says New Jersey State Epidemiologist Dr. Tina Tan.
“New Jersey has a lot of travelers that go abroad all the time and we are concerned and we certainly have become concerned about people coming back from countries where diseases such as measles are circulating and potentially bringing them back into our soil,” she said.
“So you’re not only putting yourself or your own children at risk, you’re really putting the public at large at risk as well,” said Fraimow.
There’s also talk of legal ramifications entering the debate, possible criminal charges for parents who choose not to vaccinate.
“There is an area of public health where it is the responsibility to protect our citizens who can’t protect themselves and protecting them from some of these infections is a public priority,” Fraimow said.
“I think that unfortunately with our society, I think it might take litigation to get people to understand that their poor decisions have ramifications for other people and that that can lead to death in some cases or it can just lead to misery that could be prevented,” said Dr. David Levine, a pediatrician with Summit Medical Group.
Both doctors site places like schools and even transportation hubs where germs are known to flow freely, as potential sources for the spreading of outbreaks if immunization restrictions are lifted.
“My generation of physicians, the vaccine has been around for so long that most of us haven’t seen most of the diseases that we vaccinate against. We have not seen, we only have the stories of the people who trained us who did deal with these things on a regular basis,” he said.
“That’s another danger is that not only will people get these diseases, but we’re not going to recognize them quick enough to prevent other people from getting them,” Fraimow said.
The population may be becoming complacent about vaccines because they haven’t lived through bouts of disease, say both doctors, and that the vaccinations may be a victim of their own success.
“Even one death from a disease that we can easily prevent is still a tragedy,” said Fraimow.