A pediatrician gives vaccine advice to presidential candidates

CHAD HAYES, MD | CONDITIONS | OCTOBER 2, 2015

First, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this; I know you’re busy fund-raising and campaigning, so I’ll try to keep this brief. It’s recently become quite apparent that several of you have some misconceptions about our immunization program. That’s unfortunate for people who are seeking such a prominent position. I know science can be complicated, but public health is a pretty important topic. (It’s especially disappointing that the physicians among you don’t seem to fully understand this issue, but I suppose immunizations are outside your specific fields.)

Anyway, the following are a few brief facts about vaccines that I hope you will find useful in your next debate.

1. Vaccines do not cause autism. Numerous studies have demonstrated this, and a huge meta-analysis involving over 1.2 million children demonstrated that pretty clearly. Evidence doesn’t get any better than that.

2. The guy that started this whole autism/vaccine thing lost his license because of his fraudulent study, which has since been retracted.

3. “Too many, too soon” is not a thing. Children encounter many viruses and bacteria every day, and their immune systems are not overwhelmed. (And they don’t develop autism.)

4. Although a popular book about alternative vaccine schedules has been quite a hit, the guy that wrote it didn’t bother to prove that his schedule was effective or safer than the schedule developed by the most knowledgeable infectious disease experts in our great nation. He just made it up.

5. Spreading out immunizations has been shown not to reduce the risk of complications from vaccines. All it does is extend the time period during which children are at risk for these infections. And since the most significant risk of immunizations is driving to the office to get them, it creates some indirect risks as well.

6. While we obviously disagree about some of those points, I support your assertion that we shouldn’t bother immunizing against insignificant diseases. So I’ve narrowed the list down to the diseases that cause “death or crippling.” (The links are from the CDC, a government organization made up of people who know more than you do about infectious diseases. You should get to know them; they will work for one of you some day.)

• Diphtheria kills people.
• Haemophilus influenzae type b kills people.
• Hepatitis A kills people.
• Hepatitis B kills people.
• Human papilloma virus kills people.
• Influenza kills people. (And since personal stories seem to matter more to you than science, I’ve seen it.)
• Measles kills people.
• Meningococcus kills people.
• Mumps kills people.
• Pertussis kills people.
• Pneumococcus kills people.
• Polio kills people.
• Rotavirus kills people.
• Rubella kills people (before they’re born).
• Tetanus kills people.
• Varicella kills people.

7. Since you’re probably not familiar with the CDC vaccine schedule that you think people should avoid, I just listed every one of the vaccines it recommends. All of those diseases kill people. Fortunately, they don’t kill very many people anymore. (Because of vaccines.)

8. And since I know your world isn’t all about saving lives, vaccines save money, too. That might be a good talking point.

I could go into more details, and I’d be happy to speak to you personally if you’d like to hear more. In fact, there’s a huge network of pediatricians that would be happy to field the vaccine questions while you tend to your more important affairs. (We were actually going to talk to these families anyway, because their children are our patients.) But hopefully, this basic information has been enough to allow you to speak a little more intelligently about the topic–especially since one of you will be running our country.

But in the future, if you’re unsure about similarly complicated topics, please feel free admit your lack of knowledge and defer to the experts. That’s what real leaders do.

Chad Hayes is a pediatrician who blogs at his self-titled site, Chad Hayes, MD.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/10/a-pediatrician-gives-vaccine-advice-to-presidential-candidates.html?utm_content=buffere6c81&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

Basta attenzione solo alla struttura, lavoriamo sul cambiamento dei sistemi organizzativi e della cultura

Sir Muir Gray ci ha offerto un (apparentemente) semplice schema di interpretazione dei servizi sanitari: ognuno di essi è caratterizzato da una struttura (istituzionale, giuridica, economica, geografica, fisica), da sistemi organizzativi (idealmente impostati per realizzare le finalità dei servizi sanitari), dalla cultura (generale, professionale, organizzativa).

Dobbiamo riconoscere che in Italia, e in tutte le sue Regioni e Province autonome, l’unica modalità per introdurre un cambiamento dei servizi sanitari è quello di pensare a una riforma: cioè a un cambiamento della struttura (istituzionale, giuridica, economica, geografica, fisica). Nessuna attenzione, invece, viene dedicata alla necessità di cambiare i sistemi organizzativi e la cultura sottostante.

Il recente libro di Roberto Perotti (ex Commissario alla spending review) “Status quo” affronta il tema del “perché in Italia è così difficile cambiare le cose (e come cominciare a farlo)”.

Una frase, in particolare, mi ha colpito: “E’ proprio della mentalità giuridica attribuire importanza spropositata all’impianto istituzionale, compiacersi dell’eleganza formale e dell’equilibrismo di un compromesso, e immaginarsi che piccole variazioni a uno statuto possano portare benefici strutturali al paese. Se solo il mondo fosse così semplice…” (pag. 170).

Lavorare sui sistemi organizzativi e sui necessari cambiamenti culturali significherebbe “chinare la testa e lavorare” (R. Perotti, ibidem) sui problemi veri, sulla loro dimensione quantitativa e qualitativa, ipotizzare nuove soluzioni praticabili (socialmente e politicamente) e sostenibili (economicamente, professionalmente e culturalmente).

Certamente è più semplice fare una nuova legge, una nuova deliberazione, un nuovo atto aziendale pensando che un atto legislativo o amministrativo possano di per sé determinare il cambiamento.

Chissà se ce la faremo? Si dovrebbe cominciare smettendo di raccontarci bugie!