USA - In a Daily Beast opinion piece on December 15, Paul Offit — one of the vaccine industry’s most strident ambassadors — puzzles over a seeming contradiction. How, Offit wonders, could the state of Mississippi, which has “the worst overall health in the nation,” have used standout “efficiency” to achieve over 99.4% vaccine coverage in kindergartners? Rather than seriously investigate this apparent enigma, Offit presents his ready-made answer and reveals his article’s true purpose.
According to Paul Offit, Mississippi’s high vaccination rates are due to the state’s 1979 decision to make the government — rather than parents — the primary vaccine decision-maker for children. Despite juxtaposing two critical pieces of health information about Mississippi’s children — high vaccine coverage and poor health rankings — Offit does not ask the obvious elephant-in-the-room question: Could one have something to do with the other?
Clearly, factors such as poverty and nutrition are one set of influences on health status, but vaccines — potent immune-system-stimulating medical interventions administered repeatedly, both prenatally and from birth — must be considered as another influence. Mississippi’s medical practitioners and Offit are shirking their ethical responsibilities by denying vaccines’ ability to trigger adverse health outcomes, including death.