Anti-vaccinationists trapped by algorithm

Professor, we have very urgent and timely matters to discuss. We hear that there is a real epidemic of measles and whooping cough in our Czech brothers. What is the threat to us in the near future?

The threat is probably the same. Let me explain how things work with infectious diseases. In order for a person to contract a disease, two conditions must be met, that is, the person must be susceptible, in the sense that he or she is not immune whether naturally after having contracted the disease or after being vaccinated against it, and note: he or she must have someone to get infected from. And this first condition, that is, a significant number of people susceptible to contracting the disease, we already meet. The pandemic led to the incurring of numerous health debts, among others, one in the form of a significant percentage of unvaccinated children, who also did not acquire this immunity naturally, through infection. What we experienced in the pandemic - distancing, masks, closed schools for a year or two - that's how it worked and the statistics reflected it. In short, if there were far fewer cases of disease during those rigors of the pandemic, now there must be more, so that this multi-year average more or less agreed.

Well, okay, but comparing with the Czech Republic, they are sounding the alarm that there too there is an increasing percentage of kids not vaccinated, that parents are avoiding these vaccinations, and they are starting to think about regulations putting pressure in some way.

I think the most important thing is awareness. But I'll go back to what I started our conversation with. That is, we already have the conditions for an outbreak, because we have people who are susceptible to contracting the disease. And now let's imagine that there are two diseases that are the most contagious among those occurring - measles, the indicator of contagiousness tells us how many one sick person on average infects healthy people, and in the case of measles it is 16-17. In the case of whooping cough it is similar. Imagine what happens when we accumulate a lot of dry fuel, a pile of hay on which a spark falls. She has already fallen in our country. Right now in Warsaw, if memory serves me correctly, we have two or three measles outbreaks in hospitals.

And kindergartens, nurseries?

Such data I do not have, so I do not want to comment. But it is only a matter of time, because, as I said, the necessary conditions are met.

And the issue of unvaccinated children? Is this also the same factor?

Of course. As I mentioned before, immunity can be acquired either by getting sick (for example, I got measles as a child), but it is easier and safer to get immunity through vaccination. Unfortunately, the percentage of the unvaccinated is steadily increasing. And we are seeing the fruits of this.

Working on parental awareness is necessary to vaccinate kids, however. Why are there more and more refusals to vaccinate? Why is there this thought among even educated young parents that they should not vaccinate their child after all?

A lot of work has been written on this subject. Various theories have been developed. It is impossible to briefly answer this question. There are many reasons, from worldviews to a lack of basic medical knowledge, and at the same time a deep conviction that one is right. Before our eyes, a young generation has emerged that has gained higher education in a huge percentage. It's just that this education is in fields far removed from medicine, and has nothing to do with medicine.

But we can get medical knowledge anywhere.

It depends on what we are looking for. The second reason, which, at least in my opinion, is important, is that search engines, which, after all, we use every day to find some information on the Internet, are personalized. That is, they search for what we probably want to find. Well, now imagine what happens if someone searches for some articles on the harmful effects of vaccinations. Later, when he types in vaccinations, it always "flies out" to him information about vaccinations and their harmful effects. And he has this bent, which makes him all the more convinced that he is doing the right thing, while actually harming his children or family.

What are the risks of measles and pertussis?

And it depends on who we are talking about.

About young children.

This is a good specification, for the reason that you can get sick very differently. This was shown to us by covid. The same virus, and some people had a runny nose (virtually asymptomatic infection), while others died. In the case of whooping cough and measles it is exactly the same. Let me start with whooping cough. Here the highest risk group is infants in the first six months of life, because they don't even cough after a whooping cough infection, but the cough itself is not the problem here. The problem is apnea. Young infants infected with whooping cough have apneas. They are hypoxic. And this threatens ischemia, hypoxia of the central nervous system. And, note, even strokes occur. A stroke in the central nervous system means in practice up to two percent mortality in this youngest age group. Then, it is known, older children will cough up. Well, and it comes down to the same thing again. Older people get whooping cough the hard way, because the intense cough that accompanies whooping cough (the very Latin name of the disease pertussis means excessive coughing) for these people is a problem, because first of all they don't get enough sleep, they urinate, their sphincters are also not as effective with age as they are in the younger age group. Another issue is possible rib fractures. It's well known, as we age, bones become brittle, osteoporosis, so intense coughing can lead to rib fractures. And these are not extremely rare things. I among my acquaintances have seen several such cases. And finally, the most important thing - stroke. And measles in children is also a problem. Measles is a rash disease, we probably all associate it. It's that characteristic red, thick-spotted, papular rash that, as they say, goes in with the head, comes out with the feet, because it starts somewhere on the hair border, somewhere behind the ears, and then goes down to the face, neck and beyond. It lasts for about three days. And in the same order it subsides. Nnatomiast it's not about the rash. The problem with measles is that measles leads to the development of complications. In children, otitis media, pneumonia. And once in about 1,000 cases, encephalitis hits. This is already a serious matter.