Latest news with #antiVaccineMovement
Washington Post
07-07-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
U.S. measles cases reach 33-year record high as outbreaks spread
The United States has reached its highest annual measles case tally in 33 years, hitting at least 1,277 confirmed cases across 38 states and the District of Columbia. The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength. The nation surpassed infections reported in 2019, reaching the largest number of cases since 1992, when officials recorded more than 2,100 infections, according to data published Friday from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation (CORI).
Al Jazeera
28-06-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
What is Thimerosal, vaccine preservative called ‘toxic' by US health chief?
During the first meeting of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's recently downsized vaccine panel, the group voted to stop recommending flu vaccines containing thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. In a lengthy June 24 X post that preceded the meeting, Kennedy, who spent two decades as an anti-vaccine movement leader, described thimerosal using terms such as 'toxic' and said hundreds of studies identify it as a carcinogenic 'potent neurotoxin'. He also said there are high doses of mercury in flu shots recommended to pregnant women and children. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices' (ACIP) two-day meeting on June 25 and 26 included discussion of vaccines containing thimerosal before its vote on flu vaccines. ACIP is an independent group which provides vaccine recommendations the CDC director reviews and decides whether to formally adopt. Earlier in June, Kennedy dismissed 17 ACIP members, replacing them with seven new members, including people who've expressed doubt about vaccine efficacy and promoted anti-vaccine falsehoods. Doctors and scientists who study vaccines have been researching thimerosal's use for decades. Here's what we know about the vaccine preservative and its removal from flu vaccines. What is thimerosal? Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used in some vaccines. Many people – particularly those who are pregnant or breastfeeding – encounter warnings about consuming mercury, such as in seafood. But those warnings are about methylmercury, which is found in certain kinds of fish and is known to be toxic to people when consumed at high levels. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury – a single-letter difference that might not sound significant, but is. Human bodies can break down and excrete ethylmercury quickly, meaning it is less likely to cause harm. By contrast, methylmercury is more likely to accumulate in the body and cause harm. In vaccines, thimerosal is added to prevent harmful microbes such as bacteria and fungi from growing in vaccine vials. 'Introduction of bacteria and fungi has the potential to occur when a syringe needle enters a vial as a vaccine is being prepared for administration,' the CDC's website said. 'Contamination by germs in a vaccine could cause severe local reactions, serious illness or death. In some vaccines, preservatives, including thimerosal, are added during the manufacturing process to prevent germ growth.' Thimerosal has been at the heart of Kennedy's anti-vaccine activism for 20 years. In 2005, Kennedy wrote an article co-published by Rolling Stone and Salon that alleged leading health agencies including the CDC and US Food and Drug Administration had colluded with vaccine manufacturers to conceal a study that found thimerosal 'may have caused autism in thousands of kids'. Scientists and researchers said Kennedy's argument was inaccurate and misleading. Continued research has found no link between thimerosal and autism. Kennedy's article was removed from Rolling Stone, and Salon retracted it in 2011. In 2015, Kennedy wrote a book opposing thimerosal's use in vaccines. Which vaccines use thimerosal? Thimerosal is not used in the vast majority of vaccines. All vaccines the CDC routinely recommends for children age six or younger are available without thimerosal. Children receiving the routine paediatric vaccine schedule 'can get completely immunised without any thimerosal-containing vaccines', said Dr Mark Sawyer, a paediatrics professor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and a paediatric infectious disease physician. Some childhood vaccines have never contained thimerosal. These include the measles, mumps and rubella – or MMR – vaccine, the varicella or chickenpox vaccine, the inactivated polio vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Thimerosal was removed from most vaccines – including all childhood vaccines – as of 2001, the CDC said. Thimerosal is still used in vaccines today, but not as widely. The preservative is in only a small fraction of influenza vaccine vials, specifically the multi-dose vials that constitute a small portion of the US flu shot supply, Dr Jake Scott told PolitiFact. Scott is a Stanford University School of Medicine infectious disease specialist. The FDA said thimerosal use has declined as vaccine manufacturers have developed more single-dose vaccines that do not require preservatives. Scott said the CDC lists 12 influenza vaccine formulations for the 2024 to 2025 flu season, which will also cover the 2025 to 2026 season because no new flu vaccines have been licensed. Of those 12 vaccines, just three are multi-dose vaccines that contain thimerosal at 25 micrograms – equal to 25 millionths of a gram – per dose, he said. CDC's supply data shows single-dose, thimerosal-free syringes make up about 96 percent of the US flu vaccine supply, leaving roughly 4 percent as multi-dose vials, Scott said. 'Single-dose syringes are the default for paediatrics and prenatal care, so real-world exposure is even lower,' he said. Because flu vaccines with thimerosal constitute a small portion of the influenza vaccine supply, public health experts told The Washington Post the committee's vote to stop recommending them would have a limited impact, although it could make flu shots more expensive and less accessible in some parts of the US. What does research show about thimerosal? Because anti-vaccine activists' focus has centred on whether thimerosal causes autism, numerous scientific studies have investigated a potential link and found no causal relationship between the preservative and autism. When scientists evaluated thimerosal's potential impacts and risks they found: Giving infants vaccines containing thimerosal 'does not seem to raise blood concentrations of mercury above safe values in infants' as the ethylmercury 'seems to be eliminated from blood rapidly via the stools' after vaccination. Three controlled and two uncontrolled observational studies 'consistently provided evidence of no association' between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. 'No scientific evidence exists that thimerosal-containing vaccines are a cause of adverse events among children born to women who received influenza vaccine during pregnancy.' Vaccine researchers told PolitiFact that thimerosal was removed from vaccines out of an abundance of caution, not because research proved that thimerosal was unsafe. Thimerosal was removed from vaccines because people thought it might cause problems, said Rachel Roper, a microbiology and immunology professor at East Carolina University. But ultimately, 'studies were done and it was shown to be safe'. There's no evidence to date that thimerosal 'causes any harm whatsoever', Sawyer said.
National Post
08-05-2025
- Health
- National Post
Only 7 in 10 Ontario kids vaccinated against measles, rates falling elsewhere. Here's why
Public confidence in vaccines has dipped since COVID's first surges, the proportion of parents 'really against' routine childhood immunizations has grown and one third of Canadians believe the discredited claim that the measles vaccine causes autism, surveys show. Article content That percolating pushback is contributing to gaps in immunization coverage: only seven out of 10 kids aged seven in Ontario were reported to be fully immunized against measles in the 2023-24 school year. Rates plummeted below 50 per cent in some health units, despite catch-up programs to deal with a backlog of children who missed shots during COVID disruptions. Article content The gaps threaten to widen and feed a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases like the ongoing outbreak of measles, say those who study the phenomenon. Article content Article content But vaccine hesitancy goes beyond autism. The motives of parents opting out are 'often far more complex and nuanced than the pro-side would like to admit,' according to the authors of a recently-published paper on English-speaking Canada's growing anti-vaccine movement. Article content It may make for a quicker and easier narrative to say it's all about misinformation and a notoriously flawed study that was eventually withdrawn, 'and convince people that it was a mistake and that there is nothing to be concerned about,' said co-author and University of Guelph historian Catherine Carstairs. Article content However, 'it's become much grittier and more complicated, and maybe requires different kinds of interventions,' she said. Article content Growing vaccine hesitancy, and outright refusal, is also symbolic of a broader issue, said the University of Alberta's Timothy Caulfield — 'the rise of an anti-science ethos that is impacting society.' Article content The controversies and polarizations surrounding the COVID vaccines also had an ideological spillover effect on vaccines more generally, Caulfield said. In the U.S., political liberals became more positive towards non-COVID shots like MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), influenza and chickenpox while conservatives became more negative. Article content Ontario has now claimed more measles cases since last fall than all of the United States. So far, the majority have been concentrated in specific health units, but measles is so highly infectious it can easily leak out to vulnerable pockets with less-than-optimal vaccination rates. Article content Article content As criticism of Ontario's handling of the outbreak intensifies, Premier Doug Ford Wednesday said getting children vaccinated against measles is a 'no-brainer' and that the province has sufficient supplies of vaccines available. 'I encourage anyone and everyone,' Ford told reporters. 'You need to get your kids vaccinated, because if not it just starts spreading.' Article content 'I'm happy that (local public health units) are able to keep the numbers to 100 to 150 Ontarians that are getting infected on a weekly basis. To me that's tremendous, hard and difficult work,' he told Radio-Canada.
CTV News
07-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
As Ontario tops 1,200 measles cases, experts warn under-immunized B.C. communities at risk
With Canada experiencing its worst year for measles in decades, there are growing concerns for B.C. children living in under-immunized communities. While there have only been eight confirmed measles infections across the province so far this year, neighbouring Alberta has recorded 210 – and Ontario has seen 1,243, including 98 that resulted in hospitalization, since October. There is no reason similar outbreaks couldn't happen locally, according to Dr. Jia Hu of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. 'What's really driving the outbreaks in Alberta, Ontario is that you have measles entering into very unimmunized communities,' said Hu. 'In Ontario, they have communities where the immunization rates are close to zero.' B.C. has its own 'pockets' of low vaccination uptake, Hu noted, including in the Fraser Valley and Interior regions. 'I wouldn't say that our rates are generally higher than Ontario's,' he added. Provincially, the vaccination rate among seven-year-olds was 72.4 per cent in 2023, the latest year for which data is available. That's down from a rate of 90.9 per cent a decade earlier, before the anti-vaccine movement grew in popularity, including on social media. Worst year since 1998 Just a few days into May, Canada has already recorded more measles cases nationwide than it has since 1998, when the disease was declared eliminated in the country. A measles death in Ontario last year also marked Canada's first in 34 years. Hu said the best thing parents can do if they're concerned about their children being exposed to measles is to get them vaccinated. 'Vaccination is both very effective and offers life-long protection,' he said. 'Two doses are close to 100 per cent effective in protecting against measles – even one dose is about 85 to 95 per cent effective.' According to the B.C. Center for Disease Control, it can take up to three weeks post-exposure for a patient to show measles symptoms. Those can include fever, dry cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed days later by a rash that begins at the hairline and spreads rapidly down the body. Officials have asked that anyone suspected to be suffering from measles inform their health-care provider before heading into a clinic, so precautions can be taken to prevent further spread. 'Measles is a serious infectious disease,' Hu said. 'It doesn't just cause the rash and the fever and the cough – it can lead to complications like pneumonia and hospitalization and brain swelling.' Parents unsure of their children's immunization status can check through B.C.'s Health Gateway, or by contacting their family doctor.
CTV News
07-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
As Ontario nears 1,400 measles cases, experts warn under-immunized B.C. communities at risk
With Canada experiencing its worst year for measles in decades, there are growing concerns for B.C. children living in under-immunized communities. While there have only been eight confirmed measles infections across the province so far this year, neighbouring Alberta has recorded 210 – and Ontario has seen 1,383, including 98 that resulted in hospitalization. There is no reason similar outbreaks couldn't happen locally, according to Dr. Jia Hu of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. 'What's really driving the outbreaks in Alberta, Ontario is that you have measles entering into very unimmunized communities,' said Hu. 'In Ontario, they have communities where the immunization rates are close to zero.' B.C. has its own 'pockets' of low vaccination uptake, Hu noted, including in the Fraser Valley and Interior regions. 'I wouldn't say that our rates are generally higher than Ontario's,' he added. Provincially, the vaccination rate among seven-year-olds was 72.4 per cent in 2023, the latest year for which data is available. That's down from a rate of 90.9 per cent a decade earlier, before the anti-vaccine movement grew in popularity, including on social media. Worst year since 1998 Just a few days into May, Canada has already recorded more measles cases nationwide than it has since 1998, when the disease was declared eliminated in the country. A measles death in Ontario last year also marked Canada's first in 34 years. Hu said the best thing parents can do if they're concerned about their children being exposed to measles is to get them vaccinated. 'Vaccination is both very effective and offers life-long protection,' he said. 'Two doses are close to 100 per cent effective in protecting against measles – even one dose is about 85 to 95 per cent effective.' According to the B.C. Center for Disease Control, it can take up to three weeks post-exposure for a patient to show measles symptoms. Those can include fever, dry cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed days later by a rash that begins at the hairline and spreads rapidly down the body. Officials have asked that anyone suspected to be suffering from measles inform their health-care provider before heading into a clinic, so precautions can be taken to prevent further spread. 'Measles is a serious infectious disease,' Hu said. 'It doesn't just cause the rash and the fever and the cough – it can lead to complications like pneumonia and hospitalization and brain swelling.' Parents unsure of their children's immunization status can check through B.C.'s Health Gateway, or by contacting their family doctor.
