Orac, at Respectful Insolence, has spent a lot of time and pixels on the anti-vaccination crusades being led by a number of people who claim that common vaccines cause autism. Among these folks are some celebrities, some of whom are A-list, some of whom are H-list. Jenny McCarthy is among the most outspoken of these celebrities (and it seems to me among the most addlepated).

Recently, there have been an increase in the preventable diseases – i.e. measles – as a result of anti-vaccination activism that has convinced many parents that their kids will “contract” autism from the vaccines. I saw an article on MSNBC the other day talking about the ways in which parents who vaccinate are choosing to not let their kids play with unvaccinated kids. The foundational argument is that even the best vaccines aren’t 100% effective (IIRC most are over 90% effective); parents who don’t vaccinate are introducing an unnecessary level of risk to the public health, based on bad science.

In September, a new book Autisms False Prophets is supposed to hit bookstore shelves. The theme of the book is simply enough that there is no scientific evidence of a link between MMR vaccines (measles, mumps, rubella) and autism. There is however a very clear clink between vaccination and low rates of measles, mumps and rubella.

The links between the vaccines and autism are unproven and campaigns against widespread vaccination strike me as incredibly reckless. Most of us grew up in a world where these diseases were almost unheard of; we vaccinate against them for good reasons, namely that when they were widespread, they killed people. But, I can’t help but feel empathy and sympathy for the parents who are convinced vaccines are the problem. Raising an autistic child can be tremendously difficult. The concept of “special needs” doesn’t even begin to approach the reality of the experience. Friends of my family had an autistic son and he required literally constant attention. He was about eight when they discovered he’d hold a yellow boombox and listen to it for hours – provided it was on one particular station; if the reception went out he would have an emotional breakdown. To take him to a party required a week’s preparation. The grocery store required hours of talk before they could take him. The struggle of raising an autistic child is huge.

So people like Jenny McCarthy hear somewhere that the problem is vaccines. And they latch onto it – they probably even mean well, but they grab the anti-vax argument and run with it. Logic, science, rational arguments give way in the face of their emotional anguish. They make compelling speakers, their stories are compelling. But, as Orac points out, the tactics used by anti-vax folks are deeply questionable:

There’s no reason to suspect or expect that they will change their behavior, either. Anyone who wants to do battle with antivaccine activists should be forewarned. They can’t win on facts, scientific evidence, or reason. Consequently smears and intimidation are all that’s left for them to use against those who refute their nonsense. Unfortunately, those on the “other side” (i.e., certain antivaccinationists and their enablers) who claim to value civility all too often remain silent in the face of this behavior.

The anti-vaccine folks see themselves as little folks battling against “big pharma” – huge corporations with vast powers and wealth. There is much to criticize in the pharmaceutical industry, but of all the things to attack, vaccines against childhood diseases is probably the least cogent. Many anti-vax crusaders are also advocates of various “alternative treatments” – which again and again are disproven. I once read that Jenny McCarthy claimed to have “treated” her son’s autism with a gluten free diet; if he improved, good. But it doesn’t “prove” anything about autism, treatment or its causes. For all we know, he had a food allergy to gluten.

But . . . well, they are tilting at windmills. Sure, for all the right reasons. But they’re still warring against the wrong enemy. The CDC studied a recent measles outbreak and determined that 91% of those suffering were un-vaccinated. Anti-vax crusades amount to little more than medical woo – it sounds good but that’s about it.

My grandmother, born in 1913, once recalled the terror about “childhood diseases” and told me about the different colored signs, denoting different diseases, quarantining houses when people were infected. That’s not a world I want to live in. We can go ahead and end vaccinations and we can dust off the quarantine signs and we can return to old fears. If we are to return to the bad old days, then I strongly suggest the burden of proof lies with the anti-vaccinationists, not those who adhere to you know, science based medicine.