Pro-pestilence fad goes mainstream

May 5, 5:59 PMSkepticism ExaminerDylan Otto Krider

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Bringing back pestilence.

The anti-immunization movement has a new talking point to put the brakes on finding a vaccine for Swine Flu. In the Denver Post, we get a cautionary tale of the Swine Flu of the 1970s. The article profiles Scott Heath, who believes a free flu shot in 1976 left him mute and paralyzed.

There was a national campaign to vaccinate people, that turned out to be unwarranted. Here's a taste:

The swine-flu epidemic never materialized, but probably prudent. They tried to prevent an epidemic, and it was prevented. Then, urban legends began to materialize about the vaccine being "rushed".

Then, further down, we start to get some of the details that cast this in doubt. Doctors told him he might have had an "underlying genetic condition" that surfaced as a result of the vaccine.

Then, further down, we get this:

Today, many scientists believe links between the 1976 vaccine and neurological disorders were exaggerated, at best. Even if there were adverse reactions, vaccines today have fewer proteins and additives with the potential to cause problems.

Still, some experts warn that anytime there is mass inoculation, there is the possibility for real — or perceived — adverse effects.

Then, after giving us this victim under the headline: "Swine-flu Scare: Caution from '76 Vaccine", we get some more tid bits:

What went wrong, if anything, with the 1976 vaccine has never been definitively answered. One theory is that there was too much egg protein in the shot, said Arthur Allen, author of "Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver."

"I don't think anybody really understands what happened in 1976," Allen said. "Whenever you have mass vaccination campaigns, you tend to have more adverse events. It's more visible."

Although many of those said to have had a reaction had Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder. But "studies since then have shown the incidence of the syndrome was no higher among people who had the swine-flu vaccine."

And then, when we reach the end, we have Dr. Edward Janoff, director of the Mucosal and Vaccine Research Program at UC Denver, calling it a "persisting urban legend."

As Enik Rising says, "Given that there will likely be a vaccine developed for the current swine flu in the next few months and that people will be encouraged to take it to avoid a deadly pandemic, is it really responsible to be scaring the hell out of people about vaccines and burying the caveats deep down in the story?"