Microbes

H.G. Wells probably got it right when nature's biological weapons took care of the Martians in his book, War of the Worlds. I watched George Pal's 1953 film adaptation of that book with a group of older cousins. We were lying on blankets at a drive-in theater under a canopy of stars. That night, any one of those twinkling lights overhead could have been a Martian spacecraft on its way to Earth. I was seven that year, perhaps a bit young to be watching such an impressionable film, but I survived and went on to enjoy all the decades of horror Hollywood could produce.

Interestingly, the same year that War of the Worlds hit the screen for the first time, Dr. Jonas Salk announced a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis. The disease had become the most terrifying public health issue in the post-war U.S. Attacking mostly children, there were tens of thousands of cases each year and, up to 1952, the numbers were increasing. Today polio is on the threshold of eradication. That could have been said for other diseases a decade ago, but now they are a growing threat, especially among what the London Daily Mail calls the "Victorian" diseases. The reason: unwarranted fear of the DTP and MMR vaccines.

Granted, any medical procedure or application of medical science involves some risk to health. Where there is too much risk or flawed research or outright crime, appropriate actions must be taken. But risk to life safety is inevitable. Weighing those risks is a personal decision that should be based on reasonable evidence. Too often, we do not hear the good news verifying low risk to health and safety. Instead, we hear the opposite, and it can be news based on the persuasive performances of trial lawyers out to win a living, not earn the truth. In this climate, exacerbated by mistrust, emotion and fear, we can lose site of that reasonable evidence and place ourselves and those we love at serious risk.

Diphtheria, tetanus. pertussis (whooping cough) - DTP - and measles, mumps, and rubella - MMR - the diseases that ravaged our ancestors, are now ascending in many parts of the developed world. All of these diseases could be prevented easily with injections of vaccines that have very, very low risks. Virtually all medical professionals recommend the vaccinations rather than risking damage or death from the diseases. Given the much higher risks we take for granted everyday, the risks from a vaccination seem more than acceptable. Why give these biological weapons the advantage? If we ignore them, they could win the war of this world.