Korman: For H1N1 shot, vaccines need image overhaul

It’s a frightening sight: Someone in a white coat penetrates your skin with a syringe and… It’s a frightening sight: Someone in a white coat penetrates your skin with a syringe and forces fluid into your bloodstream. Don’t pretend you’re tough — shots are scary.

In this sense, getting a shot is a supreme gesture of trust in medicine. This faith has netted great results historically — when was the last time you missed class because of polio? (You can thank your humble institution for that one.)

The coming weeks will present millions of Americans with the opportunity to have H1N1 virus vaccine-equipped needles stuck into their arms. Pennsylvania is looking to receive a share of the 250 million doses provided by the federal government.

The symptoms of the H1N1 virus are similar to, and sometimes less severe than, the seasonal flu. So why the fuss with the washing of hands and the sterilization of keyboards?

For one, the vaccine is only now becoming available. We’ve had a vaccine for the regular flu since 1931, and today the CDC estimates that it lowers the risk of contracting the flu by 70-90 percent. Less than half of those eligible for the shot actually get it.

Last November, a Consumer Reports survey examined why so many Americans decline the shot. The results contain profound misconceptions. Sixty-seven percent of respondents thought it better to let their own immune systems work it out, a train of thought that has spawned the recent phenomenon of “swine flu parties” in which parents actively expose their children to the infection. In addition, 41 percent of respondents cited tales of others’ bad experiences, while 26 percent thought the shot was ineffective. Twenty-seven percent were afraid of needles.

And even though vaccines for once-pervasive diseases such as mumps, measles, rubella and polio have nearly eradicated the diseases from the Western Hemisphere, an anti-vaccination movement is making its way around in 2009.

The most prevalent myth which the movement purportes is that Thimerosol, a preservative in some vaccines, increases the risk of developing autism. Many of the “antivax” advocates cite spikes in autism rates as proof of a causal link. Others, such as noted porn star and non-doctor Jenny McCarthy, cite personal stories of their children instantaneously becoming autistic after being vaccinated: “Boom, soul gone from his eyes,” McCarthy reported to a credulous Oprah Winfrey in 2007.

The medical community has thoroughly debunked this theory for years — the increase in autism rates can be argely attributed to l increased awareness and diagnosis of the condition, the broadening of its criteria and possible environmental factors.

Yet in addition to McCarthy, her boyfriend Jim Carrey, comedian Bill Maher, journalist David Kirby and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have all publicly decried vaccines. Senator John McCain. D-Ariz., stated early in his most recent presidential campaign that “there’s strong evidence” that vaccines are responsible for the rise in autism rates.

The anti-vaccination movement is not exclusive to celebrities — it has existed since the 18th century.

New York recently became the first state requiring its health care workers to receive the H1N1 vaccination, and several hundred health care workers, civil libertarians and anti-vaccination proponents are all protesting the decision. One objection from an aide at a Brooklyn medical center was that “Some people’s immune system is good, like me.”

A CDC report published last year shows that measles — a vaccine-preventable illness — are on the rise, and out of 130 reported cases in the first seven months of 2008, only eight were vaccinated. The physicians interviewed in the report cited the fears of some parents that the shot causes autism.

Some parents choose not to vaccinate their children on religious grounds, citing reasons from vaccines’ “impurity,” because of dietary restrictions and because of the idea that “God doesn’t use drugs.” All but two states — holla at Mississippi and West Virginia — allow kindergarteners to bypass vaccinations on religious grounds.

Swine flu isn’t the most serious illness apt for immunization, but the shot is being released at a moment when vaccines are in desperate need of a public relations overhaul. President Obama has taken a step in the right direction by pledging that he and his wife will get in line for the shot when it’s released, and considering his tendency to pull large-scale media events in the forms of cheeseburger lunches and beer summits, it seems a definite possibility that we will see a needle penetrate our president’s arm on the evening news at some point this month. Perhaps he’ll have more riding on his attempt not to wince than anyone has ever had.

E-mail Ben at bek25@pitt.edu