There are a number of reasons why individuals may be hesitant when faced with a decision to vaccinate themselves or their children. Some of this messaging comes from high profile advocates, including:

• Novak Djokovic - World's Number 1 ranked men's professional tennis player
• Jessica Biel - Hollywood actress
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Prominent environmental activist, and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy
• Robert de Niro - Hollywood actor, two-time Academy Award winner

The common theme being promoted is that vaccines are not safe. Here is my deep dive (Part 1) into some of their concerns:

Concern #1 - Vaccines contain mercury

It's important to realize that there are two different types of mercury exposure in humans. One is to Methylmercury which accumulates in the body, and the other is to Ethylmercury, which actively excreted via the gut and is eliminated from the body quite easily.  

My research confirmed that some vaccines contain Thiomersal. What is often not discussed, is that Thimerosal is metabolized by the human body to Ethylmercury and thiosalicylate. It's notable that vaccines do not contain any Methylmercury at all.

Ethylmercury is common in drugs and is biologicals. However, vaccine hesitancy proponents neglect to mention that Ethylmercury is also present in many household items including cosmetics like mascara. In fact, the US Food and Drug Administration does not require ingredients that comprise less than 1 percent of a cosmetic product to be divulged on the label, so a lot more products may have thimerosal and consumers would never know.

Many studies have also proven that Thermisal is safe in vaccines. If you are still concerned about the mercury content in a vaccine after reading this, you can request one that is Thermisal-free from your doctor. These have been available in the USA since 2001.

The important questions to ask someone who is vaccine hesitant:

• Are you concerned about Ethylmercury or about Methylmercury in the vaccine?
• Do you know the difference between Ethylmercury and Methylmercury?
• Did you know that vaccines do not contain any Methylmercury?

Concern #2 - The MMR vaccine increases the likelihood a child develops autism

Disgraced doctor, Andrew Wakefield, authored two studies that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella, or German measles) and autism in children. Mr. Wakefield's studies have been scientfically discredited, and serious flaws with his scientific method have been identified. On top of all that, he has been barred from practicing medicine in England.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia summarizes the flaws in both of his studies quite well. Here are their opinions on his first study:

The Wakefield paper published in 1998 was flawed for two reasons:

1. About 90% of children in England received MMR at the time this paper was written... However, determination of whether MMR causes autism is best made by studying the incidence of autism in both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. This wasn't done.
2. Although the authors claim that autism is a consequence of intestinal inflammation, intestinal symptoms were observed after, not before, symptoms of autism in all eight cases. - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, May 7, 2018

Here are their opinions on his second study:

1. Measles vaccine virus is live and attenuated. After inoculation, the vaccine virus probably replicates (or reproduces itself) about 15 to 20 times...To determine if MMR is associated with autism, one must determine if the finding is specific for children with autism. Therefore, children with or without autism must be identical in two ways. First, children with or without autism must be matched for immunization status (i.e., receipt of the MMR vaccine). Second, children must be matched for the length of time between receipt of MMR vaccine and collection of biopsy specimens. Although this information was clearly available to the investigators and critical to their hypothesis, it was specifically omitted from the paper.
2. Because natural measles virus is still circulating in England, it would have been important to determine whether the measles virus detected in these samples was natural measles virus or vaccine virus. Although methods are available to distinguish these two types of virus, the authors chose not to use them.
3. The method used to detect measles virus in these studies was very sensitive. Laboratories that work with natural measles virus (such as the lab where these studies were performed) are at high risk of getting results that are incorrectly positive. No mention is made in the paper as to how this problem was avoided.
4. As is true for all laboratory studies, the person who is performing the test should not know whether the sample is obtained from a case with autism or without autism (blinding). No statements were made in the methods section to assure that blinding occurred. - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, May 7, 2018

The important questions to ask someone who is vaccine hesitant:

• Did you know those two studies have been retracted?
• Did you know that the author was banned from practicing medicine because he repeatedly breached fundamental principles of research medicine?

I almost forgot to include the most important voice in this conversation, who has weighed in with his opinion. You can add him to the list of vaccine hesitant advocates.

• Donald Trump - President of the USA

Oh wait, he changed his mind.

They have to get the shots. The vaccinations are so important. This is really going around now. They have to get their shots, - President Donald Trump, April 26, 2019

This concludes Part 1 of my Deep Dive into popular vaccine hesitant messaging that's circulating out there. Please stay tuned for Part 2 of this series.  Thanks for reading!

Good luck, stay home, and stay safe!

Cover art by Arek Socha from Pixabay