Elementary, Anti-Vaxxers

I came across this little gem on the inter-webs today. It'a a couple of letters written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, him of Sherlock Holmes fame, on the subject of compulsory vaccination in 1887. What's interesting about it is not the fact that Doyle was very much in favor of saving children's lives by protecting them from one of histories biggest killers, Smallpox, but that the objections to vaccination were pretty much the same 140 years ago as they are today. The same cock-eyed arguments are trotted out by today's anti-vaxxers, here's a summary of the dialogue..

1. Is it "moral" to neutralize any agent "sent by providence" (i.e. God) or suffer any Government  to do the same?

Doyle answers by reversing the logic, he asks, "is it immoral to inflict passing inconvenience upon a child in order to preserve it from a deadly disease? Does the ends never justify the means? Would it be immoral to give someone a push to save him from being run over by a locomotive"? He concludes with the following. If all these are really immoral, I trust and pray that we may never attain morality.

2. The question of effectiveness.

Doyle points out that the smallpox vaccine had been around for nearly a century, with more unanimity than any other medical subject. In past centuries whole tracts of the country were decimated by the disease but by 1887 many doctors never saw a single case in a lifetime of practice.

Just as today's Anti-vaxxers claim that the disease might have changed or other factors (like hygiene or safe drinking water) may account for the reduction. Doyle points out that doctors and nurses had worked in smallpox hospitals for over fifty years without a single case of them catching it, because they were protected by vaccination.

3. The Question of adverse effects

Another tack taken by the anti-vaxxers of the time was that vaccination caused "indescribable" effects. Perhaps the reason why the effects might be indescribably was that they were imaginary. We're still seeing this claim today with concerns over autism, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

People argue that vaccines are "poison". Doyle points out that the most useful drugs like opium and digitalis are also poisons. We accept a small risk to get a great benefit.

4. Lies damn lies and statistics

Detractors often cite occasional outbreaks as a "failure" of vaccination, Doyle points out that such outbreaks strengthen the case for vaccination, because there are far fewer deaths in those that have been vaccinated than those that haven't, even at the time there was 20 years of data on this,

• Of those with four vaccination marks: 0.5 percent died
• Of those with three marks: 1.9 percent died
• With two marks: 4.7 percent died
• With one mark: 7.7 percent died
• With no marks but claiming to have been vaccinated: 23.3 percent died
• Non-vaccinated patients: 37 percent died

Doyle's thinking on this subject was clearly reasonable, he seemed to be fighting the same battle as many heath-care professionals are still fighting today, although it's worth noting that he wasn't perfect, his views on other matters such as parapsychology, telepathy and spiritualism weren't so insightful.