Providentia

The Vaccination Wars (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1

In 1889, the British government appointed a Royal Commission to evaluate mandatory vaccination policies. While Wallace turned down an offer to sit on the Commission himself, he appeared as the anti-vaccinationists' star witness. The fifteen members of the Commission included some of the prominent British physicians of that time (most of whom were pro-vaccinationists which outraged Tebb and the others). The Commissions members held twenty-one meetings in 1890 and examined ten witnesses (mostly anti-vaccinationists). Wallace appeared four times before the commission and presented all of his graphs and statistics. While the commission members were initially impressed by Wallace's testimony, that changed after they had a chance to evaluate his findings more carefully.

Wallace's statistics seemed impressive but the committee members found numerous errors that seemed unworthy of someone of Wallace's reputation. Not only did Wallace and his fellow anti-vaccinationists ignore statistics that failed to support their view but many of the statistical tables were highly selective (doubly embarassing since Wallace had accused the pro-vaccinationists of doing the same thing).Wallace was caught off-guard by the findings and was forced to admit that many of the statistics that he had presented were worthless. While he continued to argue that sanitation was more important than vaccination, Wallace's credibility had been severely undermined by the time he concluded his testimony. Anti-vaccination activists defended Wallace throughout the entire process and accused the commission of being biased in favour of the pro-vaccinationists. One source commented that, "Dr Wallace stood an examination which proved, if nothing else, that anyone who gives anti-vaccination evidence before this commission must be prepared to keep his temper through insults which most would resent and which few would indulge".

Although the Commission issued a preliminary report in December 1890, the final report wouldn't come out until six years later. After the final report, Wallace published his most scathing pamphlet yet on the Commission's findings. Titled Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal Enforcement a Crime: Proved by the Official Evidence in the Reports of the Royal Commission, Wallace accused the Commission's final report as being "not only weak, misleading, inadequate but is also palpably one-sided". His critics reacted as expected and accused Wallace of simply restating all of his old arguments without providing any new evidence. Still, his crusade had some impact and the Commission's report led to changes in compulsory vaccination (penalties for noncompliance were reduced) and adoption of less risky methods of inoculation.

Wallace was hardly satisfied.  He continued to write anti-vaccinationist pamphlets until his death in 1913. As one of the most well-known scientists of his generation, he lent an air of respect to the anti-vaccination crusade that it never had since. In one of the last pamphlets that he wrote for the Anti-Vaccination League in 1904, he said that "the figures go increasing and decreasing so suddenly and irregularly that by taking a few years at one period, and a few at another, you can show an increase or decrease according to what you wish to prove". Most of the arguments that he raised against vaccination are still being used by anti-vaccinationists today. Even in the 20th century, anti-vaccination societies continued to proliferate and attracted numerous "star" supporters including Wallace and George Bernard Shaw (who wrote that vaccination was "a particularly filthy piece of witchcraft"), as well as health faddists, anti-vivisectionists, trade unionists, etc.

While compulsory vaccination was eventually phased out in Britain with the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, it still remains a thorny issue in many other countries today. The aggressive spread of vaccination campaigns across the world (in combination of containment of known cases) led to a drastic reduction in many communicable diseases for which vaccines are available. Although 50 million cases of smallpox were recorded world-wide in the 1950s, the last naturally occurring case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977 and the World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated three years later. Despite equally aggressive vaccination campaigns for other diseases, the World Health Organization missed its target date of 2000 for the eradication of polio (although the campaign is still underway). Whether similar victories will be possible with measles, diptheria, and other diseases largely depends on the success of current vaccination campaigns and the role that anti-vaccinationists will play in opposing them. There's also the fundamental question of why children in many Third World countries are still dying of diseases that are supposedly preventable through the use of vaccines.

The autism-vaccination link may only be the latest development but the basic arguments seem pretty much the same as ever. The battle continues.

When HIV Positive Youths Need Treatment

A recent study led by researchers at John Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, Maryland has concluded that many HIV-infected youths either do not receive treatment or fail to get it in time to avoid risk of progressing to full-blown AIDS. The study investigated hundreds of HIV-infected youths in HIV clinics nationwide and found that 43 percent of the 656 who qualified for highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) failed to receive treatment following recommended guidelines. Criteria for recommended treatment include low CD4 count, high viral load, or a combination of these factors.

Teenagers and young adults have tended to be the hardest demographic group to treat due to low compliance with multidrug regimens and failure to attend follow-up appointments with treatment staff. The researchers urge front-line care workers to encourage better compliance with beginning and maintaining proper treatment. Center of Disease Control statistics indicate that 53,000 new HIV infections are diagnosed each year in the United States with 14 percent of those infections occurring in the 13 to 25-year old category.

Proper treatment remains vital to prevent medical complications, restore proper immune systems, and to reduce the risk of infecting others.

For more information.

French Court Psychologist Under Investigation For Being Unqualified

A respected French psychologist whose testimony was pivotal in more than 400 trials in the Dordogne region of France is now accused of fooling judicial authorities with false certificates that went undiscovered for years. Regine Labeur, 54, has been placed under formal investigation for fraud following revelations from her estranged husband that she lacked proper qualifications. The two are in the process of divorcing and her husband informed police about Labeur's fraudulent practice. The range of cases in which she testified include criminal prosecutions, divorce cases, and child custody hearings. She earned an estimated 60,000 euros a year making her one of the most well paid forensic psychologists in the region. It still remains unclear how she was able to present false certificates to attain expert witness. Labeur faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. The state prosecutor has ruled out a formal review of the cases in which she gave evidence but attorneys are investigating appeals of legal decisions based on her testimony. For more information.

The Vaccination Wars (Part 1)

Although Jenny McCarthy and her fellow anti-vaccinationists still wage their very public crusade against vaccination, there's nothing really new about their arguments. Opposition to vaccination is as old as vaccination itself.

Smallpox was once one of the most devastating and feared diseases in history. As recently as the 18th century, frequent outbreaks killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year and left many survivors disfigured. Especially dangerous in children, 80% of those who contracted smallpox died of the disease. When Lady Ashley Wortley Montague arranged for her son and daughter to be inoculated against smallpox in 1717 (the practice was common in Asia but was unknown in Europe), she had no idea of the storm she would unleash as a result. Although early opposition to inoculation had a valid basis (patients undergoing the first inoculation technique, also known as variolation, had an estimated 3 percent chance of developing serious complications), much of the resistance came from religious leaders. In a July 8, 1722 lecture by Edmund Massey at St. Andrew's Church in Holborn, England, he based his sermon on a passage from the Book of Job, "So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with boils, from the sole of his foot, unto his crown". Massey argued that the Biblical disease in question was smallpox and added, "With this view, I will not scruple to call it a diabolical operation, usurping an authority founded neither in nature or religion. This practice also tends to support vice and immorality, inasmuch as it diminishes the salutary terror which prevails respecting the uncertain approach of this disease".  In other words, being afraid of smallpox built character.

Although Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination meant a safer alternative to variolation, it would still take many years for vaccination to be widely accepted. In 1840, the British Parliament passed the first Vaccination Act which banned variolation. The Act also gave local boards the power to vaccinate everyone in their districts but still allowed individual objectors to refuse. While vaccination campaigns led to a dramatic drop in smallpox cases, outbreaks continued to occur (especially in the growing city slums). Following pressure from medical authorities, Parliament amended the act in 1853 to make vaccination compulsory. Not only were all newborns required to be vaccinated within the first three months of life but any parent refusing to comply was fined. By 1867, the law became even more stringent with parents being prosecuted for refusing to have their children vaccinated.

It was the stringent laws that inspired the development of the anti-vaccination movement in the 1870s. One of the leading figures in the movement was William Tebb who co-founded the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination in 1880 (it later became the National Anti-vaccination League in 1896). A lifelong firebrand, Tebb had been prosecuted thirteen times for refusing to vaccinate his third daughter. Along with his supporters, Tebb pushed for the abolition of the Vaccination Act and an end to compulsory vaccination in the UK and abroad. Realizing that the movement needed an eminent scientist to support the anti-vaccination cause, Tebb recruited an unlikely champion: Alfred Russel Wallace.

Although Wallace was already famous for his role in the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, his willingness to take on unpopular causes had earned him considerable notoriety as well. Wallace had not always been an anti-vaccinationist (his earlier writings praised Edward Jenner as a medical pioneer and he had his own children vaccinated) but his involvement with Spiritualism brought him into regular contact with anti-vaccinationists (especially Tebb). It was Tebb who persuaded Wallace to join the movement by presenting him with statistics that he had compiled concerning the risks associated with vaccination. Whether due to the statistics or his own concerns about the basic infringements on individual freedom resulting from the Vaccination Act, Wallace became a convert to the cause sometime in the early 1880s.

In fairness to Wallace, there was probably was some basis for his skepticism. At the time, nobody knew exactly why vaccination worked. Despite Louis Pasteur's research and the recent acceptance of the germ theory of disease, the science of immunology was still in its infancy. The fact that medical authorities were eagerly pushing for something that the anti-vaccinationists were condemning as "quackery" and prosecuted parents who refused to comply was enough for Wallace to get involved. Working with the statistics that Tebb provided, Wallace began his own research into vaccination and the government statistics on smallpox and vaccination. He also attempted to link incidence of smallpox to more general issues of sanitation. While the Public Health Act of 1848 began to improve living conditions in most slums, progress remained slow and health problems related to sewage and industrial waste were still common. Wallace and his fellow anti-vaccinationists argued that smallpox and other infectious diseases were actually caused by contamination and that vaccination was likely dangerous in itself. There was (if you'll pardon the expression) a germ of truth in that since there was no generally accepted antiseptic guidelines in vaccinating children and doctors often reused the same needles on their patients. Wallace also argued that there were no controlled experiments showing how long the protection from vaccination lasted.

All of Wallace's findings were written up in a tract titled Forty-five Years of Registration Statistics, Proving Vaccination To Be Both Useless and Dangerous.Published in early 1885, Wallace compiled statistics from across Great Britain and continental Europe (where compulsory vaccination laws were also in place).  Not limiting himself to smallpox, Wallace examined incidence patterns for diptheria, measles, scarlet fever, and whooping cough (pertussis). He concluded that vaccination did more harm than good and that public sanitation played a greater role in disease prevention. Almost immediately, Wallace came under attack by physicians who were horrified that a scientist of Wallace's reputation would side with the anti-vaccinationists. The fact that popular opinion was turning against mandatory vaccination (helped along by graphic stories of conscientious objectors being arrested), added to the pressure for changing the vaccination laws.

As for what happened next, I'll get to that next week.

Technical Problems With Subscriber Feed

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Do Nightmares Relieve Tension?

While nightmares are typically seen as frightening to the dreamer, the role that nightmares play in stress has been frequently debated. Different theories have questioned whether nightmares enabled tension release and played a positive role in coping or simply added to the anxiety of the dreamer. A recent study published in Dreaming examines whether negative life events are associated with an increase or decrease in anxiety attributable to nightmares. The researchers used a sample of 624 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 who were recruited from public and private schools in Australia. The study participants were given a battery of questionnaires examining various aspects of dreaming and stress over a twelve-month period. The results showed no support for the hypothesis that nightmares reduced tension. There was also no evidence that reporting nightmares relieved anxiety. The researchers also found that the stronger the distress of waking (from nightmares), the more likely a person is to report anxiety, controlling for life events and the distress associated with life events. Overall, girls were found to be more likely than boys to experience nightmare waking distress, nightmare sleeping distress, and nightmare frequency. Adolescents who experienced frequent nightmares and nightmare distress were also found to have experienced more major negative life events and to experience greater anxiety overall. Although the researchers focused on major life events in shaping nightmare frequency and distress, they also suggested that "daily hassles" may also be an important factor in psychopathology.

For more information

Antigay Activists Misrepresent APA Statement to Undercut Support for Hate-Crime Bill

As part of their campaign to oppose the inclusion of sexual orientation in hate crime legislation, several religious-right organizations have recently claimed that the American Psychological Association (APA) has changed its position regarding the factors that influence or determine sexual orientation. They specifically claim that APA has dropped its support of a purely biological cause for homosexuality. Antigay activists Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber had cited the claim as a reason for their supporters to call their senators and oppose the inclusion of sexual orientation in existing federal laws that punish felony violence against targeted groups of people. The underlying argument was that since sexual orientation is readily changeable, then there’s no reason for U.S. lawmakers to provide gay people with the same protection from felony violence that other groups already enjoy. The NARTH website also claims that anti-gay organizations have faced attack for promoting "traditional marriage" and accuse APA and other mental health organization of being influenced by "gay activist" organizations. Instead of aiding their readers with a link to the actual federal antiviolence legislation, Senate Bill 909, LaBarbera, Barber, and the American Family Association directed readers to far-right web sites which claim that punishing antigay felony violence punishes free speech and protects pedophiles.

For more information.

The Zamenhof Legacy

It was a noble idea.

When L._L._Zamenhof developed the artificial language known as Esperanto, he intended it as a method of international communication to promote peaceful coexistence among nations (the name of the language stems from a word meaning "hopeful"). He devoted the greater part of his life to promoting Esperanto's use and waived any authorship rights to his creation. In 1905, the first World Esperanto Congress was held in France with nearly seven hundred participants and Zamenhof was decorated with the Legion of Honour. By the time of Zamenhof's death in 1917, there was a dedicated Esperanto community with numerous literary works being translated into that language.

And then the persecutions began...

Almost from the beginning, Esperanto was viewed with deep suspicion by totalitarian states with little sympathy for Zamenhof's internationalist ideals. The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement in Germany proved to be especially intolerant of Esperantists due to Zamenhof's Jewish background and political beliefs (he had been a prominent Yiddish scholar and part of the early Zionist movement). In his work, Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler specifically mentioned Esperanto as a tool of international Jewish Conspiracy and the language that they would use once they dominated the world. It probably didn't help that Esperanto use became popular in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and, as such, became strongly associated with Bolshevik movements. The fact that Stalin reversed this policy in 1937 and ordered Esperanto's suppression meant nothing to the Nazis.

Once Hitler came to power, the fate of Esperantists in Germary was essentially sealed. The Ministry of Education banned the teaching of Esperanto in 1936 and eventually ordered the suppression of all Esperanto activity in Germany. At the same time, Stalin was busily purging Esperantists in the Soviet Union (thousands of Esperantists were either executed or exiled).

While Ludwik Zamenhof was safely dead, the same couldn't be said for his three children sadly enough. Adam Zamenhof, Ludwik's eldest child, had followed in his father's footsteps and became an opthalmologist. While he was actively involved in the Esperantist movement, he was also a prominent physician. As Chief of the Starozakonnych Hospital in Warsaw, Poland, he was a natural target of the Nazis when the country was invaded in 1939. After being arrested in 1939, he was sent to the internment camp in Palmirach and shot by the Nazis on January 29, 1940.

His sister, Zofia Zamenhof, was a pediatrician and internist who was living in the Warsaw Ghetto when Poland was invaded. Despite the Nazi presence, she continued her medical practice until she was arrested and transported to Umschlagplatz. As a medical doctor, she was considered sufficiently valuable to avoid being sent to Treblinka but she chose to accompany her young patients there anyway. She was gassed at Treblinka in 1942.

Lidja_Zamenhof is the most famous of the three Zamenhof children. As a member of the Bahai faith, she was actively involved in teaching her religion as well as Esperanto and had gone to the United States in 1937 to promote both movements. After a long stay, she was forced to leave in 1938 when the Immigration Service refused to extend her visa (teaching Esperanto was considered was considered illegal "paid labor"). Following her return to Poland, she travelled the country teaching Bahai and Esperanto until the Nazis invaded. She was arrested at her home in the Warsaw ghetto on the charge of having gone to the United States to spread anti-Nazi propaganda but was later released. Despite opportunities to escape Poland, she refused because didn't want her helpers to endanger themselves (Poles caught hiding Jews were often executed).

In her last known letter before being transported to Treblinka, Lidia wrote the following: ""Do not think of putting yourself in danger; I know that I must die but I feel it is my duty to stay with my people. God grant that out of our sufferings a better world may emerge. I believe in God. I am a Bahá'í and will die a Bahá'í. Everything is in His hands." It is believed that she was eventually killed sometime in 1942.

Despite the end of World War Two and the elimination of the Nazi persecution, Esperanto continued to be banned in the Soviet Union and the rest of Eastern Europe until 1956. Esperantists in China were often imprisoned (or worse during the Cultural Revolution) and its current status is still uncertain in most authoritarian countries.

Of the entire Zamenhof family, only Adam's son, Krzysztof Zaleski-Zamenhof, managed to survive. Along with his mother, Zalenski-Zamenhof managed to escape from Umschlagplatz and remained in hiding until the end of the Nazi occupation. Now a retired professor of architecture, he remains active in the Esperanto movement and has arranged for the World Esperanto Congress to be held this year in Bialystok, Poland (Ludwik Zamenhof's birthplace).

Hopeful, indeed.

When A Stalker Persists

While stalkers are known for their persistent campaigns of harassment and the potential harm that they pose to their victims and themselves, there is still relatively limited research investigating which stalkers are likely to persist longest. A study published in the April 2009 issue of Law and Human Behavior examined of 200 stalkers referred to a community mental health clinic between 2002 and 2007. These stalkers were assessed for those characteristics that were associated with increased persistence. Stalking behaviour often took the form of unwanted communication and unwanted contact, and presence of explicit threats or violence. They were classified in terms of motivation type ('rejected', 'resentful', intimacy seeking', 'incompetent suitor', or 'predatory').  Predictions models were developed to determine low, moderate, and highly persistent stalking (depending on whether the stalking persisted for two weeks or more, twelve weeks or more, or fifty-two weeks or more). The results supported previous research indicating that the type of prior relationship between stalker and victim is strongly associated with persistence, with prior acquaintances the most persistent, and strangers least. Other factors that were identified included being over the age of 30, sending the victim unsolicited materials, i.e. gifts, presence of psychosis, and having an intimacy seeking or resentful motivation. The results are discussed in terms of clinical intervention for stalkers and their victims.

For more information.

Lawyer Reports Guantanamo Prisoner Suicidal

A lawyer for a Yemeni being held at Guantanamo Bay reported that his client hurled blood at him after slashing his wrist during one of their meetings at the prison.; David Rames, of the Washington-based human-rights law firm Appeal for Justice, stated that his client, Adnan Latif, is one of sixteen Yemenis currently being held.Although Rames maintains that his client's actions were an obvious suicide attempt, prison officials are mininimizing Latif's injuries and dismiss his self-harm attempt as being a minor injury.

Latif, aged 33, has been held at Guantanamo without charge since 2002. He was arrested by Pakistani forces after leaving Afghanistan but denies being a member of al-Qaida. His lawyer insists that he Latif is a victim of mistaken identity and has deteriorated mentally and physically after being kept in isolation in the prison's psychiatric ward. He is reportedly experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations and has attempted suicide on several occasions although prison officials refuse to verify any details concerning his incarceration. While his lawyer is seeking to have Latif returned to Yemen for treatment, there is little progress to date.

There are presently 240 prisoners at Guantanamo although they are currently being relocated following President Barack Obama's January pledge to close the prison. While only four suicides have occurred at the base, unofficial sources report numerous suicide attempts that are often dismissed as "self-harm" attempts to seek attention. Thirty-five prisoners are engaged in a hunger strike as part of protest that has been continuing since 2005.

For more information.