Today I received the following email from my synagogue regarding what is being portrayed by the city health department as a public health warning. You can see the response I sent to the synagogue at the end as well as additional comments.
“We want to share some important information with you regarding a continuing mumps outbreak in this part of the country.
The situation has involved over 1200 people, primarily members of the Hasidic community in New York and New Jersey. While this health alert targets the Hasidic community, we are aware that the Yeshiva community has been affected as well.
There have been no outbreaks in the Hasidic community in Baltimore City . However, with Passover fast approaching and with it the opportunity for extensive social interaction with people from the affected areas of New York and New Jersey , the Health Department aims to make the community aware of the issue and to encourage everyone, especially children, to be sure they are fully immunized against mumps. This is achieved by receiving 2 doses of MMR vaccine, at least 4 weeks apart. Typically, one dose is given at 12 months and the second at 4-6 years, prior to school entry. However, the doses can be administered at a later age. The other way to be protected, of course, is to have had the disease, as confirmed by a physician.
We are asking your assistance in communicating this information in an appropriate manner to your family and friends. You can cite the facts that are presented in the attached document. The Health Department has already sent out information to the pediatricians and federally qualified health centers in the area.
Please keep in mind that this is a time-sensitive issue. Passover is coming; the first night is March 29. With families joining together for the holiday, that will create optimum opportunity for mingling and infection.
The vaccination requires 10-14 days to produce protection. So it is imperative that you make your family and friends aware of this so they can ensure their protection in time for the holiday.”
Things like this disturb me because they are: 1) based on inaccurate information; 2) creating fear and hysteria; 3) don’t have any helpful information to balance the message being sent. Here’s the message I sent in response:
“I’m disappointed to receive a message like this from the shul. Those who are familiar with the mumps outbreak know that in fact the majority of those who contracted it were fully vaccinated on schedule, and therefore the recommendation to take care of vaccinations is unhelpful. I realize the purpose of this message was to be helpful but I’ve watched a lot of hysteria in the frum community online build for at least a couple of months now based on inaccurate information like this. People are frantic since their vaccinated children are getting mumps and the only information they have is that the vaccination should have prevented it.
Mumps is a minor and unpleasant childhood illness that is easily dealt with with mega doses of vitamin C in the event that someone does contract it; let’s not get people worked up about something like this, particularly at a time of year when so many people are already stressed out and won’t have the time to get accurate information. “
I realize whoever sent it out was basically cutting and pasting the information from the city health department, seeing it as a service to the community. I don’t see this as a negative reflection of the synagogue employee or volunteer who sent this, clearly trying to be helpful. But I do see statements like these: “With families joining together for the holiday, that will create optimum opportunity for mingling and infection” as inspiring fear.
I also think that since young children are the least affected by mumps, the suggestion to be sure that especially children get the vaccination makes no sense. It’s not the kids who have to worry about long term side affects; it’s post adolescent boys and men (I’ll put this concern into perspective below).
I was on a discussion board a couple of months ago when a woman shared that her daughter overseas had a roommate who contracted the mumps. I couldn’t believe the extremely emotionalized and dramatic reaction of the mother – threatening to sue the school (as if the school has the power to keep germs from circulating in the air :roll:) since they must have allowed a student who wasn’t fully vaccinated in, saying that those who don’t vaccinate are responsible for spreading disease, and on and on and on.
When other posters jumped on board to agree with her and blame all those horrible and selfish natural- granola- crunchy-negligent parents who don’t care about anyone and leave a trail of disease and suffering in their wake, I felt it relevant to share just one tiny little detail that was leaving the medical establishment in Israel (where this happened) scratching its head – most of those who got the mumps were fully vaccinated (as I mentioned in my note to the synagogue). An investigation was launched there to figure out what happened – since clearly the issue was the lack of effectiveness of the vaccine.
Does anyone else wonder why a critical point like this is conveniently being omitted? Maybe because noting it would create a conflict between what you’re being told to do and what will actually be of benefit. There’s nothing being suggested to protect oneself from the mumps except vaccination – and what can they tell you to do when you’ve already followed their suggestions and it hasn’t helped?!
Fear of the unknown is hard to deal with and it’s understandable that people overreact when faced with something they hardly know anything about. Here’s a little bit of information to dispel the fear. The mumps for many generations was a common childhood illness – uncomfortable but rarely dangerous. Lifetime immunity was a nice side benefit for those who had the mumps. Some of you might be as old as me, lol, and remember when chickenpox was considered in this way.
Is someone reading and thinking, “doesn’t she know about the sterility issue? You can’t take a chance with that, can you?” Isn’t it a wonder that humankind has somehow perpetuated itself despite the majority of males for hundreds of years having the mumps? Hmm.
The reality is that only about two percent of males who get mumps after puberty have testicular swelling. Of that very small percentage of post adolescent boys, 98% have swelling on only one side. Now, of that very, very small percentage that have swelling of both testicles, the huge majority recover and have no issues affecting sterility. So you don’t have to be a professor of mathematics to realize that statistically this is unlikely to be a problem.
And you already know I’m of the belief that building up a strong immune system is your best defense for any kind of sickness (along with lots of vitamin C and rest). I wrote about guidelines for taking vitamin C here. A positive outlook can do wonders, too! I won’t be worrying about this one tiny bit, and I hope none of you will, either!
Avivah
This sounds like the swine flu hysteria about a doomsday plague that never materialized. With so much conflicting information out there, though, it’s really difficult to make educated, healthy decisions. Whatever I choose, I’m never quite sure it was the right decision.
Thank you for addressing this. I was interested in seeing your views on vaccinations. It’s interesting the different extreme views on mumps.
Hi, Debbie, welcome! There’s a lot of hysteria and fear surrounding illness that we aren’t familiar with. More recently we’ve seen this kind of panic about H1N1. And I still hear ads on the radio about getting your shot now to stay healthy – when we know it’s really just a cold that everyone has gotten, it can be prevented/cured with vitamin D supplementation, and that those who get the shot haven’t necessarily avoided contracting H1N1. There’s plenty of money to be made in convincing people that they’re in danger.
I agree that it’s very hard to have to do your own research and evaluate the information that filters through the media – and then be confident a bout it!
Sara – I didn’t realize I was espousing an extreme view!
I didn’t mean your view was extreme. I wrote in a hurry and meant that the views were so extremely different from each other. There is no edit function in the comments section.
What I meant by extreme is the mass hysteria vs. the calm, trust in the natural ability to heal, the reliance on the vaccine vs the reliance on vitamin c, the mass concerns I hear of sterility c’v (sterility is certainly not a minor thing, but I don’t think you feel it’s minor either) vs. the hard numbers on the chances of it occuring.
I will admit I also find it slightly stange how each time the mumps get mentioned everyone keeps mentioning to get vaccinated (as if the Jewish community doesn’t already have a very high vaccination rate) and the blame on the non-vaxers for this outbreak when plenty of vaxed kids have already gotten the mumps during this outbreak. Then the next thing I always hear is “well, at least if you’re vaxed you have a less severe case”.
I also find the response you’re mentioning ironic. I’ve even seen the ridiculous theory posited on an Orthodox discussion board that parents must be falsifying their medical records for school entrance – anyone who is in the community knows how extremely unlikely that is – rather than look at the reality that vaccines can’t guarantee wellness. Easier to point fingers and create conspiracy theories than do the research, I guess.
I’m laughing at your last comment – I know how common this is! It seems regardless of indications to the contrary, people have to keep insisting that the vaccinations are working.
Haha. Your title was EXACTLY my reaction to my shul’s email about this. Complete with the literal rolling of my eyes at the absurd suggestion to make sure everyone is vaccinated.
We should all have a healthy Y”T no matter what type of medical advice we choose to follow — those of our own research and instinct or those of authoritative medical figures.
(P.S. I’m pretty certain I had the swine flu during this past pregnancy. Elderberry and vit C had me back up and running within a day.)
LN – ‘this past pregnancy’? Does that mean you gave birth?! What did you have?
I’m sorry to hear that this message is going around to other shuls – it’s seems all someone has to receive is an email request from someone in the *medical* field and without being questioned it gets forwarded. This is a great illustration of how what you’ll be told by your doc or rabbi is coming directly from a government office. This particular government office is about 4 months behind the times – this was a hot issue in November – and contrary to what they wrote, there have already been cases of mumps in this area and in other states than those mentioned months ago.
We had a girl last Friday night 😀
Mazel tov! – that’s two for two now, right?
Yup! 2 boys followed by 2 girls 🙂
Two things. They’re sending out this letter 2 weeks before pesach, because you “must be vaccinated before pesach” and then say you need two vaccines, a month apart, for it to even be effective. *(rolls eyes)*
My baby was hospitalized at 5 months old and they discovered there that he wasn’t immunized. I gave them some half @ssed answer when they asked why/when, because I didn’t feel like arguing with them.
A month after we got home from the hospital, the head of pediatrics at the hospital calls me up to check up on us, and to make sure that my son is fully vaccinated. He was trying to scare me about how there are all these epidemics going around. I had such a shtuch telling him “Yes, i’ve heard about these epidemics. Going around people that WERE vaccinated.” Doc had nothing to say.
People are weird.
Have you seen the film Food Matters? It was very good, much less mainstream than Food Inc. I believe you will disagree with parts of it, especially some of the raw diet talk as that is not how you feed your family but they also discuss throughout the film vitamin therapy for treating severe diseases as well as the importance overall of food for health both of which might interest you. Reading this and rereading the post you link to about vitamin c reminded me of it. You can actually watch it online here:
http://sprword.com/videos/foodmatters/
Thanks for the link, Kelly Michelle! I’ll try to find time in the next few days to check this out – it sounds fascinating. I don’t mind watching things I don’t fully agree with – I’m pretty good at finding points that appreciate, and try to keep an open mind to new information.
no problem, they have quite the collection of films on there. Many I have been meaning to look into. I heard Flow (about our water supply) was fascinating and well done but have not yet watched it.
Oh, my gosh, Kelly Michelle – I LOVED this film! Seriously. I watched it for ten minutes and then my kids asked if we could leave it on to listen to while we got ready for Shabbos, so I agreed.
This is so exactly how I look at many of the issues discussed that it’s like listening to myself talk out loud. I’m going to write a post up about it and share the very small area of disagreement I have – which isn’t really disagreement as much as seeing some other options they don’t cover (re: raw foods). And now I’ll have to look at what other films are there – but I’m going to have to exercise some self-restraint so that my Passover cleaning gets done in a timely way. 🙂
I did a workup a couple years back based on the MMRW data I could find for age 14 and over, Male, numbers of cases of mumps, and one study showing a rough percentage of sterility from swelling…..roughly 1 testicle per year became sterile in all of the USA. Hardly cause for panic!
Oh another thing. This February I got my kids’ blood tests for a few things. I wanted to know their status for Chickenpox and a couple other things (they are totally vax free).
Well, all 3 kids came back as POS for MEASLES past infection. So, they had had measles, all of them, somehow, but never had any rash at all. I guess one of those little come-and-go lay on the sofa for a day fevers was actually measles, so easily fended off, and now B’H with lifetime immunity. I bet this happens soooo much more often than we know of. All these adults getting boosters…..and parents breaking down and getting vaccines…..better test your titres first, folks!