From: ((Steven B. Harris))
Subject: Re: 11 children die after polio vaccine
Date: 26 May 1995
Newsgroups: misc.kids.pregnancy,misc.kids.health,misc.health.alternative

In <3q51u1$8rk@sasquatch.clpd.kodak.com> young@cldx.com (Rich Young)
writes:


>In article <ntlor-2305950052020001@ip145.tus.primenet.com>
>ntlor@primenet.com (Sharon Rust) writes:
>
>[...]
>
>>immuizations still may not have played a big role in the change in
>>survival rates.  SR
>
>Survival rates as a measure of vaccine effectiveness are very nearly
>useless...most of the diseases against which we vaccinate our children as
>a matter of course were never all that fatal in the first place; they
>were crippling and disfiguring, but not all that distinctly fatal.


Comment: but there are some exceptions.  Infantile meningitis caused by
H.flu type b strikes early (peak is something like 2 years, if I
remember), used to hit 1 in 200 kids, and the mortality rate even with
modern therapy was 5%, with brain damage 20 to 40% of the time.  That's
not chickenfeed, and Hib vaccines are not mentioned by the people who
point to few serious sequelae of infections in modern days.  Do they
recommend no DPT, but say yes to Hib?  No, they use DPT as example and
don't MENTION Hib.  They would rather not talk about meningitis at all.
This is because they are either ignorant or stupid or dishonest.  Hard
from this side of the computer screen to tell which.

                                                   Steve Harris, M.D.