Renowned Immunologist Dr Ellen Vitetta Discusses The Importance Of Vaccinations

I am a supporter of vaccinations and though I try to remain impartial on most topics I cannot on this one. There was a single report that linked autism to vaccinations, that report has been completely disproved and its authors have admitted they were wrong, yet people still remain anti-vaccination. I was fortunate enough to correspond with Dr Ellen Vitetta, the director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and also one of the top 100 most cited biomedical scientists in the world.

• What is your opinion of those individuals that are anti-vaccination, are they unknowingly contributing to the recent influx of superbugs? I typically link Penn and Teller's Bullshit regarding vaccines if somebody tells me they are anti-vaccine. "Knowingly or unknowingly, they are obviously doing harm to many innocent people. This is leading to the return of preventable (but untreatable) diseases such as whooping cough, measles, polio etc. and perhaps the emergence of superbugs. The morbidity and mortality of these diseases is huge to me, the fallout of failing to get vaccinated is as bad as driving while intoxicated."

• What would this mass vaccination movement need to be able to progress (public awareness, fundraising, other support)? "All of the above. I would take it a step further and make it a criminal offense...the same as drunk driving. It would be illegal not to vaccinate your children or get vaccinated yourself since you put many other people in danger. In many parts of the US we require vaccination for kids to enter school. This is good but not good enough."

• How could somebody that supports this get involved? "Contact your local and federal representatives to make the laws/rules about vaccination more stringent. Participate in public awareness campaigns in the meanwhile. Refer doubters to good articles an ask them to read them!"

• How do you feel vaccines are currently viewed, do you find a lot of resistance from the anti-vaccine movement? "Most people actually approve of and follow the vaccine guidelines and support the development of vaccines. It's the vocal minority that we hear from. The problem is that it only takes a few noncompliant people to put the entire population of very young kids (and the elderly) at risk."

• The published article which started the recent anti-vaccine movement, if I am accurate, has all but been debunked so why do people still support its widespread inaccuracies? What can be done to further spread awareness that vaccines are necessary? "Yes it has been debunked in many articles and the original study has been retracted. unfortunately people become "believers" and like to oppose conventional wisdom. It is really no different from taking useless supplements, carrying around lucky pennies, or for that matter believing in god and insisting that others do to[sic]. Supplements do damage, religious fanatics do damage and so do anti-vaxxers. Sadly, faith and science are very different!"

• This probably should have been the first question, if someone were to know nothing about vaccines or your companies approach to vaccines, how would you explain the necessity of vaccination? "I would say that vaccines have saved more lives and money than any other medical discovery  in history. If you look at the ENTERMIM.COM website, you will see how life expectancy has been extended since vaccines became common medical practice. This is because infectious diseases have been the biggest killers on the planet, and in many countries, still are."