Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Vaccination programs prevent more human suffering than any other branch of
medicine. Their success depends on public confidence in their safety. But
according to a report released last Wednesday by the U.S. Department of
Health, spot checks by the Office of the Inspector General finds that free
vaccines, provided under the nationwide Vaccines for Children program, are
often stored at the wrong temperature, which can render them ineffective.
The first generation to receive MMR vaccinations are now parents. They have
been spared not only the direct misery of the illness, but also serious
side effects that can show up many years later. They should be the first
to demand strict standards of safety and effectiveness in administering
vaccines. Someday perhaps, eradication of pathogenic diseases will be
routine, but were not there yet. What prevents it?
In 1977, smallpox, the most deadly and persistent human pathogenic disease,
was eradicated from Earth by the World Health Organization following an
unprecedented agreement allowing quick-response teams to freely cross every
a border to administer vaccine in case of an outbreak. It was a moving
demonstration of what can be achieved by world cooperation, and was quickly
followed by calls to eradicate poliomyelitis. Polio eradication was
undertaken by WHO in 1988 with help from private organizations, but
although the number of polio cases diagnosed each year has plummeted, final
eradication remains elusive. Opposition by Muslim fundamentalists is said
to be the major factor in the failure of polio immunization programs. In
Pakistan and Afghanistan the Taliban issued fatwa opposing vaccination as
an attempt to avert Allah's will, while others saw it as an American plot
to sterilize Muslims. Some conservative Christian groups oppose
vaccination for diseases that are transmitted spread by sexual contact,
arguing that the possibility of disease deters risky sexual contact. It
doesnt.
Set to launch today from a carrier plane, the NuStar telescope will image
high-energy X-rays from black holes, supernova and our own sun. It is the
eleventh mission of the NASA Small Explorer Satellite program and the first
space-based direct-imaging X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of the
Chandra X-ray Observatory. The project is overseen by Caltech professor
Fiona Harrison.
Joel Achenbach, who writes for the Washington Post, proposed in yesterdays
Post that NASA name a Hubble-class space telescope after the late Ray
Bradbury. It's a really, really bad idea. Joel is a nice guy and a good
writer, but he is not a scientist; neither was Ray Bradbury. There aren't
many scientists relative to shoe salesmen and dog catchers. But like it or
not, science is the principal driving force for change in todays world.
Science is too important to leave it to scientists, but don't confuse it
with fiction writers.
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