Opinion | Tackle falsehoods about vaccines to preserve our freedom from disease

Detroit factory workers wept. Church bells rang. Families gathered around radios. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Thomas Francis had just announced to the world on April 12, 1955, that the Salk vaccine to prevent polio worked.

Imagine what it must have felt like as a parent. Children could now enjoy school, swimming pools and Michigan summers without fear of disability and death. Vaccination won freedom from diseases, such as polio, that once plagued Michigan families. That hard-earned freedom is now under threat from false, inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines.

My patients are curious, value nuance and ask good questions. Are vaccines safe? Why do kids get more vaccines than in the past? I listen, meet patients where they are at, and do my best to answer such questions with confidence and empathy. 

For credible sources, I guide patients to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center, Healthychildren.org, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and IVaccinate.org. However, COVID-19 pandemic fallout, social media silos and politicization heralds a new era of rumor and distrust. Even consequential policy decisions that affect everyone are no longer immune to partial truths and demonstrable falsehoods. Michiganders deserve fact-based vaccine recommendations rooted in scientific integrity. Here are some tell-tale signs of unreliable sources or false, inaccurate or misleading information:

• Cherry-picking statistics
• Exploiting emotions such as fear, urgency or outrage
• Misrepresenting or misinterpreting scientific papers without correction
• Presenting two choices as the only options when they’re not mutually exclusive
• Attacking a person or group instead of an argument
• Changing goal posts after evidence counters a presented claim
• Mistaking correlation for causation
• Overlooking the fact that dose matters when evaluating benefits or harms
• Emphasizing known, rare risks or hypothetical risks over known, large benefits

Everyone must chip in to preserve vaccine access and confidence. After all, vaccines protect both ourselves and our neighbors. Individuals can follow tips for engaging family and friends sharing falsehoods online.  Organizations can pre-bunk rumors before they start. Public health departments and medical professional societies must step up with clear and consistent vaccine recommendations. Michigan policymakers must also prepare to fill funding and insurance coverage gaps to ensure vaccine access for all. Again, remembering our past may center us and guide our future. 

My hometown of Battle Creek was also home to one of the first wellness influencers – Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, brother of cereal founder W.K. Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg mixed contemporary medicine and surgery with his belief in “biologic living.” He was right about exercise, plant-based eating and the dangers of alcohol and tobacco. But he also promoted eugenics and cure-alls with hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, and 15-quart enemas. Dr. Kellogg reminds us that despite celebrity, conviction and occasionally even credentials, one can be right about some things and very wrong about others. Today, discerning fact from fiction requires stewardship and fidelity to seeking truth over ideology or predetermined conclusions. As a physician and public health professional, I strive to promote wellness, treat disease and alleviate suffering by drawing upon the best available evidence and being present with those I serve.

We Michiganders maintain a strong legacy of enterprise, community and public health. We are the innovators Dr. William Upjohn and Dr. Homer Stryker of Kalamazoo, who created digestible pills to treat disease and pioneered medical devices. We are the dentists and leaders of Grand Rapids, the first city in the world to fluoridate its water to prevent chronic tooth decay. We are Dr. David Cowie and Michigan grocers who, as the first in the nation, stocked shelves with iodized salt to prevent chronic thyroid disease. We are the factory workers and community members who cheered with pride as trucks loaded with COVID-19 vaccines rolled out of Portage to the rest of the world. We are Drs. Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering, who followed the scientific method, worked with schools, partnered with community physicians, earned parents’ trust and developed an effective whooping cough vaccine in their Grand Rapids laboratory. We are Sojourner Truth of Battle Creek, who advocated for truth and reminds us of the Michigan grit needed now to preserve our freedom from vaccine preventable disease.