Chris Clagett
On a scale of “Strongly Agree” (5) to “Strongly Disagree,” (1) rank your position on the following statements:
Vaccines are safe: 3
Vaccines are effective at preventing disease: 2
Keeping children safe is a shared responsibility: 1
What is your position on West Virginia’s current school vaccine requirements (which allow only medical exemptions)?
Eliminate all vaccine requirements
In your view, what role should the state play in ensuring access to vaccines—especially in rural or underserved communities?
I do not think the state should play a role in this, aside from not interfering in the decisions made between patients and their doctors.
Which of the following best reflects your understanding?
Vaccines primarily protect the individual receiving them
Vaccines help protect both individuals and the broader community
Vaccination is largely a personal decision with limited community impact
Vaccination is a personal decision regardless of community impact
If a preventable disease outbreak (such as measles) occurred in your district, what actions—if any—would you take as a policymaker (e.g., make a statement regarding safety, coordinate with public health officials, take policy actions, encourage vaccination, etc.
The main driver for measles morbidity and mortality is Vit. A deficiency. In the event of clinical measles, I believe the accepted treatment is 1M units of Vit. A intramuscularly on two consecutive days. Vaccination of a poorly or marginally nourished child will do little to mitigate morbidity and mortality.*
*There is no evidence that vitamin A supplementation prevents or cures measles. Vitamin A deficiency has been associated with severe complications from measles; however, this deficiency is very rare in the U.S. Vitamin A supplementation is used as supportive care under a doctor's supervision when appropriate but it does not prevent or cure measles and it carries its own risks. Too much vitamin A can cause nausea, vomiting, headache, fatigue, joint pain, bone pain, blurred vision, skin problems, and hair problems. Additionally, it can lead to dangerously high pressure inside the skull that pushes on the brain, liver damage, confusion, or coma.
Is there anything else you would like West Virginia voters to know about your approach to public health, community wellbeing, and/or vaccines?
The last six years impelled me to reevaluate several things I was taught in medical school and residency (General Preventive Medicine and Public Health). After diving more deeply into the medical literature, I became convinced that life carries risks and that the medical profession's claims to mitigate them have been oversold. The history of 20th-century infectious disease mortality shows that mortality across the board saw the majority of its reduction before the development of vaccines against those diseases.**
**While improvements in hygiene and nutrition during the 20th century played a role in the decrease of infectious disease mortality in the U.S., for several diseases, the most significant decreases in mortality followed the introduction of their respective vaccines. Many infections spread regardless of hygiene, including chickenpox, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, rubella, and mumps. Before the chickenpox vaccine's introduction, there were 100 to 150 deaths each year. Since the vaccine there have been fewer than 30 deaths per year. This represents a 70% to 80% reduction in mortality, independent of the 97% drop in cases since the introduction of the vaccine.
