4 ms·

We actually have a vaccine for Lyme disease that was pulled due to the Antivax hysteria. I believe an article was posted here on Hacker News before, but here is

We actually have a vaccine for Lyme disease that was pulled due to the Antivax hysteria. I believe an article was posted here on Hacker News before, but here is a link to one otherwise: https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/5/7/17314716/lyme-disease-vaccine-history-effectiveness https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/5/7... We now live in a world where you can vaccinate your dog for Lyme disease but not yourself.

cmrdporcupine 7y ago
We don't vaccinate dogs for lyme disease. We give them a topical or oral systemic insecticide that permeates their skin and bloodstream so as to kill ticks on contact. Dogs have short, and I guess less valuable, lives. So this is considered an acceptable practice for prevention. And there are many many dogs with severe reactions to these medications, including some fatalities. Would you really want to do that to yourself?
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  https://www.zoetisus.com/products/dogs/vanguard-crlyme/index.aspx https://www.zoetisus.com/products/dogs/vanguard-crlyme/index... > For vaccination of healthy dogs 8 weeks of age or older as an aid in the prevention of clinical disease and subclinical arthritis associated with Borrelia burgdorferi.
jseliger 7y ago
The key moment in the original article: Lyme and other tick-borne diseases have yet to receive anything like that sort of attention. In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved a Lyme disease vaccine called Lymerix, administered in a three-injection cycle, that reduced infections in adults by nearly 80%. But it was discontinued three years later after sales bottomed out, due in large part to public fears driven by negative news reports over its side effects (most notably arthritis) and a class-action lawsuit whose claims were debunked. It was an early victory for the anti-vaccine movement, which gained momentum thanks to a now-retracted study linking autism to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine that was released the same year as Lymerix. “That actually scared me,” says Joyce Sakamoto, an entomologist at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University who has researched public engagement strategies to improve tick-borne disease literacy. “That was a case where the anti-vax community was able to effectively kill something entirely without a lot of scientific evidence.” Damned depressing.

cmrdporcupine 7y ago

We don't vaccinate dogs for lyme disease. We give them a topical or oral systemic insecticide that permeates their skin and bloodstream so as to kill ticks on contact. Dogs have short, and I guess less valuable, lives. So this is considered an acceptable practice for prevention. And there are many many dogs with severe reactions to these medications, including some fatalities. Would you really want to do that to yourself?

ceejayoz 7y ago
https://www.zoetisus.com/products/dogs/vanguard-crlyme/index.aspx https://www.zoetisus.com/products/dogs/vanguard-crlyme/index... > For vaccination of healthy dogs 8 weeks of age or older as an aid in the prevention of clinical disease and subclinical arthritis associated with Borrelia burgdorferi.

jseliger 7y ago

The key moment in the original article: Lyme and other tick-borne diseases have yet to receive anything like that sort of attention. In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved a Lyme disease vaccine called Lymerix, administered in a three-injection cycle, that reduced infections in adults by nearly 80%. But it was discontinued three years later after sales bottomed out, due in large part to public fears driven by negative news reports over its side effects (most notably arthritis) and a class-action lawsuit whose claims were debunked. It was an early victory for the anti-vaccine movement, which gained momentum thanks to a now-retracted study linking autism to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine that was released the same year as Lymerix. “That actually scared me,” says Joyce Sakamoto, an entomologist at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University who has researched public engagement strategies to improve tick-borne disease literacy. “That was a case where the anti-vax community was able to effectively kill something entirely without a lot of scientific evidence.” Damned depressing.