Unanswered question

So following my recent post about that paper by Miller and Goldman, which crudely correlates numbers of recommended vaccines with infant mortality rates in the US and any country with a lower IMR, I got mail. Gary Goldman wanted to discuss my criticism with me and explain why they were still right. He actually wanted me to call him, which I was initially tempted to do, but eventually didn't because I was put off by the twisting and turning email conversation. He did request that I keep our exchange private, however, he stopped writing me, so I thought I'd just bring one argument up here and see whether he will answer.

me on 13 May - I (for Germany) and the devine Prometheus (for the US) had asked this earlier:

I see that you are avoiding the most obvious question: why are there fewer and fewer infant deaths when more and more vaccines are given? I gave you the German numbers, where infant mortality dropped by 80% while the number of scheduled vaccines tripled. Every country I look at has the same temporal trend, although in the US it is not as pronounced as in Europe, most likely because of your crappy health system. I would really like to know what your thoughts on this are.

No response to that by Gary on the same day (while was responding to other points)

Me, in response, still 13 May (his points in italics):

I notice you are still avoiding the historical question and if I may make a prediction - you are going to avoid answering this question forever. I would really be interested in your reasoning.

14 May, Gary, at the very bottom of a looong email elaborating on a number of points entirely unrelated to any of my questions:

I am not able to address the specific historical factors concerning infant deaths in Germany upon which you rely to support your contention that no correlation exists. I have seen data where 90% of disease mortality declined prior to vaccinations and this was largely attributed to improved sanitation, nutrition, and water. Other
studies, more longitudinal, and in other populations are reasonably necessary to support the present trend we report.

Now this is really irritating, because we were talking the past 30 years, not "pre all vaccines". Therefore, me, a day later:

Dear Gary,

I should maybe specify

I am not able to address the specific historical factors concerning infant deaths in Germany upon which you rely to support your contention that no correlation exists.

Germany is, of course, not the only country in which infant mortality plummeted over the past 30 years, it did so in every developed country I looked at.

I have seen data where 90% of disease mortality declined prior to vaccinations and this was largely attributed to improved sanitation, nutrition, and water.

Yes, all anti-vaccine protagonists like to refer to such curves. However, I am not talking about disease mortality, and I am talking a period of 1981 to 2011, when sanitation, nutrition and water were not a problem at all in Germany (or any of the other developed countries in which infant mortality dropped over the same time period).

Other studies, more longitudinal, and in other populations are reasonably necessary to support the present trend we report.

But Gary, we already know that infant mortality plummeted while the number of vaccines was significantly increased. I don't think that the kind of crude and error/bias ridden correlation that you have published advance the field at all, or reasonable raises new questions.

What about you? What experiences have you had that have shaped your thinking and views?

Misrepresentation of scientific evidence and dodging of straight forward questions by anti-vaccinationists for example - you wrote many many words, totally side tracking - we were talking German vaccination schedule and how it is not what you wrote about - you have similar misrepresentations for other countries as well - then you write about varicella, which is a second year vaccine - this was not the topic at hand - and you come with "sanitation" when we are talking 1980ies Germany - that is rather lame, you know.

So, given that Germany had great sanitation in 1981 and we are talking infant mortality, not disease related mortality, and they had 9 recommended vaccine doses and 10'000 infant deaths then, while they have 21 to 28 recommended doses and under 2000 infant deaths now, how would number of recommended vaccines correlate with infant mortality at all? Can you give me even an idea, a reasonable notion how your idea would match, umm, reality?

Thanks

Catherina

I had to wait two days to get a response, signed by Miller and Goldman:

Dear Catherina,

Infant mortality rates in all developed nations, including Germany, were much higher in the 19th and early 20th centuries and have continued to decline mainly due to improvements in nutrition (including breastfeeding advocacy), sanitation, and access to healthcare. [This information is not a conspiracy of "anti-vaccine protagonists" as you suggest; it is well-documented in the medical and historical literature.] For example, nearly 300 per 1,000 German infants died in the mid 1800s. By 1950, the German IMR had dropped to 52/1,000—an 83% decline. By 1960, the German IMR had dropped another 33% to about 35 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. These dates and declines in IMR preceded the extensive increases in compulsory vaccinations required of German infants.

Furthermore, Germany’s IMR declined at a rate of 3% annually from 1960 to 1979 during a time when few infant vaccines were required. This rate of decline was much faster than the 2.4% annual "plummet" from 1980 to 2009 during a period when more infant vaccines were required.

Additionally, Germany and other developed nations continued to make medical advances at reducing neonatal mortality during periods of increasing vaccine requirements. For example, from 1970 to 1979 there was a 41% decline in U.S. neonatal mortality. From 1980 to 1989, there was an additional 27% decline in neonatal mortality. Neonatal mortality (deaths in the first 28 days of life) usually accounts for more than 50% of all infant deaths. From 1990 through 2010, neonatal mortality in Germany represented about 68% of all infant mortality. During that period, Germany’s neonatal mortality rate had declined by 55%. Such improvements to the neonatal mortality rate greatly reduce the infant mortality rate yet are unrelated to the number of vaccines administered to infants.

Sincerely,
Neil Z. Miller
Gary Goldman, PhD

So here is my question that I have not gotten an answer for in the past 2 weeks:

Dear Gary,

so if I understand you correctly, infant mortality is dependent on all sorts of factors (hygiene, nutrition, sanitation, access to health care) and still declining, but just not as fast as it would be if we didn't vaccinate. Despite all these factors, which obviously vary tremendously between countries, you decided to only crudely correlate vaccines to infant mortality?

Thank you for clarifying

Catherina