According to the CDC:
CMV is the most common infectious cause of birth defects in the United States. About 1 in 200 babies is born with congenital CMV. About 1 in 5 babies with congenital CMV will have birth defects or long-term health problems, like hearing loss
It would great if a vaccine could take that away, but sadly Moderna’s vaccine failed last year. According to the article Moderna’s CMV Vaccine Candidate Misses in Late Stage Trial:
The randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05085366) assessed the safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of mRNA-1647 in CMV-seronegative female participants aged 16 to 40 years. Approximately 7500 women were enrolled in the study; participants received an intramuscular injection of mRNA-1647 or placebo on days 1, 57, and 169.
Findings showed the study did not meet its primary endpoint of preventing CMV infection in seronegative participants. Vaccine efficacy against CMV infection was reported to be between 6% to 23% depending on the case definition used. Based on these findings, the Company plans on discontinuing the development of mRNA-1647 in congenital CMV.
We can all wish the results were different, but the data was clear. There’s not much more to say about this study, however way vaccine-advocates reacted to it this is revealing.
Vaccine-advocates are routinely accused of blindly suggesting vaccines, and anti-vaxxers claim our “worship of vaccines as the path to safety and health is a cult”, to pick one typical example from anti-vaccine lawyer Aaron Siri. It’s the stupidest, laziest trope imaginable. It is also completely wrong, and the way vaccine-advocates reacted to this study shows why.
Let’s first notice what vaccine-advocates didn’t do. Once Moderna announced their vaccine failed, no one claimed otherwise. No one said there was a conspiracy to hide the truth, because doctors make more money treating CMV than preventing it. No one said they wanted this vaccine for themselves or for anyone else. I am sure the thought never even crossed anyone’s mind. It’s too absurd to contemplate.
Beyond this, vaccine-advocates didn’t merely accept the study results, several also publicized them. In her article Why We Still Need a Cytomegalovirus Vaccine, And Why It’s So Hard to Make One, Dr. Boghuma K. Titanji, an infectious disease expert at Emory, started off by discussing the vaccine’s failure. She said:
This October, Moderna announced that its mRNA vaccine candidate against congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) didn’t meet its protective efficacy endpoint. This news is disappointing, but not surprising. CMV is a formidable adversary and one of the most complex viruses we’ve ever tried to outsmart. Despite the challenges of developing a vaccine, the need remains critical.
This is not the first time a vaccine has failed, and like Dr. Titanji, vaccine-advocates have readily admitted it every single time. They are 100% predictable this way, and even anti-vaxxers acknowledge this, at least when it suits their agenda. A 2020 article from Kennedy’s anti-vaxx site, Children’s Health Defense, said:
As we anticipate the arrival of a fast-tracked and liability-free SARS-Cov-2 vaccine candidate, vaccine proponents and developers like Paul Offit and Peter Hotez have been notably reticent. It would be wise to consider why.
Both doctors have acknowledged previous failures in attempted coronavirus vaccines and have alluded to the issue of “antibody-dependent enhancement,” also called “pathogenic priming.” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), has also addressed this potential problem
It further quoted Dr. Offit as saying:
The dengue vaccine, in children who’ve never been exposed to dengue before, actually made them worse when they were then exposed to the natural virus. Much worse. Causing something called dengue hemorrhagic shock syndrome. Children died because, vaccinated children who were less than 9 years of age who had never been exposed to dengue before were more likely to die if they’d been vaccinated than if they hadn’t been vaccinated.
As you can see vaccine-advocates didn’t act like anti-vaxxers. They didn’t deny the science in order to promote a failed vaccine the way anti-vaxxers deny the science in order to discourage successful vaccines. Vaccine-advocates claim to “follow the science” and lo and behold, they follow the science, even when it means throwing vaccines in the trash.
The obvious corollary to this is that when vaccine-advocates do chose to advocate for vaccines, whether it’s HPV, MMR, polio, or COVID, we do so for one reason and one reason only- we have the science to back it up.
You can’t expect anti-vaxx celebrities like Aaron Siri to grasp any of this, however. That’s what happens when you join a cult.