We received an interesting email about a week ago from a reader skeptical of the claims in the article on . The email read:
“You lost me when you claimed that chicken pox caused kids to be out of school for weeks. I call bs. I know absolutely no one (mind you I am almost 64) that missed more than a week and many that missed only 3 days. So how reliable are your answers?”
As an epidemiologist, my first response was to point out to the reader that anecdotes are not data. For example, as one of my friends pointed out, my friend has never seen a shark, but sharks exist. Personally, I have never seen a person with , . In essence, what we see is not always what is out there in the world. This is especially true of social media today, where an algorithm learns what you like and dislike, and offers you mostly what you like to keep you engaged. (Though through amplifying things people did not like.)
However, I took a step back and gave the reader the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it is true that they have never heard of anyone out of school for more than a week. So, as a scientist, I conducted my own study among my social media contacts. As you can imagine, it is a biased study, but it proves a point: Sharks exist, even when you don't see them. Children can and do miss weeks of school because of chickenpox, even if we have been fortunate enough to live in a part of the world where infection prevention and medical care have made chickenpox a rarity among children.
This is what my social media contacts had to say when I asked them if they missed any school due to chickenpox:
This is not to exclude in any way the years of missed everything in children who die of chickenpox. Those deaths are rare in developed nations, like the United States. In the U.S., , nearly all preventable. , and where to treat complications of chickenpox. And I am also not excluding children who have been left with a permanent disability because of a complication from chickenpox. They may go to school, but they are at a disadvantage due to their disability.
When looking at evidence and data, it is best to put our personal biases aside and look at the sourcing of said data, how much it makes sense, and if it has been replicated. That article -- like all our articles -- was reviewed and cited. Our editorial team is made up of subject matter experts in immunology, vaccines, and medicine. It was not written to scare anyone into vaccinating, or to trigger the anti-vaccine people who read into having a debate. It is what it is, an accurate answer to twenty questions we hear from parents and others about vaccination.