What is it with Vaccinations?

This is probably (and weirdly) the most controversial topic I've written about so far, but I've been watching the arguments about vaccinations over the last few years and find the whole thing a little fascinating.  The most recent events in New York with the Mayor having to order vaccinations to happen and the UK debating if they should become compulsory have brought this story back to my mind. (Oh, and I don't have any vaccine appropriate photos, so I'm just going to fill this blog with beautiful photos of scenery and wildlife).

The first time I became aware that vaccinations were seen as an issue (a great surprise to me) was in 1998 after a paper published in The Lancet by (no longer Dr) Andrew Wakefield and some colleagues linked the MMR vaccination to the development of autism with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) in children.  Despite the results being proven to be wrong, there being evidence of bad practice, and the findings of a very serious conflict of interest on Wakefield's side this paper led to a climate of mistrust in vaccinations.  This unfortunately lead to a reduction in vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland (NHS showed that the MMR vaccination rate in England in 2017-2018 is 91.2% which is below the 95% recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO)), and an increase in the number of individuals diagnosed with the diseases these vaccines are designed to protect from.

I could write a whole blog on how that research paper and Wakefield were wrong, but I would rather not give him anymore time and instead want to look at some of the myths I have heard about vaccinations recently.

The two I find most interesting are the ideas that the reduction in these diseases in recent years are due to the fact that the infection rate is now low anyway, and that it is due to an improvement is the general hygiene of our society as a whole.

Let's start with this idea of sanitation.  It's true that improvements in sanitation and hygiene as well as the production of antibiotics have placed an important role in reducing the number of diseases that now kill us, and we should be very grateful for that, but they are not the only factors.  For one, antibiotics can only help with bacteria infection and even the best hygiene practices in the world can not prevent all diseases from spreading - hence the reason we still catch colds ever year.  It is vaccinations that really help our bodies fight these diseases when we are exposed to them.  If we look at the last 50 years we can see that, whilst hygiene levels have remained pretty similar, diseases like measles have still shown a steady decline and this is due to vaccinations .

As for the idea of infection rates being low, this is actually due to what is known as the 'herd immunity'.  As long as a large majority of the population are vaccinated against an infectious disease it is not actually able to establish itself in the population and spread, giving the appearance of a low infection rate.  This is especially important as those individuals who aren't able to be vaccinated, such as the elderly, very young infants, and pregnant ladies, are also usually the most vulnerable.  If vaccination rates keep dropping then this will open up the opportunity for viruses and bacteria to establish themselves in the population and spread.

Another argument I've heard recently is in connection to the chemicals found in the vaccinations, most notably heard about from Kat Von D.  It's completely understandable that this would worry people, but unfortunately the information provided on this has either been very misleading in it's incompleteness or non-existent.  The ones I've heard most about are thiomersal (mercury), aluminium based adjuvants, and formaldehyde.  Thiomersal is no longer used in any of the vaccinations provided in the UK and, even so, the WHO have stated that there are no risks in the level of thiomersal found in vaccinations.  Adjuvants are designed to help boost your immune systems response to the vaccination and most killed vaccinations contain a small amount of aluminium based adjuvants.  Though aluminium can be toxic in large doses, the amount found in vaccinations are too small to cause any problems.  Lastly, formaldehyde.  This is used during the first stages of killed vaccines productions and is diluted out in later production.  It is possible that there will still be trace amounts in the vaccine given, but not enough to cause any health concerns.  In fact, the level of formaldehyde found naturally in your blood stream (to help with metabolism) is much higher then that found in vaccines.

The last reason for not vaccinating I'm going to write about here (otherwise this will be a very long blog indeed) is the idea that naturally acquired immunity, ie actually catching the disease, is better than vaccinated immunity and there have been cases where this has caused a stronger immunity to the disease.  However, the cost to this approach is far more severe and I feel not really worth the risk.  If we look at measles, if caught naturally there is a 1 in 5000 chance that you will die from your symptoms.  Compare that to the chance of having an allergic reaction to the MMR vaccination, which is 1 in 1 million (a number based in the fact that they have had practically no reports of this). I'd rather go for the vaccination.

The truth is that it wasn't so long ago that life was particularly brutal, especially for children with 43% of children in the 1800s dying before their 5th birthday.  This has dropped significantly to 4.3% in 2015 (data taken from https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality).  A large proportion of these deaths were due to diseases like measles, smallpox, and whooping cough, and all of which are preventable by a simple vaccination.  With the WHO estimating that vaccinations prevent around 2-3 million deaths a year I think these are little injections well worth having and are not the little monsters some would like them to be.

Perhaps I should leave the last word on this to Roald Dahl and his open letter to parents about the death of his own daughter to measles and the steps we would have taken if he could have. https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/timeline/1960s/november-1962

Websites about vaccinations you might find interesting are:

• https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/
• https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/en/
• https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/misconceptions-about-vaccines

Moving Home: an excuse for more decluttering

This is going to be a very quick blog about a change that has happened recently.  Last month I realised that it was time for me to move.  I really loved the small flat I lived in and the location, but it was time for me to move on to the next stage of my life.

The property I was living in was a studio flat, with one room for living, sleeping, and cooking, and a bathroom attached.  This meant that I had already started the process and mindset of reducing my stuff to fit into the space available.  However, I am now living in a bedroom with a shared bathroom and kitchen, and this has meant that even the amount that I owned before is too much.  This has been a really good incentive to keep downsizing and get rid of even more items.  

The most obvious things to go first were the pieces of furniture I would no longer be needing, such as the clothes rail and coat stand.  However, I have kept my fold up bed and seats as I plan to use these in the future and I can store the easily under my current bed.  But it has also given me a good push to get rid of the things I've been holding onto because I had the space but which I really needed to let go of, such as my folder which contained my training course work and my very old laptop which I kept meaning to 'fix' even though I know it would cost a lot for not much improvement.  

It's funny how the more I do this the easier it becomes and the less attached I feel to things I once thought I would never get rid of.  I still have about five boxes stored at my parent's home, but I'll be travelling down soon and will use that time to have another downsize.  I already know a number of items I'm planning on getting rid and that feels really good.

The plan with this move is to give me more freedom and time to actually see more of the Scotland I've been living in for the last fifteen years.  This is both daunting to me and exciting.

Path Work - April (Balmoral Estate)

So if March was a weird month weather wise, April was even stranger.  You do expect the weather to be all over the place, and even catch you out now and then, in the Cairngorms no matter what the forecast might say, but not as varied as this.  

We were supposed to be spending week 1 working on the burn crossing which used to have a bridge before the big storm a few years ago washed it away.  The plan was to place large stepping stones across the burn to allow people to get across, with dry feet, even if the water rose up a significant bit.  These would also be easier to replace than a bridge if they were washed away.  

I say 'supposed to' because we got one day to work on this (and what a beautiful day it was) before the snow came in.  And boy did it snow!  In one night the amount of snow that fell meant we weren't able to actually get to the site, even with a pick up, and had to call the week off.  

It did mean I got to go see Braemar Castle though, which I had been meaning to see for about a year now.

We had managed to get one side of the burn completed in that day so week 2 involved us finishing the crossing and working on joining the original path to this new route.  The weather in the second week couldn't have been more different from the first and it was so hot at one point I was actually working in my t-shirt.

Before

After

The stones in the river went in pretty easily for their size, but winching for that amount of time is definitely a full body work out.  CrossFit has nothing on that.  The finishing touch to this was to add landscaping to the island sandwiched between the two sets of stepping stones to help guide people from one area to the next.

Sheep's fleece

The joining route on the east side of the burn was through some very damp peat.  Which is not surprising really when you realise that this is the drop of point for all the water in this section entering the burn.  The worry here is that any cobble and surfacing put in this section will eventually end up being absorbed into the peat and disappear, leading to a very muddy path.  The solution we had to this was sheep's fleece. Once the tray was dug out we placed in a thick layer of fleece (which was walked into the tray), followed by a layer of larger cobble to help compress the fleece, and then layers of smaller cobble finishing with surfacing.

We also added a cross drain in the path to allow a pre-existing ditch to carry in functioning. 

And built steps down from this new path to the burn crossing.

Before

During

After

Then we started work on new path line on the west side.  We managed to complete the initial sets of steps which travel from the original path.  Even though the bedrock meant the steps had to go in a slightly different place then originally planned, we were still able to put in some manageable steps with stones revetments on either side (now completely hidden in landscaping)

Before

Roots found.......

......and then covered

After

We finished off this section in week 3 by adding steps on the burn side.  Whilst the path section had bedrock, this section had large roots which we wanted to protect as much as possible.  We used the last of the sheep's fleece to cover the roots and protect them, and then built the stone steps further out then originally planned to give a space between the stones and the roots.  Revetments were then put in place to hold everything together (again hidden by landscaping) and cobble and surfacing added.  

A tray was dug between the two sets of step which was then filled with cobble and surfacing to give a hard, even surface to walk on.  Thankfully this section was relatively dry and hard so a barrier wasn't needed this time.  The leggy heather in this section meant that landscaping was particularly difficult to find and I had to trek quite far to get what was needed, ironically through more leggy heather.

Where mud patch used to be

During waterbar construction

During waterbar construction

Finished waterbar.

Ditch re-dug

We then went on to finish the lower section of the path, adding cobble and surfacing to a muddy section that just needed to be raised rather than have a water drainage feature added.  As well as putting in a cross drain to a particularly muddy section which was still catching water despite being beside a culvert.  This may have been due to the near by ditch being overgrown so this was all dug out allowing the water to flow back down the the next cross drain, as originally intended.

Before

After

Week 4 saw us working on the higher sections of the path.  Before the path opens out onto the moorland it dips back into the Caledonian Forest and, whilst the path is in pretty good condition here, the heather is pushing people off the path onto the outer side.  So we cut back the heather, opening it up again, and dug out some of the waterbar that had also become overgrown.

Before

After

After

Finally we moved to the far end of the path, which joins onto a Land Drover track, and started working backwards along the path.  Most of this section is pretty hard under foot but there is still a lot of water getting trapped on it or running down it.  So that meant building a number of cross drains and digging ditches to draw the water from the upper side across to the lower side of the path, leaving it high and dry.

In the Caledonian Forest

Moorland

Probably the most interesting part of April for me was moving from the Caledonian Forest to the moorland.  As a biologist I am very aware of what the ecological differences are between the two, but the contrast is so much more obvious when you're working in them.  After spending so much time in the forest, the lack of noise in the moorland was particularly evident and not something I was expecting.

Cruising in Norway - Part 3

The last leg of our journey saw us travelling back south from Finnsnes to Bergen and it was this part of the trip that made me realise just how different the landscape it between this mid-section of Norway and the north.

Day 9 was another day of double excursions for me starting with a hike with the Expedition Team at Vesterålen, which was a little bus ride, followed by a little ferry ride, another little bus ride, and then a really good hike where I got to try snow boots for the first time.  The snow boots were definitely an interesting experience, but once you got used to the new feel and new way that you need to walk it actually became quite fun.  

The views from the top of the hill were as beautiful as we were beginning to expect on this trip and we even got to look at some dry large moose hoof prints in the snow.  Thy are absolutely massive.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see any on the actual walk, but did get a glimpse of one as we were driving back to the ship.  

We also got to hear a little bit about Vesterålen, which is a group of islands that, slightly unusually for Norway, has a large amount of land that can be used for farming.  Apparently they grow really good strawberries there as well and are famous for it.  Maybe we should return in the summer to test this out.

The lecture for the day was on the history of Hurtigruten.  Not really something I would normally go to but more interesting then I was expecting.

We also got to attempt another look at Trollfjorden, this time with more natural light.  It still wasn't possible to get a good photo of it but it was much easier to see all the way down to the end this time.  We also got to hear the troll story, involving a troll king who kept lossing his one eye and didn't listen to his daughter, connected to the formation of this fjord.

After an early dinner I set off for my last trip which was called 'Lofoten by Horse', Icelandic ponies to be precise.  These are an interesting breed with tough, stocky little legs and a good thick coat.  Their gallop is also very different from other horses in that they always keep one hoof on the ground at all times, making it a bizarrely smooth run.  There's no bumping up and down, and you feel quite safe on the saddle.  I had quite a stubborn boy who was sweet enough but really didn't want to go very fast at all, but instead wanted to go down every route no one else was taking (and which suspiciously looked like it led back to the barn).  They also showed me footage of him working out how to get out of his harness.  He required quite a lot of cajoling, but I liked his personality.  The only downside to this trip was that it was dark, cloudy, and snowy so you didn't really get a good view of the land around you or the night sky.  So whilst it was interesting getting to know more about this interesting breed and remembering how natural riding feels, maybe summer time is a better time to do this.  Especially as the circuit you take is quite a closed circuit.

Day 10 tooks us back from Bodø to Rørvik, and therefore back over the Arctic Circle.  The ceremony this time was a spoonful of cod liver oil.  

As a vegetarian this obviously wasn't something I could have but my Mum very kindly took two teaspoons of cod liver oil so that I could get a free Hurtigruten teaspoon as well (thanks Mum!).  This teaspoon now sits proudly with the few bits of cutlery I have.  

The Point of Interest was the mountains labelled the Seven Sisters with the Suitor waterfall on the opposite side (unfortunately this waterfall isn't that obvious this time of year).  This is my favourite troll story and is, as you would expect, very weird.  It also, as you would expect with Norwegian folk stories, has a very sad and dark ending, that just seems to be how they go.

After lunch there was an opportunity to learn some Norwegian Folk dancing, which my Mum and me jumped on as we love that sort of thing.  Not surprisingly there wasn't a lot of men, but we didn't really need any and had a good laugh trying out some traditional and some children's dances.  The first dance did seem a little sedate, but when you picture it with their traditional costumes it would actually look quite fluid.

Our longest stop was at Brønnøysund.  My Mum had a trip booked but I didn't.  However, she did give me the task of trying to find a couple of books were looking for.  Unfortunately it was Sunday again which meant there wasn't that many places open and after an unsuccessful potter around the centre I shot off towards where the quiet seemed to be.  

I found a nice little treed hillock beside an inlet all covered in snow and ice, and so so quiet.  After 10 days on a ship surrounded by people the whole time this was a nice, much needed break.  I stayed there as long as I dared before heading back.

Our last full day was day 11, starting at Trondheim and ending the day a Ålesund.  As before, our longest stay was at Trondheim and this time we got to see it with all the shops open.  To be honest it wasn't that much different then when it was Sunday.  

We tried to find another book shop for some of the art books we were looking for but had no luck this time either (it obviously wasn't meant to be).  However, we did pop into a souvenir shop to buy some gifts for friends and family, and where I basically spent £50 on trolls.

The Point of Interest was the Munkholmen island again, but I just went up to look at the view as the day was so clear.  There was also a talk about how to fillet a salmon.  I went as I thought there might be some interesting facts, but there wasn't much for a non-fish eating individual, so I went back to staring at the scenery.

The highlight of this day was the talk on 'Norwegian History in a Nutshell'.  It covered a lot of information pretty quickly, including previous Kings, how Norway is such a young country, and its current relationship with Europe (interesting information from a Brexit point of view).

And so began the start of 'the last time'.  Dinner was the last time we would sit and eat with our fellow table 25-ers (a great bunch of humans).  As well as the last time we would get to be out on desk 7 staring up at the night sky.  Due to that I wrapped up really warm and, despite the cold, sat outside on a desk chair, with a warm cup of tea, for as long as I could handle.  I've never felt so British. 

The last day was the sail from Torvik to our end point of Bergen.  We packed up our bags in the morning and left when outside to be collected and taken off the ship for us.  This was followed by what was probably the best lecture of the whole trip, 'A Typical Norwegian'.  Full of information, including the unexpected, very funny, and an interesting look at how Norwegian's see themselves.

The last thing we did was to go and stand out on desk 7 as we passed through Steinsundet for a listening section of Norwegian classical and contemporary music.  

It was a lovely way to end the trip, especially as there was a lot of sunshine and clear skies in which to view the sea and mountains.  

I think I can safely say that I am not a traditional cruise person and won't be doing any real cruises any time soon.  But this was a great trip and I really enjoyed my time on board.  The staff were great and really helpful (with so much work clearly going on behind the scenes), and the Expedition Team really put in a lot of work in taking expeditions, giving talks and information, as well as answering all our very many strange and wonderful questions (and there were a lot).  Not a job that I could do for the length of time that they do.  Definitely a big thank you to those guys.

One of the things I liked most about the Hurtigruten Cruise was the Hurtigruten Foundation they had set up which donates to a select number of organizations and causes with an environmental agenda.  Your able to contribute to this cause directly or just by requesting your room not be cleaned on a regular basis (you can also apply for funding from this foundation if your work is in one of the areas they operate in).  It could just be green wash, but I'm trying not to be too cynical about these things and at least it's something.

And now to leave you with my favourite song that I got from this trip as a thank you for making it this far.