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Parental Knowledge of Vaccinations Important |
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| Reuters |
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| June 10, 2009 |
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| "When parents are more knowledgeable
about vaccinations' their children are more likely to get them' a new
study shows. The study' which included parents of 630 Spanish children'
found that while most children received the recommended vaccinations'
parents' vaccine knowledge influenced the likelihood. When parents
scored below the average on a test of vaccine knowledge' their children
were 55 percent to 60 percent less likely to be on schedule with their
immunizations' according to findings published in the online journal BMC
Public Health. The findings suggest that if doctors do more to inform
parents about vaccine effectiveness and safety' they will be more likely
to keep their children on the recommended schedule' according to the
researchers' led by Dr. Eva Borras of the Department of Health in
Barcelona..." |
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Risks: Pertussis Protection? Not From the Herd |
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| New York Times |
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| June 8, 2009 |
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| "The theory of herd immunity holds
that when most people in a group are vaccinated' everyone is protected —
even those who refuse the vaccine' as many families are doing these days
out of a belief that vaccinations cause autism and other illnesses. But
the theory does not appear to work well with whooping cough. Researchers
studied children enrolled in a Colorado health plan in the period 1996
to 2007' and found 156 laboratory-confirmed cases of pertussis. They
recorded the vaccination status of each and matched them to 595 randomly
selected control subjects. After controlling for sex' age' season of
infection and other factors' they found that the unvaccinated children
were about 23 times as likely as vaccinated children to get whooping
cough. In other words' about 1 in 20 unvaccinated children were
infected' compared with 1 in 500 who were vaccinated. The study appears
in the June issue of Pediatrics..." |
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Why Advice on Oprah Could Make You Sick |
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| Newsweek |
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| June 5, 2009 |
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| "Wish Away Cancer! Get A Lunchtime
Face-Lift! Eradicate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure
Menopause! Harness Positive Energy! Erase Wrinkles! Banish Obesity! Live
Your Best Life Ever!..." |
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Will This Doctor Hurt Your
Baby? |
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By Jason Fagone
Philadelphia Magazine |
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| June 1, 2009 |
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| "Thanks to celebrity anti-vaccine crusaders like Jenny McCarthy and
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.' Children's Hospital doctor and
vaccine inventor Paul Offit gets death threats from parents frantic
about autism - and worse. He's had enough. He's taking
his critics on. A few years ago' Paul Offit found himself in a small
room with a bob-haired American mother of three who was
so mad at him she had tears in her eyes' and she was standing above him'
sort of rearing up - this is his recollection - as
if she was preparing herself' mentally' physically' to call him
something cutting and mean'..." |
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Editorial: A Dangerous Denial; Parents Who Choose Not to Vaccinate Are
Imperiling Public Health |
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| Baltimore Sun |
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| June 1, 2009 |
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| "People believe all kinds of strange
things' and most of the time it doesn't matter. Trouble arises' however'
when their odd beliefs affect other people's health. Such'
unfortunately' is the case with parents who choose not to immunize their
children against diseases that killed and crippled millions before
vaccines were developed and made widely available. The anti-vaccine
movement is driven largely by parents who believe that certain vaccines
can cause autism' a suspicion that has been thoroughly investigated and
authoritatively debunked..." |
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Blog: Should a Former Playboy Model Trump an Experienced Health Care
Expert? You Decide |
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| Huffington Post |
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| May 22, 2009 |
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| "This weekend' Chicago-area parents
wondering whether or not to vaccinate their babies' toddlers' school-age
kids or teenagers face a tough decision when it comes to expert advice:
should they listen to Jenny McCarthy or to their pediatrician? McCarthy
is slated to give the key-note speech at the Autism One conference in
Rosemont on Saturday..." |
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Fear of Vaccines Spurs Outbreaks, Study Says |
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| Wall Street Journal |
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| May 7, 2009 |
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| "Parental doubts about the safety of
childhood vaccinations are leading to outbreaks of largely eradicated
diseases like measles and whooping cough, doctors warned in a new
report. A U.S. measles outbreak last year -- almost exclusively among
unvaccinated people -- has sparked concern about places where many
parents opt out of having their children vaccinated. In Ashland, Ore.,
more than a quarter of kindergartners aren't vaccinated, leading the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to hold a town-hall
meeting on vaccination there earlier this year. 'A lot of folks are
counterculture-type independent thinkers [who] do not have faith in all
the modern medicine-type stuff," said Myles Murphy, city editor of the
town's newspaper, the Ashland Daily Tidings. Too many abstainers can put
a town at risk, wrote Dr. Saad Omer, of Emory University in Atlanta, the
lead author in the report in this week's New England Journal of
Medicine..." |
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Op-Ed:The Autism/Vaccine Myth: Parents who refuse to have their children
vaccinated are putting them, and other children, at risk |
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| Los Angeles Times |
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| May 3, 2009 |
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| "A mother gently places her beautiful
1-year-old boy on the examining table, unwrapping his soft, blue
blanket. To my opening question, his mother says "No," she has no
concerns. A thorough exam confirms the boy's good health. His heart and
lungs are clear; his growth and development right on target. Even his
crying as we screen his blood for anemia and lead are signs of a normal
child..." |
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'Very High' Uptake of MMR School Vaccination |
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| Irish Times (Ireland) |
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April 28, 2009 |
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| "Ireland's Health Service Executive
launched a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination campaign in
second-level schools on April 24 to combat a nationwide mumps outbreak.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre reported 2,194 mumps cases at
the end of the week, up by about 2,000 from the same period in 2008, and
the number is expected to rise as areas that have not yet reported to
the center do so. The center says vaccine uptake is 'very high' since
the start of the campaign, and health officials say the vaccine will be
offered again in September for students who do not receive it prior to
summer vacation..." |
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Doctor Groups Seek Overturn of Vaccine Jurisdiction Ruling |
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| MedPage Today |
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| April 10, 2009 |
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| "Several medical societies are asking
the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower-court ruling that would expose
vaccine manufacturers to litigation in state courts. In October, the
Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state courts could hear
cases involving alleged vaccine design defects, even though the National
Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 established a national "vaccine
court" to hear such suits. Now the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),
the American Medical Association (AMA), and eight other groups have
filed an amicus brief in the case, which is currently before the U.S.
Supreme Court..." |
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$2.3 Billion in Stimulus Funds Available for Child Care and Vaccinations |
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| Newsday |
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| April 9, 2009 |
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| "Vice President Joe Biden says states
will share $2 billion in federal stimulus money to pay for child care
programs for working families. Another $300 million is being made
available to help less fortunate people get needed vaccines..." |
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Vaccine Delays in Poorer Nations Raise Health Risks for Infants |
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New York Times |
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March 24, 2009 |
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"Many infants in poor and middle-income countries get their vaccines
weeks later than doctors recommend and therefore face increased risks of
sickness and death, according to a new study in The Lancet. Researchers
at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine studied health
surveys from 45 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America. Globally,
vaccination rates have risen sharply over the last 20 years, and child
mortality has dropped below 10 million a year for the first time, thanks
largely to measles shots, according to the United Nations Children’s
Fund..." |
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This Scientist's Passion: Ending the scourge of parasitic diseases |
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USA TODAY |
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| March 23, 2009 |
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"Even as a child, Peter Hotez held a grown-up's fascination for the
tiny creatures living in the creek near his house. Inspired by Paul de
Kruif's Microbe Hunters, a popular book on disease detectives, Hotez
persuaded his parents to buy him a microscope. He spent hours watching
little animals wriggle in a glowing circle of light, and, at an age when
most kids were reading The Hardy Boys, he read about parasites. His two
brothers were baffled by his obsession..." |
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Op-ed: Why the Obama
Administration Needs to Restore Public Faith in the Safety of Childhood
Vaccines |
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Dr. Louis Z. Cooper, Heidi Larson and Dr. Samuel L. Katz | Newsweek Web
Exclusive
Newsweek |
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February 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated March 2, 2009 |
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| "The mainstream media applauded the U.S. federal "vaccine court's"
decision Feb. 12 that the MMR
vaccine and vaccines containing ethyl mercury as a preservative did not
cause autism in three
children chosen as test cases. But that's not enough to repair the
damage already done to the U.S.
vaccine program. It's hard for a single court decision to compete with
ongoing allegations from
grieving parents and celebrities that vaccines created an epidemic of
autism. Those allegations
have generated confusion and fear in the minds of many young parents,
reduced public trust in the
remarkable benefits and safety of U.S. immunization programs and put
both vaccinated and
unvaccinated children at increased risk from preventable diseases..." |
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Vaccine Book Brings Out Hidden Support: Author |
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| Reuters (UK) |
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| February 18, 2009 |
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| "When the letters and e-mails started
to pour in, Dr. Paul Offit braced himself. The pediatrician and vaccine
inventor is a prominent defender of childhood vaccines, tackling those
who have argued that immunizations can cause autism. His book, 'Autism's
False Prophets,' takes on British researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose
now-debunked 1998 study in the prestigious Lancet medical journal linked
the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism. It also criticizes
organized groups that advise parents to avoid vaccinating their children
for fear the vaccines may cause autism. The issue is at the center of a
vociferous and often vicious debate, despite the preponderance of
scientific opinion in favor of vaccination..." |
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Decision Support for Parents: A coalition of medical and advocacy groups
aims to address the concerns of parents and restore the public's
confidence in vaccines by providing accurate information |
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| AHIP News |
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| February 2009 |
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| For many baby boomers, the risk of
being permanently disabled, living with an iron lung, even dying from
the contagious poliovirus was as real in the 1950s as were air raid
drills and community bomb shelters. Everyday threats of severe illness,
disability, and death from measles, pneumococcus, and other contagious
diseases were top-of-mind for their parents. Thanks to vaccines,
children—and their concerned parents—no longer have to worry about such
threats. That's why a recent pushback by a small but growing number of
parents—questioning the value of vaccines, delaying, even refusing to
have their kids vaccinated—has pediatricians and public health officials
concerned. The issue hit a tipping point last year, when American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) officials learned that an upcoming storyline
in a primetime ABC television show would perpetuate misinformation about
unsubstantiated vaccine-related adverse events. A high-profile
television show falsely proclaiming such a link could be "devastating to
the health of our nation's children," says AAP Past President Renee R.
Jenkins, M.D...." |
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Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade |
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| New York Times |
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| January 13, 2009 |
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| "A new book defending vaccines,
written by a doctor infuriated at the claim that they cause autism, is
galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United
States. But there will be no book tour for the doctor, Paul A. Offit,
author of "Autism's False Prophets." He has had too many death
threats..." |
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Speaking the Language of Vaccines |
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| American Medical News |
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| December 15, 2008 |
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| "Childhood vaccines are entangled in
a vast public controversy, and doctors often find themselves helping
perplexed parents sort through misinformation before making a decision
on immunization. Mindful of these discussions, a panel of physicians and
journalists offered pointers to those on the front lines during the
joint meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and
Chemotherapy and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Panelist
Paul Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the
Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, believes one way to address
parents' fears is for physicians to sharpen their message and stop using
the scientific language of the many reports that have found no link
between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine..." |
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Groups Work to Boost Support for Vaccines |
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| Journal of the American Medical
Association |
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| November 19, 2008 |
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| "Concerned about public skepticism
regarding the safety of childhood vaccines, a skepticism exacerbated by
misinformation on the Internet and from other sources, members of the
medical and public health communities are launching a coordinated effort
to bolster public support of childhood immunizations. The Immunization
Alliance, an organization that includes the American Academy of Family
Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American
Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, Parents of
Kids with Infectious Diseases, the March of Dimes, and several other
groups, issued a call to action in September urging policymakers, public
health officials, physicians, and the public to join in an effort to
boost confidence in childhood vaccines..." |
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| Transcript: An Interview with Voices For Vaccines |
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| OC Register (CA) |
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| July, 1, 2008 |
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| "Sources sometimes tell us how frustrating it can be to speak to a reporter for 45 minutes about a complex topic, then see the entire interview boiled down into one small quote for a story..." |
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| Letter to the Editor: Fighting for the Reputation of Vaccines |
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| Author: Lisa Randall, JD, and Alan R. Hinman, MD, MPH |
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| July, 1, 2008 |
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| "We agree with Parikh that the medical community must have a more effective voice in favor of vaccination. Recent cases of measles in California, Arizona, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin highlight the continued need for vigilance against vaccine-preventable disease..." |
Immunization Action Coalition
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