Shot of Prevention

It’s encouraging to see what can be accomplished when we insist on accurate vaccination messages.   

Earlier this week, a concerned parent who frequently comments on our Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page, alerted us to an article on The Discovery Channel’s TLC site entitled “5 Things to Consider When Deciding to Vaccinate Your Child”.  Unfortunately, the article contained numerous inaccuracies and ignored a great deal of scientific evidence regarding vaccines.   Since the average parent is not especially well-versed on this issue, the concern was that this type of reporting could misled readers into forming negative opinions of vaccines based on false information.  Every Child By Two shared their concern with various health related organizations and their consensus was that something needed to be done to correct the false information and ensure parents received scientifically accurate evidence about vaccines.  The AAP offered to draft a letter of concern and multiple organizations signed on in support.

The letter that they delivered to The Discovery Channel last night read as follows:  

One of the most important decisions parents make to ensure their children’s health is the decision to vaccinate them against potentially deadly, vaccine-preventable diseases. To do so, parents need accurate, complete information about immunizations – which they often look for online. So we were astounded when we found an article on a Discovery Company website that perpetuates dangerous myths and untruths about vaccines. We cannot understand how a company that celebrates the latest in scientific achievements would feature an article so inaccurate and wholly biased against science.

The article, “5 Things to Consider When Deciding to Vaccinate Your Child” by Josh Clark begins with the claim that medical science has already “conquered” diseases like polio and pertussis, or whooping cough. Polio is still endemic in parts of the world, and pertussis is killing infants here in the United States. Several states have declared epidemics of pertussis this year. Measles, too, is making a comeback, with more cases in the U.S. in 2011 than in 15 years. These diseases pose real threats to children who are unprotected by vaccines.

As with all medications, vaccines do carry some risks, most commonly fever and pain at the injection site. These risks are tiny compared to vaccines’ benefits. But instead of an honest discussion of the facts, Josh Clark perpetuates false and misleading notions. A few errors were corrected in the second version of the article posted May 16, but we cannot understand how they ever made it through your review process. It would have been easy, for example, to learn that the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella does not and never did contain thimerosal, and thimerosal has been removed as a preservative from all other childhood vaccines in the United States, except for some influenza vaccines.

The fallacies don’t stop there. Read more…

Modern culture is often reflected in everything from the skewed view of popular reality shows and viral YouTube videos, to the personal discussions friends have on Facebook and in online chat rooms.  Since we are bombarded by such a wide variety of media, today’s parents must constantly navigate the popular messages and decipher between that which serves to entertain, versus that which is intended as news and information.  The challenge is that this is becoming increasingly difficult to do – especially when it pertains to parenting and children’s health.

Recently, one of our Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook friends discovered an online article entitled Why Shouldn’t We Vaccinate Our Children , which appeared in the Family Health section of Discovery’s “The Learning Channel” site.  The author is a senior writer at HowStuffWorks.com, co-host of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and posts on Facebook at the official Stuff You Should Know page.  While one may read his article in hopes of learning how “stuff” (like vaccines and our immune systems) work, the article fails to deliver anything but broad generalizations and unsupported suggestions.   Rather than providing parents with a clear understanding of the science behind vaccines, the article is a disappointment that suggests parents be concerned about vaccines without offering any solid evidence.

If The Learning Channel were truly committed to helping people “learn”, and the author wanted to write about “stuff you should know“, then the article should have included information from those who do know stuff.  Specifically stuff about vaccines.  That’s not to say that the writer must be an infectious disease specialist in order to present accurate information on  immunizations.  But it would have been better if an expert was actually consulted on the article.  Without any specific references or resources to refer to, this author’s piece is completely unsubstantiated, yet disguised as something that some may consider credible.    Even though he suggests that people do “independent research on this issue,” he fails to direct readers to reputable sources where they can gain further information.

Fortunately, several members of the Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page were quick to raise concern. Read more…

We already know that there is a pertussis epidemic in Washington State. But here’s the update today.

The Governor is tapping into an emergency fund to help contain the epidemic and encourage residents to get vaccinated.

Perhaps this is a prime example of how it can be more costly to address an epidemic of a vaccine preventable disease than to first attempt to minimize the impact of disease through immunizations.

The Seattle Times and various other news sources have provided the following specifics in regards to the Washington state of affairs:

• Governor Chris Gregoire is making $90,000 in crisis cash available to help strengthen a public awareness campaign about the need for vaccination.
• The campaign will include radio ads, public service announcements, Facebook and Google ads, and possibly some bus and billboard ads as well.
• The state has received approval from the federal government to divert federal funds for the purchase of 27,000 doses of vaccine that will be made available to the uninsured.
• The state has already recorded 1,132 cases of pertussis so far this year, which is about 10 times more than last year.
• The state has been seeing about 400 cases per month, which is four times more than the threshold for what is considered “epidemic”.
• The Secretary of Health Mary Selecky and State Senator Maria Cantwell plan to ask the CDC to send investigators and epidemiologists to help the state study and contain the epidemic which will assist state health officials with their response and identify why the epidemic is growing so quickly.

So, what are your thoughts about this?  Do you think it will work, or is it too little, too late?  Read more…

According to recent reports in The Gainesville Sun, there is a chickenpox outbreak in Florida that has recently spread to five different schools.  Currently, the outbreak involves 65 cases in which 26 children were infected from the Bhaktivedanta Academy, 25 children from the Alachua Learning Center, one child in a public school and 13 others — four adults, eight children and one infant.

Before you go dismissing this as “just a few cases of chickenpox”,  please read Josh’s story, recently highlighted by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  Josh’s mother, Bev Connelly, talks openly about her son and says,

“… our world changed forever on April 13, 1996, when Josh died suddenly from chickenpox. I couldn’t believe that chickenpox could be that severe. I was one of seven kids, and we had all had chickenpox as children, and we knew lots of other people who had it too. No one had ever died.”

Unfortunately, Bev explains that Josh contracted chicken pox right around the time that the vaccine was first introduced.

“When Josh got chickenpox, the vaccine was new. His doctor was offering it when kids came in for their annual check-up. Josh’s check-up would have been in July.”

Bev goes on to say,

“Sadly, the doctor told me that he had been having trouble convincing parents to get the vaccine for their children. I always believed in vaccines, so I would like to think that I would have gotten the vaccine when it was offered in July, but I never had the chance. When Josh died, the local newspaper ran a story about him. After that, the doctor said he had an easier time convincing people to get their child vaccinated. I wished so much that I still had Josh . . . that I still had that chance to make the decision about the chickenpox vaccine, but I knew, for us, it was too late and I took comfort in knowing that when people heard about Josh, they decided to protect their children from the same thing. It was like Josh’s gift—not only to me, but to others. “

Unfortunately, even 15 years after the vaccine has been introduced, there are parents who still refuse this particular vaccine. Not only are they refusing the vaccine, but there is evidence that some are actively seeking a varicella infection through various parenting forums and social media outlets like the ”Find a Pox Party in Your Area” Facebook page.  People have even been known to mail chicken pox lollipops and other contaminated items to help spread the varicella infection to children in various areas of the country.

Obviously, these actions come from parents that believe it is better to infect their child “naturally” with the live varicella virus than have them attain immunity through the use of a safe and controlled vaccine.  But one must wonder if they have ever stopped to consider that mailing these items are not only illegal, but potentially dangerous as they can be exposing their children to a whole host of other infections.

However, as I read reports regarding the current cases in Florida, there are a few other points that I would like to offer for discussion. Read more…

The California Immunization Coalition (CIC) is proud to be a co-sponsor of AB 2109 (Pan) Vaccine Preventable Diseases along with the American Academy of Pediatrics – CA District, the California Medical Association, and the Health Officers Association of California which has the goal of improving vaccination rates and reducing the use of the personal belief exemption out of convenience in the state of California.

After speaking with the CIC, they explained that their main focus in on ”reducing the number of exemptions by convenience with a goal of keeping our schools and our community safe for children”.

Their primary message on this bill is NOT that they want to stop families from obtaining a personal belief exemption.  This bill does not prevent a family from refusing one or more school entry vaccines. Rather, it introduces an “information step” into the process, which is accomplished by the family and a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant signing a simple form that indicates the parent received information on the benefits and risks of vaccines from that health care provider.  This information step was introduced based on the following considerations:

• Parents deserve to have reliable information to support the healthcare decisions they make for their family.
• Children who are exempted from vaccines are at significant risk for diseases.
• It’s important that the state ensure that requests for exemptions from immunization are based on conviction, not convenience.

You will find the AB 2109 Fact Sheet here and the current text of bill here where you can also subscribe to bill updates. Read more…

Last week I made the nine-hour round trip trek up to beautiful Montpelier, Vermont to testify in front of the House Committee on Healthcare.  As I made my way over the lovely mountain towns and stunning valleys en route to the hearing, I was certain that my testimony could help sway the committee to vote in favor of the Senate’s bill to eliminate “philosophical beliefs” as a reason to override Vermont laws mandating vaccination of children enrolled in licensed daycares and public schools.  With the strength of Every Child By Two’s board and cofounders behind me, and the personal stories of families whose children have suffered the consequences of vaccine preventable diseases, I made my way across the state confident that we could make a difference.

As I sat in front of the committee, the chairman made it clear that the committee had already spent the week reviewing mounds of data on exemption rates and vaccination levels, listening intently to opinions from both sides of the issue and were hoping to hear something new.

With the gauntlet laid before me, I began by explaining why our organization, a national organization based in Washington, DC, would be concerned with the public health mandates of the state of Vermont, or any other state for that matter.  Why would a former first lady and the wife of a retired Senator continue to be concerned about the vaccination policies that exist in every state to ensure the health of school-age children? I explained that our founders, Rosalynn Carter and Betty Bumpers, began their efforts to vaccinate the children of their own home states during their tenures as First Ladies of Georgia and Arkansas in the early 70s.

During the Carter Administration Mrs. Bumpers, whose husband had since been elected to the U.S. Senate, worked side-by-side with First Lady Rosalynn Carter to establish the National Childhood Immunization Initiative with two goals: the attainment of childhood immunization levels of 90% by 1979 and establishment of a permanent system to provide comprehensive immunization services to the 3 million children born each year in the U.S.  During that time, Mrs. Carter and Bumpers were instrumental in the passage of laws mandating school-age vaccination prior to enrollment in public schools in every state. They traveled all over the country to speak to legislatures about this important issue because they knew it would save the lives of children. Read more…