Shot of Prevention

When it comes to issues regarding disease prevention, our choices impact our children now and throughout their adult life.  Whether we choose to vaccinate our children or not, or delay certain vaccines or not, we are making decisions that have consequences.

A child who falls ill with a vaccine preventable disease may end up just fine.  However, others will have to endure permanent health problems.  And still others will suffer and die, like the many whose stories appear on sites like Vaccinate Your Baby and Shot by Shot.

Earlier this week a comment on the Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page that made me think about the challenges parents face.  A concerned mother, seeking guidance states:

“I have a 28 month old son and have been delaying and selectively vaccinating. I am looking for a neutral page where I can find information to help me make decisions about what vaccines to get. This page appears to be a page that will deliver only one side of the story. Where can I go to get information both positive and negative about vaccinating? I am faced with some decisions very soon and wish to make an informed decision. I have read some information about vaccines, but not enough to be comfortable just yet.”

I have heard these sentiments echoed time and time again.  When faced with uncertainty, parents often delay or selectively vaccinate until they can feel more comfortable with the idea.  While I understand this rationale on an emotional level, I believe that parents must begin by understanding the importance of research, science and statistics in order to make an informed decision.  In other words, it’s not that parents should look for a “neutral page”, as this mother suggests, but more importantly, an accurate one that uses scientific evidence to support their recommendations. Read more…

Last week, there was quite a lot of discussion about a YouTube video entitled, “Why This Nurse WON’T Vaccinate” that was posted by a woman who refers to herself as the “Patriot Nurse”.  I wrote a blog post here on Shot of Prevention that included the video, along with a point by point commentary from a vaccinating nurse who I refered to as the Canadian Nurse.  Since the Patriot Nurse didn’t allow comments on her YouTube video, my intent was to generate an open discussion here on Shot of PRevention, where we are proud to allow differing views in our comments.  As you can see, the post received quite a few comments and since it’s never been our policy to censor them, you can understand the debate that this video has sparked.

Well today I want to update you on some recent developments with The Patriot Nurse.

It appears that the statements made in the video by The Patriot Nurse were troubling to many people, including blog writer Martine O’Callaghan who writes for Autismum and Nerditorial. She too wanted to write about this video and bring it to the attention of her readers. However, she first tried to verify the identify of The Patriot Nurse, in order to establish her educational and occupational background and experience. That prompted her to write a letter to a birthing center in TN where she believed Ms. Greene (aka The Patriot Nurse) has been employed.

Ms. O’Callaghan explains in her recent blog post that she was in no way calling for the dismissal of The Patriot Nurse.  She simply wanted to verify whether this person representing herself as a nurse on the video was currently working for the birthing center.  She also inquired as to whether the Patriot Nurse’s views on vaccination coincided with the policies of the birthing center.  After all, if a member of the birthing center’s staff has opted out of vaccination, shouldn’t the pregnant women giving birth there be informed of this?  After all, there are dangerous vaccine preventable diseases that can be life threatening to an infant who is still too young to be vaccinated and many cases where infants have died as a result.

It appears that since our last posting, The Patriot Nurse took down the YouTube video and has since made a statement on her Facebook page that suggests that her employer had some questions for her in regards to it.

Certainly, there is nothing wrong with a woman sharing her personal opinions regarding vaccines on YouTube, right?

Unless you are a nurse who attempts to speak as an authority on the subject of vaccines and you happen to have direct contact with pregnant women and newborns, is that it?

So, where exactly does the line get drawn?   What are the ethical implications here?  What are the consequences to these actions?  And what should they be? 

I’m curious to hear what you think in regards to this topic?    However, I feel it is only fair to start off with a comment we received from the Canadian Nurse who first attempted to correct some of The Patriot Nurse’s misinformation.  She commented for Shot of Prevention as follows:

Good morning angry supporters of The Patriot Nurse (TPN).

No one is debating your RIGHT to choose whether or not to vaccinate. But if you have the right to NOT vaccinate, then a patient – especially parents who …will be giving birth to a vulnerable neonate under your care – should have the right to choose whether or not you act as their nurse.

NO one is after The Patriot Nurse’s job. A science writer for a legitimate science zine contacted her work to verify her identity. Which is exactly what a responsible writer does before publication – verifies a source.

Non-vaccinating nurses at other hospitals have to take isolation per-cautions(gloves, gown, mask). This is to protect them and protect the patients. Regardless of whether YOU think vaccines work – science sure thinks that they do, and the employers have a right and a duty to protect those under its care.

The Patriot Nurse is a sham. She states in her video that saying this comes as a great cost to her as a nurse. If she so firmly believes in her anti-vaccination rhetoric – so much so that she would post it online AND STATE THAT SHE WAS A NURSE – then she should be well aware of the potential consequences.

All of you crying “free speech” are being deceived. The Patriot Nurse has deleted EVERY SINGLE comment that was not entirely supportive of her. You can’t claim that her free speech is in jeopardy while she refuses that right to others.

The Patriot Nurse made a video. A stupid video. In which she makes very very basic scientific errors. She was called to answer to those errors on her page, on this blog, on Orac’s blog and elsewhere. She refused to do so. She is not interested in having a dialogue. She had her little diatribe and that was that. NO ONE is so special that they can make sweeping, erroneous statements without recourse.

I know that you anti-vaccination activists have a lot of other anti-vaccination friends online. But the fact of the matter is that 94% of people are still vaccinating. You’re a blip on the radar. You’re the new “trendy” thing to be against. But when it comes down to it, all but a handful of people are intelligent enough to realize that:

1) there is NOT a global conspiracy of scientists and doctors trying to poison your children

2) a few bad nurses or doctors do not discount the whole of the scientific method; nor are the opinions of a few more valid than the opinions of millions

 3) researching vaccines on Google is NOT equal to going to post-secondary education for 10+ years to be a physician, pediatrician, immunologist or what have you.

The Patriot Nurse is not a martyr. She is a nurse who is expected to uphold the ideals and principles of her nursing organization and employer. And seeing as those things adhere to evidence-based medicine – and she doesn’t – she now has a problem. She brought it on herself. It was her choice not to vaccinate, and it their choice (and DUTY to the public) to deal with her how they see fit.

January has been a busy month here on Shot of Prevention.  We’ve had a parent speak out on the significance of HPV protection for her son, a pharmacuetical employee comment on how proud she is to help ensure the safety of vaccines, we’ve even had a nurse call out the non-vaccinating Patriot nurse for sharing misleading information on YouTube.  Of course, let’s not forget about the return of Andrew Wakefield and his plans to sue for libel. 

Which leads me to a great editorial that appeared this morning in The Huffington Post, entitled Unencumbered By Facts: What Upsets Me Most About the Anti-vaccine Movement.  In this article, Claire McCarthy, M.D, who is a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, explained why the appearance of Andrew Wakefield on Good Morning American had given her the chills.  (View it for yourself and you’ll see exactly what she is referring to.)

She explains that “My only crusade as a pediatrician is to keep my patients healthy — and vaccines are part of what I use to do just that.”  But she questions how doctors are supposed to help parents understand the enormous benefits and occasional risks of vaccines when “We stick to the facts. But people like Andrew Wakefield don’t.”

Dr. McCarthy does a great job of communicating her frustration and explaining the challenges the medical community has in countering the much publicized anti-vaccine rhetoric.  And while she speaks as one individual pediatrician, I would venture to guess that many others have echoed her views, but are, as she described, often “drowned out” by the headlines and airtime devoted to people like Andrew Wakefield.

She concludes her article by referring to what Wakefield says at the end of the Good Morning America interview;

 ”Wakefield encouraged parents to get educated, and to read about immunizations. He even suggested the CDC website. He said, emphatically, that there are two sides to the story.  I couldn’t agree more. But just one of them is grounded in facts.”

I applaud Dr. McCarthy for speaking out and I encourage you to read her article.  Of course, you are encouraged to not just listen to her opinion, but to get the facts.  Vaccinations save lives!

Recently a friend and nurse, who I adore, shared a video with me.  Now I know my friend to be a very diligent nurse and she’s often discussed how frustrating it is to come across Facebook pages and YouTube videos where nurses dangerously suggest that people should not vaccinate their children.  After reviewing this video, I knew it must have been a major dissapointment to my friend, both personally, and professionally.  While I wasn’t completely surprised by the comments this particular “Patriot Nurse” made, I am a bit concerned about the information she presents.  http://youtu.be/riM4xfrzjAY

At the beginning, the “Patriot Nurse” states that the comments are turned off, but explains this is because she is only interested in “intelligent debate”.  As far as I’m concerned, debate only happens when both sides get to present their position.  So, after viewing the video I figured that we could certainly help facilitate debate for the “Patriot Nurse”.

(Interestingly enough, it’s unclear whether this video is tied in any way to Rachel Greene of the Patriot Nurse blog.  Could this be the same Rachel Greene who works as a nurse in a TN birthing center?  I certainly hope not.  As far as the informed consent she calls for in her video, I would have to wonder if the parents giving birth in that center are fully informed about her views on vaccines. )

To kick off the discussion, I wanted to begin with comments I received from another nurse with serious objections to what the “Patriot Nurse” states in the video above.  As a Canadian nurse, with an additional background in biology, who works at a large teaching hospital, she’ll tell you… don’t’ take her word for anything, but instead, be wary of individuals who use You Tube to spout off misinformation and try to convince you not to protect your children from preventable disease.

Of course, as always, we welcome your comments in an intelligent debate below.   Read more…

Today we are featuring a guest post from one of our blog readers.  We hope you will appreciate her contribution as much as we do!

I’m the mother of two young children and I have a great guy to call my hubby.  I love running (training for a half marathon!) and baking, and like many moms, I do my best to balance the responsibilities of work and family.  In fact, for the past two years I’ve been working full time, second shift so that I can be at home with my kids during the day.

As a parent, I have my personal views and opinions about things, just like everyone else.  But at times, I’ve felt a bit like a contradiction.  See I’m a science-loving (nerd alert), breastfeeding, pro-vaccine, Christian mom.  I consider myself an “attached” parent since I believe in positive discipline, I co-sleep with my children, and I practice extended breastfeeding.  I always try to make natural choices for my children by mashing my own baby food and opting for locally grown produce when possible.  However, these characteristics don’t preclude me from having a great deal of respect for the medical field and the value of science.  The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.   The truth is, I am so enamored by science that I consider myself lucky to live at a time when I can protect my child from so many vaccine preventable diseases.

To be honest, because of my specific views, I’ve often found it difficult to find other moms who’ve been willing to respect all my choices as a parent.  Thankfully, through online social groups, like the Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page, I’ve begun to make connections with other like-minded moms that I can relate to – which led me to write this post.

As I began engaging in various parenting forums, I found myself frustrated by the way in which some people adamantly argue against vaccinations.  They often spout off inaccurate information and misrepresent the science.  They claim that doctors, scientists and the government are all out to cause harm.  They sometimes even suggest a “Big Pharma” conspiracy.

But here’s the real kicker.    I work for “Big Pharma”. 

Yup, I admit it.

And you know what?  I’m pretty darn proud of it too.  Read more…

While we all make personal decisions regarding how we will raise our children, it’s also understandable that we often seek the support, as well as the advice of others to help us in formulating our decisions.  Whether those decisions revolve around childbirth, nutrition choices, sleeping tactics, discipline techniques, or even vaccination, parents are often eager to find a community that is supportive of their choices and that can help them to navigate the many challenges of parenthood.  Perhaps that is why one of our most popular posts from 2011 explored the concept of “attachment parenting” and how these philosophies relate to immunization decisions.  

Back in May, I observed a conversation that occurred among several parents on our Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page.  While I was encouraged to hear these parents relating to each other in a very personal way, I was also concerned that their decisions to vaccinate their children were eliciting such criticism among the various parenting groups that they had been participated in.   I wrote the blog post below to highlight the concerning trend of vaccination refusal among parents who practice attachment parenting. Since then, this particular group of concerned parents has created a growing support network of their own.  Ultimately, their common concerns have united them in a way that now enables them to support one another and stand strongly behind their convictions that immunizations offer good health for their communities. 

I hope our new readers will appreciate this blog post and understand that part of our mission here is to provide a forum for parents to discuss accurate, science-based immunization information. On our  Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page, parents continue to connect with others who support immunization and discuss current immunization news. 

When Did “Attachment Parenting” Come to Mean Vaccine Refusal?

Our Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page is not only a place for people to connect, it has also become a place for people to take action.   This diverse community – of over 20,000 “friends” - consists of parents, concerned citizens, health care providers and public health advocates who want to stay informed and educated regarding immunization news.  We are proud to announce that several of our members have even established a new pro-vax parenting group called “Wear ‘em, nurse ‘em, and vax ‘em, too!” as a result of connecting through our page.

During the course of their online discussions, our Facebook friends often share their personal opinions and experiences with one another.  In one scenario, we were concerned to hear that parents were being ostracized from a well-known parenting support group as a result of immunizing their children.  Each of the women involved in the discussion had been committed to a style of parenting referred to as “attachment parenting”.  Some of the child rearing behaviors commonly encouraged by Attachment Parenting International (API) include breastfeeding, babywearing and co-sleeping, among many others.

According to the API website their philosophy is about “forming and nurturing strong connections between parents and their children”.  Their mission statement is to “educate and support all parents in raising secure, joyful and empathic children in order to strengthen families and create a more compassionate world.”

While no one was arguing that this is an admirable mission, these parents were concerned about the  anti-vaccine influences that have become prevalent in the local API support groups.  Even though these women were dedicated to the principles of API, they were chastised at local meetings based on their pro-vaccination views.

(Click here to continue reading one of our most popular posts from 2011.)