Shot of Prevention

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.)

When I was first approached to contribute to this blog, I wasn’t sure I would have enough material to contribute on a regular basis.  Since then, I’ve recognized that when it comes to immunization issues, there is just so much to discuss.  Now, as I reflect on the past year, I realize that one of the greatest gifts I’ve received has been becoming part of this special community.  

Throughout the past year, we have seen continuous growth among the readers of this blog and the participants on our Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page.  We continue to attract a caring community of parents, medical professional, health care workers and public health advocates who actively participate in immunization discussions by offering their thoughts, opinions, experiences and expertise.  We hope that we can continue the momentum, and ask that you suggest your family, friends and work colleagues join us for more lively conversations in the new year. 

As we “wrap” up 2011, we will be highlighting our most popular posts of the year.  If you’ve read them before, you can now share them with others and encourage them to join us for more immunization discussions.  If you’ve yet to see these posts, than you may be interested in seeing what issues have captured the attention of our regular participants.   

Today I’ll be highlighting a post that addresses a recurring question I hear from parents; “Why Worry About the Unvaccinated?”  Without the proper understanding of both the benefits and limitations of vaccines, it’s difficult to understand how the unvaccinated population could ever pose a threat to anyone but themselves.  However, this post encourages readers to consider the unintended consequences for all.  

Why Worry About the Unvaccinated?

Time and again, we hear this from parents who choose not to vaccinate their children.

“If your child is vaccinated, why are you worried about them catching anything from my child?”

This is a common response from parents when it is suggested that a purposely unvaccinated child poses a threat to others.

One thing that many parents may not understand is that while vaccinations are highly effective, and greatly decrease the chance of contracting preventable diseases, no vaccine is 100% effective.    According to CDC reports, “most routine childhood vaccines are effective for 85% to 95% of recipients.   For reasons related to the individual, some will not develop immunity.”

This explains why, during an outbreak of a vaccine preventable disease, an unvaccinated child can increase the risk of disease for everyone that may be exposed, even if the people who have been vaccinated vastly outnumber those who have not.  It is not uncommon for a small portion of the vaccinated population to be infected, However, that does not prove that vaccinations are not effective.  To truly understand the risks, you need to know more than just the number of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated who have become infected.  You have to appreciate the percentages that are involved.  For instance, this example offered on the CDC website, explains this concept quite clearly:

“In a high school of 1,000 students, none has ever had measles. All but 5 of the students have had two doses of measles vaccine, and so are fully immunized. The entire student body is exposed to measles, and every susceptible student becomes infected. The 5 unvaccinated students will be infected, of course. But of the 995 who have been vaccinated, we would expect several not to respond to the vaccine. The efficacy rate for two doses of measles vaccine can be higher than 99%. In this class, 7 students do not respond, and they, too, become infected. Therefore 7 of 12, or about 58%, of the cases occur in students who have been fully vaccinated.

As you can see, this doesn’t prove the vaccine didn’t work – only that most of the children in the class had been vaccinated, so those who were vaccinated and did not respond outnumbered those who had not been vaccinated. Looking at it another way, 100% of the children who had not been vaccinated got measles, compared with less than 1% of those who had been vaccinated. Measles vaccine protected most of the class; if nobody in the class had been vaccinated, there would probably have been 1,000 cases of measles.”

When we consider this in relation to what is currently happening in our own communities today, we see why there is reason for the vaccinated to be concerned.  (To continue reading this blog post, click here.)

This is hard to admit, but it’s December 15th and I just found my holiday spirit…yesterday.

Sure, I went through the motions of decorating the house. Heck, I even trimmed the tree and managed to adorn the outside with twinkling icicles.  The  “holiday music all-the-time” radio station has been playing continuously since Thanksgiving andour  Elf on the Shelf tradition has been in full swing.  Unfortunately, none of this has seemed to help.

Honestly, I was beginning to feel a bit like a Scrooge and I’ve procrastinated everything from Christmas cards to holiday shopping.

But that all changed yesterday.

As I set out early yesterday morning, to begin what I feared was going to be a dreadful day of shopping, I realized that my Ebenezer mood was disappearing as quickly as a plate of warm cookies and milk.   I filled my bags with the perfect gifts for everyone on my list.  From the elementary school teacher, to the helpful neighbor hosting tomorrow’s Christmas party, to a church volunteer, down to my very own children.

And just like that, I discovered the missing ingredient. The one thing that has finally made all the difference. Read more…