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This plug-and-play technology is revolutionizing vaccinology.
he two leading vaccines, including one developed by BioNTech, are based on a new gene-based technology that could help fight a range of diseases.
Dr. Larson, 63, is arguably the world’s foremost rumor manager. She has spent two decades in war torn, poor and unstable countries around the globe, as well as in rich and developed ones, striving to understand what makes people hesitant to take vaccines.
Recent measles outbreaks put Hudson Valley schools at the center of a vitriolic legal and public health debate.
So even if it seems as though many people are having to take part to prevent disease in a small proportion, this small proportion may represent hundreds or thousands of cases of disease in the community.
In high school, I caught rubella and wasn’t sick, just covered with red dots. It was the last day of the school year and I wanted to get stuff from my locker. On my way out, I stopped to say goodbye to my favorite English teacher. I told her I had German measles, thinking it was a sort of joke, and she just shrank away from me and whispered, “I’m pregnant!” I rushed out of the room....
Countries like Germany and Australia are tired of measles outbreaks — so they're moving to fine anti-vaccine parents.
It's one of the most important decisions you'll ever make in your life: do I vaccinate my child, and do I do it according to the CDC's recommended timetable? There's a lot of information out there from groups that both encourage and discourage vaccination. While some of what's out there is downright false, it truly is a complex issue.
Vaccines are one of the biggest breakthroughs in public health — eradicating deadly diseases like smallpox and saving untold numbers of people since they were first developed in the 18th century. Today, vaccines are being readily deployed across the world to combat potentially deadly diseases like the flu, polio, and measles.
But there remains a lot of misinformation about vaccines: about how they work, about their effectiveness, and particularly that they’re somehow tied to other, unrelated health issues. The misinformation has inhibited public health goals to vaccine as many people as possible and stop the spread of dangerous pathogens, damaging the potential effect of one of humanity’s greatest tools in health care.
The term herd immunity comes from the observation of how a herd of buffalo forms a circle, with the strong on the outside protecting the weaker and more vulnerable on the inside.
This is similar to how herd immunity works in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Those who are strong enough to get vaccinated directly protect themselves from infection. They also indirectly shield vulnerable people who cannot be vaccinated.
As several states move to limit exemptions to required vaccines, the actor hit a nerve in a larger debate about personal belief in science.
Keeping shots up to date is critical to a baby's health. Vaccinations are needed from birth into childhood and are usually given during routine, well-baby visits to a doctor or clinic
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, collected population data — vaccinations, diagnoses and family history — on 657,461 children born in Denmark from 1999 through the end of 2010. Of those children, 6,517 were diagnosed with autism during the course of the study.
There was no increased risk for autism among children who had received the vaccination, the researchers found. The kids who’d gotten the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination appeared 7 percent less likely to be linked with autism than the children who weren’t vaccinated. Children with zero childhood vaccinations were 17 percent more likely to be linked with autism.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently declared vaccine hesitancy one of the ten biggest threats to global health in 2019, along with air pollution and climate change. The declaration followed several measles outbreaks in Europe and the US, but most cases were in a country where the health system had broken down: Ukraine.
Nothing suggests that these outbreaks were caused by the few who declined a measles vaccine. A substantial proportion of cases occurred in people who had been vaccinated – so the outbreaks were mainly the result of broken healthcare systems and vaccine failure rather than vaccine hesitancy.
Communication about vaccines is unlikely to impact the behaviour of firm refusers and those facing access barriers. However, communication has enormous influence when it comes to the 43% of parents who have some questions or concerns about vaccines.
Aggressive or dismissive language can make people less likely to vaccinate, while open, respectful discussion with a trusted individual can encourage hesitant parents towards vaccination.
Persuading people to vaccinate their children requires engaging with them about their values.
Those of you who have avoided childhood illnesses without vaccines are lucky. You couldn’t do it without us pro-vaxxers. Once the vaccination rates begin dropping, the drop in herd immunity will leave your children unprotected. The more people you convert to your anti-vax stance, the quicker that luck will run out.
In some places, dodging your children's immunizations is as easy as checking a box.
This isn't a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It's a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma's blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information.
The no-vaccine crowd has persuaded a lot of people. But public health can prevail.
With measles rising across America and Europe, should governments go further and make vaccination compulsory? Most would argue that this is a terrible infringement of human rights, but there are precedents.
As vaccine hesitancy grows, some individuals are responding by volunteering to take part in experimental vaccine trials.
After more than 50 years as a medical and science writer, I’m pained to see that childhood immunizations, perhaps the most important health and lifesaving advance of the last century, are being seriously eroded by misinformation and scaremongering.
Even though 90 percent of expectant mothers report making childhood vaccination decisions before the birth of the baby, a full one-third of expectant mothers expressed feeling uninformed, with first-time mothers identifying as more vaccine hesitant.
As one expectant mother in her third trimester in Gainesville, Florida recently said in an interview with me:
“I think that there’s extreme lack of communication. I think that childhood vaccination information should be relayed. That way you have the information you need before something happens, and then it’s too late to make an informed decision.”
The more we understand this, the better we can allay these fears.
Recently, many parents and communities have decided not to vaccinate their children. There are several reasons people choose not to vaccinate their children, primarily born from misinformation from anti-vaccine advocates. One advocate who profoundly impacted the discussion of vaccine safety is Andrew Wakefield.
IN a few backward parts of the world, extremists resist universal childhood vaccinations. The Taliban in tribal areas of Pakistan. Boko Haram militants in Northern Nigeria.
Oh, yes, one more: Some politicians in the United States.
It is widely agreed upon by health professionals that immunizations are one of the top few greatest advancement in public health – on par with clean drinking water. However, despite the known success of vaccines in reducing morbidity and mortality, immunization rates remain relatively low across the U.S. in 2019, especially in the 19-35 month age range. But Americans who blame anti-vaccination parents aren’t considering the full immunization story in the United States.
It’s not just the anti-vaxxers—Canada’s vaccination system is a mess. How governments and parents are failing our kids.
Medical responders spend millions of tax dollars handling disease outbreaks that could have been prevented—with vaccines.
Why do so many people disbelieve proven science and opt for conspiracy theories? Yes, medical research has been in bed with big with Big Pharma to the extent that many doctors and patient groups are distrustful of these conflicts of interest. But to put one’s faith in a charlatan like Andrew Wakefield, the British surgeon behind the original hypothesis linking autism with the MMR vaccine, would be a tragic error not only because Wakefield has been for some time discredited and stripped of his medical license, but because there is zero science behind his claims.
Despite years of research, there’s no good way to convince anti-vaxxers of the truth. It’s time to make vaccination mandatory for all kids.
The Vaccine War is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Palfreman Film Group.Vaccines have changed the world, largely eradicating a series of terrible diseases, from smallpox to polio to diphtheria, and likely adding decades to most of our life spans. But despite the gains and numerous scientific studies indicating vaccine safety a growing movement of parents remains fearful of vaccines.
As we learned with smoking, showing people visceral possible health outcomes effectively scares them into behaving differently.
'That is the question' that continues to be unresolved even after the landmark study that linked the increased incidence of autism to vaccinations was found to be fradulent.
It seems there are a lot of celebrities that are speaking outwardly about whether they are for or against vaccinations. Probably the most outspoken and well known celebrities are Jenny McCarthy, against and Amanda Peet, for.
But as parents in some states increasingly take advantage of non-medical exemptions that allow them to forego standard vaccinations, more and more children are reaching their teenage years only to discover—from their peers, teachers, and through Twitter and Facebook and other online platforms—that their bodies are at the center of a roiling tug-of-war between science and pseudoscience. And this has increasing numbers of unvaccinated near-adults digging through literature and asking questions in online forums in an effort to discover, for themselves, the truth about vaccines, and what options are available to them as they approach the age of consent.
The development of a needle-free vaccination delivery system is one of the major challenges facing global health care today.
Medically speaking, the good old days aren't something a physician gets sentimental about, unless there's a soft spot in his or her heart for the Middle Ages when small pox wiped out most of Western Europe; or the nineteenth century, when typhoid had its way with millions of children; or after World War I when influenza practically killed more people than the war itself.
For people who mistrust vaccination, learning the facts may make the problem worse.
The history of vaccinations in the US has as much to do with politics as medicine, says Helen Bynum.
Health experts often come across as narrow-minded. We like data, and we believe we know exactly how it should be used to change behavior. We don’t understand how others can look at the same information and come to very different conclusions ― and when that happens, we often just tell them they’re wrong.
Turns out telling people they’re wrong (even when we have the best of intentions) often fails to win them over.
So if we’re so right, how do we more effectively educate others about health? We need to listen. That advice is only a cliché because we’re so bad at it.
After planning your trip, telling your angry parents you’re leaving, and booking the flight, you might remember that you should check which vaccinations you need for where you’re going. Vaccinations for travel can be expensive and unnecessary so it’s important you do your research. I’ll help you.
Celebrity antivaccine loons are all too common, and I’ve written about them over the years. For instance, there’s JennyMcCarthy. There are also Rob Schneider and Mayim Bialik. The list goes on There are also pro-vaccine celebrities, such as Amanda Peet. Of course, as tempting as it is simply to throw up my hands and say “Who cares what celebrities think about scientific and medical topics like vaccines” unfortunately in the real world people do care.
The controversy over vaccines is as old as vaccination itself. When Edward Jenner, a brilliant English country doctor, discovered the vaccine for smallpox in 1796, he faced as much criticism as praise.
Easy-to-read schedules for all ages.
Through educational campaigns and social media outreach, we seek to reach as many people as possible with science-based information on vaccinations. The organization’s expanded mission to protect people of all ages is now reflected in our new name – Vaccinate Your Family: The Next Generation of Every Child By Two.
Vaccines.gov is the federal gateway to information on vaccines and immunization for infants, children, teenagers, adults, and seniors. Vaccines.gov provides resources from federal agencies for the general public and their communities about vaccines across the lifespan.
Voices for Vaccines is a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease. Although the majority of parents choose to immunize their children against disease, most of us do not speak out about our decisions because it seems to us common sense.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vaccinations from birth to adolescence to adulthood to provide a lifetime of protection against many diseases and infections, such as meningitis, whooping cough, influenza, HPV (a virus that causes cancer), measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis A and B. Yet many adolescents are not vaccinated as recommended, leaving them needlessly vulnerable to disease, suffering, and death.
The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) works to increase immunization rates and prevent disease by creating and distributing educational materials for healthcare professionals and the public that enhance the delivery of safe and effective immunization services. The Coalition also facilitates communication about the safety, efficacy, and use of vaccines within the broad immunization community of patients, parents, healthcare organizations, and government health agencies.
Our mission is to provide an independent assessment of vaccines and vaccine safety to help guide decision makers and educate physicians, the public and the media about key issues surrounding the safety of vaccines. The institute’s goal is to work toward preventing disease using the safest vaccines possible.
The International Vaccine Institute is founded on the belief that health in developing countries can be dramatically improved by the development, introduction and use of new and improved vaccines.
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to defending the informed consent ethic in medicine.
As an independent clearinghouse for information on diseases and vaccines, NVIC does not advocate for or against the use of vaccines. We support the availability of all preventive health care options, including vaccines, and the right of consumers to make educated, voluntary health care choices.
This site provides pertinent information about childhood, adolescent, and adult immunizations. You will find publications and reports on vaccine preventable diseases, vaccine safety, vaccine coverage, immunization laws, and immunization registries.
The Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition is committed to protecting children's health by raising awareness of influenza and prevention.
Shot of Prevention is a community blog where individuals, parents, medical professionals and others can gather to discuss current events regarding immunizations. Over the years we have heard many stories from parents, doctors and advocates about how confusing and frustrating it can be to find good information about vaccines and vaccine safety on the Internet.
Why vaccination continues even though it is unsafe and ineffective.
The Vaccine Page provides access to up-to-the-minute news about vaccines and an annotated database of vaccine resources on the Internet.
The Global Vaccine Institute...Uncensored information on how vaccines affect our children.
Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation, is published in order to provide a wide range of news and views on vaccinations and vaccination policy. By providing all sides of the vaccination controversy, it is believed the public/consumer will be best equipped to make reasoned decisions regarding vaccination use, decisions which will have profound implications for them and their family’s health.
Assists parents in the decision making process on immunisation, by providing you with what we consider to be balanced objective information. The question most parents would like answered is whether vaccinated children are healthier than unvaccinated children and despite the masive uptake of vaccination programmes no one is trying to find out.
VAERS is a post-marketing safety surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events (possible side effects) that occur after the administration of US licensed vaccines.
PATH's Vaccine Resource Library offers a wide variety of high-quality, scientifically accurate documents and links on vaccine-preventable diseases and topics in immunization.
This site is dedicated to the promotion of safer immunization practices through the application of scientific principles to vaccine research.
This website is brought to you by the Immunization Action Coalition, a national leader in immunization education. For parents and people of all ages, it provides timely, accurate, and proven information about vaccines and the diseases they prevent. Vaccines save lives!
The information on this site is intended to help pediatricians deliver on-time immunizations to their patients using the most current scientific research.
Vaccinations and Immunizations extensive reference site.
After clean water, vaccination is the most effective public health intervention in the world for saving lives and promoting good health. The term vaccination originated from the procedure used to protect people with the first vaccine for smallpox, vaccinia.
Immunization, vaccines and biological.