I just became aware of an excellent pamphlet created by the CDC to explain in layman’s terms how vaccines work. This is a really good primer for anyone who wants to understand the idea behind vaccinations, but doesn’t want to be inundated with too much jargon and technicalities.
It’s refreshing to see a media outlet discuss the vaccination issue without appealing to the false “balance” that leads them to present non-experts and experts as equals.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT EVERYDAY HEALTH Here, five reasons to skip the pox pops and parties and get your kids vaccinated: Getting the chickenpox vaccine is much safer than getting the disease. Many parents wonder whether it’s better for their child to get infected with chickenpox or to get the vaccine, and there really should be no question. The vaccine, which is given in two doses at least three months apart, usually around age 1, is made up of a weakened version of the virus that cannot cause full-blown disease. Adverse reactions are the exception, not the rule — and when they do occur, ———->FULL ARTICLE
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT HEALTHDAY FRIDAY, Nov. 11 (HealthDay News) — Although it can be prevented with a vaccine, roughly 90 million children worlwide who are younger than 5 get the flu each year, resulting in about 1 million hospital admissions, a new study indicates. Published in the Nov. 11 online edition of The Lancet, the research also revealed that flu-related pneumonia claimed the lives of up to 111,500 children in 2008. According to the report, 99 percent of these deaths occurred in developing countries. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT HEALTHDAY Related articles Flu Sickens 90M Kids Worldwide (abcnews.go.com) The ———->FULL ARTICLE
The term “herd immunity” elicits strong responses from some in the anti-vaccine camp. Perhaps some do not like the use of the word “herd” because of its association with sheep, or other such animals that do the bidding of their herders. Or perhaps, and this is my belief, it is because the very idea of herd immunity rests upon the premise that vaccines are effective at stopping disease progression, and vaccine efficacy is one of the major things anti-vaxers deny. Many times they demand proof that herd immunity exists. In and of itself, that request is not unreasonable. After all, scientific proof ———->FULL ARTICLE
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT MEDICAL NEWS TODAY Apart from protecting a newborn infant from flu for four months, the flu vaccine does not raise the risk of miscarriage, Kathleen Neuzil, MD, member of the Infectious Disease Society of America’s Pandemic Influenza Task Force explained at their 49th Annual Meeting. Various presentations at the meeting are showing that pregnant mothers are getting the message not only about the flu shot’s importance, but also its safety. A newborn whose mother was not vaccinated is particularly vulnerable to flu because he/she is more likely not to be born with protective immunity and cannot be ———->FULL ARTICLE
One of the things that worries parents more than anything else about vaccines is what exactly is in the vaccine. Generally speaking a vaccine contains the antigen, the part of the virus or bacteria that is meant to induce the immune response, a solution in which it is suspended, generally a saline solution, and “other stuff”. The antigen could be a dead germ, part of a germ, a protein from the germ etc. The other stuff is generally what the “green our vaccines” crowd worry about. Fortunately you can know with certainty what this other stuff is. The CDC has ———->FULL ARTICLE
This is the final part of my report on the book launch for Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children, held at New York University (part 1, part 2 and part 3). After two previous panels, we were promised that the last panel would finally address the science motivating the book’s participating authors’ and editors’ concerns over vaccination. The themes this panel would be discussing would include herd immunity, epidemiology and questions about causation, trust between physician and patient, and the suppression of science, though I must have ———->FULL ARTICLE