tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44033740152049701522024-03-05T16:59:43.419-06:00Moms Who VaxWe believe in using science honestly, telling the truth, living by the social contract, and protecting our kids and yours.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-89445454234776297642017-04-10T10:00:00.001-05:002017-04-10T10:02:20.389-05:00Blame Outbreaks on Vaccine Avoidance, Not Refugees<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared on <a href="https://medium.com/@BioChicaGMO/blame-disease-outbreaks-on-vaccine-avoidance-not-refugees-a58ef0a7f7e6" target="_blank">Medium</a>.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Layla Katiraee</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Measles has been spreading throughout Europe, particularly in Romania. According to <a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2017/measles-outbreaks-across-europe-threaten-progress-towards-elimination" target="_blank">this recent article</a> from the World Health Organization, Romania has “reported over 3400 cases and 17 deaths since January 2016”. Unfortunately, <a href="http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/27-02-2017-RRA-Measles-Romania,%20European%20Union%20countries.pdf" target="_blank">these deaths mostly occurred </a>among individuals “who were immunocompromised or had other co-morbidities.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I recently shared a<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BiochicaGMO/" target="_blank">n article about this outbreak on Facebook</a>, and several individuals commented asking whether it was tied to the recent wave of refugees that have entered Europe, particularly as a result of the Syrian war. It led to discussions about the possibility of refugees choosing to waive vaccinations due to religious beliefs, about the vaccination status of undocumented children in the United States, and other topics. As an individual of Middle-Eastern descent and immigrant of the United States, such discussions are challenging and hard not to take personally. I tried to steer the discussion towards the evidence, which I will outline here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this post, we’re going to explore how the current outbreak in Europe is spreading across the continent, and whether there’s any evidence to support the idea that refugees or immigrants are more/less involved in disease outbreaks in the United States.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Is the current measles outbreak in Europe associated with refugee populations?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Romania’s measles outbreak <a href="http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/27-02-2017-RRA-Measles-Romania,%20European%20Union%20countries.pdf" target="_blank">began in February 2016</a>, and measles cases in Europe have been linked to individuals who travelled to Romania (see <a href="http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=22522" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/communicable-disease-threats-report-25-feb-2017.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the vaccination rate for measles be greater than 95% so that the virus does not continue its transmission. This number is particularly high and is because of how contagious measles can be. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/transmission.html" target="_blank">The CDC states</a> that “if one person has it, 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Despite the recommendation from WHO, Romania’s vaccination coverage for the first dose of the MMR vaccine <a href="http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/27-02-2017-RRA-Measles-Romania,%20European%20Union%20countries.pdf" target="_blank">was estimated to be 88% in 2015</a>, with a wide range in coverage across the nation. The World Health Organization states that these pockets of suboptimal immunization rate around the country are due to “certain cultural traditions, religious beliefs, fear of adverse effects of the vaccine or lack of confidence in public authorities”. The recent outbreak<a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2017/measles-outbreaks-across-europe-threaten-progress-towards-elimination" target="_blank"> finds the majority of its cases</a> in regions of Romania “where immunization coverage is especially low”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that the “religious beliefs” exemption referred to above implies Islam, I could find no evidence to support this notion. <a href="http://vaccinesafetyresource.elsevier.com/sites/default/files/Other-Grabenstein-What.pdf" target="_blank">A 2013 review</a> published in the medical journal Vaccine explored the stance of major religious groups on the topic of vaccines. Although there are Islamic communities around the world that have opposed vaccines, Islamic leaders and thinkers have outlined how vaccinations are acceptable. I<a href="http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/Porcine-vaccineapproval.htm" target="_blank">slamic medical scholars have examined</a> the components in vaccines and have provided guidance to encourage Muslims to receive vaccinations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The 1951 Refugee Convention as well as the “European Vaccine Action Plan” outline that refugees and asylum seekers should receive vaccines and/or preventive care, regardless of the individual’s legal status. Catching up on missed vaccines, particularly in children, is of importance <a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/vaccines-and-immunization/news/news/2015/11/who,-unicef-and-unhcr-call-for-equitable-access-to-vaccines-for-refugees-and-migrants/who-unhcr-unicef-joint-technical-guidance-general-principles-of-vaccination-of-refugees,-asylum-seekers-and-migrants-in-the-who-european-region" target="_blank">as noted by WHO’s regional office in Europe</a>: “Most of the refugees and migrants now arriving in Europe come from Middle Eastern countries where vaccines are widely accepted and coverage has traditionally been high. Those most at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases are young children who have not yet been vaccinated because the vaccination programmes in their home countries have been interrupted by civil unrest and war.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/vaccines-and-immunization/news/news/2015/11/who,-unicef-and-unhcr-call-for-equitable-access-to-vaccines-for-refugees-and-migrants/who-unhcr-unicef-joint-technical-guidance-general-principles-of-vaccination-of-refugees,-asylum-seekers-and-migrants-in-the-who-european-region" target="_blank">WHO provides further guidance and recommendations</a> in the document on how vaccinations should be provided to refugees across Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In conclusion, I could find no evidence linking the current measles outbreak in Europe to refugees.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, why has the vaccination rate in Romania declined? <a href="https://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Tracking_anti-vaccine_sentiment_in_Eastern_European_social_media_networks.pdf" target="_blank">According to this document</a> prepared by UNICEF, anti-vaccine sentiments have grown on social media in Romania, particularly by preying on parents’ fear around the use of chemicals and “toxins”. In other words, regions across Romania are just as susceptible to anti-vaccine arguments <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Vaccine-avoiders-procrastinators-put-California-6068858.php" target="_blank">as Marin County, California</a>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Vaccines and Immigrants in the United States</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before we broach this topic, it bears noting that countries around the world include medical check-ups and vaccination records as part of the documents required for residency applications. I’ve lived in four different countries in three different continents. Each residency application required a visit to the doctor, including my green card application in the United States. My green card medical check-up took place while I was pregnant: <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/pregnant/mom/get-vaccinated.html" target="_blank">I received a TdAP vaccine</a> and I had to show my other immunization records.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/refugees/questions-answers-refugees" target="_blank">The immigration process for refugees to the United States</a> also involves medical examinations. <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume9-PartC-Chapter3.html" target="_blank">Medical and religious exemptions can be granted to all immigrants</a> and reasons for these exemptions are clearly provided. Most involve additional paperwork. In my personal experience, the immigration process is convoluted and long enough that I find it difficult to believe that an individual would seek an exemption unless it were absolutely necessary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The question that remains is: are vaccine-preventable outbreaks associated with undocumented immigrants, particularly children, in the United States?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/23/undocumented-immigrants-measles-outbreak_n_6737102.html" target="_blank">Such claims have been made by many individuals</a>, including politicians, in the United States. However, there is no evidence to support the claim. The CDC has found that unaccompanied children that arrive at the US border <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/unaccompanied-children-frequently-asked-questions" target="_blank">pose little risk</a>: “Countries in Central America, where most of the unaccompanied children are from (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras), have childhood vaccination programs, and most children have received some childhood vaccines. However, they may not have received a few vaccines, such as chickenpox, influenza, and pneumococcal vaccines. As a precaution, ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] is providing vaccinations to all children who do not have documentation of previous valid doses of vaccine.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, to ensure that all children across the country receive the required vaccinations, laws such as California’s SB277 are needed, which ensure that children enrolling in the public school system are up-to-date on their immunizations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is my biased opinion that immigrants and refugees would be more likely to receive vaccinations. Individuals leave their home country in search of safer and better opportunities, and that includes better healthcare for their families. Vaccines have been a victim of their own success: many North Americans have not experienced the harms of forgotten diseases and have not experienced a dangerous disease outbreak. Yet many South Americans know and fear diseases: as a child living in Venezuela <a href="http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/content/stories-time-cholera-racial-profiling-during-medical-nightmare" target="_blank">I remember a cholera epidemic</a>, as a teenager <a href="https://www.biofortified.org/2014/04/gm-dengue-fighters/" target="_blank">my entire family got dengue fever</a>, and we got our yellow fever vaccinations before moving to South America. It is my perspective that South American immigrants would have an immunization rate equivalent or greater than that of US-born Americans, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mexican-born+US+born+washington+state+vaccine" target="_blank">there’s some evidence to support this</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally,<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Assessment+of+the+role+of+international+travel+and+unauthorized+immigration+on+measles+importation+to+the+United+States" target="_blank"> a paper published in 2016</a> examined the risk of importing measles from undocumented immigrants versus US travellers. The paper concluded (emphasis has been added):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Overall, there are 10 times more annual US visitors to high measles incidence countries than there are unauthorized immigrants in the US from high measles incidence countries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Efforts to prevent reestablishment of indigenous measles transmission in the US should focus on evidence-based risk assessments, highlighting a greater potential measles importation risk of from US residents travelling internationally than unauthorized immigrants coming to the US.”</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Conclusion</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It bears noting that <a href="https://unu.edu/publications/articles/eradicating-measles-outbreaks-in-refugee-camps.html" target="_blank">there have been instances</a> where vaccine-preventable illnesses have had outbreaks in refugee camps. These were associated with the living conditions in some camps and provided much learning to the organizations involved. However, vaccine-preventable illnesses have also had <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6406a5.htm" target="_blank">outbreaks in Disneyland</a> and <a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Measles-Outbreak-New-York-City-Health-Department-Manhattan-Bronx-Disease-Symptoms-Vaccination-253527911.html" target="_blank">Manhattan</a>. That we should assume that refugees or immigrants are more likely to “carry disease” points to our own prejudices about segments of our society that should be embraced rather than shunned and assimilated rather than outcast. We should be mindful of the agenda behind websites, like Breitbart, that promote such myths, and turn to health organizations such as WHO or CDC for information on disease outbreaks.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/LaylaKatiraee" target="_blank">Layla Katiraee</a> is a NGS production development scientist in California who blogs about GMOs. She is mother to a four-year-old.</span></i></b><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-88103609833174646812017-02-13T11:42:00.000-06:002017-04-10T10:01:51.462-05:00Vaccines Don't Cause Autism<div style="border: none; clear: both; color: #515151; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">Editor's Note: Moms Who Vax has been on an extended hiatus, but we return today with a cross-post of a brief blog post written by Trish Parnell of PKIDs (Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases). The original post can be found <a href="https://blog.pkids.org/2017/02/08/vaccines-dont-cause-autism/" target="_blank">here.</a> </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Vaccines don’t cause autism.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">I’ve been saying this for 20+ years. I’m not a scientist, and I don’t think any parent should embrace my statement based solely on my opinion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">My statement is based on the work of scientists who’ve <a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/immunization_vaccine_studies.pdf" target="_blank">studied</a> vaccinated and non-vaccinated children in multiple countries, and <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2017/01/20/the-why-vaccines-dont-cause-autism-papers/" target="_blank">they say</a>: vaccines don’t cause autism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">It would be easier for researchers of <a href="http://autismsciencefoundation.org/what-is-autism/" target="_blank">Autism Spectrum Disorders</a> (ASD) if vaccines caused autism, but they don’t. After all, if vaccines did cause ASD, then researchers and research funding could all focus on vaccines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">But, vaccines don’t cause autism. In a way, it’s good to know that, because funders can save their money by not investing in yet more studies that will conclude that vaccines don’t cause autism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">And researchers can spend their time zeroing in on the (probably) many causes of ASD without spending a moment more on vaccines as a research subject.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">If you are a parent of a baby or child about to be immunized, be prepared for the young one to have a sore arm, fever, swelling at the site of injection, or many other minor and short-term side effects of vaccination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">These are not fun for the child, and are worrisome for mom and dad, but you don’t have to worry about ASD as a side effect of vaccination because—</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">Vaccines don’t cause autism.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">Please make an appointment with your child’s healthcare provider to discuss any questions you have about vaccines. You are the parent, and you should never feel that you can’t ask questions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">As you browse the Internet for information, I encourage you to follow the science, not the personal stories that sound scary. There are so many websites, blogs, bulletin boards, listservs, Facebook pages, tweets, and so on that say this and that, it’s hard not to be swayed by a good tale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">But this is your child, and you don’t want to guess. You want to know. Peer-reviewed studies help us determine what’s safe and what’s not safe for our child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">After 20+ years, this I know: vaccines don’t cause autism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>Trish Parnell is a health educator and the director of <a href="https://blog.pkids.org/">PKIDs.</a></i></b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-46033234022713175322015-05-19T14:42:00.000-05:002015-05-19T14:48:25.218-05:00Don't Call it "Research"<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It has become standing advice in all camps—from pediatricians and public health officials to anti-vaccine mouthpieces and chiropractors: do your own “research” on vaccines and then come to a reasoned decision about whether you want to vaccinate your child. Imbedded in that directive is the suggestion that all parents have both the specialized education and critical thinking skills required to do biomedical research.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course that’s not what medical professionals are suggesting when they tell their patients to "research" vaccines. But they have acceded to the widespread misuse of the word “research” to describe web-based information gathering, and in doing so have tacitly agreed that Google searches, Facebook surfing, and reading the CDC’s website is equivalent to research. It’s not research. It’s reading. It’s information gathering, the way we gather information to build our family tree. It’s trying to making sense of complex scientific information the vast majority of us were not educated specifically to deconstruct. But it’s not research, at least not the way the term is used in medicine and science.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Part of the problem is the way the word has been loosely applied to any kind of information gathering—from genealogy to looking for the best esthetician in New York, we tend to refer to our efforts as “research.” And in some ways, perhaps, this term could be considered accurate in such contexts. After all, Merriam Webster defines research merely as a “careful and diligent search.” Most people would agree, however, that there’s a difference between a "careful and diligent" search for the best CSA and a "careful and diligent" internet search on whether vaccines are safe. That’s because scientifically valid information about vaccines is based on scientific research, which can be defined as the application of the scientific method to the investigations of natural phenomenon.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I believe it's time to change the language we use when we encourage parents to use available information to make a decision about whether to vaccinate their child. Let's take the word "research" out of the conversation and thereby avoid hinting that such information gathering is equivalent to the work done by vaccine researchers, biologists, and medical professionals.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I say this as a veteran “researcher” myself. I’m a parent of two children, and when my first was born, I was what is now termed “vaccine-hesitant.” I wasn’t fervently anti-vaccine, but I was scared. So I began reading about vaccines, and, like many new parents, I simply typed “vaccines” into Google. The first site that came up was the vaguely governmental-sounding National Vaccine Information Center. It described itself as a “clearinghouse” of vaccine information. The only thing that tipped me off to its anti-vaccine stance at first were the advertisements for Joseph Mercola’s alterna-empire. (Tanning beds, anyone?) Still, I deposited this late-night study into my “research file.” I spent hours upon hours reading until my eyes crossed. Deep down, I knew when I was in over my head, though I pretended to myself that I understood what I was reading when I began to gather research articles. Though the NIH helpfully links to any number of research papers on vaccines, they don't provide a translator.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Still, if anyone had ventured to tell me at that time that what I considered diligent research was not, in fact, research, I would have been offended. After all, I was good at it. I’d written a well-received book of narrative journalism that had required several years of archival research, interviews, even a Freedom of Information Act request resulting in reams of hydrological charts and paperwork, all of which I carefully studied. I had a Master’s degree from an Ivy League university. I was good at this.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was only much later, when I went from vaccine-hesitant to vaccine advocacy, that I realized just how arrogant I’d been. And it all came down to this: I thought I knew more than my doctor. Or if I didn’t know as much as she did, I could catch up with a few weeks of serious "research." Her medical school education, her extensive reading, and her long clinical experience meant nothing to me if I could not come to the same conclusion about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines using what information I had at hand. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Astonishingly, medical providers are enabling this point of view—for understandable reasons. One of the reasons parents were opting out of vaccines was because doctors were often not taking their concerns seriously. Part of this, I suspect, has to do with the fact that the science is so overwhelmingly clear that vaccines are beneficial to the human species. Vaccination became as foundational a part of childhood preventive medicine as a weight check or an eye test. Questioning the necessity of a footing may strike an engineer, for example, as bonkers. But a question about its safety should be heard. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And too often it wasn’t. The result was more and more parents choosing not to vaccinate their children. Now the pendulum swings wide the other way, where many medical providers and public health officials fear that the only way to bring vaccine-hesitant parents back into the fold is to put their abilities to discern the safety and efficacy of vaccines on par with that of their providers. Hence, the gentle suggestion for parents to “do their own research.” But we are not on equal footing when it comes to science. That’s not how science works. We shouldn't blindly follow the recommendations of our medical providers--frankly, we shouldn't do that in any realm of our life. But at the same time, we need to understand our limitations. And in the vaccine conversations, few of us parents have acknowledged the fact that we might not know as much about vaccines as the people who study them.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In fact, we live in a society that grapples with basic scientific literacy. Take, for example, the fact that in <a href="http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/04-22-13%20Science%20knowledge%20Release.pdf" target="_blank">a recent Pew Research study on Americans’ grasp on science and technology </a>issues that fewer than half of Americans knew that an electron is smaller than an atom. More than 80% of Americans did not know that nitrogen made up most of our atmosphere.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The “highly educated” gambit doesn’t work when it comes to vaccines, either; if anything, it makes us, as parents, more susceptible to falling into the anti-vaccine camp because we overestimate our abilities to research. We think because we researched Ovid’s The Metamorphosis for our thesis that we can fully understand why a paper about the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17015560" target="_blank">peripheral blood mononuclear cells of autistic children</a> and whether the measles virus persists in them exonerates the MMR vaccine from any connection to autism.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I want to propose something that in this day of conspiracy theories and artisinal, small-batch internet research, is radical: people with medical degrees know more about medicine than those of us who don’t have medical degrees. More, they know how to write research papers on immunology, vaccinology, or infectious diseases, and they know how to read and make sense of them. The vast majority of us do not. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this time of measles outbreaks and pertussis clusters, it's time for parents to practice a little humility and trust what we do know: vaccines are one of the most successful medical interventions in modern history, they save countless lives, most of them in the developing world, and they have a long and proven track record of safety. And the research on this is clear.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-80537685209104487552015-03-09T21:18:00.003-05:002015-03-09T21:23:10.434-05:00We Must Stand Up and Be Counted: Saving HB 393<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are in danger of seeing a commonsense change in Minnesota's immunization law go down without a fight, thanks to the anti-vaccine movement's attempts to derail it. HB 393 would add an education component to our existing personal belief exemption.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though they present themselves to the legislators as champions of parental rights and "informed consent" these individuals do not want vaccine requirements of any kind on the books in Minnesota, or in any state. They have deluged the representatives with e-mails, and several representatives now believe their point of view represents that of parents and have "concerns" about the bill. Those of us who vaccinate--a whopping 9 out of 10--have stayed silent. We have let, and even after the measles outbreak, are continuing to allow the anti-vaccine fringe to speak for us. This must change. You may contact the following Minnesota legislators to ask them to holding a hearing on HB 393. Even if you live out of state, please consider e-mailing the representatives--the anti-vaccine movement has done so, with great success. Below you will find my letter and the names and e-mail addresses of the representatives who need to hear from you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Tara Mack (chair): <a href="mailto:rep.tara.mack@house.mn">rep.tara.mack@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Roz Peterson (co-chair): <a href="mailto:rep.roz.peterson@house.mn">rep.roz.peterson@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Jeff Backer: <a href="mailto:rep.jeff.backer@house.mn">rep.jeff.backer@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Dave Baker: <a href="mailto:rep.dave.baker@house.mn">rep.dave.baker@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Matt Dean: <a href="mailto:rep.matt.dean@house.mn">rep.matt.dean@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Duane Quam: <a href="mailto:rep.duane.quam@house.mn">rep.duane.quam@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Joe Schomacker: <a href="mailto:rep.joe.schomacker@house.mn">rep.joe.schomacker@house.mn</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">***</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dear Representative X,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am the parent of two young children who is writing to you today to urge you to give HB 393 a hearing in committee. I am part of the “silent majority” of parents who vaccinate their children on time, every time—and do so as a commonsense part of our family’s healthcare. In fact, well over 90% of us choose to vaccinate—that is 9 out of 10 parents who believe that vaccines are a valuable, in fact, essential tool to keeping our children and communities healthy. The reason we’ve been silent is because few of us ever imagined that we’d have to advocate for disease-free schools.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like many new parents, I researched vaccines online before my children received their immunizations, and I was scared to my core by the “horror stories” I read about. At the time, I took these anecdotes at face value, a fact made even more embarrassing by the fact that I was an environmental investigative journalist for much of my twenties. In fact, I was being sold a bill of goods by individuals who have made it their aim to sow fear and doubt in the minds of parents in order to protect their own ability to keep their unvaccinated children in the schools and day cares with absolutely no trade-off whatsoever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The measles outbreak of 2015 was, of course, an inevitable result of this fear and doubt spread by the anti-vaccine movement, which cleverly refers to its mission as “vaccine choice” or “parental choice,” or even “informed consent.” As a parent, it seems their choice to keep their children unvaccinated and at a higher risk of disease trumps my right to keep my own children safe from disease. In fact, their choices affected my own healthcare choices: During the measles outbreak of 2011, caused by unvaccinated children, I had to get my two-year-old toddler her MMR booster a full two years early. As a loving parent, I had no choice. The choice was made for me by the parents who did not vaccinate their children and yet were able to keep them in the schools and day cares of Minneapolis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">HB 393 is a bare-bones, commonsense change in the law that simply requires more education before a parent can simply choose not to vaccinate. It preserves a parent’s choice to refuse vaccines while giving parents who are simply hesitant—as I was—or who need more information the safety net of a meeting with a caring doctor. Those who don’t want to vaccinate, do not have to vaccinate. It’s curious that anti-vaccine activists, under the cloak of “parental choice,” could oppose a bill that preserves that choice. The truth is, this movement wants no laws on the books that require vaccines.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, the bill does not address my concerns about leaving my children and the other children in my life whom I love in a school setting with unvaccinated children. But it’s a start. Not giving it a hearing would be elevating the vocal minority that is mischaracterizing this discussion as an attack on “parental rights” while denigrating the more than 90% of us who vaccinate, and disregarding the rights of infants, the children going through chemo, and other vulnerable people in our community.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wish those of us who vaccinate were more vocal—we are well aware that the small anti-vaccine community has mobilized and enlisted people across the country to e-mail you and your colleagues with their objections. However, those of us who vaccinate our children face a dilemma—to us, vaccinating our children is one of the most important healthcare decisions we make, but it’s also so commonsense that we never thought we’d have to join a movement called the “pro-vaccine” movement. Please don’t mistake the many emails you’re getting from anti-vaccine voices for the true feelings of parents across this state. Our statistics speak for themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ashley Shelby </span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-47170515668059017892015-03-03T20:20:00.000-06:002015-03-03T20:21:01.002-06:00The Loss of a Champion: Laura Scott<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Karen Ernst</span></i></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Laura Scott was the giant of public health you never heard of. She combined intelligence and generosity of spirit in a way that inspired trust. Because she was so good and so smart, when the sister of a teacher at my sons’ school succumbed to flu, I wanted to connect the family to Laura and to Families Fighting Flu. Laura gladly and quickly sent her business card and some materials for the family. I never even knew she was suffering through breast cancer.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-140bcec9-e290-7e5a-c27c-75bf9c079318" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yesterday, when that breast cancer took Laura, we all lost something many never knew they had. We lost the champion of school-based flu clinics. We lost the champion of families who had been touched by influenza. We lost the mom who talked to college students about the need to take charge of their health by getting vaccinated against the flu.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Personally, I lost my flu vaccine mentor. The first time I spoke with Laura, we chatted about Jenny McCarthy’s gig on The View. And we talked about how we could inspire school children to get their flu vaccines through fun raffles. Over the years, I have appreciated her insight and advice as I worked to gain my footing with Voices for Vaccines. For many people in the vaccine world, Laura is a voice of reason and a sharp, thoughtful collaborator and colleague. She will be greatly missed.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You have perhaps never heard of Laura Scott, but you have been touched by her work. Please take a moment to honor her memory and her good work by donating in her memory to one of the two organizations about which she felt passionate:</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://mbcn.org/get-involved/category/donate" target="_blank">Metastatic Breast Cancer Network</a></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.familiesfightingflu.org/donate/" target="_blank">Families Fighting Flu</a></span></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-119519342418661992015-01-15T11:40:00.002-06:002015-01-15T12:05:34.013-06:00Dear Vaccine-Refusing Parents<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><b><i>By Karen Ernst</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Dear Vaccine Refusing Parents,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I get it. Vaccine Advocates like me have
put a lot of pressure on you. Refusing to vaccinate your child is not as
popular as it used to be, and some of your peers consider you a pariah, fearing
that your children will make them sick. So you’ve gone underground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">You’ve been encouraged to go underground
by charlatans, like the <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2012/03/26/bob-sears-bald-faced-liar-devious-dissembler-or-both/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">anti-vaccine Dr. Bob Sears</span></a>, who uses fear of
vaccines to promote his brand. In his book, he told you not to share with your
neighbors the fact that you have left your children vulnerable to disease, and
to “hide in the herd.” He probably didn’t bank on the fact that the herd would
thin out and your choices would leave us all vulnerable. He sold you two lies:
one–that you should be afraid of vaccines, and two–that disease would never
visit your children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So you’ve decided to lie about not
vaccinating your children. You’ve told ER doctors that your children are
up-to-date on immunizations. You’ve told nurses that your children have
allergies that they do not have so that you could avoid vaccinating. And you’ve
rationalized it all with the falsehood that if your child ever did become ill,
you would keep her at home and not expose others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But your children, as they’ve grown,
have not learned that last part. They have only learned, as you have stated
time and again, that they only need to be concerned about their own well being
and that they don’t owe anyone the truth or anything else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It turns out that one of you brought
your <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2015/01/13/disneyland-measles-outbreak-it-is-indeed-a-small-world-after-all/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">unvaccinated children to Disneyland while they were
contagious with the measles</span></a>. Because measles is so infectious–90% of
those not immune can catch measles from a space where a contagious person had
been for up to two hours after he leaves–other unvaccinated people caught it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">One woman went home to Pasadena and
visited her unvaccinated sister, <a href="http://abc7.com/health/south-pasadena-refuses-quarantine-after-sister-gets-measles/474623/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">who is now refusing to be quarantined</span></a>. Her
mother defended her, saying "It's not nice when my daughter is threatened
like this because she's not even sick.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Of course she can pass along measles
before becoming ill with it. Chances are she will. But you’ve been lied to.
Someone told you that your children were special and they couldn’t get measles.
Someone told you that your children were owed more than children <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/when-its-not-a-choice-measles-and-leukemia/" target="_blank">like Ben</a>, who
had to be quarantined after a potential measles exposure because his
chemotherapy had wiped out all his immunity to the disease. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Someone told you it was okay to lie and
to hide from the consequences of your decision not to vaccinate. And now it is
time for you to own the truth. Are your children unvaccinated? Be honest about
it so ER doctors can treat them appropriately, so schools can exclude them
during outbreaks (for their own protection), so your neighbors will know not to
visit you and catch diseases we can easily and safely prevent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I know I’ve been tough on you, and that
you disagree with me and all the science showing vaccines are safe. But you
still need to have some honesty about your vaccine refusal so that we have some
choices about how to protect our children best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-61136679887097183002014-12-01T08:59:00.001-06:002014-12-01T09:00:12.792-06:00Give on Giving Tuesday...to Give Pro-Vax Voices a Boost!Our friends at Voices for Vaccines work tirelessly to make sure the anti-vaccine movement does not succeed in presenting itself as the default "parent voice" heard in any immunization conversation. VFV instead garners the power of the more than ninety percent of parents who choose to protect their children, and the community, by vaccinating. Because of the grassroots nature of the organization, and the fact that VFV does not accept any pharmaceutical funding, it relies entirely on individual donations from members and others supportive of the mission.<br />
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Tomorrow, December 2, VFV is asking for our help to turn up the volume on pro-vaccine voices by gathering <b>1,000 donors </b>who are willing to give to VFV as part of their Giving Tuesday drive.<br />
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Moms Who Vax is happy to support Voices for Vaccines and to take these simple steps to help spread the word to 1,000 potential donors for tomorrow!<br />
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1. Join t<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/666509686779809/" target="_blank">he Facebook event </a>and invite friends.<br />
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2. Visit VFV on Giving Tuesday and <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/support" target="_blank">donate any amount, great or small</a>.<br />
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3. Share <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl42DfKRYdo" target="_blank">this video</a> widely with friends, family, and colleagues:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xl42DfKRYdo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-1634916938907313772014-11-20T09:56:00.000-06:002014-11-20T09:56:06.202-06:00"Consumer-Led Charity" Lobbying Your Legislator About Vaccines<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chances are this summer your state's congressmen and women received a letter from a "non-profit, consumer-led charity" urging them to take note of an "urgent need for reform."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That "charity" is National Vaccine Information Center. The "urgent need for reform" refers to state vaccine laws. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For anyone unfamiliar with National Vaccine Information Center, it is the preeminent anti-vaccine organization in the United States, extremely well-funded by big donors such as Joseph Mercola. You may have seen t<a href="http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2013/03/nvic-know-omissions.html" target="_blank">heir billboards in large cities across the country </a>warning parents of the dangers of vaccines. The organization presents itself as a consumer advocacy group, and perhaps once upon a time it might have been. However, it has morphed, under the watch of Barbara Loe Fisher, into one of the <a href="http://io9.com/the-so-called-national-vaccine-information-center-is-1651663956" target="_blank">most notorious anti-vaccine groups in the world</a>, and it specializes in cloaking its true intentions with proclamations about "vaccine safety" and "personal choice," when its true mission is to make vaccination completely optional and to eliminate any state requirements making it harder for a parent to get her unvaccinated child into daycare, schools, afterschool programs, or any other public space where public health is of particular importance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the richer sentences from the letter NVIC sent congresspeople, and which I'm going to talk about briefly, is this one: "NVIC does not make vaccine use recommendations and supports the legal right for adults and parents of minor children to make informed vaccine choices." The latter half of this sentence is an exercise in redundancy, which, I suppose, they feel is worth spending millions of dollars on--informed consent is already assured and part of the medical experience of anyone seeking a vaccine. The first half is a falsehood. ThinkTwice Global Vaccine Institute, which advises against vaccination, <a href="http://thinktwice.com/support.htm" target="_blank">lists NVIC as a trusted source of information</a>. <a href="http://vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Fisher's own blog</a> betrays her true feelings about vaccines, bearing the motto: <span style="background-color: white;">"If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And whenever states begin considering strengthening immunization rules, NVIC is right there, <a href="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=NVIC+colorado+immunization" target="_blank">making a stink</a>, usually in the name of "personal rights" and "informed consent."In fact, that kind of opposition to better immunization rules on a state level is a core purpose of the organization. Think about that for a minute: this is an organization that devotes its time and considerable capital to making it easier for unvaccinated children to mingle with the public in public spaces, such as schools and daycares.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKbZYo3ZJDBZgLsvHt0AYkQvwpQv7XTAYGKmkRho013YerUQwwJUbp_hNWvZ-K0xcjU_3WLYF3tdNMPzrmZ0swI5KJYZT68Z41UHe7bVsxBqh4ozuGORn5cDkQp6JK4wS33PCEFYasbQ/s1600/photo+(24).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKbZYo3ZJDBZgLsvHt0AYkQvwpQv7XTAYGKmkRho013YerUQwwJUbp_hNWvZ-K0xcjU_3WLYF3tdNMPzrmZ0swI5KJYZT68Z41UHe7bVsxBqh4ozuGORn5cDkQp6JK4wS33PCEFYasbQ/s1600/photo+(24).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I bring this up because over the summer, National Vaccine Information Center sent letters and a slickly produced "book" to congressmen and women in Washington, which NVIC termed a "legislative guide." That guide was titled "Reforming Vaccine Policy & Law." That guidebook indicates to the legislators who receive it that there is an "urgent need for reform of existing state vaccine laws." Translated, this means that NVIC feels that immunization requirements for children entering school, day cares, and for health professionals caring for the elderly and immunosupressed or immunocompromised (such as children with heart defects, anyone going through chemo, etc) are unacceptable. This, even though the vast majority of states have either a religious, medical, or conscientious objection clause in their rules. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Personally, I find NVIC's hubris (or perhaps cluelessness?) fascinating: to launch a campaign to weaken immunization rules at a time when the country is grappling with outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/measles-outbreak-in-us-at-20-year-high-2014-11" target="_blank">measles</a>, <a href="http://columbus.gov/publichealth/alerts/Mumps-Community-Outbreak-%E2%80%93-Update/" target="_blank">mumps</a>, and <a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/10/29/map-shows-california-has-become-hotbed-for-whooping-cough-measles-group-blames-anti-vaxxers-vaccine-council-of-foreign-relations-california-department-of-public-health/" target="_blank">pertussis</a>. There's no sign that the effort has worked, but the onus is on those of us who care about public health to make sure our legislators are informed about the true intentions of this "consumer-led charity" that warns of an impending crisis of personal liberty (i.e. the closing of certain personal exemption loopholes in some state immunization rules). It would take but a moment to write a quick e-mail to your local representative and senator just to say, hey, you may have received a letter and legislative guide this summer from a group purporting to be an "independent clearinghouse for information on infectious diseases and the science, policy, law, and ethics of vaccination" (a line straight out of NVIC's letter). However, I would like to clarify for you the organization's true position. A simple search of NVIC online or even on this blog will reveal countless examples of NVIC's attempts to dissuade parents from vaccinating. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While I feel confident legislators grappling with immigration reform, budget issues, and the war on terror are probably not inclined to give NVIC's mailing a second thought, it's never good to let NVIC go unchallenged if you live in a state with pending changes to immunization rules. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-28636170885713908272014-09-23T15:07:00.001-05:002014-09-23T20:13:50.014-05:00You Might Be Anti-Vaccine If...: The Hidden Mission of "Children of God"<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>By Karen Ernst</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s no secret that anti-vaccine organizations like to hide the fact that they are anti-vaccine. By name alone, one might never guess that the </span><a href="http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2013/03/nvic-know-omissions.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">National Vaccine Information Center</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was anti-vaccine, but its main purpose is to frighten people away from vaccines, and they spend the bulk of their bandwidth and energy </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/national-vaccine-information-center/nvic-opposes-the-passage-of-colorado-hb-1288-on-behalf-of-our-colorado-donor-sup/10152254151297931" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">opposing any legislation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> aimed at increasing immunization rates. While NVIC claims it is “pro-safe vaccines,” you would be hard-pressed to look at its efforts and conclude anything other than that the organization is anti-vaccine.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-8f5835a1-a41e-18f0-58ef-f7d2343d5d25" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But there are some organizations that are anti-vaccine without presenting their primary purpose as the opposition of immunization. These organizations can be a pitfall for people not actively attuned to the world of the immunization advocacy. </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/06/chilis-vaccination_n_5101026.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chili’s fell into such a trap</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a few months ago when it tried to support autism awareness and services and ended up promoting an organization that promotes the debunked vaccine-autism link, </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/04/08/the-national-autism-association-not-antivaccine-then-why-is-its-president-speaking-at-an-antivaccine-quackfest/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">National Autism Association</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, before it abruptly canceled the promotion after a nationwide outcry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a long time, I had given another organization, </span><a href="http://www.cogforlife.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children of God for Life</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (CoG), a wide berth because I took the organization’s statements about vaccines at face value. The people running the organization claim to want pharmaceutical companies “to produce safe, effective alternatives for the existing vaccines and medical products and to use ethical alternatives in future products.” This statement has to do with their pro-life stance. I had always assumed that CoG were parents who were so passionate about being pro-life that they hoped to petition companies to make vaccines that are not produced through t</span><a href="http://www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccine-ingredients/fetal-tissues.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he use of cell lines derived from aborted fetuses</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. If that were truly their mission, they might not be pro-vaccine, but you’d be hard pressed to characterize them as anti-vaccine, either.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the last week, however, I have had encounters with CoG that have convinced me that they are anti-vaccine, and in sharing the tell-tale signs of this anti-vaccine organization, I’m hoping to help others avoid being ensnared by such anti-vaccine organizations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Reliance on weak science to prop up their position</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Children of God has a number of doctors and PhDs associated with their organization, and discerning the science that is valuable from the science that is junk ought not to be difficult for them. So it is troubling that they latch on to science that comes from unreliable sources and is flimsy, poorly constructed, and dismissed by the majority of experts in that field.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.cogforlife.org/2014/09/08/scpipressrelease/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their current scientific cornerstone</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a recently published article by Dr. Theresa Deisher that claims that autism incidence increased at points in time when vaccines grown in human cell lines were added to the CDC schedule and that residual DNA from the cell lines is itself inserted into the cells of children, then replicated, making them autistic. A thorough debunking of this idea can be read </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/09/09/religious-fundamentalists-try-to-prove-fetal-dna-in-vaccines-causes-autism-and-fail/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://rationalcatholicblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/the-problems-with-deishers-study-part-i-the-numbers/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/simchafisher/2014/09/11/dr-deisher-vaccines-and-autism-three-red-flags/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=13600" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Earlier analyses of these claims can be found </span><a href="http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2013/07/14/a-fishing-expedition-at-vaccine-court/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2010/04/29/iterative-hockey-stick-analysi/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/07/22/thermonuclear-stupid-about-vaccines-from/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children of God has also latched on to anti-vaccine activist Brian Hooker’s recently published article (which has now been taken out of public domain) claiming that the MMR vaccine given between 24 and 36 months increases the risk of autism in African-American boys (as compared to “not specified”). This study, conducted by a man who is actively seeking compensation from the government for a claim that vaccines caused his son’s autism and who partnered with fraud Andrew Wakefield to promote his claims, is thoroughly eviscerated </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/08/22/brian-hooker-proves-andrew-wakefield-wrong-about-vaccines-and-autism/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://epidemiological.net/2014/08/24/directed-acyclic-graphs-and-the-mmr-vaccine-doesnt-cause-autism/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2014/08/26/autism-atlanta-mmr-serious-questions-and-also-how-brian-hooker-and-andrew-wakefield-are-causing-damage-to-the-autism-communties/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img height="526px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/il5e3f8dPgoqc-2fXtCPiHX4Oc1hQ9ohqWcSWntC6uIJajzQvA7_cQ8TR-F1O1cTz4yp09SPOS7Fy29jkQo7bgb69oSWa8lETpVqEqXDCq0ChdEVWV9mvfkNSbfR_HKl7Q" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="489px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Caption: CoG Director Debi Vinnedge shares Hooker study on the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoGforLife/permalink/10152657422990890/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CoG public Facebook group</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anti-vaccine organizations often try to use science to their advantage, but they put ideology ahead of evidence. Science is about data and evidence. Science isn’t about promoting a cause, and any group that makes claims about vaccines and science in order to promote their primary agenda (be it a pro-life agenda or an autism “recovery” agenda) might just be anti-vaccine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Replacing evidence with ad hominem attacks against vaccine-promoting people</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anyone who promotes science should expect close scrutiny of their claims and the evidence he or she presents to support those claims. As with government testimony or professional publication, conflicts of interest should absolutely be examined, and, if found, remedied. However, unsupported accusations of conflicts of interest should not be the sole basis of any critique.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is telling when the director of an organization lobs the </span><a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-pharma-shill-gambit/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pharma Shill Gambit</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to distract from her absence of argument. Debi Vinnedge, CoG’s Director, can be found in several places using the Pharma Shill Gambit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img height="103" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/MdRymFuC3uCT1J9El5AFYRX7oxocjaRtu0RBkbSD1lJUgX0HcAKuNbsCk0gonr5m0pqsbcscGdLZdUJy47XpgctMz6Prb9JI2wxp-eybf8QpyHNL-3-3SObbCs0g7DUsRQ" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://catholicstand.com/tainted-vaccines-interview-with-debi-vinnedge-children-of-god-for-life/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In one blog’s co</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mment section</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Debi Vinnedge call infectious disease specialist, author, pediatrician, and rotavirus vaccine inventor Paul Offit a “shill for the pharm industry.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But here’s the thing, according to CoG’s guidelines, Offit’s rotavirus vaccine </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ethically produced. They should have no problem with him, according to their primary goals. (More on that in a bit.) Perhaps the problem for CoG is that after working for twenty years on inventing a vaccine, Paul Offit was paid for his work. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But the attacks are not limited to vaccine inventors or public figures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="105" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rqUHnTHEcQkXaO702hQzOaavVRYC1RTaLxevtQHzyJHL9Mm-_4t-yox0mGSz4gtZwWv8vVRpoNralJVu0YCZs349fyCQQzNKawkc9derJpQHk8gJRkoGnRMQbITqXmFQMg" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://stacytrasancos.com/autism-vaccines-deishers-paper-scientific-discourse/" style="text-decoration: none;">In another blog combox</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Ms. Vinnedge calls a fellow pro-life, Catholic parent a “shill” because she once wrote (without pay) </span><a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/a-visceral-overwhelming-empathy/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a blog post for Voices for Vaccines</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The rest of the comment is ugly as well and not worth commenting on, except to say that if the director of an organization willingly slings mud on those who should agree with her but are in favor of vaccines, that organization might just be anti-vaccine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Public statements against vaccines with no connection to the organization’s primary purpose</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I were director of a pro-cancer organization, it would make sense that I would rally against the HPV vaccine, since it is a vaccine that prevents cancer. If I were an organization whose main purpose was to promote abstinence-only education, I might be under the very wrong impression that the HPV turns girls to a </span><a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/15/hpv-vaccine-doesnt-lead-to-promiscuous-tweens/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">life of promiscuity</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and then maybe--maybe maybe-- it would “make sense” to be against the HPV vaccine. However, any autism organization or </span><a href="http://www.cogforlife.org/gardasil/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pro-life organization</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that has anything negative to say about the HPV vaccine is merely demonstrating its deep anti-vaccine tendencies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The HPV vaccine is not made with human cell lines, and is therefore made ethically according to CoG standards. And yet, on their home page, CoG has a warning about “Gar-duh-$-ill.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img height="304px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lBXVbd6y9KA1EiyTGAm2GCp2m8gL0HAKFp6LNiTS2xaah18Ztq0ScOWmExAaS8oGvpnT3MWKsSe-Ukpny3Hij_RMi7GR_gh_oLqC1IugmysdCjOu025oJfooFMKuj4S82Q" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="155px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s clever because it tells you in one word that a cancer-preventing vaccine studied across the globe on millions of girls and </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/us-hpv-vaccine-idUSBRE99M14D20131023" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">found to have no severe side effects</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is dumb (duh), made only for the profits ($), and will make you ill.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Want to know if an organization is anti-vaccine? Ask them what they think of the HPV vaccine. If they have a clearly negative opinion based on the work of known anti-vaccine organizations, they just might be anti-vaccine. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Reliance on information from other anti-vaccine sources</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are plenty of organizations and websites that exist in order to frighten parents away from vaccinating. They often use conspiracy theories to further their mission while favoring unsubstantiated rumors over scientific proof. </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/02/natural_news_is_a_facebook_hit_never_click_on_itsr_stories_about_cancer.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Natural News</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is among the most preposterous of these sources, and no legitimate organization would share information from Natural News unless they were trying to stoke fear about vaccines.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img height="517px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GansXiYSMhWE_sZ-BLE9sSSe6pyRL6UFx_LrOTwFhc3OGQl-hTc5rYNt52DXOZ8SM2EqSASEq6KdPqyTYAMxJKj6dalNAVpx6GPVcoTsg6pAlelNg29WU6Bl7e-t6jj4fQ" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="485px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another anti-vaccine website is </span><a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/beware-hpv-dna-in-gardasil/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SaneVax</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose sole purpose is to scare parents away from the HPV vaccine by sharing unsubstantiated and medically unverified stories on their website.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if </span><a href="http://www.cogforlife.org/campaign-supporters/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">your public supporters include anti-vaccine group</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> National Vaccine Information Center and </span><a href="http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/idahos-epidemic-of-fear-vaccination-liberation-movement-takes-a-shot-at-public-health/Content?oid=2562103" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vaccination Liberation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, you might just be anti-vaccine. After all, the company you keep shines a light on what you believe.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Organizations with a clear purpose should shy away from establishing anti-vaccine goals</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many solicitors visit our front door, and often these solicitors are representatives of non-profit organizations looking to further their cause. The environmentalists are frequent visitors, and I never think to ask them their stance on vaccines (although I did once dismiss a young lady who told me of the danger of “</span><a href="http://www.pavementcouncil.org/pavementcouncil/americancouncil.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">toxins</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” in our environment because I was suspicious). </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How can you tell if an organization is anti-vaccine? Look at its use of science. Check out how it handles disagreement and if it is able to bring evidence to support its arguments or if it relies on personal attacks. Investigate its public statements about vaccines that have absolutely no connection to their mission. And make sure they are not associated with other anti-vaccine organizations or sources. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if you agree with their primary purpose, ask yourself if you are really willing to support an organization willing to endanger public health and the lives of children in order to further their mission.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-31508914495197346312014-09-21T15:51:00.001-05:002014-09-22T22:07:32.394-05:00What Does Climate Change Have to Do with Vaccines?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I come from a family of science-loving, science-minded
people. While none of us went into the sciences as a profession, some of us
have gone into professions in which science literacy matters. One hot-button issue in our family is climate
change—specifically, climate change denialism. We’ve seen the damage done by
these anti-science zealots whose aim is to create enough doubt in the minds of
the regular citizen to thwart legislation that could help halt the relentless
march toward global disaster. We’ve watched as journalists, for many years,
decided to present the climate change issue as a controversy requiring equal
air time for both the climate change scientists and the denialists, prolonging
this period of doubt. The result? While more than 98% of scientists are in
agreement that our planet is warming, people in the United States are split
about 50/50 on the issue. This will have devastating impacts on our future, and
it deeply bothered members of my extended family, as well as myself. Several members of my family are particularly vociferous about how damaging denialism is
in the climate change discussion, rivaling perhaps only me in my drive to counter anti-vaccine rhetoric. They do not let any opportunity pass them by
in which they don't speak up in favor of the science. It's one of the many things I admire about them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what does this have to do with vaccines? Well, there is
an interesting parallel between the climate change “controversy” and the
vaccine “controversy.” Namely, that the so-called controversy was
manufactured in both cases despite the fact that there exists remarkable scientific consensus; that this resulted in doubt sown in the minds of the
public that was not backed by science; and that the results will be harmful to
human beings. The parallel is so complete that even the media’s handling on
both of issues is strikingly similar. Nowadays, the media does not, for the
most part, feel that journalistic balance is achieved when a climate change
story features a denialist. If anything, it puts the whole story out of
balance. Over really the last year or so, the media has stopped featuring anti-vaccine activists in every vaccine story published or produced.
But the media has been complicit in both cases of misrepresenting science. This
parallel is something we talk about with some regularity in my family.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then this happened: one of my "climate change guru" family members went to the doctor after contracting pneumonia. In the exam room, she decided to
ask the nurse her advice regarding vaccines. She tells me that the nurse replied: “I think there are too
many.” I'm not sure what else the nurse said, because Climate Change Guru immediately realized this was about to turn into a "conversation." I was sick to my stomach that a health professional would sow fear
and doubt about vaccines in an exam room. I was sick because I knew exactly how powerful this nurse's doubt about vaccines could be. I'd been in that position before--a scared new parent with a baby, looking to any and all medical professionals in the clinic for information about vaccines and vaccine safety. I know a great deal more about vaccines and the lies of the anti-vax movement now than I did as a new parent. I have no doubt that if a nurse had said these
words to me in that lull between the doctor’s exam of my child and the
administering of the vaccines, I would have been filled with fear. I know I would have delayed the vaccine in question, perhaps even skipped it altogether.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To my mind,
a nurse is a member of the medical establishment, and if there is widespread disagreement
in the medical establishment about the safety of vaccines, I would never put my
child in what I had been convinced, by a medical professional, was harm’s way. But by walking out that door with my child left
unvaccinated, I would have left him vulnerable to any number of devastating illnesses. How would I have made sense of things if my son had contracted, say, pertussis during the seemingly constant pertussis outbreaks? Or measles, during the various measles outbreaks we've experienced? If he'd been hospitalized, and the doctors caring for him asked me why I hadn't vaccinated him in order to spare him this pain and suffering, I would have said: "A nurse told me there are too many vaccines and I got scared." And I would have felt betrayed by the medical establishment I trusted. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“This nurse speaks to countless patients,” I told my Climate
Change Guru. “I am certain some of them are parents. What if a parent chooses
not to vaccinate based on what this nurse says and the child contracts
pertussis? What if that child passes pertussis on to an infant? What if the
infant dies?” I could feel my heart racing, the anger coursing through my body.
“You have to say something,” I continued. “You have to write a letter.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
will not do that.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What?”
I sputtered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m
not going to get a nurse fired for sharing her opinion with me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You
don’t get her fired. You don't even have to mention her by name. Hell, write it anonymously if you want. The head of the clinic may take it as an opportunity to clarify clinic policy. She can’t be allowed to
continue saying this stuff in a medical setting. She’s entitled to her own
opinion, but it is flat-out wrong for her to spout misinformation in a medical
setting to patients. There is absolutely no evidence to back up her opinion, and all kinds
of evidence to the contrary.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
Climate Change Guru abruptly ended the conversation and walked out. She would
not mention this experience to anyone at the clinic, and was, I could tell, regretting even
telling me it had happened.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’m
still angry. I’m disappointed. And I’ve done a lot of thinking about this
experience over the last few days. I’ve realized that the climate
change/vaccine parallel continues in ways I hadn’t even considered, and it’s
helped me pinpoint why, exactly, I’m still angry. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Imagine this: My Climate Change Guru
attends parent-teacher conferences for her child. In that parent-teacher
conference, she asks her child’s teacher about his teaching philosophy regarding the
science of climate change. The teacher replies: “Well, I believe climate change
is a hoax, but I teach ‘both sides of the issue.’” My Climate Change Guru would
not leave that classroom until she’d given the teacher a piece of his mind. She’d
likely go to the principal and complain, perhaps pull her child from the class.
It’s not just about her child. It’s about all the other children this teacher
is educating. In a position of power and influence, he is capable of affecting
these children’s educational outcome, even their world view. His views on
climate change could “infect” his students. Would Climate Change Guru walk away quietly?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not a chance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then
why did she walk away from the nurse? What is different in this scenario? After
all, the parallel is complete. The nurse is in a position of power and
influence. What she says and does can have a substantial impact on a child’s
health outcomes—and by extension the health outcomes of the entire community.
If a family chooses not to vaccinate because of her opinion that there are too
many vaccines, that family could contract a vaccine-preventable disease. They
could then pass that disease on to others in the community. The response to
this? A shoulder shrug. It was the nurse’s “opinion.” Climate Change Guru wasn’t going to make
trouble.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of course there
are anti-vaccine nurses, just as there are anti-vaccine teachers, anti-vaccine
car mechanics, anti-vaccine postal workers. In fact, since beginning work in
this vaccine world, I’ve come to understand that there are far more nurses who
believe vaccines are harmful than I could have dreamed possible. This is one
reason why groups such as <a href="http://www.nurseswhovaccinate.org/" target="_blank">Nurses Who Vax</a> are so crucial. What bothers me most
is my family member’s decision to say nothing, in her failure to see the
parallel. We have a moral obligation to speak up at moments like this—which is exactly
what my Climate Change Guru would have me believe about the climate change
discussion. “We can’t let this happen on our watch,” is something she’s said to
me before. I challenge her, and anyone else who has heard similar sentiments in
the exam room: will you let anti-vaccine rhetoric echo in the halls of medicine
on your watch?</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-67723289043277101512014-08-20T09:52:00.001-05:002014-08-20T09:52:58.188-05:00Another Media Failure: Invisible Threat Edition<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>By Karen Ernst</i></b></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite how feisty I can be, I really do have sympathy for journalists writing about immunization. The impulse to try to please everyone in order to avoid the firestorm must be very strong.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-be4dd235-f3e6-b560-294c-77b02e353345" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But some stories are clear-cut. Take the documentary </span><a href="http://www.chstvfilms.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Invisible Threat</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This documentary was created by high school students as part of a school-sponsored extracurricular project, funded by a Rotary Club grant. When the project was announced two years ago, it was simply going to be about the immune system. But immediately anti-vaccine crusaders pounced, so the students decided--on their own--to take a deeper look into the issue, and the result was a remarkable</span><a href="http://vimeo.com/ondemand/invisiblethreat/64521691" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 40-minute documentary about immunization and the controversies surrounding it.</span></a></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The release of the film didn’t quell anti-vaccine protests of course. In fact, the protests got uglier with many anti-vaxxers claiming that the students hadn’t even produced the film, that it was instead some nefarious project funded and produced by Big Pharma. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Among those rallying against this high school film project was </span><a href="http://justthevax.blogspot.com/2014/07/anti-vaxxer-ginger-taylor-fancies.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Becky Estepp, who claimed that she was contacted by CHSTV students two years before the project was conceived.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Becky Estepp is the communications director at the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Society, which hosts the annual AutismOne conference, and through AutismOne and their friends at Focus Autism, she launched a </span><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/high-school-teacher-joins-forces-with-vaccine-industry-front-group-to-promote-film-invisible-threat-257311471.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PR attack against these high school students</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I just want to highlight again--these anti-vaxxers launched an attack against children. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The outcry in traditional media has been deafening. Attacking high school students is deplorable and out of bounds.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But hang on. I should qualify the above sentence. The outcry hasn’t been universal. One station local to the students aired the controversy, and then interviewed Becky Estepp, allowing her to make defamatory accusations and innuendos. The journalist left them in the piece unchallenged. The unchallenged accusations included: the children are Pharma Shills; they were pawns of the adults who really made the movie. The news station, the NBC affiliate in San Diego, aired these accusations with absolutely no qualification, fact-checking, or opportunity for the students or their advisors to respond. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That this is a failure of journalism is obvious. But the failure goes beyond false balance. Airing falsehoods and accusations like this is intimidation. The repercussions will affect every child who wants to make a school-sponsored film and gain national attention for such a monumental task. I should not have to explain why a television station giving a platform to an adult seeking to intimidate high school students is wrong. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wrote an email to the journalist responsible for the piece, Candice Nguyen, as well as her General Manager, Dick Kelley.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From info@voicesforvaccines.org</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com, dick.kelley@nbcuni.com</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dear Ms. Nguyen,</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am writing to express concern about a recent story you aired about Carlsbard High School documentary, Invisible Threat: </span><a href="http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Carlsbad-HS-Students-Caught-in-Vaccine-Controversy-270898341.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Carlsbad-HS-Students-Caught-in-Vaccine-Controversy-270898341.html</span></a></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As you noted at the beginning of the story, the students involved in this project were harassed by anti-vaccine activists trying to intimidate them out of doing the project. Once the project was complete, the campaign against these students continued.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I was shocked that, in your story, you gave air time to one of the activists who worked hard to spread unsubstantiated innuendo in order to discredit these students. Furthermore, you left her unsubstantiated claims unanswered, even though each point she made was demonstrably exaggerated or false. In fact, the anti-vaccine activist you put in the story is a contributing editor of one of the organizations that has campaigned against the students and this film.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to emphasize that these students were in high school when they completed this school project. As with all extracurricular activities, these students had adult advisors. When a football team wins the state championship, no one asks why the coaches were there, too, and whether or not the championship was actually won by the adults. If people did raise those questions, no journalist would ever allow those detractors air time without proof of such allegations--especially allegations made against children.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I write a lot of reporters, and I understand the difficulties in reporting about immunization and in wanting to appeal to a very broad audience. However, your piece was the most egregious piece of journalism I have yet encountered because it gave airtime to someone who sought to poison the well against a group of children and had no proof of her allegations.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The only acceptable recourse is to air a full retraction of your segment. Please let me know when you plan on airing such a segment, and I will publicize far and wide your commitment to telling the truth and to protecting children against adult harassment and intimidation.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sincerely,</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Karen Ernst</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #141823; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Voices for Vaccines</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="color: #141823; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sent this X number of days ago. I have yet to get a response. I will update if I hear anything from the station. It might take many more voices writing in to them for them to understand that such bad reporting is a big deal. Here is the link to the piece, </span><a href="http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Carlsbad-HS-Students-Caught-in-Vaccine-Controversy-270898341.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #141823; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which is still available on the NBC San Diego website</span></a><span style="color: #141823; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The email addresses are above should you be moved to e-mail your thoughts on the piece.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-43442717901319548462014-06-19T14:16:00.001-05:002014-06-29T13:28:32.018-05:00"I'm pretty sure everyone on your Facebook page has high-functioning Asperger's": The bigotry of the anti-vaccine movement<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><b><i>By Karen Ernst</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This has actually been a great week. I’ve
been buoyed by </span><a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/i-was-duped-by-the-anti-vaccine-movement/" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Maranda Dynda’s story of deconverting from anti-vaccine
to pro-vaccine</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> over at Voices for Vaccines. Her story reminded me that
vaccine-hesitant parents are trying to do what is best for their children and
that we can reach them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But I don’t like to rest for too long
after such fantastic wins, so I decided to ask Voices for Vaccines’ members
what we could do better by <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RZQL76T"><span style="color: #1155cc;">sending out a survey</span></a>. I knew that anti-vaccine
activists would find it, and I knew that it would be easy to dismiss their
rankings and their comments. I suspected nothing they would say could shock me.
I was expecting the regular <a href="http://momswhovax.blogspot.com/2013/07/shillin-aint-easy-or-profitable.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;">pharma-shill-propaganda-evil-reptilian comments</span></a>
that seem to populate the majority of the fervent anti-vaxxer’s vocabulary. I
was not disappointed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfc1TK-TgeQHLWH8gq7zHo5p6UvIxLAL2IBd6E_nEYj9sgi_PrGT8-UT4hCVeuk6gXSB0mk_uZZDUp39D5Swf5BgC8KBLZnXpvu_mFh94oJS3fANfJ-EjdBJh2dd8jkvI4gy6oJQf9rM/s1600/Picture+43.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfc1TK-TgeQHLWH8gq7zHo5p6UvIxLAL2IBd6E_nEYj9sgi_PrGT8-UT4hCVeuk6gXSB0mk_uZZDUp39D5Swf5BgC8KBLZnXpvu_mFh94oJS3fANfJ-EjdBJh2dd8jkvI4gy6oJQf9rM/s1600/Picture+43.png" height="360" width="400" /></a></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The comment about government propaganda
was expected. The comment about VFV members being “sociopaths” is important.
Keep that one in mind as we go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I was particularly interested in this
latter survey response, because of the sheer anger the respondent exhibited.
After reading through her other comments, including one where she said she
wanted “to ruin everything your organization touches,” such as a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/210145583/PBE-Fact-Sheet-2-27-14"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Colorado bill introduced last session</span></a> that
some of our parent-members supported through testimony at legislative hearings,
I had a pretty good idea of who I was dealing with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Voices for Vaccines was actually an
important topic for some of the anti-vaxxers at those hearings, with one
anti-vaxxer dedicating <a href="http://coloradoga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=20&clip_id=5370"><span style="color: #1155cc;">nearly all of her testimony</span></a> at those hearings
to poisoning the well against VFV and our members. It would seem that some of
the anti-vaxxers are still upset that pro-vaccine parents would dare to become
involved in this legislation. We have learned that parent vaccine advocates are
deeply threatening to the anti-vaccine movement. In fact, the hearings and the
bill were threatening enough to the anti-vaccine movement that an anti-vaccine
lobbying group in Colorado, sponsored by the <a href="http://momswhovax.blogspot.com/2014/05/big-alterna-and-ties-that-bind.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;">National Vaccine Information Center</span></a>, became
deeply involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;"><b>[Editor's note: At this point in the post, we had included <a href="https://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center/photos/pb.143745137930.-2207520000.1404040349./10152309936707931/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">a photograph from National Vaccine Information Center's Facebook page</a><span style="font-size: small;">. Because we do not own rights to it, we have been asked by the Executive Director of NVIC to remove it. The photograph was included in this post to demonstrate how deeply involved NVIC was in the Colorado legislation, and how closely tied it is to anti-autistic language. However, we are sensitive to the fact that the people in the photo, as well as their children, do not want to be associated with this kind of bigotry, and we have removed the photo from this post at NVIC's request. We do hope they will work with us to rout out anti-autistic language and the use of "autism" as a slur.</span></b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One other note: while we have chosen to honor NVIC's request that we remove the photo, we urge NVIC to revisit its own photo-sharing and blog-sharing policies, as it has a track record of including photos of individuals associated with Voices for Vaccines, which they had no prior permission to use, such as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center/posts/10202675767749101?stream_ref=10" target="_blank">Sundari Kraft,</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center/photos/pb.143745137930.-2207520000.1404040254./10152442408982931/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">Paul Offit</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center/posts/10152117356037931" target="_blank">Karen Ernst</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center/posts/10151788331482931" target="_blank">Dorit Reiss</a>.]</span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Anyway, that an anti-vaccine advocate hates
a parent-led pro-vaccine group is not shocking. It’s what we all expect, and it’s
what we are all used to hearing. In fact, the unhinged nature of their comments
is </span><a href="http://momswhovax.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-anti-vaxxers-will-help-pro-vax.html" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">how the anti-vaccine movement helps us out</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But then she did shock me with this:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid67AXce2GKQioHgDyGR4o1-FRNyrvPkijMpU1YLpQ3xiyUu6SnNrFd0NXlPrtC9yf3kGuC4H4DtRyOZYkBz0eY_Tn8U-eU8zW1MqK0wQh0Ru8a6ao-DFvHut9IqI-28NyhrcrmBOK2Ps/s1600/Picture+49.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid67AXce2GKQioHgDyGR4o1-FRNyrvPkijMpU1YLpQ3xiyUu6SnNrFd0NXlPrtC9yf3kGuC4H4DtRyOZYkBz0eY_Tn8U-eU8zW1MqK0wQh0Ru8a6ao-DFvHut9IqI-28NyhrcrmBOK2Ps/s1600/Picture+49.png" height="80" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In case you misunderstand, this comment
is meant to be an insult. A reasonable person might miss the insulting nature
of this comment because who really cares if all of our members are autistic? To
be honest, I’d be honored if our Facebook page were filled with autistic fans,
because that would mean that we are doing something right for neurodiversity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">On the off chance that you don’t see the
implied insult here, let’s say I replaced the words “has high functioning
Asperger’s” with “is homosexual” or “is Jewish” or “is black.” <a href="http://thautcast.com/drupal5/content/stop-using-autism-political-insult"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Using such identifiers as a slur is bigoted</span></a>. It’s not funny; it’s just
hateful. When we think about the harm the anti-vaccine movement causes, we think about the nearly 500 cases of measles spreading across the country, or nurses who refuse flu vaccines in the name of personal freedom. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">But there is another layer of harm--bigotry and hatred toward autistic people. The anti-vaccine movement relies on this deep fear and even hatred, and it permeates their messaging and their fear-mongering about vaccines. Once you peel back the layers, it's a little shocking to see just how blatant it can be.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-64425073792747614302014-05-19T12:08:00.001-05:002016-08-06T09:30:59.951-05:00Big Alterna and the Ties That Bind<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-b07fc98c-1573-b120-13fa-28f5987d67fa"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>By Karen Ernst</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Editor's Note: Voices for Vaccines does not and never has accepted any government or pharmaceutical funding. The organization is supported 100% by individual member donations.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently, an anti-vaccine blog put together </span><a href="http://vactruth.com/2014/02/19/cdc-and-emory-university/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11 Facts about Voices for Vaccines</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> claiming to show that we are a “front group” for Big Pharma/the CDC. The blogger drew up charts showing the connection between various people (the charts were wrong) and included a map to show how close our fiscal agent was to the CDC (2.6 miles!). Yet, I work in my little (messy) rambler 1,120 miles away from this supposed vortex of evil, busily </span><a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/about/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not being directed or controlled</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by the Task Force for Global Health, the CDC, Emory, or Big Pharma (or the reptillian overlords).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Picture 23.png" height="441px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/gMj44bH6cAOzHeEhhgpu8Xd_qYR94UY3nQl-mk_QyqhpyrYIcLzspO0HqqMTWShefwZhVDv1bDioi4JROuFxopWXTg2ACsTwM96ffg9SQIelXdq8ShyVaoOKObk4GtJKog" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="523px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">All the conspiracy theories and convoluted logic about supposed and unproven influence by the CDC and pharmaceutical companies on a parent-led vaccine advocacy group makes it that much more interesting that the National Vaccine Information Center is indelibly tied to the hugely influential Big Alterna figurehead Joseph Mercola. Unlike any fiscal connection alleged between Voices for Vaccines and the CDC or Pfizer or any pharmaceutical company, the fiscal ties between NVIC and Mercola are factual, and I want to explore them with you here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are a person who lives a normal life and only thinks about immunization when you bring your child in for his well-child check, the </span><a href="http://www.nvic.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">National Vaccine Information Center</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> might sound like a good thing. It might sound positive to have information about vaccines in one convenient “center” for the whole nation. The problem is that NVIC is definitely anti-vaccine. They have even gone as far as </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/05/09/antivaccine-activists-attack-and-bully-high-school-filmmakers-over-a-student-vaccine-documentary/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">promoting a conspiracy theory about high school kids who created a film about immunization in an after school program</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. (Shockingly, like football and yearbook, this program was advised by adults, thus prompting the conspiracy theory.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/15/vaccines_and_autism_antivaccination_group_advertising_on_billboards.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the billboards NVIC buys</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> across the United States asking motorists to “Know the Risks and the Failures” of immunization, NVIC also spends a great deal of time and energy </span><a href="https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Home.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">opposing a great deal of vaccine-related legislation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. They are even opposing proposed legislation that would provide information about vaccines and record students’ vaccination status.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For an organization that claims it is not anti-vaccine but is rather “pro-informed consent,” opposing information seems odd.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Except that they are anti-vaccine and pro-misinformed consent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I had assumed for a long time that this was the entire story, until the day (two days actually) the NVIC website went down and in its place:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Picture 25.png" height="278" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gxrDTEHjBtecN4N1EHbisqvpWVbI6VevPieRAoDUtwhtzkpf1TIDaKKlQf-K8d991bhy9yMA5xHz1_SlS2x7sgB4r0gqToVYkSUP3AgGl-EnwxsRMMONWRVv4aK7MD4tOA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none;" width="400" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It turns out, the </span><a href="http://www.nvic.org/NVIC-Vaccine-News/June-2009/A-New-Look-for-NVIC-Vaccine-News.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NVIC website is provided as an in-kind donation from Mercola.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Picture 11.png" height="51" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/qFa5Y4PJGLMWJ_4RFFoxQdl5yeVr-UmjNoh1k0VVB4tqI3AzItt-58ZknpddlqbgA2SYBzFCdErxTi8_Tzcsr6wGk2yMZE6c0I2JeLfV2yvj2EiP_IG5hCJgOV-lwQnS8g" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none;" width="400" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If the VFV website went down, I do not know what would appear there, but to be clear, VFV pays for its website from its own funds which comes from individual donors. The Task Force for Global Health is listed as the owner of our domain name because, as our fiscal agent (we are not yet our own 501(c)3 so do not have ready access to our bank account), they actually issued the check using the funds we raised for Voices for Vaccines. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, which websites does Mercola provide funding for? (A hat tip to the </span><a href="http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Skeptical Raptor</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for this next part.)</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://whois.stsoftware.biz/la-tan-enterprises/" target="_blank">Click here for a larger image</a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Most interesting in this list of domains owned by Mercola.com is the number of them selling something. Bath products! Tanning beds! Water filters! Why would someone selling such an odd mish mash of home products care about helping an anti-vaccine organization promote their misinformation?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps because there is money to be made off of parents who eschew immunizations out of fear of what they see as “unnatural.” Make no mistake, parents seeking natural health alternatives make big bucks for Big Alterna. And </span><a href="http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/February-2012/Dr-Joseph-Mercola-Visionary-or-Quack/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Joseph Mercola, the doctor behind Mercola.com, is near the top of those cashing in</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s review: the National Vaccine Information Center claims not to be anti-vaccine, but in favor of informed choice about vaccine, but as an organization they have made documented efforts to make it more difficult for parents to receive information about vaccines. They do not want schools to know who among their students is vaccinated (even in the case of outbreaks), and they do not want </span><a href="http://shotofprevention.com/2014/04/23/invisible-threat-filmmaker-discusses-journalistic-integrity/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">high school students to pursue documentary filmmaking</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> about topics that interest them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I believe Theresa Wrangham or even Barbara Loe Fisher, the women heading NVIC, believe the misinformation they promote, but if they believe they are not anti-vaccine, they are seriously delusional. And if they believe that Joseph Mercola is providing them with a website because he has a heart of gold, they should know that he probably bought that gold.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For a couple years now, I have sat on my slightly-too-tall IKEA chairs at my old computer fielding accusations about my connections to Big Pharma and the CDC, who apparently want to force parents to immunize their children because there’s money in it, and because the’re evil. (Note: you cannot buy tanning beds or supplements from VFV, the CDC, Emory University, or the Task Force for Global Health.) This strange theory is promoted enthusiastically by NVIC. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I’m not even sure what that is. Hypocrisy? Willing ignorance? Arrogance? I’m genuinely curious about what drives NVIC’s willingness to schlep out the </span><a href="http://www.skepticalraptor.com/logicalfallacy_files/Shill_Gambit.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pharma Shill gambit</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> while simultaneously being a Big Alterna Shill.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But the public should not be fooled. This isn’t a story of the little guy who is desperately seeking alternative health options in a world of cruel public health bullies trying to take away the little guy’s freedoms. This is a story about a well-oiled, well-funded machine. A machine that wants to keep you scared--that demands that you look at their information but no one else’s. A machine that would harass children and their teachers in order to obscure the truth about immunization and to sell you a tanning bed.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-49501425207857368242014-05-12T11:21:00.001-05:002014-05-13T11:28:58.549-05:00Letter to an Anti-Vaxxer from a Pro-Vax Mom<div style="color: #222222; line-height: 13.7pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">By Amanda Z Naprawa</span></i></b><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">I am pro-vaccine.</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">Vaccines are one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of the twentieth-century. I believe vaccines should be mandatory, except for a few very limited exemptions. That because vaccines save lives. They prevent complications from disease by preventing the disease itself -- complications like blindness, deafness, infertility, paralysis. I am fully vaccinated. My children are vaccinated according to the recommended schedule. We all get flu shots every year. </span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">I'll say it again and without hesitation: I am pro-vaccine. </span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">You, on the other hand, are anti-vaccine. You may also be a<a href="http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Anti-Vaccine_Body_Count/Home.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"> beautiful celebrity</a> or a best-selling author of childcare books. You may be the president of a "<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/15/vaccines_and_autism_antivaccination_group_advertising_on_billboards.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">vaccine information group</a>" or the leader of your local "clean living" club. But you are also anti-vaccine. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/05/jenny-mccarthy-on-vaccines-im-certainly-not-against-them/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Please stop referring to yourself as "pro-informed consent" or "pro-safe vaccine"</a> or any other name that tries to hide the truth of your position.</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">Individuals who urge parents to avoid vaccinating their children based on a slew of myths are anti-vaccine. If, in the face of dozens of peer-reviewed, scientifically sound studies, you continue to scare parents into believing that vaccines cause autism, you are anti-vaccine. If you use your good looks and flashy smile to convince parents that vaccines are more harmful than the diseases they aim to prevent, you are anti-vaccine. If you smile benevolently upon chickenpox parties, and mock concerns over the spread of measles, you are anti-vaccine. <a href="http://reasonablehank.com/2014/03/31/death-threats-against-dr-paul-offit-and-family-published-on-nvic-facebook-page/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">If you threaten the scientists and doctors</a> who have worked to create vaccines with bodily harm and death, you are anti-vaccine. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/05/09/antivaccine-activists-attack-and-bully-high-school-filmmakers-over-a-student-vaccine-documentary/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">If you bully high school students for making a documentary exploring the anti-vaccine movement</a>, then, yes, you're anti-vaccine.</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">You are anti-vaccine, not "pro-informed consent." If you were really for "informed consent," then you would push accurate information. True informed consent requires that the relative risks, benefits and uncertainties for <em>each alternative</em> treatment option be given to the patient. When my child gets a vaccine, my physician gives me an information sheet filled with all the benefits <em>and</em> potential risks of each vaccine. I vaccinate my child knowing that the vaccine will offer significant protection against serious illness, and that my decision to vaccinate comes with a very, very small risk of some side effects. I am fully informed.</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">If you were really pro-informed consent, then you would be giving the true risks of vaccines <em>and</em> the true benefits of vaccines. You would tell parents --honestly -- that some vaccines carry an extremely small risk of seizure. You would also tell parents -- honestly -- that there is simply no evidence (aside from anecdotal, post-hoc stories) that vaccines carry a risk of autism. You might tell parents, that you <i>really really</i> hoped that autism could be explained by vaccination (we would all like a simple explanation for autism) but its not.<img alt="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhhYYylTxzX9hxgr7bEXJL6o8ktRKDBv4heWeze9PBAeli2BwPTjGuw3i98Br342NMlbEla9zLm6uhFWL38JwjZjE6PpBIZ8dN1ANUj3cd2753yFqhnoWhwqs0K5_C6S8l5HVk0Clzxs0giISH2c4Qnedl6EQ=s0-d-e1-ft" border="0" height="3" width="3" /></span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"><a href="http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2012/03/anti-vaccine-crowd-shows-they-are-anti.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">You claim to be pro-informed consent.</a> <a href="http://momswhovax.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Informed consent requires that you give accurate, unbiased information necessary to make an informed medical decision</a>. If you were really pro-informed consent, you would tell parents that the diseases that vaccines prevent are real. <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">They are scary. They are dangerous.</a> Yes, many people have had diseases like measles and survived without lasting harm. But why take the risk? Why let your child suffer an illness that is preventable? In the pre-vaccine era, 400-500 children died a year from measles. Per year. In contrast, 142 people have been compensated for measles vaccine-related injuries over the last eight years. That's information that a parent can use to make an informed decision about vaccination. That's pro-informed consent. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/03/25/turning-the-informed-consent-tables-on-t/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">But that is not what you are about</a>. You minimize the death of children from vaccine-preventable disease by <a href="http://vaxtruth.org/2012/01/putting-measles-into-perspective/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">"putting them into perspective."</a></span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">You are so proud of your accomplishments in increasing awareness of the alleged dangers of vaccination. You have worked so hard to increase the number of states with exemptions to mandatory vaccination. You have tirelessly spread the news that the government cannot be trusted, that vaccine manufacturers cannot be trusted, and that the average vaccine-friendly pediatrician cannot be trusted either. You have made money, sometimes lots of it, selling the idea that vaccines are dangerous and should be avoided.</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">There's a name for that. And its got nothing to do with informed consent.</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Amanda Z Naprawa is an attorney and graduate student in the Masters of Public Health program at University of California, Berkeley. She believe in promoting immunization through the dissemination of accurate information about vaccine safety. She is the author of various articles, including "Don't Give Your Kid That Shot: The Public Health Threat Posed by Anti-Vaccine Speech and Why Such Speech is Not Guaranteed Full Protection Under the First Amendment." 11 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol'y & Ethics J. 473 (Summer 2013)</span></span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-63439903777619902252014-04-26T00:15:00.002-05:002014-04-26T00:21:07.452-05:00Invisible Threat: Speaking Up<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In
recognition of the national launch of the <u><a href="https://vimeo.com/64521691">Invisible Threat</a></u> movement on May 1st,
2014 the Moms Who Vax blog is participating in a blog relay to raise awareness
of the threat the film explores—the anti-vaccine movement. Each day, a
different blogger discusses his or her personal perspective of the film as part
of an exciting ten-day countdown to a kick-off event for the film, which will
be attended by national legislators at the Capitol Visitors’ Center in
Washington, D.C. You can follow along to find out how you can join us in
this movement, arrange for a local screening of Invisible Threat, and continue
our fight against infectious diseases.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Karen Ernst</span></i></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Teenagers are amazing people. If you want to
view the world through a lens of optimism and idealism, ask for a teenager’s
perspective. My other career--the one I began long before I had children or
embarked on my mission to get parents to pitch in and help prevent disease
outbreaks--is teaching. I began my adult life as an English teacher and became
who I am today because I spent my hours learning along with the teenagers who
populated my classroom and my life.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I am difficult to surprise with news about
how incredible teens can be. Stories in the media detailing how these young
people are transforming our world through their activism and creativity often
feel like merely revealing the spirit of what it means to be on the cusp of
adulthood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But a group of student-film-makers has
surprised me. By delving into the world of vaccine-preventable disease and
rationally examining the claims of the anti-vaccine movement, the
student-creators of <u><a href="https://vimeo.com/64521691">Invisible Threat</a></u>
have done what many adults fail to do: discover the objective facts about
vaccines. Before all of us pro-vaccine parents go patting ourselves on the back
for arriving at the truth about immunization, we need to recognize that these
teens have also gone above and beyond what most of us do. They’ve chosen to
speak publicly about the importance of vaccination.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Most vaccinating parents are not telling
their stories. Some of us are afraid to cause discord in our families and so we
don’t speak up. We have looked at the science, but don’t want to start debate
because it’s just not our area of expertise. So we remain silent, and by our
silence we allow the anti-vaccine voice to be the default voice of parents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The <u>Invisible Threat</u> filmmakers faced <a href="http://shotofprevention.com/2014/04/23/invisible-threat-filmmaker-discusses-journalistic-integrity/">steep
challenges when creating their documentary</a>. They came to the topic green:
with no experience with any vaccine-preventable disease, and largely unaware of
the anti-vaccine movement, they read materials both for and against vaccines.
They sought out experts and got their opinions. The interviewed anti-vaccine
parents. They discussed among themselves what all the information meant and
came to a conclusion that was both reasonable and in line with the scientific
consensus: vaccines are safe and save lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Invisible Threat</span></u><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> follows
the evolution of their thoughts on vaccines, but behind the scenes, these
students faced the same obstacles that we vaccine advocates face. Lisa Posard,
parent volunteer and executive producer, explained that when news about the
topic of this documentary first came out, anti-vaccine bloggers wrote about the
teenagers. <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByEdklsbLFaPM0ZmT0Y0UmdpTFk/edit">Anti-vaccine
activists even </a><i><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByEdklsbLFaPM0ZmT0Y0UmdpTFk/edit">called
their school</a></i><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByEdklsbLFaPM0ZmT0Y0UmdpTFk/edit"> to try
to convince them not to do the film</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite this harassment, the students were
adamant that they would not be bullied out of tackling vaccines. These young
people have done the hard part, and we can do something easy right now. We can
invite our senators and representatives to an event on May 1st at <a href="http://www.ecbt.org/index.php/features/invisible_threat_premiere">10am in
Washington D.C. </a>to discuss the issues behind the documentary. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Invisible Threat</span></u><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> is
a fantastic documentary, and we are fortunate the filmmakers had the moral
fortitude to stand up to those who were trying to shout them down. Next time we
are tempted to be quiet about vaccines because we don’t want to make enemies or
because we aren’t up-to-date on all the latest science or because it takes
effort and we are busy, we need to remember that <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/say-something/">making a difference
means taking a risk</a>. It might mean we have to hearken back to our youth and
our days of idealism, when standing up for something was critically important.
And what could be more critically important than the health of our children and
our communities?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">You
have the ability to make a difference in our fight against infectious diseases. Follow the Invisible Threat Blog Relay and find out how you can be a part
of the movement. Tomorrow's post will be hosted by</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.momentumnation.com/"><span style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc;">MOMentumNation</span></a></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">. And be sure to like the</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Invisible-Threat/430778063724690"><span style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc;">Invisible Threat Facebook</span></a></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> and follow the filmmakers on
Twitter</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://twitter.com/InvisThreat"><span style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc;">@InvisThreat</span></a></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">.</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-31482241192171706462014-04-11T11:01:00.004-05:002014-04-11T11:01:48.895-05:00And here's what my letter looks like...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the post below, I urged you to write to Colorado legislators to express your support of HB1288 and to counteract the anti-vaccine rhetoric with which they've been deluged. Putting my money where my mouth is, here is what I've written. It's not perfect, it's not polished, but it's from the heart. Yours can be too!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dear Senators,</span></span><br />
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My name is Ashley Shelby, and I am a mother of two. I am moved to write you today because it has come to my attention that you are receiving a great deal of contact from anti-vaccine parents and activists regarding HB1288, which strengthens immunization rules for the state that will protect children and infants, individuals going through immuno-suppressive therapies like chemotherapy, and the elderly from needless suffering. These anti-vaccine activists often refer to their beliefs as having to do with personal choice, personal liberty, informed consent, and other terms that mask the fact that they want the right to not vaccinate their children while still enjoying the public spaces, like schools, where their decision could harm others. To me, anti-vaccine parents who fight against HB1288 are like people who feel it's their right to shout "fire" in a movie theater, a right which has been denied by courts for decades. Your freedom may not infringe on my safety--and that's exactly what anti-vaccine parents are doing, so far without any obstacles thrown in their path. Their "personal liberty" is making it hard for me to exercise my own.</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am speaking up because these individuals do not represent parents. In fact, they are a vocal fringe group, who have an impact because of the nature of herd immunity. Although the overwhelming majority of parents support vaccines, even if five percent of parents choose not to vaccinate, diseases like measles, mumps, and pertussis gain a foothold in our communities. And they have. You are no doubt aware of the measles clusters in California and New York, the mumps outbreak in Ohio, and the pertussis cases all across the country. The majority of these cases started with and were spread by unvaccinated individuals. </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Please help parents protect their children from vaccine-preventable disease by voting yes to HB1288. Parents still have the right not to vaccinate their children--they just can't send them into schools and day cares. Voting no to HB1288 is not a vote for personal liberty. It's a vote that indicates that people can endanger public health with absolutely no consequence to themselves, and all the risk on the shoulders of people who are forced to share a public space with them. </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you for considering my point of view.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-18154957266618939672014-04-11T10:48:00.001-05:002014-04-14T08:37:46.277-05:00Don't Let Anti-Vaccine Movement Sink Colorado Bill<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Editor's Note: I made a mistake in my initial post--Colorado is not trying to eliminate personal belief exemptions (I wish)--the bill simply adds an educational component.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We need your help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Colorado is trying to strengthen immunization rules by adding an educational component to personal belief exemptions. These exemptions are the manner in which anti-vaccine parents can opt-out of vaccines and still enroll their children in schools and day care facilities, putting children and vulnerable members of our community at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. We've seen the result of these exemptions: measles outbreaks, mumps outbreaks, devastating pertussis outbreaks that have killed infants.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And while support for the measure is strong in Colorado's House, its Senate is less likely to pass the bill, titled <a href="http://www.childrensimmunization.org/pbe" target="_blank">HB 1288, "Strengthening Personal Belief Exemptions for Immunization Requirements</a>."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Part of the reason is because legislators are being deluged by phone calls and e-mails from anti-vaccine activists, purporting to represent parents. What's more, they are framing this debate as one over personal liberty. Missing from their arguments is the idea that with personal liberty comes personal responsibility, something anti-vaxxers do not exercise, and which is harming public health and the communities in which they live. Unfortunately, it turns out that several state legislators have bought into this personal liberty argument--and with the majority of the calls and e-mails they are receiving being from anti-vaxxers, they are more and more likely to vote against this important bill. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Let's help. One approach is to talk about recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease and how lack of immunization has lead to needless suffering. Another approach is to take apart the personal liberty argument that the anti-vaxxers are now using to stop this bill. Where does personal liberty bump up against the needs of the community--the anti-vaxxers want the right to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Colorado Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee will vote on the bill <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1854781780" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Monday</span></span>.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once passed by this Committee, as is likely, the bill will be considered by the full Senate. It here that the bill looks to be in trouble, when it reaches the full Senate. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>This is where you come in. Please contact Colorado Senators as soon as possible to urge them to support House Bill 1288. Here is the CO general assembly senate directory: </b><b> </b><a href="http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2014A/csl.nsf/DirectorySen?openframeset" target="_blank">Colorado General Assembly Senate Directory</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because the majority of calls and e-mails right now are angry anti-vaxxers, all Senators, even the ones who look like they will vote yes, need to hear from you. Encouragement for those likely to vote yes, reasoned and compelling (and personal) words for those likely to vote no. Here is the list of senators we believe are most in need of a call or e-mail.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator Cheri Jahn (D); Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-4856%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-4856</span></a> E-mail: <a href="mailto:cheri.jahn.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">cheri.jahn.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator John Kafalas (D) Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-4841%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-4841</span></a>; E-mail: <a href="mailto:john.kefalas.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">john.kefalas.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator Mary Hodge (D): Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-4855%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-4855</span></a>; E-mail: <a href="mailto:mary.hodge.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">mary.hodge.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator Jeanne Nicholson(D): <a href="tel:303-866-4873%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-4873</span></a> E-mail: <a href="mailto:jeanne.nicholson.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">jeanne.nicholson.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator Ellen Roberts (R)Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-4884%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-4884</span></a> E-mail: <a href="mailto:ellen.roberts.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">ellen.roberts.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator Bernie Herpin (R)Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-6364%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-6364</span></a>; E-mail: <a href="mailto:bernie.herpin.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">bernie.herpin.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator Steve King (R) Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-3077%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-3077</span></a>; E-mail: <a href="mailto:steve.king.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">steve.king.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Senator David Balmer (R) Cap: <a href="tel:303-866-4883%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">303-866-4883</span></a> E-mail: <a href="mailto:david.balmer.senate@state.co.us%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s2">david.balmer.senate@state.co.us</span></a></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Wasserman, Executive Director of The Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition at <a href="mailto:Stephanie.Wasserman@childrenscolorado.org%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"><span class="s3"><b>Stephanie.Wasserman@childrenscolorado.org</b></span></a> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt;">
</div>
<div class="p4" style="font-size: 11pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-45867021684558072722014-03-03T13:44:00.001-06:002014-03-03T13:45:25.614-06:00Telling Anti-Vax Parents They're Wrong Only Makes Them More Anti-Vax<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>By Karen Ernst</i></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, </span><a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/02/25/peds.2013-2365" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a study in the Journal of Pediatrics</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> seemed to point out that what pro-vaxxers are trying to do is all wrong. It might seem to suggest that debunking vaccine-autism myths, explaining relative risks of disease, and demonstrating the effects of vaccine-preventable disease is ineffective. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-0c18ed36-8978-53b1-6fef-ee64882f198d" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The study tried to influence parents’ decisions about vaccines using four strategies, all utilizing online resources: correcting misinformation about the MMR-autism myth, giving information about the risks from vaccine-preventable diseases, presenting first-person narratives about children who had contracted VPDs, giving visuals of those risks. After being presented with one of these four strategies, parents were surveyed about how much more likely they were to choose an MMR for their children. The information used came from the CDC, although the source of the information was not given to the parents surveyed. The parents participating in this study came to the study with a wide variety of beliefs about vaccines, and almost none of them left with their beliefs being changed.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In short, the Pediatrics study found, in summary, that:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Showing ardently anti-vaccine parents proof that vaccines don’t cause autism only made them less likely to vaccinate.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Explaining the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases does not increase the chances that parents would agree to the MMR in the future.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Showing parents visuals about disease risk or giving them stories about children suffering from vaccine-preventable diseases did not make them more likely to vaccinate their children.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those findings seem pretty damning for the pro-vaccine message, but I think we should take heart. There is so much this study didn’t cover, and so much we can do that would work. Here are my thoughts on the findings:<br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />1. Anti-vaccine parents have a broad range of concerns about vaccines beyond the vaccine-autism myth. Hitting one discussion point only irritates their sense of “they don’t get us.” The study might also fail to nudge ardently anti-vaccine parents because there is no human component, and the targeted parents have no opportunity to feel that someone took the time to genuinely hear out their concerns and address them in a personalized way.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Emphasizing risks often feels to parents like “fear-mongering,” and parents who refuse vaccines might feel that they are able to continue refusing vaccines since they live in communities with high vaccination rates where the risk of their child actually contracting a vaccine-preventable disease is low. Just the other day on our </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/VoicesForVaccines/posts/10152005270350698?stream_ref=10" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Voices for Vaccines Facebook page</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, one mother commented, “I do not vaccinate, but would definitely consider it if traveling overseas.” Anti-vaccine parents believe that their risk for contracting diseases is greater where those diseases are endemic, and trying to convince them that their children are at risk for complications from diseases they are unlikely to catch at home is problematic. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conversely, anti-vaccine parents are likely to disbelieve in herd immunity. As </span><a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/growing-up-unvaccinated/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amy Parker’s mother once did</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, anti-vaccine parents often rely on organic foods and healthy living to protect their children from diseases that are often airborne and highly contagious. Those of us providing the cover of herd immunity to their children only make it easier for them to continue to delude themselves into believing that their lifestyle is the deciding factor. And because allowing children to become ill to prove our point is wrong in every sense of the word, it’s simply unlikely that anti-vaccine parents will change their minds due to fear of risk from disease. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In reality, what these anti-vaccine parents are doing is increasing the risk that these diseases will come back and that someone will suffer from a serious complication. The parent who already vaccinates does so not only out of concern about serious complications, but also because they want to prevent illness in their children. </span><a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/08/22/peds.2012-0140.full.pdf%20html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But only ardent pro-vaccine parents are typically also passionate about the power of protecting her whole community</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. However, maybe we can use pride in protecting the community not as a way to motivate parents to vaccinate but to motivate vaccinating parents to take pride in their actions and speak up about them.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Images and stories about children in peril because of disease only makes parents look for other dangers. I call this the “Law and Order: SVU” effect, named so because after I have watched episodes of this show where children were in peril, I tend to see dangers for my children everywhere--beyond the scope of the subject of the episode. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The researchers call this the “danger-priming effect.” Priming parents for danger doesn’t make them more likely to take the solution you are offering, according to this theory. It makes them more likely to look for dangers everywhere, including in that syringe you are holding out to them.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. This study was limited in what it could reasonably do to ease fears about immunization because it was online and impersonal. There’s simply no way to quantify all of those conversations that occur on the playground among parents or around the Thanksgiving table or even between friends on Facebook. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parent-to-parent communication is entirely different than the communication in this study.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Think about what we know about ardently anti-vaccine parents: They are more likely to </span><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/10/vaccine-denial-conspiracy-theories-gmos-climate" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">believe conspiracy theories</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and thus less likely to believe officially sanctioned scientific evidence. They are more likely to have a </span><a href="http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/15/how-social-networks-influence-a-parents-decision-to-vaccinate/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">social network guiding them toward vaccine refusal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and providing them positive social reinforcement for their decisions. The cold, impersonal online survey has no chance for success in the mind of a parent whose decisions are socially reinforced and are based on a distrust of official stances.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what can we, as pro-vaccine lay-advocates, do? Are we likely to make parents </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">less</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> likely to vaccinate through our advocacy? </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not believe so. In fact, I think lay-advocates--everyday parents and citizens--are key. Recent research shows </span><a href="http://www.culturalcognition.net/blog/2014/2/3/want-to-know-what-empirically-informed-vaccine-risk-communic.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that normalizing immunization works</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. So let’s do that. Let’s let people know that we happily vaccinate our children because we understand the science behind it is clear and because we value our children’s health. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And vaccinating is normal. Well over 90% of parents vaccinate on-time. If anti-vaccine parents feel that their position is being reinforced by their social network, then we as parents are not doing our job to protect our children and their friends. If every parent with fully vaccinated children simply stated that their children were vaccinated on-time, there would be a groundswell. The voices of these parents would drown out the fear-mongering and lies of the anti-vaccine movement, and concerned parents would feel more confident to join our ranks.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In other words--speak up. It just might work.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-25863058721841480692014-01-20T16:27:00.002-06:002014-01-21T13:20:32.386-06:00Informed Consent and Vaccines<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Dorit Reiss</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The process of informed
consent is more regulated for vaccines than for most medical treatments or
drugs. Still,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4403374015204970152" name="_GoBack"></a> anti-vaccine activists often use “informed
consent” as part of their general attack on vaccines. Parents, they say, are
not given appropriate information about vaccines and their risks, so they
cannot make an informed decision about them. That claim is incorrect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When I teach my students
about informed consent and vaccines, I use the Vaccine Information Sheet (VIS) -
the basis of informed consent in this area – as a model, because it is a
reasonably good form. To understand why, you need to first understand what
informed consent means, and how it works in the context of vaccines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Basics of Informed Consent<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Informed consent has two
parts: the patient has to consent, or agree, to a treatment, and the consent
has to be made after the patient has been given sufficient relevant
information. Our system values patient autonomy very, very highly. With a few
narrow exceptions (court order, emergency, lack of capacity to consent), a
doctor may not provide treatment to a non-consenting patient. Even if the lack
of treatment will kill that patient. An adult in sound mind has the right to
choose death over treatment. A doctor providing treatment without consent may
be liable for a battery (see <i style="line-height: 200%;"><a href="http://wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/research/bioethics/schloen0.html" target="_blank">Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital</a></i><span style="line-height: 200%;">, 211 N.Y. 125, 105 N.E. 92 (1914).) However well-intentioned the doctor, she may not give treatment without consent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For a child, the consent
of the child’s legal guardian -
usually the parent – substitutes for the child’s consent. There are some exceptions
to that – doctors may treat children in an emergency when no parent is around;
a state may mandate treatment over a parent’s opposition, through legislation
or court order, in some circumstances; and most states allow adolescents to
consent to certain treatment without parental permission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Informed
consent cases are different. In those cases, the patient actually consented to
the procedure. The claim, however, is that that consent was flawed, because the
patient did not have complete information. It is a claim that the doctor was
negligent in providing the information necessary for the patient to fully
understand the situation and make an informed decision (<i>Natanson v. Kline</i>, <span style="color: #343434; line-height: 200%;">350
P.2d 1093 (1960))</span>. To evaluate
informed consent, courts use one of two approaches. Some courts compare the
information provided to the patient to the information a doctor in good
standing would provide—what is customary in the profession to give. This is
referred to as the <i>professional standard</i>,
or the <i>physician standard.</i> It
requires expert testimony on the standard in the profession.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Other
courts ask the jury to compare the information given to the patient to what a
reasonable patient in the plaintiff’s shoes would consider important. This is
referred to as the <i>patient standard</i>
or the <i>material risk standard.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If
a patient underwent a treatment without informed consent, a doctor may be
liable for harms arising from that treatment – even if the treatment was
performed properly, even if there was no medical malpractice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Informed Consent and Vaccines<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What would a person need
to know to give informed consent to a vaccine under this rubric (or what would
a parent need to know to give informed consent to vaccinate a child, which is
the more common situation)? A parent would need to know “the nature of the
treatment” – that the child is getting a vaccine, whether it’s injected or
oral; the “risks and benefits” of the treatment – the benefits of the vaccine,
in other words, the risks from the disease we vaccinate against; the risks of
the vaccine – potential side effects; and alternatives, which do not really exist for vaccines.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 1986 Congress passed
the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The act did a number of things, but
the important part for our purposes is that it required the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“develop
and disseminate vaccine information materials for distribution by health care
providers to the legal representatives of any child or to any other individual
receiving a vaccine set forth in the Vaccine Injury Table. Such materials shall
be published in the Federal Register and may be revised.” (§300aa-26). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
materials developed require – for their initial preparation and any revision –
a 60-day notice and comment process with the public, and consultation with “the
Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, appropriate health care providers
and parent organizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
the Food and Drug Administration.”(id – see <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-26">http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300aa-26</a>).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today,
any health care provider administering a vaccine is legally required to provide
these materials to the individual – or a guardian, in the case of a child – <b>before </b>giving the vaccine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These
materials – referred to as the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/index.html" target="_blank">Vaccine Information Sheets – can also be found on the CDC’s website</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Examining
one selected at random – the<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/dtap.pdf" target="_blank"> DTaP Vaccine Information Sheet</a> - the VIS opens with “Why get Vaccinated” - including a description of the
diseases, who should or should not get the vaccine, and the potential risks
from the vaccine. It also provides instructions of what to do if, after the vaccine
is administered, a reaction develops,which include calling your doctor or going
to an emergency room, reporting the reaction to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System, and information about the compensation mechanism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
short, a parent reading through the Vaccine Information Sheet should get a good
sense of why the vaccine is given, what are its benefits and risks, and
additional information, such as what to do if there’s a problem. This seems to
cover the requirements of informed consent. The hope is that the recipient of
the VIS will read it before the vaccination. Of course, all doctors can do is
provide the information. It is the responsibility of the patient or her legal
guardian to read it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anti-vaccine Claims and Responses<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anti vaccine activists
like to claim that no informed consent is given before vaccinating. As
explained above, these claims are incorrect. These individuals base their
claims on three arguments, none of which is valid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First, they suggest
parents should be given the vaccine insert as part of the consent process.
Second, they claim parents are not told that vaccines can cause a range of side effects (side effects that have not
been scientifically documented and, in the case of some, have been disproven)
such as SIDS or autism. Finally, they criticize the fact that parents are often
not informed of the ingredients before being the vaccine is administered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I will take these
objections one at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not giving the insert:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The insert – of a vaccine
or a drug – is not a good document to base informed consent on. The insert is a
legal document, heavily regulated by the FDA. It has substantial useful
information, but can also mislead the patient (see: <a href="http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/vaccine-package-inserts-debunking-myths/">http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/vaccine-package-inserts-debunking-myths/</a>
for a detailed discussion of inserts). In relation to informed consent, at
least two problems make inserts inappropriate: they do not explain the benefits
of the procedure; and they must legally list any problem that occurred after
the product was put on the market, <b><i>whether or not causally related to the
vaccine</i></b>. The combination of not mentioning the benefits and mentioning
unrelated bad outcomes can make the vaccine look much worse than the reality –
substantial benefits and low risk – and misinform parents. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not mentioning “side effects” like autism and SIDS<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However much anti-vaccine
activists would like to believe otherwise, <a href="http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/faq/vaccinestudies.pdf" target="_blank">extensive scientific studies have
examined whether vaccines cause autism</a><a href="http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/faq/vaccinestudies.pdf" target="_blank"> or SIDS</a>– and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17400342" target="_blank">no connection was found</a>. That is why these
risks are not mentioned on the Vaccine Information Sheet. Mentioning risks that
are not supported by evidence is not promoting informed consent: it’s
undermining it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not Providing Parents with a List of Ingredients<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A list of ingredients is
not part of informed consent requirements for any drug. If a patient has a
known allergy to an ingredient, or a potential allergy, they should, of course,
be notified of the presence of that ingredient. But otherwise, a list of
ingredients alone – in the abstract – does not promote the patient’s
understanding of the risks or benefits of a procedure, and does not advance the
patient’s ability to decide if the procedure’s benefits outweigh the risks. It
is therefore not a proper part of the informed consent discussion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The informed consent
process for vaccines is carefully regulated and thought through. A serious
effort is made to provide patients with the information they need in a short,
accessible format. As long as the healthcare provider performs the legal duty of
providing the Vaccine Information Sheet before vaccinating, the patient – or
parent – has before them the information necessary to make an informed
decision. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Certain parents, because
of language problems or other problems, may need more help, and should receive
it; but that is true of any informed consent process. It does not mean the process itself is in any way flawed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Author's Note: I'm grateful to Nathan Boonstra, Ashley Shelby, and Alice Warning Wasney for their corrections to previous drafts.</i></b></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dorit Reiss is a professor of law at the University of California. She has published writings on administrative law, and recently wrote "Compensating the Victims of Failure to Vaccine: What are the Options" Dorit is a member of <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/" target="_blank">Voices for Vaccines</a>' Parent Advisory Board.</span></b></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-77069224454094721962014-01-03T18:24:00.000-06:002014-01-06T22:16:18.899-06:00How Anti-Vaxxers will Help the Pro-Vax Movement in 2014For anti-science movements, such as the anti-vaccine movement, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/10/vaccine-denial-conspiracy-theories-gmos-climate" target="_blank">conspiracy theories</a> are lifeblood. In fact, many of these movements would not survive if it were not for their <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/06/robert_f_kennedy_jr_vaccine_conspiracy_theory_scientists_and_journalists.html" target="_blank">unique kind of science fiction</a> so <a href="http://www.conspiracy.itgo.com/custom.html" target="_blank">implausible it would make Philip K. Dick blush</a>. The anti-vaccine movement survives on several of these conspiracy theories, most of them so far-fetched that the majority of reasonably intelligent parents who read about them can dismiss them out of hand.<br />
<br />
For example, we have the worldwide conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies, every government on the face of the earth, the global medical community, all medical schools, medical journals and other medical organizations, every state public health department, the Centers for Disease Control, the FDA, the Gates Foundation---and I'm out of breath. That conspiracy claims that vaccines are dangerous, but this aforementioned cabal somehow organized in the shadows, away from the prying eyes of the public and a scandal-hungry media, to whitewash the dangers of vaccines and act as if they are live-saving interventions. As someone who volunteers for a non-profit, I can tell you that it takes my partner weeks to schedule a simple phone call between the five members of our Scientific Advisory Board. Chances are, a conspiracy this vast--the largest conspiracy in the history of humanity, by the way--is the stuff of science fiction. But, as I said earlier, most science fiction writers would realize that no reasonable reader of fiction could suspend disbelief long enough to buy into such an idea.<br />
<br />
Anti-vaxxers, on the other hand, do nothing but suspend disbelief. Anti-vax organization, National Vaccine Information Center (which tries to trick parents by naming itself in a way that makes it seem objective), has been trying to convince visitors to its Facebook page that Voices for Vaccines is a "pharmaceutical front group" because Paul Offit is on the Scientific Advisory Board. I'd like to know how that actually works. Dr. Offit receives no royalty from his rotavirus vaccine (which, incidentally, has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, particularly in the developing world). He is, in fact, a vaccine pioneer. Naturally, we'd like someone with that level of knowledge about vaccines and vaccine-preventable disease to look over our posts before we publish them, unlike National Vaccine Information Center, which relies on people who have no medical or science backgrounds, to write their propaganda. We choose to include the most knowledgable people in the world of infectious disease because we care about, you know, truth and science. And they come to Voices for Vaccines as volunteers, receiving no pay for their advice and bringing absolutely no pharmaceutical money to the endeavor. We are a small organization, led by parents and sustained entirely by small donations from our members.<br />
<br />
I can state unequivocally that <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/" target="_blank">Voices for Vaccines</a> has never taken money from a pharmaceutical company. Ever. Now, by not taking pharmaceutical money, we are not suggesting that organizations that do are somehow in those companies' pockets. They are not. However, we chose not to muddy the waters, because that would only give an AVers an opportunity to create doubt. But magic realism is immune to facts. If they don't like the facts, they make up their own. As they've done with Voices for Vaccines--<a href="https://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center/posts/10152117356037931" target="_blank">an organization that terrifies them</a> to such a degree that they and Age of Autism are beginning to publicly writhe and froth, even a<a href="http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/08/karen-ernst-voices-for-vaccine-is-front-operation-4-cdc-pa.html" target="_blank">ttacking pro-vaccine parents</a>. (Reading the <a href="http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/08/karen-ernst-voices-for-vaccine-is-front-operation-4-cdc-pa.html" target="_blank">Age of Autism post </a>should offer a reasonably objective reader a peek into the paranoia-soaked brain of the most strident anti-vaxxers). I am confident that once the mainstream media notices these ad hominem attacks, the negative publicity that results from news coverage will scare new parents away from the anti-vaccine camp. After all, if they are willing to publicly attack ordinary parents like Karen Ernst for simply choosing to speak up for a public health intervention, how reasoned and reliable can their information--and their leaders--be?<br />
<br />
I've publicly challenged NVIC and Age of Autism to produce proof of pharmaceutical payments to our grassroots, volunteer, parent-led organization. It has yet to do so.<br />
<br />
Another conspiracy is that doctors are always "pushing" vaccines on new parents because they are getting the big bucks from pharmaceutical companies. I think most of us know where the big bucks are when it comes to pharmaceuticals--after all, we're bombarded by ads for these products during NFL Sunday and reruns of The Bourne Identity. Erectile dysfunction drugs, drugs for conditions seen in later middle age, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and drugs for mental health issues. I have yet to see a commercial from a pharmaceutical company for a childhood vaccine. The reality is that vaccine companies don't make much money from vaccines. And "Big Pharma's" largesse doesn't extend to secret under-the-table payments to your local pediatricians. Suggesting otherwise will immediately make a reasonable parent suspicious of the organization or person making such a suggestion. Especially when their pediatricians are rolling in to the clinic in their Honda Civic.<br />
<br />
But here's why I know that pro-vaccine advocates are going to have a great 2014, and why the anti-vaccine movement is in a state of disarray. Not only is there <a href="http://www.autisminvestigated.com/age-of-autism-deletes-video/" target="_blank">a great deal of infighting</a> among the more <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2013/02/08/get-out-the-popcorn-this-internecine-war-among-antivaccinationists-is-getting-interesting/" target="_blank">visible members of the anti-vaccine movements</a>, it also has suffered some staggering defeats, especially in the latter part of 2013. For example, the vaccine hearings that were going to be headed by Darrell Issa, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2013/09/18/the-antivaccine-movement-tries-to-buy-political-influence/" target="_blank">who has enjoyed nearly $40,000 in donations from the anti-vaccine Canary Party</a>, were called off after<a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=548939588478402&id=183383325034032" target="_blank"> Issa and his staff</a> were bombarded with calls from concerned constituents. Another example was what happened when Katie Couric <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/12/04/katie_couric_and_the_hpv_vaccine_the_journalist_throws_in_with_the_anti.html" target="_blank">sacrificed her journalistic integrity for ratings</a> on her fast-sinking talk show (which was canceled a couple weeks later) by doing <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/katie-couric-hpv-vaccine-show-criticism-valid/" target="_blank">a sensationalistic segment </a>on the HPV vaccine. The outcry was nearly universal; media outlets that had once given anti-vaccine activists equal time in stories about vaccines criticized Couric and her producers; and even Couric distanced herself from the show.<br />
<br />
The anti-vaccine movement knows its in trouble, and that's why it has been pushing its conspiracy theories even harder now. Not so long ago, it could act as if it were a legitimate movement questioning the drug safety. But the media, and, increasingly, parents, have caught on. The fatal flaw in their bet on the success of conspiracy theories is that the more detailed their theories, the more strident they sound in promoting them, the crazier they sound. It becomes less and less likely that a concerned parent will buy into the theories. When they engage in activities, such as <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/01/02/antivaccinationists-abuse-reporting-algorithms-to-silence-pro-vaccine-skeptics-on-facebook/#.UsWrvTAN8IM.twitter" target="_blank">actively working to ban Facebook users who comment on vaccine stories</a>, they come across <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2013/07/25/crosbys-labyrinth-or-why-i-couldnt-stop-myself-from-replying-to-the-vaccine-conspiracy-theorist-to-end-all-conspiracy-theorists/" target="_blank">as defensive and nutty</a>. Parents see that pro-vaxxers do not work this way. You will not see a pro-vaccine Facebook page "ban" a user who spouts anti-vaccine rhetoric. Why? Because the more these people talk, the more damage they do to their cause--and, crucially, the more opportunities they offer pro-vax voices to correct their misinformation with facts and science, giving parents questioning vaccines on the page a chance to weigh both sides.<br />
<br />
Here's what you will not find coming out of the pro-vaccine movement: Conspiracy theories. Attempts to censor conversations about vaccines (this would work against us, because we welcome vaccine-hesitant parents into the fold; we want to answer questions, not shut them down). Personal attacks. Baseless accusations, such as Karen and I field on a regular basis, that we are "in the pocket of Big Pharma."<br />
<br />
Parents notice this. And this is why the anti-vaccine movement is going to continue to lose relevance and visibility. So when a group of anti-vaxxers have decided to build a brand-new conspiracy theory that Voices for Vaccines' parent-contributor Amy Parker, a mother from northwest England <a href="http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/growing-up-unvaccinated/" target="_blank">who wrote about her experience growing up unvaccinated</a>, is actually a CDC mole because a woman with the same name collaborated with Paul Offit on something, it will do far more harm to their cause than it will to ours. In order for this idea to gain traction with a parent, she would have to suspend disbelief enough to believe that Karen and I know this Amy Parker at CDC (whom I've never heard of), convinced her to write this false first-person account of growing up in an idyllic Lake District community in northwest England, tweak the language enough to make it sound like it's written by someone born and raised in England, then steal a picture of some unsuspecting mom off the internet to go with the story--and then, after all that subterfuge, use the CDC mole's real name.<br />
<br />
Logic and reason have never been the strongest aspects of the anti-vaccine movement, and parents are catching on. UPDATE: We are now fielding e-mails from people telling us that anti-vaxxers have told them Amy Parker "does not exist." Keep it coming, please.<br />
<br />
My fervent hope for the anti-vaccine movement in 2014 is that it will keep the conspiracy theories coming. That it will continue attacking parents who are pro-vaccine. Keep working on that picaresque that has everyone who vaccinates his or her child and then chooses to speak out about it being the "Pharma Shill." Fan the flame that keeps that vast, worldwide conspiracy of silence about "the dangers of vaccines." Keep it coming, because it's swelling the pro-vaccine ranks every day.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Author's Note: I want to make clear that the criticism of the anti-vaccine movement in this piece deals with anti-vaccine activists, not the more "casual" non-vaccinating parents whose decision not to immunize their children is made out of concern, fear, and misunderstanding. I get it. I was almost one myself.</i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-50106950833378964032013-12-13T08:40:00.000-06:002014-04-21T20:30:13.753-05:00Mandatory Flu Vaccination: In My House It's the Law<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today marks the last day of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/nivw/index.htm" target="_blank">National Influenza Vaccination Week</a>, and in keeping with my standard M.O., I've waited until the very last minute to talk about the influenza vaccine. (Luckily, this didn't extend to the vaccine--my kids were vaccinated in August and I got mine in early November).</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ83aKDX39zzCDyWR4Ytc9KiiQhn3eulxFvlH2mgUj7fSxbRlawufNnR3GLlIBIH_z2MSijeXPI9h0RYQOmKzD3WSuGPlCY4G6WB57PE9N0NeehCslIUYHzxN3An3kPMnpWvam0-vQT9M/s1600/CDC+Flu+Vaccination+Digital+Ambassador+Badge+FINAL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ83aKDX39zzCDyWR4Ytc9KiiQhn3eulxFvlH2mgUj7fSxbRlawufNnR3GLlIBIH_z2MSijeXPI9h0RYQOmKzD3WSuGPlCY4G6WB57PE9N0NeehCslIUYHzxN3An3kPMnpWvam0-vQT9M/s1600/CDC+Flu+Vaccination+Digital+Ambassador+Badge+FINAL.jpg" height="140" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Over at <a href="http://shotofprevention.com/2013/12/12/kick-the-flu-out-of-school/" target="_blank">Shot of Prevention</a>, Voices for Vaccines Parent Advisory Board member and leader of Nurses Who Vax, Melody Butler reminded readers what, exactly, is at stake when it comes to children and the flu. Last year, 169 children died from flu. "To put that number in perspective," Melody wrote, "that's more than six kindergarten classes." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Opponents of vaccination would quickly point out that those deaths likely represent children who had an underlying condition or were immune-deficient, that most healthy children can fight the flu. The brutality--and the astounding ignorance--of such a statement is likely self-evident, but let's unpack it anyway.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First, those children with underlying conditions or who were immunocompromised are the very reason we should vaccinate our healthy children. By cocooning these kids who are battling illnesses, like cancer, we can reduce the chances that they will contract the flu, which, for them, can be extremely serious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Second, opponents of vaccination are caught in a double-bind--they aim to convince as many people as possible not to vaccinate their children, yet the health of their own unvaccinated children is utterly dependent on high vaccination rates. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But what about the canard that the flu vaccine doesn't work? Is it perfect? Of course not. The nature of the flu itself makes a universal vaccine an exceptionally complex proposition (though it may be on the way). But if you could reduce your child's chances of suffering--and believe me, dealing with influenza comes with a great deal of suffering, whether you're a child or an adult--by any percentage point, even one, wouldn't you do so? Apparently, in some circles, the answer is no. And I find that hard to wrap my mind around. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So here's my yearly plea: whether flu vaccine reduces your child's chance of getting the flu by 60% or 6%, it's worth the trip to the pediatrician's office, the local big box minute clinic, the local pharmacy, etc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And a last note: in my house, vaccinations are mandatory--and my kids are getting old enough now to understand why. Yes, they don't want to get sick, but what fills me with pride is that they care even more about keeping their friends and family healthy as well. They understand how vaccines function in this regard. They are not old enough to fully understand why parents might not vaccinate their children (frankly, I'm not either), but they have been told that these unvaccinated children are in need of protection as well, that these peers of theirs are, in a sense, immunocompromised themselves. Choosing vaccination because you care about your own health, as well as the health of the community, is a lesson in compassion and community all children should learn. </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-19635667743384826042013-12-04T21:14:00.000-06:002013-12-05T16:05:53.418-06:00In the Media, A Bad Day for Vaccines<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">By Karen Ernst</span></i></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I write this at the end of a bad day in the media for vaccines. It’s
not that there was bad news about vaccines; it’s that the good news was ignored
in lieu of anti-vaccine misinformation. The most disappointing of these media
stories occurred on Katie Couric’s daytime talk show, Katie.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For weeks, the Canary Party (a group of anti-vaxxers who have
actually formed a political party based on being anti-vaccine) have been
shopping around an anti-HPV vaccine video on <a href="http://www.autisminvestigated.com/nvicp-hearing-cancelled/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">the heels of the cancellation of Congressional Oversight
Committee hearing they had so hoped for</span></a>. Katie Couric and her
producers, in a cynical attempt to buoy her dismal ratings, bit.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To say I am disappointed in Couric would be an understatement. <a href="http://www.monahancenter.org/about/index.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Since
losing her husband to colon cancer 15 years ago</span></a>, Couric has
championed cancer prevention through colonoscopies. That she would allow a
ratings ploy to trump journalistic integrity on the subject of a vaccine that
prevents tens of thousands of HPV-related cancers each year in the U. S.
boggles the mind.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The segment began with Canary Party Executive Committee member
Emily Tarsell describing the death of her daughter, Christina, eighteen days
after she received the Gardasil vaccine. Truly, nothing is as traumatic and
devastating as losing a child in the prime of her life. The need for answers is
more than understandable, it is necessary; and I can even understand parents
seeking answers in and holding fast to a theory that makes sense to them, even
if the theory doesn’t hold up scientifically. I want to be absolutely clear
that I do not blame those parents for this. Instead, I blame the anti-vaccine
movement for exploiting their stories in order to support their own
wrong-headed ideas about immunization.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But because she brought her daughter’s story to a large, public
forum, it is fair to investigate it to see if Emily Tarsell’s account holds up
to scrutiny. Many facts surrounding Christina’s death are unavailable because
Emily Tarsell is seeking compensation from the National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program. However, <a href="http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions/MORAN.TARSELL033012.pdf"><span style="color: #1155cc;">this court order from the NVICP judge</span></a> indicates
that the story does not support the theory that Christina died from an
HPV-vaccine reaction. In it, the judge notes that despite Emily’s recall of her
daughter’s unusual fatigue, “there is no evidence suggesting that Christina was
so tired (or fatigued) that her health affected her daily activities. For
example, none of [those] who observed Christina while she was in Maryland . . .
asserts that she changed plans due to tiredness.”</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In fact, the findings note that Christina seemed anything but fatigued:
“While in New York, Christina worked her part-time job for 18.75 hours. On
Thursday, June 17, 2008, Christina stayed up until midnight or 1:00 A.M. having
dinner with her apartment mates. Her apartment mates did not tell the
police officers investigating Christina’s death that she appeared unusually
tired. Her apartment mate’s recollections suggest that, to their
knowledge, Christina was normal.” In this document, there is also evidence that
Christina may have suffered from a preexisting heart condition, but there was
never a definitive cause of death.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next up on Katie, Couric handed the floor over to Dr. Diane
Harper, who made a number of spurious claims about HPV vaccines. The first
claim was that HPV vaccines only offer protection for five years. Initial
studies, however, do not support Dr. Harper’s claim, some showing that an HPV
vaccine can offer protection <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386653211005166"><span style="color: #1155cc;">for at least 8.5 years</span></a>. And we may find that
the vaccine offers protection for much longer as more evidence rolls in. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dr. Harper also asserted that pap smears are sufficient in
detecting pre-cancerous cells which, she claimed, are 100% curable. However,
between 2004 and 2008, <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6115a2.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">26,000 HPV-related cancers were diagnosed each year in
the United States</span></a>. 11,500 of these cancers were cerivcal cancers. In
2010, <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/statistics/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">nearly 12,000 women died from cervical cancer</span></a>.
Despite Dr. Harper’s optimistic view of cervical cancer screening, it is far
from perfect, and it would be vastly better to prevent infection than to try to
cure the results of it. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dr. Harper’s subsequent instructions that parents weigh the
benefits and the risks of the vaccine is only sage advice if parents are
receiving accurate information about the benefits and risks. The benefits, of
course, are preventing cancer and death. The risks, as Couric presented them,
were completely out-of-whack. <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5906"><span style="color: #1155cc;">A study of nearly one million girls who had received HPV
vaccines found no significant health risks involved</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And it only got worse. After talking to Dr. Harper, Couric
provided air time to yet another anti-vaccine leader--this time SaneVax
director Rosemary Mathis. SaneVax has a history of promoting misinformation and
<a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/beware-hpv-dna-in-gardasil/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">particularly horrible science</span></a>. Inviting Mathis
as a guest on a show about vaccination is the equivalent of inviting my
kindergarten-age son as an expert on Tokyo because of his interest in Godzilla.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But it couldn’t all be a big commercial for anti-vaccine
propaganda could it? There must be hope because this is Katie Couric,
right? As somewhat of a reprieve, Dr. Mallika Marshall provided some wonderful
and accurate information about HPV and its vaccine. And she was brilliant. She
was followed by a mother-daughter pair who endorsed the HPV vaccine. <br />
<br />
The segment ended with Dr. Harper encouraging parents to get their daughters
gift certificates for pap smears for their 21st birthday and Dr. Marshall
encouraging parents to vaccinate.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Couric may have considered this balanced coverage since she
presented two sides about this vaccine. But you probably know that I’m not
going to let her off the hook that easily.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 1998, Andrew Wakefield hoodwinked journalists into reporting on
a shiny new theory about vaccines causing autism. As you might remember, <a href="http://briandeer.com/solved/bmj-wakefield-1-1.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc;">it was all a grand fraud</span></a> from which <a href="http://www.texasobserver.org/autism-inc-the-discredited-science-shady-treatments-and-rising-profits-behind-alternative-autism-treatments/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Wakefield continues to profit</span></a>. And the
media helped him, even after studies were rolling in discrediting the theory
that vaccines cause autism, <a href="http://www.cjr.org/feature/sticking_with_the_truth.php?page=all"><span style="color: #1155cc;">the media continued to structure their news stories to
create balance</span></a>. On one side, a family that claimed their
children became autistic because of vaccines. On the other side, people in lab
coats saying this just could not be the case. The anecdote too often trumped
the evidence, as often happens in cases of false balance. CJR’s Curtis Brainard
discussed how <a href="http://www.cjr.org/feature/sticking_with_the_truth.php?page=all"><span style="color: #1155cc;">these “subtly bad” media reports perpetuate myths about
vaccines</span></a>. These myths threaten us all.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Katie Couric’s television show threatened the lives of young girls
and boys. Because their parents are being frightened away from a safe and
important vaccine, there will be men and women in the future who will die from
HPV-related cancers, and who could pass HPV on to unwitting partners. Today,
Katie Couric gave the anti-vaccine movement a huge forum, and I am already
mourning the lives that will be affected because of it.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><o:p></o:p></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-74303931446473872352013-12-04T08:48:00.001-06:002013-12-04T11:21:51.806-06:00The Costs of the Fight Against the HPV Vaccine<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By Dorit Reiss</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This
post stems from <a href="http://katiecouric.com/2013/12/04/the-hpv-vaccine-controversy-rosie-perez/" target="_blank">an HPV thread on the Katie Couric show</a>.
When I joined it, was a series of heart-rending stories by parents about the
harms they believe the HPV vaccines caused to their daughters. <span style="line-height: 200%;">There’s
not a lot you can say to stories like these that will not sound heartless and
cruel. But, after reading some, I felt that I had to try and speak up. This
decision resulted in me spending several hours a day, from the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving and through the weekend, commenting and, especially, responding to
comments.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
thread on the Katie website is still going strong. I concluded that rather than
engaging further I should write a more systematic explanation of why we need to
speak up and respond to the claims of harm made against this vaccine, however
painful it might be to the parents commenting to hear someone say there is no
evidence that the vaccine caused their daughters’ illnesses, and however
unpleasant the discussion becomes. Because as real as the pain of these parents
and daughters is, without objective evidence of causation, their belief that this
vaccine is to blame does not justify rejecting it in the face of substantial
scientific evidence supporting its safety. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let’s
start with the basics. The HPV vaccines prevent infection with several strains
of a virus that, at worst, can cause cancer. The virus is responsible for nearly
all the cervical cancers in the United States and for “<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">90% of
anal cancers, 40% of vulvar, vaginal, or penile cancers, and 12% of oral and
pharyngeal cancers.</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Garamond;">”</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> (<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/hpv.pdf" target="_blank">all data is available here</a>.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Most HPV infections clear up on
their own. Infections can be detected and cancer <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/hpv.pdf" target="_blank">prevented early with regular pap smears</a></span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. But <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/statistics/" target="_blank">HPVis still responsible</a> for <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/statistics/cases.htm" target="_blank">tens of thousands of cancers</a></span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/statistics/cases.htm" target="_blank"> a year</a> and over <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/statistics/" target="_blank">three thousand deaths a year</a> in the United States alone</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">.
Preventing those cancers and deaths seems like a good, important goal. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list-ins: "Ashley Shelby" 20131202T2219; mso-list: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
vaccines were<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/hpv.pdf" target="_blank"> tested in clinical trials</a> with over 30,000 women for over 7 years
and found to have high rates of effectiveness and no serious problems</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. They
cover strains responsible for a large percentage of those cancers. <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2032" target="_blank">It</a> has
already<a href="http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/06/18/infdis.jit192.abstract" target="_blank"> reduced infections</a></span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. You can find more in depth discussion
of the HPV vaccines in a <a href="http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/vaccines-saves-lives-scientific-evidence-part-2" target="_blank">series of excellent posts</a> by the Skeptical Raptor.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Why oppose something that can do so
much good? Well, part of the opposition stems from religious objections having
to do with <a href="http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/religion-gardasil" target="_blank">a perceived connection between the vaccine and sex</a>.
But that was not what this battle was about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Shortly after the vaccine came
out, several parents of girls who suffered medical conditions or died claimed
that the causes of their deaths or harm was the vaccine. The stories are both
scary and heartrending. And as these stories became public, more parents heard
them and started associating their daughters</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Garamond;">’</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> illnesses with the vaccine. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">I do not doubt the real suffering
and distress of these families. My heart goes out to them. How can one not
sympathize with a parent grieving because a 17-year-old girl is dead, or a
teenager in constant pain? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">But feeling for hurting girls, and hurting families,
does not mean that one uncritically accepts claims that the vaccine was the
cause of their suffering. In fact, the causation claims behind these stories
are often extremely problematic. Sometimes, even the temporal connection is
weak (e.g. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/11/18/anti-vaccine-propaganda-lands-in-new-yor/" target="_blank">Gabi Swank developing symptoms weeks after the vaccine</a></span><span style="line-height: 200%;">). The
problem is that bad things happen to teenage girls regardless of the vaccine.
They can suffer a variety of medical conditions, and sometimes, healthy teens
do die. The question in each case like this is:<span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:Dorit%20Reiss" datetime="2013-12-02T20:38"> do
we have evidence that the vaccine caused the harm</ins></span>? And the answer in
these cases is often no. These stories generally do not have medical evidence
supporting the connection between the vaccine and the alleged harm. <span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:Dorit%20Reiss" datetime="2013-12-02T20:39">Nor
do they suggest a plausible biological mechanism by which the vaccine could
cause the harm.</ins></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Is there anything supporting them
besides the parents</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family: Garamond;">’</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> belief
in the harm? Well, a small number of studies looking at a tiny number of cases
and conducted by anti-vaccine scientists supported the claims. Each of them
when analyzed by scientists was found incredibly flawed. For example, this
study by two anti-vaccine activists,<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/10/31/and-now-death-by-gardasil-again-not-so-fast/" target="_blank"> looking at the deaths of two girls</a></span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. This
study, by a doctor,<a href="http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/religion-gardasil/" target="_blank"> looking at one single case</a>, i<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/10/30/ovarian-failure-caused-by-gardasil-not-so-fast/" target="_blank">gnoring other possible causes</a>
of the harm to the girl in question. </span>Another study was
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/chillin-out-vaxin-relaxin-all-cool/hpv-and-pov-from-my-pov/559319410798654" target="_blank">addressed here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In contrast, not only did the clinical trials –
ongoing since at least 2001, covering tens of thousands of participants – not
find serious risks, but two large studies addressing the question found none: <span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23027469" target="_blank">A Kaiser study</a> with almost 190,000 young women given
350,000 doses of the vaccine</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> that compared harms in vaccinated women to the
general rates in the population found no difference; and a<a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5906" target="_blank"> Swedish study with hundreds of thousands young women comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated</a> found
similar rates. </span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> Over forty million doses of the vaccine have been
administered in the United States alone with no clear evidence of problems. Scientists’
best assessment is that the only side effect consistently connected with the
vaccine is fainting on the day the vaccine is administered, and local
reactions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">This
evidence paints a picture of a very safe vaccine. But the only way to make that
point is to point out the weak evidence for the parents’ claims that the
vaccine caused harm. This is bound to offend those parents: their belief in the
evils of the vaccine is very strong, and they are may have difficulty
considering that they may be wrong. In fact, they have been told in no
uncertain terms that they are right. In the thread itself, they received
support from anti-vaccine activists who rallied to their support, using the
tried and true tactic of personal attacks on anyone speaking in support of the
vaccine, accusing them of being heartless, shills, trolls, ignorant, Hitler,
and so forth. I’m mentioning this as fair warning to parents who may want to
jump in: this discussion is often conducted with high levels of vitriol (it’s
even worse than French Revolution discussions; and people could be very
passionate about the French Revolution). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Most
pro-vaccine people do not enjoy <a href="http://thepoxesblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/the-crazy-rises-again-and-again-and-again/" target="_blank">dealing with vitriol or having their workplaces contacted</a>,
though I am sure there are some people who enjoy the conflict for conflict’s
sake. And nobody that I know wants to hurt parents who have already been
through so much with their suffering daughters, or who lost a child. But we are
not going to stop speaking. And I think it is important for many of us to speak
up about the HPV vaccines. It’s the same reason that you should speak up for
vaccines generally, but let’s make it specific. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
grieving parents want us to accept their word that it was the vaccine that
caused their daughters’ suffering. It is more than natural for them to look for
a cause for their misfortune, and the vaccine is an easy target. But most of
them have no medical evidence behind their belief the vaccine caused the harm.
In some cases there are alternative explanations that their doctors pointed
out. Explanations the parents, in their grief and pain, reject. The problem is
that with these stories they want to convince other parents to reject the
vaccine—that is, to choose not to protect their children against a virus that
has been proven to cause cancer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When
that is what we are asked to do, a responsible parent not only can but should
demand hard, credible data that the vaccine actually causes the alleged harm.
Because there is a cost to not taking the vaccine. A cost in suffering and
lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And
there is no such hard evidence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When
it’s my child for whom I’m making the decision, rejecting a vaccine that can
save him or her from needless suffering is a dereliction of duty. I owe my
child the best protection available against dangers, health, and otherwise. There
are too many things I can’t protect him against. But modern medicine offers a
safe, effective prevention against some of the most dangerous types of HPV
infections. My child deserves it.<span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:Dorit%20Reiss" datetime="2013-12-02T20:46"><o:p></o:p></ins></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is a reason to speak up for the sake of these grieving parents, too: they do not deserve to feel guilty for vaccinating their children, or feel betrayed by the system, when the evidence does not indicate that the vaccine caused the illness. We should explain the evidence in the hope of reducing their guilt and anger. And hope some will listen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Arguing
for the safety of vaccines is worth the time and effort it takes, because it’s
about our children, their health, and welfare. Vaccines protect them. They’re
not perfect, and not 100% risk-free. No medicine is. But vaccines are
remarkably effective and compared to pretty much every other drug we have,
extremely safe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So
we need to keep asking, and pushing, and demanding. When a parent says the HPV
vaccine harmed her child, we must ask for evidence that the harm came from the
vaccine. Especially when the story is followed by a warning not to get the
vaccine for your child. If someone asks you to leave your child unprotected
against a dangerous virus that is completely preventable, tell him or her "I'm sorry, but I can’t make such a choice based on
your belief, scientifically unsupported, that the vaccine hurt your child."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For
my children’s best interests, I need to follow the data. I don’t want my child
to become a cancer statistic. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dorit Reiss is a professor of law at University of California. She has published writings on administrative law, and recently wrote "Compensating the Victims of Failure to Vaccinate: What are the Options?" Dorit is a member of Voices for Vaccines' Parent Advisory Board.</span></b><br />
<br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-13978061797697824072013-11-13T10:06:00.001-06:002013-11-13T10:06:19.184-06:00We Need You Today: Speak Up Against Anti-Vaccine Activists Trying to Dismantle VICP<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The voices of pro-vaccine advocates need to be heard today! </b></span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anti-vaccine groups have convinced the Congressional Oversight Committee to hold a hearing about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Their intent in pressing for this hearing is to dismantle the program in hopes that they can revive arguments about vaccines that science has already thoroughly disproven. Despite the clear science that vaccines do not cause autism, chronic disease, allergies, ADHD, etc., the anti-vaccine movement wants to use politics and the court system to support their unsupportable claims. </span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dismantling VICP and holding public hearings poses a real threat to our children who are currently protected from such scourges as measles, polio, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. First, the VICP insures that vaccine manufacturers are not inundated with lawsuits so that they are able to afford continued production of our vaccines. The hearing also serves as a very public platform for anti-vaccine activists to receive new publicity on their old and debunked message. </span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) benefits the children who suffer very rare adverse reactions. These reactions are sometimes so rare that it is difficult to prove that vaccines caused the reaction. However, the benefit of the VICP to these parents is that the burden of proof there is far lower than it would be in small claims court. In fact, they are far more likely to receive compensation through "Vaccine Court" than they would anywhere else. Thus, the VICP benefits not only the health of our communities but also the children who may have suffered a serious side effect from a vaccine. The anti-vaccine movement is angry because autism is not included among the reactions for which the court will compensate parents. The Autism Omnibus proceedings found that vaccines cannot be held liable for autism.</span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today, we need you to write the representatives on this committee who serve [STATE]. We recommend sending you either email or fax their offices. If you are short on time, a phone call may also be useful. </span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the letter, voice your own opinions on vaccines. A few points to consider including:</span></span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That you are a resident of [STATE]. If you are also a constituent, say so.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The story about why vaccines are important to you and how your family and community are positively improved by immunization. Be as personal and detailed as you like.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Support for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which both insures a steady supply of vaccines for our children while fairly compensating those who experienced a serious side effect from a vaccination</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An understanding that vaccines do not cause autism or most of the other health problems claimed by the anti-vaccine movement</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A request that the hearing include an expert in the Autism Omnibus Proceedings (why they were fair and balanced); an expert on how the NVICP actually works; and an expert on torts and product liability litigation (to talk about how the vaccine-injured would be worse off in a non-NVICP world).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are interested, you can <a href="http://momswhovax.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-national-vaccine-compensation.html" target="_blank">read more about the VICP here</a> a</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nd <a href="http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/vaccine-injury-compensation-programs" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More about the upcoming hearings <a href="http://shotofprevention.com/2013/11/08/congressional-briefing-attempts-to-discredit-vaccine-injury-compensation/" target="_blank">can be found here</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2013/11/08/antivaccinationists-brief-congressional-staffers-and-the-misinformation-flows/#comment-290928" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.4318181818181819; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you'd like background on the Autism Omnibus Proceedings, you can<a href="http://www.vaccinateyourbaby.org/safe/autism/omnibus_proceeding_info.cfm" target="_blank"> find that here</a>.</span></div>
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Please pass along this request to your friends, family members, and co-workers by linking to this post, copying and pasting it (or your letter) on social media, and blogging about it. The more pro-vaccine advocates we have writing to their representatives, the better off we will be. </span></span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A full listing of the committee members with their contact and biographical information is available <a href="http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2013/09/2013-congressional-oversight-committee-roster-by-state-with-brief-bios-and-vaccine-comments.html" target="_blank">here</a>: </span></span><a href="http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2013/09/2013-congressional-oversight-committee-roster-by-state-with-brief-bios-and-vaccine-comments.html" style="color: #1155cc; line-height: 1.4318181818181819; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_<wbr></wbr>speak_of_dreams/2013/09/2013-<wbr></wbr>congressional-oversight-<wbr></wbr>committee-roster-by-state-<wbr></wbr>with-brief-bios-and-vaccine-<wbr></wbr>comments.html</span></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403374015204970152.post-32177693703027301902013-11-10T17:05:00.002-06:002013-11-11T10:45:08.765-06:00Science Illiteracy in the Daily PaperAs a former journalist, I find myself embarrassed by my profession more and more these days--and more and more grateful for the handful of news outlets that still adhere to journalistic ethics and a true understanding of "balance" in the discipline.<br />
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Today, November 10th, 2013, the Concord (NH) Monitor-News chose to accept an advertisement (and payment) from National Vaccine Information Center, the most notorious anti-vaccine group in the country, to run <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151992703012931&set=a.151705002930.117058.143745137930&type=1" target="_blank">this embarrassment</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNt5FUwfopU9HjaUkV_qSJn8FdnE3AHF8jumwwZB8JJF-5DUeZddGZXeyYtZDKAK7RrUB3OCo0PDQ2fwjp84vrldpNnDJuClRf3V_RZzG2jo8uRm5YTzpQFUt0jGL3GQewLMG-OB7G7fI/s1600/1424335_10151992703012931_1105924030_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNt5FUwfopU9HjaUkV_qSJn8FdnE3AHF8jumwwZB8JJF-5DUeZddGZXeyYtZDKAK7RrUB3OCo0PDQ2fwjp84vrldpNnDJuClRf3V_RZzG2jo8uRm5YTzpQFUt0jGL3GQewLMG-OB7G7fI/s320/1424335_10151992703012931_1105924030_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you don't know why it's an embarrassment, that's okay--the unfortunate reality is that most people wouldn't, and that's what makes it so insidious. The whole "the flu shot gave me the flu" canard is pretty well entrenched in this country.<br />
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The flu shot does not give you the flu. It can't. It's physically impossible. Why? Because flu vaccines administered by needle are made with inactivated flu viruses (not infectious--dead) or no flu vaccine virus at all, which is how recombinant influenza vaccines are made.<br />
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That's what makes this advertisement from NVIC so laughable. It's like saying that the earth is warming because the American Girl Company is retiring "Molly, 1944." It's actually not laughable. It's maddening. It's maddening because I'm of the opinion that NVIC actually knows this is inaccurate information, but knows that it builds on an existing misconception that can bloom, for them, into general distrust of vaccines: their end-goal.<br />
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But I'm truly sickened by the editorial standards at the Concord Monitor-News. That it would allow such bald scientific illiteracy into their pages speaks volumes about the paper's approach to truth. And for a journalistic outlet, that is shameful. I've made my opinion known via Twitter this evening, and plan on following up with a letter tomorrow. I recommend you do the same. The Concord Monitor-News' Twitter handle is @ConMonitorNews.<br />
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If you'd like more information on the flu vaccine, check out the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/misconceptions.htm" target="_blank">CDC's primer on the vaccine</a>.<br />
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If you'd like to know why it's so crucial for children, in particular, to get the flu vaccine, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/28/kids-death-flu-complications/3179639/" target="_blank">check out this story in USA Today</a>.<br />
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<b>NOTE: I just noticed that an ad is playing on this site. I have no idea why and am working to sort it out. I apologize for this.</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0