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October 3, 2011 in Nation/World
Fears fuel vaccine avoiders
False information online, media reports add to skepticism, study author says
Kandace O’Neill’s 7-month-old girl has received no federally recommended vaccinations.
(Full-size photo)
CHICAGO – By age 6, children should have vaccinations against 14 diseases, in at least two dozen separate doses, the U.S. government advises. More than 1 in 10 parents reject that, refusing some shots or delaying others mainly because of safety concerns, a national survey found.
Worries about vaccine safety were common even among parents whose kids were fully vaccinated: One in 5 among that group said they think delaying shots is safer than the recommended schedule. The results suggest that more than 2 million infants and young children may not be fully protected against preventable diseases, including some that can be deadly or disabling.
The nationally representative online survey of roughly 750 parents of kids age 6 and younger was done last year and results were to be released online today in the journal Pediatrics. They are in line with a larger federal survey released last month, showing that at least 1 in 10 toddlers and preschoolers lagged on vaccines that included chickenpox and the measles-mumps-rubella combination shots. That survey, also for 2010, included more than 17,000 households.
And childhood vaccination rates in Washington and Idaho are lower than national rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 2009-’10 school year, 6.2 percent of Washington parents claimed an exemption to vaccination requirements. Idaho was at 3.8 percent.
The Pediatrics survey follows other recent news raising concerns among infectious disease specialists, including a study showing the whooping cough vaccine seems to lose much of its effectiveness after just three years – faster than doctors have thought – perhaps contributing to recent major outbreaks, most notably in California. Also, data reported in September show that a record number of kindergartners’ parents in California last year used a personal belief exemption to avoid vaccination requirements.
Kandace O’Neill is a Lakeville, Minn., mother whose views are shared by many parents who don’t follow federal vaccine advice. Her 5-year-old son has had no vaccinations since he turned 1, and her 7-month-old daughter has received none of the recommended shots.
“I have to make sure that my child is healthy, and I do not want to put medications in my child that I think are going to harm them,” said O’Neill, who was not involved in the survey appearing in Pediatrics.
Study author Dr. Amanda Dempsey, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of Michigan, said vaccine skepticism is fueled by erroneous information online and media reports that sensationalize misconceptions. These include the persistent belief among some parents about an autism-vaccine link despite scientific evidence to the contrary and the debunking of one of the most publicized studies that first fueled vaccine fears years ago.
Some parents also dismiss the severity of vaccine-preventable diseases because they’ve never seen a child seriously ill with those illnesses.
But vaccine-preventable diseases including flu and whooping cough can be deadly, especially in infants, said Dr. Buddy Creech, associate director of Vanderbilt University’s Vaccine Research Program.
“From being someone in the trenches seeing children die every year from influenza and its complications … I would not do a single thing to risk the health of my kids,” he said. Creech has served on advisory boards for vaccine makers and has accepted their research money.
Dempsey, the survey’s lead author, has been a paid adviser to Merck on issues regarding a vaccine for older children but said that company made no contributions to the survey research.
Knowledge Networks conducted the survey, which had an error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Dr. Larry Pickering, an infectious disease specialist at the CDC, said the new survey indicates that doctors need to do a better job of communicating vaccine information to patients.
Pickering said he supports parents’ being actively involved in their kids’ medical care but said: “If they’re going to do that, they need to be fully informed about the risks and benefits of vaccines and need to obtain the information from a valid source.”
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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idahocity on October 03 at 5:55 a.m.
read an insert for a vaccine and the listed potential side effects can be more frightening than contracting the actual disease, plus, all the inserts i checked said the vaccines had not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential.
JBlim on October 03 at 7:02 a.m.
The risks of not taking vaccines far outweigh the risks of taking them. Go talk to a physician, not a teabagger. Your ignorance puts at risk babies and the very young who are not old enough to get immunized. That’s because your kids who get Medieval diseases can spread it to them. Wise up.
dataxman on October 03 at 7:22 a.m.
JBlim - not the teabaggers on this one - it is the fruit cake greenies
JBlim on October 03 at 7:29 a.m.
Fruit cake greenies like Michele Bachmann?
fishinjay on October 03 at 7:37 a.m.
We’re in the second dark age. Rumor, innuendo and fear-mongering are more powerful that reproduceable science.
dataxman on October 03 at 8:06 a.m.
no, she is just a fruit cake. I am referring to the hollywood libs
tf on October 03 at 9:43 a.m.
JBlim, that is your opinion. Speaking as a mother of a 4 month old that passed away the day after receiving vaccinations, I have done my homework. As with anything there are potential risks and side effects. I have done ALL my homework regarding this issue, and regardless of what the goverment says, my 1st obligation is to my child, not their federal standards. And at this point in time it is still my RIGHT to choose what is best for MY child.
misjustice on October 03 at 9:45 a.m.
I’m okay with parents risking the health of their own kids by not getting them vaccinated.
However, when an outbreak of Whooping Cough emerges or a virulent strain of Measels starts, keep your unvaccinated germ incubators away from those of us that have taken precautions to avoid these serious diseases. Oh, and if your kids get sick I really don’t want to hear about it; no whining!
Millions died from these types of diseases/infections/illnesses prior to modern science finding vaccinations to combat them. And now, a minority that don’t want to take the chance on a vaccination willingly will chance having their kids get a potentially deadly disease and also risk the chance of the rebound of once almost eradicated illnesses. Brilliant!
tf on October 03 at 10:14 a.m.
To the people that think that just because you have gotten the vaccination for your children that they are immune, I would say you better keep doing your homework, that is not the case. Children that get vaccinated get infected with the same diseases that they were vaccinated against all the time! And in all the research that I have done as well as conversations that I have had with my doctor, there is treatment for every disease that there is a vaccination for.
And yes, if my child does get infected, it is my responsibility to keep them home and away from other children regardless if they are vaccinated or not!
Vericon on October 03 at 11:35 a.m.
Wake Forest University study conducted a study that was able to demonstrate that Dr Andrew Wakefield in the UK was correct in that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The specific type of measles found in autistic children’s colons was the vaccine variety, not wild type. How’s that for “reproduceable science”?
But the real issue here is, what right’s should parents have to do what they think is best for their children? Clearly, Big Pharma, the medical establishment and do-gooders don’t think they have any rights. It’s sad that even in this article, parents are ridiculed, marginalized and made to feel as inept as some of you here are. Some parents actually spend the time to get the facts about vaccine safety and effectiveness BEFORE jabbing their kid with something that may be dangerous.
And seriously, what is wrong with getting chicken pox, mumps, etc.? Most of these childhood diseases are not fatal. I’ve had them and glad I did. Having chicken pox as a child reduces your risk of getting shingles as an older adult. Getting mumps as a girl reduces her risk of getting ovarian cancer when she’s older. Maybe contracting these diseases actually strengthhens the immune system whereas vaccines weaken them. Think about it, do research and stop accepting everything the drug companies, your doctor and the media tell you!
tf on October 03 at 11:38 a.m.
Amen Vericon!
fishinjay on October 03 at 3:17 p.m.
You mean the Wake Forest University that requires vaccinations? http://www.wfu.edu/shs/vaccines.html
Or how about the 10 researchers involved in the original study that retracted their findings? Or maybe you were referring to the medical journal that also retracted the study?
You can’t pick and choose when you believe science as if it were a matter of faith. It’s what the scientific method is all about. The Wake Forest study doesn’t even support Wakefield, it simply offers a possiblity. The anti-vaccine zealots have blown the findings out of proportion making claims far beyond what the study actually says. But the scientific method means nothing to flat-earthers, climate change deniers and anti-vaccinations zealots.
detroitdude on October 03 at 3:21 p.m.
I suppose this is the “seatbelt” argument. True, there is like a 1% chance your seatbelt will kill you in a car crash, but a 99% chance it will save your life.
tf on October 03 at 7:41 p.m.
You know the bottom line is that noone has to agree or disagree with my point of view. It should be an informed decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but should be made by each individual parent. I make the decisions for MY child, not the government or anoyone else!
greenlibertarian on October 03 at 11:32 p.m.
tf, keep your damn non-vaccinated kid quarantined from mine, or your “choice” to risk your kids’ lives will negatively affect my progeny.
Don’t want your disease susceptible kid possibly harming the health of any kids for who vaccinations might not work, a fluke to be sure.
Oh yeah, and “Render unto Caesar …” as you sound like typical tax dodger “sovereign citizen” case.
tf on October 04 at 4:35 a.m.
grennlibertarian- my children will not be quarantined from anyone! My oldest 3 are vaccinated, my youngest is not and guess what? He is the healthiest out of all of them! He is just over 2 and has NEVER even been sick. Is that a FLUKE as well?
If GOD wanted us to have those antibodies HE would’ve built them within us. It is called population control! Obviously you don’t know your children like you think you do.
JBlim on October 04 at 5:36 a.m.
“my youngest is not and guess what? ”
You are generalizing from a single instance, which is a logical fallacy, you are reaching a conclusion based on insufficient evidence.
If God wanted us to commit fallacies, he wouldn’t have given us a brain.
tf on October 04 at 3:33 p.m.
Pointless conversation with close minded people. We live in a free country and still have the right to choose, until we don’t you can keep your own opinion.
There is so much information out there for both sides that we could argue for an eternity. Bottom line is it is still my RIGHT TO CHOOSE!
JBlim on October 04 at 5:25 p.m.
” … By 2004, cases of polio in Africa had been reduced to just a small number of isolated regions in the western portion of the continent, with sporadic cases elsewhere. However, recent opposition to vaccination campaigns has evolved,[59][60] often relating to fears that the vaccine might induce sterility.[61] The disease has since resurged in Nigeria and in several other African nations, which epidemiologists believe is due to refusals by certain local populations to allow their children to receive the polio vaccine.[62] . . .”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine