Category: Vaccine Advocates

Kids Getting Shots – Are You Prepared?

Most kids have a favorite cartoon or show that they like to watch.

When I was a kid, it was Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Are You Prepared for Your Kids Getting Shots?

Although we often complain about kids overdoing it with screen time, there are some circumstances when a little screen time might be a good thing.

A little distraction helped Elmo get his shot.
A little distraction helped Elmo get his shot.

For example, if your kids are nervous about an upcoming visit to their pediatrician when they will get shots, having things explained by a well known character will almost certainly be helpful.

How else can you prepare your kids?

Remember to be honest. Don’t lie and say that they aren’t getting a shot or that it won’t hurt at all, only to have their pediatrician tell them that they need a vaccination during the visit.

Going to the Doctor.Books on going to the doctors can also be helpful. Many include a section or story on getting vaccines.

Going To The Doctor by T. Berry Brazelton, MD has always been a favorite of mine, but there are many others:

  • Leo Gets a Checkup
  • The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor
  • Corduroy Goes to the Doctor
  • Nicky Goes to the Doctor
  • Daniel Visits the Doctor
  • Froggy Goes to the Doctor
  • My Friend the Doctor
  • The Big Blue House Call

And have your kids play with a Doc McStuffins medical kit.

Vaccines are safe and necessary and you can help to make sure your kids are ready to get them at their next appointment.

More on Preparing Kids When Getting Shots

Vaccine Tweets to Remember

Are you on Twitter?

Have you seen these tweets about vaccines?

Vaccines work to keep us from getting polio.
Vaccines work to keep us from getting polio.

If you aren’t hip to the latest lingo – lit is good.

A clear message - vaccinate and protect your kids.
A clear message – vaccinate and protect your kids.

There is no debate.

Vaccines work.

They are also safe and necessary.

Let’s all protect our kids.

Who's to blame for low immunization rates and continuing outbreaks?
Who’s to blame for low immunization rates and continuing outbreaks?

We all know who to blame for the outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases we are seeing.

Did Jake Tapper know that RFK, Jr and Trump were planning a vaccine safety commission?
Did Jake Tapper already know that RFK, Jr and Trump were planning a vaccine safety commission?

What did Bill Gates really say about Trump? Wasn’t this the meeting when Trump confused HIV with HPV?

Why do celebrities get so much more attention when they say that they aren't going to vaccinate and protect their kids?
Why do celebrities get so much more attention when they say that they aren’t going to vaccinate and protect their kids?

This is a nice reminder that many celebrities advocate for vaccines.

What do vaccines cause? Adults. They cause adults.
What do vaccines cause? Adults. They cause adults.

Again, vaccines work.

Don't make a bad decision about vaccines.
Not vaccinating?

Still on the fence and need some help making a decision about vaccinating your kids? Do your research, but just keep in mind that every anti-vaccine argument has been refuted a thousand times already.

senior-paper-tweet
Need some facts about vaccines?

Don’t make a bad decision about vaccines.

Having a smallpox vaccine scar makes you a part of history.
Having a smallpox vaccine scar makes you a part of history.

More on Vaccines Tweets to Remember

Vaccine Movies and Videos

All of the attention that Robert De Niro gave the movie Vaxxed has many people realizing that there are anti-vaccine movies out there.

Promoted as documentaries, they mostly include the same anti-vaccine ‘experts’ that scare parents away from vaccinating their kids on the Internet.

These types of movies include:

  • Vaxxed
  • The Greater Good
  • Trace Amounts
  • Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis?
  • Bought
  • Man Made Epidemic
  • Sacrificial Virgins
  • The Truth About Vaccines

Most are propaganda, without even a trace amount of truth in them, and should not be used as a research tool to help you make a decision about vaccines.

Vaccine Movies and Documentaries

What about movies to actually help you get educated about vaccines?

Every Last Child takes a look at the fight to end polio in Pakistan.
Every Last Child takes a look at the fight to end polio in Pakistan.

Watch these movies and documentaries:

Have you seen or heard about any of these movies about vaccines?

Vaccine Videos

Just as bad as so-called vaccine documentaries, many of the vaccine videos that you find on You-Tube are also filled with misinformation and propaganda, including many vaccine scare videos.

Where are you Jon Stewart? Measles is still around...
Where are you Jon Stewart? Measles is still around…

Watch the following vaccines videos instead:

Still have questions?

More on Vaccine Movies and Videos

Do Anti-Vaccine Parents Ever Change Their Minds?

Most anti-vaccine folks think that nothing could ever change their minds and get them to vaccinate and protect their kids ever again.

Even if they don’t believe any of the current evidence that vaccines are safe and necessary, what if we showed them some new evidence?

Nope.

They have ‘woken up’ and won’t be convinced.

Do Anti-Vaccine Parents Ever Change Their Minds?

Of course, folks change their minds all of the time.

They learn to see past the myths and propaganda of the anti-vaccine movement and they eventually get their kids vaccinated.

A megachurch in Texas that was the site of a large measles outbreak quickly hosted free vaccination clinics.
A megachurch in Texas that was the site of a large measles outbreak quickly hosted free vaccination clinics.

Unfortunately, it sometimes takes an outbreak to get them motivated to do so, or their child actually catching a vaccine-preventable disease.

Remember the Disneyland measles outbreaks in California?

“I’ve given more measles, mumps, rubella vaccines in the past 10 days than I gave in the entire 12 months previously.”

Dr. Jay Gordon on Demand for Measles Vaccine Sends Crowds Even to Anti-Vax Docs

Other times, it is a good pediatrician who doesn’t pander to their fears, and instead, answers their questions about vaccines and helps them understand the risks (very small) and benefits (very big) of getting vaccinated and protected.

Or they might have a friend, family member, or other immunization advocate that helps them be more skeptical of the information and advice that is scaring them away from vaccines.

Remember. The great majority of parents vaccinate their kids. And those that don’t, do often change their minds.

More on When Anti-Vaxxers Change Their Minds

How To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy

There is nothing wrong with having questions about vaccines. And there is certainly nothing wrong with doing a little, or even a lot of research about vaccines.

“We are not against vaccines. Just because we have hesitancies and valid concerns about injecting our baby with specific chemicals and toxins does not mean we are anti anything…

As a soon-to-be-parent [and especially as a first-time-mom] I do feel it my responsibility to have questions, and to listen to my motherly instinct to question things, and do my research.”

Kat Von D

The problem comes when the answers folks get come from misinformation, and it leads them to skip or delay their child’s vaccines, leaving them unprotected.

What is Vaccine Hesitancy?

To counter vaccine hesitancy, you likely first need to understand what it means.

“Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific varying across time, place and vaccines. It includes factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence.”

SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Working Group

So it means someone who is anti-vaccine, right?

Not exactly.

“Although many may characterize all individuals who eschew vaccines as “anti-vaccine” or “vaccine deniers,” in reality there is a broad spectrum of individuals who choose not to have themselves or their children vaccinated.”

Tara C Smith on Vaccine Rejection and Hesitancy: A Review and Call to Action

Many of the folks who are vaccine hesitant aren’t truly anti-vaccine. They are likely being misled by anti-vaccine myths and propaganda, but at least they aren’t the ones spreading it across Facebook or on their own blogs and anti-vaccine websites.

How To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy

How do you counter vaccine hesitancy?

“It’s unfair for anyone to expect me [or any parent] to take the word of the pharmaceutical companies who have much to gain from and industry worth billions without question – and then have to dismiss any concerns of my own.”

Kat Von D

You learn to answer all of the questions and concerns that these parents might have about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, including the risks and benefits of vaccines and the risks of being unvaccinated.

“Well, if you’re going to inform yourself about vaccines, I think anybody who’s truly informed will realize that getting a vaccine is much better than not getting one. If you’re choosing not to vaccinate your child, it’s because you’re getting, frankly, bad information about vaccines.”

Paul Offit, MD

You also make sure that parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, reporters, and everyone else gets good information about vaccines.

And you call out the misinformation and out-right lies of the anti-vaccine movement, especially when they say that vaccines never work, are always dangerous and full of toxins, or aren’t necessary.

You don’t let parents get manipulated by the anti-vaccine industry, which has gotten very good at selling fear – literally.

Like the card trick in My Cousin Vinny, anti-vaccine talking points are easy to explain because they are all an illusion.
Like the card trick in My Cousin Vinny, anti-vaccine talking points are easy to explain away, because they are all an illusion.

Remember, there is not one anti-vaccine argument or talking point that ever holds water.

Why not?

Because unless you go cherry picking, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that vaccines work, vaccines are safe, and vaccines are necessary.

What to Know About Countering Vaccine Hesitancy

If you are on the fence or scared to vaccinate your kids, let us help you learn why vaccines are safe and necessary and arguments against vaccines never hold water.

More on Countering Vaccine Hesitancy

Vaccine Resolutions to Make for 2018

Protect your children. Immunise.
Make a resolution to advocate for vaccines this year.

Need to make a few New Year’s resolutions?

We all know the popular resolutions that folks consider making each year, including that they exercise more, spend less money, and enjoy life more, etc.

Those are all great, but this year, how about adding a few about vaccines!

Why We Need Vaccine Resolutions

Why do we need resolutions about vaccines?

“You hear about people who don’t like to vaccinate their kids in the Western world, which I suppose is a personal choice, but when you’re out there, the result of your children not being vaccinated is that they’ll likely die, or be horribly maimed. So yes, I saw a real desire to have their children protected, and also a real understanding of it – I didn’t seem to come across anybody who went ‘What is it?’ Or ‘What does it do?’ They all seemed to know about it.”

Ewan McGregor on Cold Chain Mission

Not surprisingly, you don’t have to be “out there” to see what can happen if your kids aren’t vaccinated. That’s evident from all of the kids who have died during the recent measles outbreaks in Europe. And the fact that most kids who die with flu in the US aren’t vaccinated.

That’s why we need people to make these resolutions about vaccines.

There are too many folks out there who push misinformation and propaganda about vaccines, and there are parents who get scared and skip or delay vaccines, leaving their kids unvaccinated and unprotected.

Vaccine Resolutions to Make for 2018

Did you know that we are closing in on the end of the Global Vaccine Action Plan’s Decade of Vaccines? The plan is to deliver universal access to vaccines by 2020.

Unfortunately, universal access doesn’t help those people who simply don’t want vaccines.

So your vaccine resolutions this year could be to:

And this year, become an advocate for vaccines, helping parents who are on the fence understand that vaccines are safe and necessary, and pushing back against anti-vaccine misinformation.

“The promotion of the best scientific knowledge, moral attitudes, and public health practice with regard to vaccination.”

Balinska on What is vaccine advocacy? Proposal for a definition and action

Are you ready to make your vaccine resolutions for 2018?

What to Know About 2018 Vaccine Resolutions

Make sure that your New Year’s resolutions for 2018 include that you get educated about vaccines, get your kids caught up if they are behind, and that you become an advocate for vaccines.

More on 2018 Vaccine Resolutions

Do Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids?

The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of 66,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists, has long advocated for the health and safety of our children.

“Pediatricians who routinely recommend limiting the numbers of vaccines administered at a single visit such that vaccines are administered late are providing care that deviates from the standard evidence-based schedule recommended by these bodies.”

American Academy of Pediatricians

Their advice to keep kids safe and healthy includes that all children, unless they have a medical exemption, be fully vaccinated on time and on schedule.

Do Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids?

Does that mean that all pediatricians vaccinate their kids on time and on schedule?

Not surprisingly, it does not.

There are enough vaccine friendly and holistic pediatricians out there that push non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedules that you would expect some of them to leave their own kids unvaccinated and unprotected.

Not that many though.

Most pediatricians vaccinate their own kids.

Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids

One study, How Do Physicians Immunize Their Own Children? Differences Among Pediatricians and Nonpediatricians, found that “Ninety-three percent of the surveyed physicians agree with the current official vaccination recommendations and would apply them to their own children.”

Rotavirus vaccines are associated with a very small risk of intussusception, but that is not a good reason to miss the benefits of this vaccine.
This pediatrician’s kids are all fully vaccinated. Photo by Vincent Iannelli, MD

The numbers were even higher for some vaccines, like diphtheria (100%), tetanus (100%), pertussis (98.7%), polio (99.2%), measles (97.4%), mumps (95.2%), and rubella (95.7%). It was lower for those vaccines that were newer to the schedule (the study was in Switzerland in 2005), like Hib and hepatitis B.

Up to about 29% of the pediatricians gave their own kids vaccines that weren’t even on the routine schedule in Switzerland yet, including hepatitis A, flu, Prevnar, and the chicken pox vaccine.

Another study, Vaccination practices among physicians and their children, came to similar conclusions. At least 95% of pediatricians said that they followed the recommendations of the ACIP, and the “over-all rates for individual vaccines were considerably high ranging from 97% to 100%.”

That’s right! At least 99% of pediatricians said that they would give their child the MMR, Varicella, Menactra, flu, and Gardasil vaccines.

An even higher percentage would give hepatitis B, polio, Prevnar, Hib, and DTaP!

Fewer would give rotavirus (94%) and hepatitis A (98%) to their own kids, which is not that surprising, as those are among the newest vaccines.

It is a myth that a large number of pediatricians don’t vaccinate their own kids.

What to Know About How Pediatricians Vaccinating Their Own Kids

Almost all pediatricians vaccinate and protect their own kids with all of the recommended vaccines on the CDC immunization schedule.

More on How Pediatricians Vaccinate Their Own Kids