Vaccination Education

The new swine flu vaccines will be available this fall and in all likelihood, my kids, who both have mild asthma, will be getting them.

I’m not ambivalent about this at all really. If there’s a chance that it will keep them (and all of us) from spending the winter sick, then sign us all up. And since I learned today that August is “Immunization Awareness Month,” (Who knew?), I’m thinking about all those parents who are more skeptical of vaccines or oppose them outright.

With more parents opting not to immunize their children, the larger question is how that decision might affect the rest of us. The Responsibility Project asked the question whether the responsibility of parents who make this decision extends beyond their kids. An official from the CDC points out in the blog that parents who don’t immunize could put others, including newborns and people with suppressed immune systems, at serious risk.

People forget that immunizations have eradicated diseases like polio, which affected 13,000 to 20,000 people each year until a vaccine was developed, leaving thousands disabled for life.

Still, I sympathize with people like my friend Shannon, who says she wants the flexibility to make vaccination decisions for her three girls, ages 4, 9 and 13. Many doctors, she says, are not willing to discuss the pros and cons of vaccinations or be flexible about when they're administered.

"I'm not totally opposed to vaccinations, I see that they've done good," she says. "But they've also quite possibly done bad, and I want to be able to make this decision. I don't want this imposed on me."

Opponents contend the preservatives formaldehyde and thimerasol found in the flu vaccine may be related to developmental problems, including autism.

After review of the numerous studies on that theory, the Institute of Medicine has concluded there is no relationship between thimerasol and developmental problems in children. But, just for parents' peace of mind, there are flu vaccines that do not contain thimerasol.

Dr. Robert Helmrich, of Princeton Nassau Pediatrics in Princeton, N.J., agrees that parents have nothing to fear from vaccines "There's a lot of misinformation out there,” he says. Anyone can write anything on the Internet."

* Some information in this article is from my Family Matters parenting column “Immunization Effects Reach Far,” Oct. 20, 2008.
Photo from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.