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Published July 19, 2008 12:00 am - EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles examining issues surrounding immunizations.
Parents have questioned the side effects of vaccines for years, but the number of parents nationally who opt out of getting their children vaccinated appears to be rising.
Shots or not: Weighing the risks
By Julianna Parker
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles examining issues surrounding immunizations.
Parents have questioned the side effects of vaccines for years, but the number of parents nationally who opt out of getting their children vaccinated appears to be rising.
The percent of children ages 19-35 months who are up-to-date on their recommended immunizations nationally decreased from 80.8 percent in 2006 to 80.6 percent in 2007, according to the United Health Foundation.
Currently, nearly 0.5 percent of kids enrolled in U.S. schools are unvaccinated under a medical waiver; 2 to 3 percent have a nonmedical one, according to a June 2 Time Magazine article.
There are some risks to vaccinations, but it's important also to compare those with the risk of contracting the disease, said Dr. Gary E. Raskob, dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health and professor of biostatistics, epidemiology and medicine.
"Most public health professionals would say that the downside of withholding the vaccine from your child is much bigger than the (vaccine's) risk," he said.
One of the main risks that critics of immunization point out is the link between vaccines and autism.
It has long been suspected that thimerosal, which was used as a preservative in some vaccines, caused autism. In 2001, thimerosal was taken out of all vaccinations except traces in some flu vaccines.
But the prevalence of autism hasn't decreased.
In 2003, a committee from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health researched the alleged link between thimerosal and autism and concluded that there was no scientific evidence to support it, according to the Time Magazine story.
The committee also said it did "not consider a significant investment in studies of the theoretical vaccine-autism connection to be useful."
Raskob cautioned that when assessing the risks of immunization, one shouldn't just look at the possible side effects of the vaccine. One should also examine the possible consequences of catching the disease that the shot vaccinates against.
Most parents today who are faced with the question of immunization have not seen the devastating effects of diseases such as measles or polio.
Parents may not know what these diseases are because the vaccinations have virtually eradicated them, Raskob said.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Norman Transcript - The Rogers family
Shots or not: Parents pass on vaccines
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a series of articles examining issues surrounding immunizations.
By Meghan McCormick
Transcript Staff Writer
Meet Brian Rogers and he seems just like any other 6-year-old boy his age.
He spends summer days at the neighborhood pool, and it's hard to get his attention when he's focused on his favorite computer game Monopoly.
Brian likes to talk about his birthday party last month at Pump It Up, the inflatable party zone. The party included laughter, fun and of course, a Monopoly theme cake.
His parents Bill and Sheri Rogers didn't mind the festivities because it wasn't that long ago that their youngest son wouldn't have understood the intentions of the celebration. That's because Brian is autistic.
Both parents believe vaccines played a contributing factor in his and his older brother's condition. The oldest son, Brandon, 8, was diagnosed at age 3 with sensory integration dysfunction.
"I feel because I didn't question it, my children are paying the price," Sheri Rogers said.
The mother said she had both her children vaccinated until recently.
"We are not anti-vaccine," the mother said.
Instead, the couple want toxins removed from doses and the number of immunizations reduced. The mother and father believe it would be best for physicians to delay vaccines until a child's immune system is more mature and to spread out an injection schedule. Scientists should conduct additional testing on vaccines to make sure they are safe to inject in people, they say.
The parents have no intentions of updating their children's vaccines anytime soon.
"We're not vaccinating further because of the problems our children displayed," she said.
The mother said both boys are students at Roosevelt Elementary School and immunization exemption forms are on file for their sons.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a series of articles examining issues surrounding immunizations.
By Meghan McCormick
Transcript Staff Writer
Meet Brian Rogers and he seems just like any other 6-year-old boy his age.
He spends summer days at the neighborhood pool, and it's hard to get his attention when he's focused on his favorite computer game Monopoly.
Brian likes to talk about his birthday party last month at Pump It Up, the inflatable party zone. The party included laughter, fun and of course, a Monopoly theme cake.
His parents Bill and Sheri Rogers didn't mind the festivities because it wasn't that long ago that their youngest son wouldn't have understood the intentions of the celebration. That's because Brian is autistic.
Both parents believe vaccines played a contributing factor in his and his older brother's condition. The oldest son, Brandon, 8, was diagnosed at age 3 with sensory integration dysfunction.
"I feel because I didn't question it, my children are paying the price," Sheri Rogers said.
The mother said she had both her children vaccinated until recently.
"We are not anti-vaccine," the mother said.
Instead, the couple want toxins removed from doses and the number of immunizations reduced. The mother and father believe it would be best for physicians to delay vaccines until a child's immune system is more mature and to spread out an injection schedule. Scientists should conduct additional testing on vaccines to make sure they are safe to inject in people, they say.
The parents have no intentions of updating their children's vaccines anytime soon.
"We're not vaccinating further because of the problems our children displayed," she said.
The mother said both boys are students at Roosevelt Elementary School and immunization exemption forms are on file for their sons.
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