Norman Trascript - Vaccinations

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.