Is a Bill Requiring Your Children to Get Every CDC Recommended Vaccination Coming to Your State?
As vaccine-related bills are being introduced into state legislatures this month, a bill (HB1090) has been proposed in the Virginia legislature to require school children to receive every dose of all current and future vaccines added to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) appointed by the U.S. Centers […]
“Little Women” Movie Spurs Interest in Scarlet Fever
Little Women, the 19th century coming of age movie directed by Greta Gerwig currently showing in theaters nationwide, has moviegoers searching for information about scarlet fever. Beth, the youngest of the four March sisters, dies of complications of the infection at the climax of the movie. Scarlet fever is a bacterial infection caused by the […]
The Media’s Obsession With the ‘Debunked’ Lancet Study
How many times have you read or heard about the “debunked”1 2 3 study published in the British medical journal The Lancet in 1998 that described “gastrointestinal and developmental regression in a group of previously normal children?”4 Probably lots of times, particularly if you follow the debate on the safety of vaccines and the ethics of mandatory vaccination. […]
Samoa Measles Emergency Extended
On Dec. 20, 2019, the government of Samoa announced that 94 percent of the island nation’s population of about 200,000 people had been vaccinated against measles as part of a government-led mandatory, mass vaccination campaign. As of Dec. 20, the Samoan Ministry of Health (MOH) had confirmed 5,463 reported cases with 1,762 hospitalizations and 78 […]
Measles in Samoa: Why are So Many Dying?
A total of 72 people have died in Samoa during the current outbreak of measles there that began in mid-October. Most of the deaths have involved children under five years of age. U.S. and global media outlets have been following this story closely, providing regular updates on the number of people in Samoa who have […]
Samoan Government Arrests “Anti-Vaxxer” as Measles Campaign Widens
On Dec. 5, 2019, the Samoan government reportedly arrested a “vocal antivaccination campaigner” and charged him with “incitement” as the government widens a mass measles vaccination campaign in the small South Pacific island nation of about 200,000 people. More than 4,300 measles cases with 63 deaths have been reported since the measles outbreak began in […]