...out of a misguided fear of thimerosal-induced autism, please send them this article:
No link found between vaccine mercury and autism
It's a report of an extensive CDC study entitled "Prenatal and Infant Exposure to Thimerosal From Vaccines and Immunoglobulins and Risk of Autism" which has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics today.
This will be a short diary, but the information relayed here is very important. Here is the conclusion of the study*:
In our study of MCO members, prenatal and early-life exposure to ethylmercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immunoglobulin preparations was not related to increased risk of ASDs.
And an english translation from Reuters:
No matter when a child had been exposed to thimerosal -- before birth when the mother had a shot, or when the child itself was vaccinated as a baby or toddler -- there was no increase in the risk of any type of autism spectrum disorder.
I know that this information probably won't convince ardent anti-vaxers, but it may help to properly inform people who may be unsure about the safety of vaccines due to the loud noises coming from the anti-vaccination crowd. There's also a misconception that not vaccinating a child only puts that child at risk. This is a dangerous belief:
What began as a family trip to Switzerland in 2008 ended up as a public health nightmare in California.
The family's 7-year-old boy, who was intentionally unvaccinated against measles, was exposed to the virus while traveling in Europe. When he returned home to San Diego, he unknowingly exposed a total of 839 people, and an additional 11 unvaccinated children contracted the disease.
...
"There's definitely a lack of appreciation of measles and what it can do," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He said that in a recent Indiana outbreak, a 17-year-old girl was infected with measles on a trip to Romania, and when she came home she went to a church picnic attended by about 500 people. Of that group, 35 were unvaccinated. Three people out of 465 vaccinated got measles, while 31 out of the 35 who were unvaccinated contracted the disease, Offit said.
Diseases like measles are amazingly contagious, as these examples show. Many vaccines require multiple doses for full immunity to be bestowed on the child, so children who have not received the full schedule of vaccinations are also at risk. The CDC has a webpage that discusses the major diseases which we vaccinate against and what would happen if we stopped vaccinating children.
After years of success in attempting to eradicate polio, there is a recent outbreak in Tajikistan. Tajikistan was thought to be free of polio since 2002, but an unvaccinated individual contracted the disease in India and spread it through eastern Europe. In the region, most countries fall well below the targeted 90% vaccination goal, making them susceptible to "imported" outbreaks. The outbreak is being contained through mass vaccinations of the region:
As of August 1, 2010, the Tajikistan Ministry of Health has reported 700 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (polio); the number of cases of paralysis per week has fallen substantially since four immunization campaigns were conducted in May–June. Of these cases, 452 have been laboratory-confirmed as polio. Of the confirmed polio cases, 312 are in children 5 years old or younger. Twenty deaths have been reported among people with confirmed polio.
In other countries, these outbreaks often occur as a result of inadequate funding or vaccine supplies or because of strict religious beliefs. In our country, literally every child has the opportunity to be vaccinated against these dangerous diseases. In the US it's not lack of supply or funding that's the problem, it's lack of knowledge:
Parents who intentionally under-vaccinate tended to be white, college-educated and have an upper or middle-income level, the study found. Many believe that living a "natural lifestyle" will protect their children against vaccine-preventable illness, according to the study.
If you know anybody who does this, please send them a few of the links in this diary.
Update: Here's a recent report from China about the effect of anti-vaccine disinformation on their attempt to eradicate measles by 2012:
Since the Health Ministry announced the World Health Organization-backed measles vaccination plan last week, authorities have been flooded with queries and Internet bulletin boards have been plastered with worried messages. Conspiracy theories saying the vaccines are dangerous have spread by cell phone text messages.
Some of the outcry is simple mistrust of the Chinese government, but they're using the same talking points that our very own discredited anti-vaxers use.
Update2: BoxerDave gives us some more good links in the comments.
*The study involved 256 children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) with a 752-member control group matched for gender and birth date. You can read the abstract for this study above for a full explanation of the experimental parameters(it's linked with the study title).