Archive 2006
Media Articles and Books
To protect us all, vaccinate school kids
By Mary Beckman
Los Angeles Times
November 6, 2006
Flu vaccination season is nearly upon us, and doses of the vaccine are as abundant as traffic jams. But a flu vaccine shortage back in 2004 had us all wondering who should get the valuable resource to keep flu deaths and illnesses at a minimum…
Autism cases surrounded by misconceptions
By Lance Chilton, M.D.
ABQjournal
October 16, 2006
I have two new patients with autism in my practice. These children represent the more severe and the milder forms of what is appropriately called the 'autism spectrum disorder.' News, thoughts and misconceptions about autism run wild these days…
Editorial: Foolish Vaccine Exemptions
New York Times
October 12, 2006
States that make it easy for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children are suffering increased disease rates as a consequence, according to an article published yesterday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Opinion: Vaccine benefits outweigh small risks (Letter to the Editor)
By James Hubbard, M.D.
Des Moines Register
October 5, 2006
I want to set the record straight about vaccine safety. As a pediatrician, there is no doubt in my mind that hundreds of thousands of children are alive and healthier today because of vaccines.
The Measles Vaccine Follies (Editorial)
New York Times
August 9, 2006
Irrational fears of vaccination seem to have been responsible for an outbreak of measles in Indiana last year. It was a sad example of how parents who think they are protecting their children by shunning a vaccine can end up doing them harm...
Once Nearly Eradicated, Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Return to US: Some Parents Have Stopped Vaccinating Their Kids, Putting Others at Risk
By Felicia D. Stoler
ABC News
August 2, 2006
It started as a self-sacrificing trip to Romania to perform missionary work at an orphanage. But when a rural Indiana family returned home in 2005, the voyage ended in a horrible twist: Thirty-four people in the West Lafayette area came down with measles, a highly infectious disease brought home from Romania by the family's teenage daughter, who hadn't been vaccinated against it.
A misleading headline on autism story (Letter to the Editor)
By Roland Butnick, M.D., J.D.
ContraCosta Times
March 29, 2006
Your front-page headline of March 22 asserts that a new study done at UC-Davis "fuels debate over autism." The subsequent article goes on to describe the effects of thimerosal on dendritic cells of mice in tissue culture.
Vaccine Jitters (Editorial)
The Sun
March 28, 2006
As a society, we know enough about how the world works politically and so little about how chemicals in our environment affect us medically that skepticism of official assurances can be, well, healthy. Yet politicians, in particular, must be careful not to let a natural concern about the safety of vaccines mushroom into a public health emergency...
Focus On Vaccines (Editorial)
Rocky Mountain News
February 19, 2006
We'd rather get our medical advice from doctors than from legislators, if it is all the same to you. But legislators may not only offer medical advice, they may compel the entire state of Colorado to follow it, in the form of a misguided and unnecessary bill that would ban, except in emergencies, the use of vaccines containing more than a trace amount of mercury for children younger than three and pregnant women...
This Won't Hurt a Bit
Domestic Disturbances
By Judith Warner
Times Select
January 12, 2006
(subscription required)
Over and over again, the link between mercury — in the form of thimerosal, a preservative once routinely used in vaccines — and autism has been disproved. Or, better put, (who knows what the future will bring?) it has not been confirmed. Meanwhile, formerly all-but-eradicated deadly childhood diseases are making a comeback...