BY DAVID BENDICH
In New Jersey, access to vaccines isn’t the problem so much as parent resistance.
VACCINES recommended for infants, children, adolescents, adults and seniors are crucial to protecting not only the immunized person, but also the health of all of us.
But a growing number of New Jersey parents question the need to vaccinate their children, causing our state to fall woefully behind all but five others in immunization rates.
Decades of scientific research clearly show the powerful protection immunization provides. Instead of resisting inoculations, parents must stay on guard so debilitating afflictions like whooping cough don’t come back with a vengeance. Consider what’s now happening in California: Six infants have died there in what looks like the state’s worst whooping cough epidemic in 50 years.
With increased education about the importance of vaccines New Jersey can avoid California’s fate. Now, during national Immunization Awareness Month, is the time to spread the message.
Despite being discredited by years of scholarly work, alarming stories of the dire effects of routine vaccines live forever on the Internet, getting retold to new parents. People still worry about ingredients in vaccines, such as the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which has been phased out of virtually all vaccines since 2001.
Advocacy groups insist autism, for instance, is directly related to vaccines, particularly the combination one for measles, mumps and rubella, even though more than a dozen studies have debunked a widely publicized 1998 paper that sparked international fear over the vaccine-autism connection.
So powerful is the Internet that worried parents pay more attention to inflammatory YouTube videos of dubious credibility than to explanations from their pediatricians or the comprehensive educational information and recommendations available from the Centers for Disease Control and other highly regarded authorities.
After the death of her 16-year-old son Jeff in 2004, Sue Burd of Marlton has told his story to encourage others to take vaccination seriously. Jeff succumbed to meningococcal disease less than 24 hours after feeling unwell. He hadn’t been vaccinated against the disease.
Today, New Jersey requires youngsters entering the sixth grade to receive a meningococcal vaccine that protects against most types of the bacterial form of the disease. But at the time Jeff died the vaccine wasn’t mandated for people his age and younger, only for college students.
The ironic truth is that our country’s impressive success suppressing dangerous ailments through public health vaccination policies is partly responsible for complacency among today’s parents. They question the need to vaccinate their children against diseases that haven’t been a threat for a long time. But they’re wrong.
In many parts of the world, infectious diseases Americans no longer dread are rampant, and our mobile lifestyles mean germs are traveling, too. The CDC has documented the case of a Kenyan refugee who unwittingly infected a Dutch tourist with measles while they both were in the arrivals area at Newark Liberty International Airport.
In New Jersey, access to vaccines isn’t the problem so much as parent resistance. Pediatric vaccines are readily available to most people, even in underserved neighborhoods where federally qualified health centers are located to ensure that poor and migrant communities receive care.
Other initiatives, such as the Newark Health Department’s School Bus Express, offer families the opportunity to vaccinate their children prior to the start of school by offering extended hours and service to walk-in patients for free vaccines for children up to age 18. To find out more about programs like School Bus Express, contact your local health department.
All parents want what’s best for their children, and that should mean keeping them safe from diseases preventable through vaccination. During Immunization Awareness month in August, I urge all New Jersey parents to learn more about why vaccination is a matter of life or death and to make sure your children are up to date on their life-saving immunizations.
David Bendich, a pediatrician, is president of the Essex Metro Immunization Coalition, an advocacy group promoting vaccination for children in greater Newark.
In New Jersey, access to vaccines isn’t the problem so much as parent resistance.
VACCINES recommended for infants, children, adolescents, adults and seniors are crucial to protecting not only the immunized person, but also the health of all of us.
But a growing number of New Jersey parents question the need to vaccinate their children, causing our state to fall woefully behind all but five others in immunization rates.
Decades of scientific research clearly show the powerful protection immunization provides. Instead of resisting inoculations, parents must stay on guard so debilitating afflictions like whooping cough don’t come back with a vengeance. Consider what’s now happening in California: Six infants have died there in what looks like the state’s worst whooping cough epidemic in 50 years.
With increased education about the importance of vaccines New Jersey can avoid California’s fate. Now, during national Immunization Awareness Month, is the time to spread the message.
Despite being discredited by years of scholarly work, alarming stories of the dire effects of routine vaccines live forever on the Internet, getting retold to new parents. People still worry about ingredients in vaccines, such as the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which has been phased out of virtually all vaccines since 2001.
Advocacy groups insist autism, for instance, is directly related to vaccines, particularly the combination one for measles, mumps and rubella, even though more than a dozen studies have debunked a widely publicized 1998 paper that sparked international fear over the vaccine-autism connection.
So powerful is the Internet that worried parents pay more attention to inflammatory YouTube videos of dubious credibility than to explanations from their pediatricians or the comprehensive educational information and recommendations available from the Centers for Disease Control and other highly regarded authorities.
After the death of her 16-year-old son Jeff in 2004, Sue Burd of Marlton has told his story to encourage others to take vaccination seriously. Jeff succumbed to meningococcal disease less than 24 hours after feeling unwell. He hadn’t been vaccinated against the disease.
Today, New Jersey requires youngsters entering the sixth grade to receive a meningococcal vaccine that protects against most types of the bacterial form of the disease. But at the time Jeff died the vaccine wasn’t mandated for people his age and younger, only for college students.
The ironic truth is that our country’s impressive success suppressing dangerous ailments through public health vaccination policies is partly responsible for complacency among today’s parents. They question the need to vaccinate their children against diseases that haven’t been a threat for a long time. But they’re wrong.
In many parts of the world, infectious diseases Americans no longer dread are rampant, and our mobile lifestyles mean germs are traveling, too. The CDC has documented the case of a Kenyan refugee who unwittingly infected a Dutch tourist with measles while they both were in the arrivals area at Newark Liberty International Airport.
In New Jersey, access to vaccines isn’t the problem so much as parent resistance. Pediatric vaccines are readily available to most people, even in underserved neighborhoods where federally qualified health centers are located to ensure that poor and migrant communities receive care.
Other initiatives, such as the Newark Health Department’s School Bus Express, offer families the opportunity to vaccinate their children prior to the start of school by offering extended hours and service to walk-in patients for free vaccines for children up to age 18. To find out more about programs like School Bus Express, contact your local health department.
All parents want what’s best for their children, and that should mean keeping them safe from diseases preventable through vaccination. During Immunization Awareness month in August, I urge all New Jersey parents to learn more about why vaccination is a matter of life or death and to make sure your children are up to date on their life-saving immunizations.
David Bendich, a pediatrician, is president of the Essex Metro Immunization Coalition, an advocacy group promoting vaccination for children in greater Newark.
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