Yesterday, I went to our pediatrician for our son’s 18-month appointment. Aside from measuring his heigh, and weight, probing his body, and the onslaught of Q & A, these scheduled visits usually come with some type of immunization shots.
The immunization I feared the most was back at our 12-month appointment – the MMR Vaccine. Back in July, I blogged on that topic… if parents should fear the MMR (combination of measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. I certainly did fear it & it pushed me to read several articles and research studies before making the decision. The latest news is that the infamous research study supposedly linking the MMR vaccine to autism, that was published in The Lancet medical journal in 1998, was “flawed.” The Lancet “fully retracts this (research) paper from the published record.”
Today’s NY Post included an article by Kate Sheehy, Vaccine ‘autistic link KO’d, providing the details on how “the explosive study that first linked autism to childhood vaccines – and spurred a generation of parents to consider spurning the disease-preventing inoculations – got a final nail in the coffin.”
The article estimates that approximately 5% of concerned parents opt out of doing the MMR Vaccine for their children or go “on very slow time-table for getting their shots.” As a result, the article mentioned that “We used to not see measles. People are not doing the MMRs, and the kids are getting intense illnesses.”
As parents, we want to be well-informed, especially when it comes to our kids. I am not sure if this new news (sounds funny) will persuade more parents that the vaccine is necessary, but it will certainly provide parents with more information on this hot topic. Feel free to express your opinion…
Leave a Reply