Vax Talk

Vaccine buzz is buzzier lately, with a new, young advocate (Ethan Lindenberger) traveling to Washington, D.C. to testify about why he got vaccinated after his mother had refused to vaccinate him and with anti-vaccine activists trying to "inundate" the ACIP meeting at the CDC. We will tackle those topics and talk to three special guests about ACIP updates. L.J. Tan discusses with us the latest flu data, Lori Boyle talks about why nurses need to represent, and Amy Pisani talks HPV and PCV.

Links from the episode:

HELP testimony: https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/vaccines-save-lives-what-is-driving-preventable-disease-outbreaks

ACIP public comments: https://youtu.be/gynHFXsuYb4

It's been more than a decade since a U.S. court, in an omnibus proceeding, found that vaccines do not cause autism, but that finding has sparked a new conspiracy theory, thanks in part to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We invited vaccine law expert Dr. Dorit Reiss to our show to discuss with her how this new conspiracy theory does not hold up to scrutiny.

The HPV Vaccine seems to have a special place--not as a cancer-preventing tool but as something people sometimes fear. But when the science is clear that this vaccine is safe and needed, why do some refuse it?

For answers, we talk to Dr. Noel Brewer, a health behavior expert and chair of the National HPV Roundtable.

Links from the episode:

Guardian Facebook article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/24/anti-vaxxers-spread-misinformation-on-social-media-report

National HPV Vaccination Roundtable: http://hpvroundtable.org/

Do you get your flu shot? Does everyone you know get one, too? We invited Dr. LJ Tan to talk to us about last year's flu season, this year's flu forecast, flu vaccine uptake, and Riverdale.

Links from this episode:

Wonder Woman Vaccinates--https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Gal-Gadot-joins-Israeli-vaccine-campaign-amid-measles-outbreak-572950

Parent(hetical) Science Podcast--https://www.parentheticalscience.com/

Ideas Start Here Podcast--https://stchealth.com/category/podcast/

Dr. Peter Hotez is a pediatrician, a vaccinologist, and a parent of Rachel, who is autistic. His new book, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism, leaves no wiggle room for doubt about whether or not he embraces scientific consensus concerning vaccines.

In this episode, we talked to Dr. Hotez about his book, about his daughter, about why vaccines cannot cause autism, and about the anti-vaccine movement.

Links from the episode

The book: https://www.amazon.com/Vaccines-Did-Not-Cause-Rachels-Autism/dp/1421426609

Merck/rotavirus article: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/11/01/655844287/merck-pulls-out-of-agreement-to-supply-life-saving-vaccine-to-millions-of-kids

Dr. Offit at the NPC: https://www.facebook.com/diana.turkovich/videos/10103709244865582/?hc_location=ufi

We ask all of our listeners to purchase this book and then donate it to their pediatrician's office!

If measles has been eliminated from North America, what's up with these outbreaks? Is it even possible to get rid of it globally and for good? We invited CDC's Dr. Mark Papania and Dr. Manisha Patel to answer all of our measles eradication questions.

This episode was sponsored by the Task Force for Global Health in honor of Dr. Samuel Katz and Dr. Walter Orenstein, both of whom have played critical roles in eliminating measles.

A PICU nurse contemplates swabbing a measles patients to infect her own child. A nurse practitioner makes a video about how to school pediatricians on vaccines. What is a pro-vaccine advocate to do? We invited Nurses Who Vaccinate's Melody Butler to discuss all things anti-vaccine nurses.

Links from the show

Nurses Who Vaccinate: http://www.nurseswhovaccinate.org/

CDC Pink Book Webinar: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/ed/webinar-epv/index.html

CHOP webinar: https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-update/vaccine-webinar-series

I Pity The Flu shirts: https://www.cafepress.com/voicesforvaccines/15536121

Anti-Vaccine Nurse video: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.98222/videos/10104448733604178/

At age 44, Jason Mendolsohn was diagnosed with Stage IV HPV throat cancer, and now he's on a mission to convince families to prevent this cancer in their children through immunization. Check out Jason at https://supermanhpv.com/.

In this episode, we also chat about Russian bots. Here's the link to that study: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567

Please note: This episode IS appropriate for kids of all ages, and we invite everyone to listen.

Ethan Posard has a film credit and has published a book--and he's only 17. Meet vaccine advocacy's most influential young hero in this week's episode about teens, kids, vaccines, and advocacy.

New parents have many questions about vaccines. What is the best way to answer those questions and to handle potential vaccine concerns? We talked to Mayo Clinic's Dr. Bob Jacobson and tapped into his wealth of experience about all things vaccines before age two!