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A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and recognize further and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future.
Maurice Ralph Hilleman was a leading American microbiologist who specialized in vaccinology and developed over 40 vaccines, an unparalleled record of productivity. According to one estimate, his vaccines save nearly eight million lives each year. He has been described as one of the most influential vaccinologists ever. He has been called the "father of modern vaccines". Robert Gallo called Hilleman "the most successful vaccinologist in history". He has been noted by some researchers as having saved more lives than any other scientist in the 20th century.
Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others. Although adverse effects associated with vaccines are occasionally observed, the scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.
Generation Rescue is a nonprofit organization that advocates the scientifically disproven view that autism and related disorders are primarily caused by environmental factors, particularly vaccines. The organization was established in 2005 by Lisa and J.B. Handley. Today, Generation Rescue is known as a platform for Jenny McCarthy's autism related anti-vaccine advocacy.
Arapahoe Community College (ACC) is a public community college in Littleton, Colorado. It was founded in 1965 as the first community college to open in the Denver area.
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), founded under the name Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT) in 1982, is an American 501(c)(3) organization that has been widely criticized as a leading source of fearmongering and misinformation about vaccines. While NVIC describes itself as the "oldest and largest consumer-led organization advocating for the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections", it promotes false and misleading information including the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism, and its campaigns portray vaccination as risky, encouraging people to consider "alternatives." In April 2020, the organization was identified as one of the greatest disseminators of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook.
Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds. No major religion prohibits vaccinations, and some consider it an obligation because of the potential to save lives. However, some people cite religious adherence as a basis for opting to forego vaccinating themselves or their children. Many such objections are pretextual: in Australia, anti-vaccinationists founded the Church of Conscious Living, a "fake church", leading to religious exemptions being removed in that country, and one US pastor was reported to offer vaccine exemptions in exchange for online membership of his church.
Paul Allan Offit is an American pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases (1992–2014), and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
A booster dose is an extra administration of a vaccine after an earlier (primer) dose. After initial immunization, a booster provides a re-exposure to the immunizing antigen. It is intended to increase immunity against that antigen back to protective levels after memory against that antigen has declined through time. For example, tetanus shot boosters are often recommended every 10 years, by which point memory cells specific against tetanus lose their function or undergo apoptosis.
The Autism Science Foundation (ASF) is a non-profit organization that funds evidence-based autism research and supports autism families. The organization was founded in April 2009 by Alison Tepper Singer, a former senior executive of Autism Speaks and the longest-serving public member of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), and Karen Margulis London, co-founder of the National Alliance for Autism Research. Both Singer and London are parents of autistic children.
Robert William Sears, known as Dr. Bob, is an American pediatrician from Capistrano Beach, California, noted for his unorthodox and dangerous views on childhood vaccination. While Sears acknowledges the efficacy of vaccines—for instance, he supports the claim that Chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria have all disappeared because of vaccines—he has proposed alternative vaccination schedules that depart from accepted medical recommendations. His proposals have enjoyed celebrity endorsement but are not supported by medical evidence and have contributed to dangerous under-vaccination in the national child population. While he denies being anti-vaccine, Sears has been described by many as anti-vaccine and as a vaccine delayer.
James R. Laidler is an American anesthesiologist in Portland, Oregon, who is known both for his activism for, and later his opposition to, alternative autism therapies.
Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines are Safe and Save Lives is a 2012 pro-vaccine book, published by Rowman and Littlefield, and written by E. Allison Hagood, a psychology professor, and Stacy Mintzer Herlihy, a freelance writer from Roseland, New Jersey. The foreword was written by Paul Offit.
In the United States, an alternative vaccination schedule is a vaccination schedule differing from the schedule endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). These schedules may be either written or ad hoc, and have not been tested for their safety or efficacy. Proponents of such schedules aim to reduce the risk of adverse effects they believe to be caused by vaccine components, such as "immune system overload" that is argued to be caused by exposure to multiple antigens. Parents who adopt these schedules tend to do so because they are concerned about the potential risks of vaccination, rather than because they are unaware of the significance of vaccination's benefits. Delayed vaccination schedules have been shown to lead to an increase in breakthrough infections without any benefit in lower side effect profiles.
Wendy Sue Swanson is an American pediatrician, educator and author, known for her Seattle Mama Doc blog.
Tara Susan Haelle, known professionally as Tara Haelle, is an American photojournalist, educator, author, and science writer. Haelle, along with co-author Emily Willingham, published The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years, which examines several child raising controversies. She examined the history and science of vaccines in a 2018 book entitled Vaccination investigation. In addition, Haelle has written several children's educational books, including Edible Sunlight, and Seasons, Tides, and Lunar Phases.
Ethan Lindenberger is an American activist known for his opposition to anti-vaccine disinformation campaigns. He received vaccinations, against his mother's wishes, on reaching the age of majority.
Jennifer Anne Reich is an American sociologist, researcher and author at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research interests include healthcare, adolescence, welfare, and policy. Her work on vaccine hesitancy gained widespread attention during the 2019 measles outbreaks. She is the author of three books and numerous journal articles.
The New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC) is a state-level anti-vaccination group advocating against mandatory vaccination. Scientists and medical experts have countered many of these statements, arguments against vaccination being contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
The announcement of the polio vaccine's safety and effectiveness was on April 12, 1955, by Thomas Francis, Jr., of the University of Michigan, the monitor of the test results. Within minutes of his announcement to the audience of scientists and reporters, news of the event was carried coast to coast by wire services and radio and television newscasts. When the vaccine was announced as successful, it led to spontaneous celebrations across the United States. It was the world's first successful polio vaccine, declared "safe, effective, and potent." It was possibly the most significant biomedical advance of the past century.
References
- 1 2 3 "Psychology Faculty at Arapahoe Community College | Arapahoe Community College" . Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- 1 2 E. Allison Hagood; Stacy Mintzer Herlihy; Paul A. Offit (2012). Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4422-1578-8.
- ↑ Goodwin LD, Stevens EA, Goodwin WL, Hagood EA (2000). "The Meaning of Faculty Mentoring". Journal of Staff, Program, and Organization Development. 17: 17–30.
- 1 2 Rowman.com: 9781442215788 - Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives . Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- ↑ "Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives, by Stacy Mintzer Herlihy | Booklist Online" . Retrieved 2012-09-09.
