Looking forward to this story this evening.  A friend of mine in grad school studies vaccine scares and always makes a point of the fact that there are national differences.  I'd be interested to hear how the annual measles numbers here compare to those in Britain, for instance, where there've been particularly damaging MMR scares in the last few years.

The young parents I know (including my best friend, sisters, and brother) all agree with me:  its not the vaccinations we protest.  It's the communistic way they are ordered upon our children at birth.  Vaccinations are one thing; how much can a brand new immune system handle?  If you blow a gasket by adding too much oil, you replace the gasket.  If you ruin someone's immune system, how to you replace that?  

The list of "required" vaccinations is growing all the time, and what is the need?  Hep B vax for a newborn?  Give me a break!  Only those regularly exposed to blood need that.  I had the series when I started as a nurses' aide because it was common sense.  Why are we giving that to a newborn?  These are some of the questions I hear from new parents.  

Yes, we run the risk of wide-spread disease, but I would rather err on the side of caution.  I don't trust the FDA pushing stuff on us.  

As a parent whos child had a very bad reaction to the MMR vaccine the very tiny risks were not tiny. Doctors do not inform parents of the risks as they should. Doctors tend to say the risks are minor. They do not tell you of the risk of a fever that is so high and can not be controlled or a three week hospital trip, or how having such a high fever puts a little childs body into shock. Or that when they acctually do agree that that the reaction was vaccine related after countless number of tests that for two years following weekly blood tests just incase it could be something else, which it was not. Parents shoould be informed of the risks (not that they are tiny) the real risks. Parents also should have the right to decide what goes into thier kids. I know the commplications that can happen and did happen to my child and I will not vaccinate again. It is a family decision not a doctors or goverments. If doctors continue to call the risks tiny then to me they are lying. Parents are not responding to rumors but to friends and familys that have experienced what the true risks are.

I TOTALLY aggree with Stephanie-Umbro's comment's. But I also beleive that vaccine ingredents have to be cleaned up in order to restore young parents faith in vaccines. Why, for instance, does aluminum have to be use to create these vaccines? I do not beleive that it is because we do not remember how rampant these disease use to be before vaccines.

It is also very frustrating for myself who wants to vaccinate, but wants to do it at a pace that I beleive in and not give my child 6 or 7 different vaccinations at once as mandated by our state.

I am also frustrated because I live in rural Eastern New Mexico and I have run into many dead ends trying to find MMR (and others) given in seprate vaccinations. I have read that I can give them individually and want to give them individually, but cannot find any one who has access to these seprate vaccines. Which then backs me into a corrner and then forces the decission to opt out of giving the MMR to my child, when I feel it is important. I am tired of feeling forced to give the vaccines in a way with which I am not comfortable as a parent.

I was born in 1954 and survived all the measles, chicken pox, and common childhood diseases.  

I hardly remember it.  HERE IS THE REAL STORY!

I saw the segment about the measles tonight. The real outbreak that people should be worried about is the ridiculous amount of vaccination they give babies before they are 18 months old. My 2 children had been getting all the vaccinations at required times since they were babies. I was not aware of the dangers of the hepatitis B vaccination when I let my 2 children get it in 2000. There had been a hearing before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the Committee on Government Reform in 1999. Both of my kids were diagnosed with Diabetes Type 1 5 years later. That is the real tragedy.

Dr. John Barthelow Classen has done in-depth scientific studies that support the connection between the HepB vaccine and the onset of Diabetes Type 1.  If I had known I would have taken our chances on HepB.  Sure beats the death sentence they got at ages 18 and 15.  

In the hearing in 1999, Patti White, RN said it best, "In 1950 (before mass immunizations began), the USA had the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world. By 1986, the USA dropped to 17th place. In 1995 the USA dropped to 23rd and now the USA has dropped to the appalling position of 24th in the health of its children. But the USA is now first in vaccine compliance through government mandates.

The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological and/or immune system damage: epilepsy, seizure disorders, various kinds of palsies, autism, mental retardation, learning disabilities, juvenile-onset diabetes, asthma, vision /hearing loss, and a multitude of new conduct/behavior disorders."

You should contact her and Dr. Classen.  (I have links to the info, but the comment box said no links.)

Vaccine producers have nothing to lose since our U.S. Congress has made them immune from responsibility or liability for injuries caused from their vaccines. The push is on for them to create more and more vaccines. There are huge amounts of money being made by these people who no longer worry about the consequences of their inadequate clinical trials.

So the criminals here are not the parents that opt out. They are not the ones putting lives in danger. The drug companies, CDC, and FDA are the bad guys here.  They have pushed us all over the edge and don't seem to care about the consequences.

Now my great kids are paying the price that greedy, shameless, political monsters are forcing on them.

For me, it's risk verses benefit.  The risks are very real, including severe brain damage and death.  Any doctor will admit it.  They will also tell you that risks are minimal.  But is "minimal" good enough?  I'm not playing Russiam Roulette with my child's brain. I will continue to weigh the risks; I won't be careless.  But the CDC has to know that this "Herd Immunity" vaccine schedule can be damaging, especially to newborns whose livers do not yet produce bile.

As a pediatrician, I was very happy to see you highlighting the serious danger that not vaccinating poses to children and the general public health. Perhaps you'll focus next on how many autism advocates and organizations are actively campaigning against childhood immunization by actively promoting doubts about vaccine safety and the autism-vaccine "myth."

I gave my child all the recoomended vaccines on the recommended schedule.  he was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months.  I did my research and discovered that the whispers of other parents (whose children become disabled) had been saying for years, about the vaccine/schedule.  It turned out to be true, more or less.  Now I am one of those mothers.  I have a baby girl, she is developing normally and has not been touched by a needle!  It is not that I am anti vaccine, but I do firmly believe that the added ingredients  that are used as preservatives in these vaccinations are dangerous to a young mind.  I will vacinate my baby girl, one at a time, after she is 18 months and will choose only those vaccines that protect against truley harmful disease.  Chicken Pox??? Give me a break!

Please be fair in covering this topic.  I watch this progam all week, it is disappointing to see such a one sided slant in favor of vaccines.  It promotes distrust of the stories you cover and distrust of the medical industry.  It is not about measles it is about the vaccine schedule and the toxic load we are putting on young babies.  I felt that story was a scare tactic, my doctor gave me the same speech, that is not informed consent!  It furthers my resolve to not vacinate my children.  

  You cover Autism more often these days, always avoiding the V word.  Please take notice that it is not just Autism, it is a cocktail of disorders that are coming into the system, ADHD, Dyslexia, dyspraxia, PDD, communication disorders OCD, shingles in teenagers, athsma, diabetes, and all kinda of exzema and arthritis in CHILDREN!   If you are going to cover a story like this please don't mis represent us by saying we don't remeber how bad the disease was,  understand what you are covering and know you are treading  on a very sensitive subject.  

Robert –

I guess you can rest your case.  You are right that there is a growing number of adults that are being brainwashed to be anti-vaccinations.  The comments above are amazing to me - people who sound like they are informed and intelligent, but who would not allow their children to be vaccinated after reading your compelling validation for it.  People who choose to misunderstand your comment (which is undisputable fact) that the risk of side effects is miniscule.  People who didn't have the experience I did one summer as a child when I was kept inside the house...every day, all summer...for fear of contracting polio - the next year there was the miracle of a vaccination that I stood in line for in the form of a sugar cube.  If polio broke out again in America would these people refuse to have their children vaccinated for it?  Is that possible?  That would be horrifying.

Do these misinformed, selfish parents go to a doctor and take medications when they are ill?  Do those medications they will take have no risk of any side effects?  Do they ever take an aspirin even?  People have died from aspirins but we don't let that miniscule statistic stop us all from taking them.  Are they the same people who will not get a flu shot (a dead virus) because they are convinced it may give them the flu?  

Where is the documentation that multiple prescribed vaccinations administered to a child at one time is a danger to the health of that child?  How is it they can single out vaccinations from all the advances in medicine and decide there is a government conspiracy by the regulating agencies?  The only conspiracy I can identify relating to vaccinations is that some groups of people somehow are excluded from laws that should protect our society by incarcerating any parent who would not have their child vaccinated from diseases when there is in fact miniscule risk – that conspiracy does not reside in the regulating agencies, it is in congress.

As Dr. Mirkin rightly states in his comment, there is in fact a SERIOUS DANGER that not vaccinating poses to children and the general public health.  Promoting the unfounded myths about vaccinations is akin to yelling fire in a public place and is unconscionable.

At least most of the other countriess in the world are safe from these misguided americans and their unfortunate, innocent children because they require vacination records before granting entrance visas.

I am a young mother (34) and I had my first and only child when I was 21. I am aware of the diseases that my parents and grandparents faced, but the problem I have with vaccinations is that there are so many and alot of them have not been tested long enough to verify the long term effects or the side effects. Look at the kids who have gotten autism. Some say that is linked to some vaccines. No one knows which one though so they keep giving our kids all of them. Then they keep adding more and more vaccines onto the many we have and so it seems to me that my son has to get a new vaccination every year almost. My son started kindergarten in 2002. Before he could start school he was made to get the chicken pox vaccine. My son ended up getting chicken pox two weeks later, and to be honest, the chicken pox were worse then the ones I had as a child and there was no vaccine. Then in 2006 or 2007 they came out with that cervical cancer prevention vaccine. My God daughter who was 12 or 13 at the time and many of her friends were forced to get that vaccine because they dance and cheer and are involved in sports. I mean unless your child is at an age to be sexually active, or if you feel that your child might be exposed to sexual activity, why would you forceably give an unknown and untested vaccine to such a young girl? Now, just recently they came out with the menengitis vaccine and they want all the parents to run out and get their college age kids vaccinated. Our kids are pumped so full of hormones and chemicals and all sorts of things that I do not even want to imagine, and none of them will probably ever in their lifetime catch any of this stuff or even be exposed to it. To me the ones we always hear about are either kids who have traveled abroad and caught something and brought it home, or from children or adults who come here from other countries. To me the policy should be changed. We should make those who enter our borders get all these vaccinations and then sit in a quarantine for a certain amount of time to make sure they are clear, or maybe we should encourage dialogue with foreign leaders and help them establish a system where they get all their children vaccinated to death so that we can erradicate these horrible diseases from the world for good!

At issue is vaccination as you state but also knowledge. The knowledge of what the symptoms are and how to diagnose them, personal experience with TB in early 80's, from our doctors to people.  Though it is a current issue due to trends, it well only get worse as immigration increases, both legal and illegal. My father whom worked in the medical sales field was told to leave a clinic back in the 70's as the waves of immigrants from Vietnam arrived due to TB, and various other communicable diseases were present and the doctors were allowing those to mix into our society at the time.

At issue is the knowledge, or lack of knowledge as to why a person may be sick. But it is also the acceptance that should people die due to a treatable or preventable disease that those in control of said person life take that responsibilty and do not lay blame to the government and or others.

I agree with the comments Stephanie-Umbro posted.  The debate on childhood vaccines is not so black and white or just about blaming thimerasol. It is irresponsible for NBC, and other national news broadcasters to paint a one sided, narrow picture of those who do not believe in the safety of vaccines.  Please try to do a better job of covering both sides of the story.

Robert cannot rest his case. There is no number of growing adults being brainwashed, its a growing number of adults being educated into not believing everything their doctors are telling them. Do you even have children? Are you responsible for paying several thousands of dollars each year for special attention needs for severely handicapped children...which comes about after each vaccination?

 There is so much information available to the public today, library, internet, ans people that shows hard proof that Vaccinations can be very harmful and deadly, even if only in a "small number" of cases. It is also known that doctors and lawyers cover up their tracks when they don't want nonsupporting evidence published. There is evidence that they are not protecting us with long term immunity. It is shown that states are paid by the US Government for each and every child that is vaccinated.

 IF we are forced to vaccinate, that is just the American loosing more of our rights.

 I am not a selfish parent who goes to the doctor every time I get sick to get medicine. I have only been to the doctor a few times in my life, most of these to be vaccinated. Otherwise I deal with the side affects and get over being sick by eating healthy and having clean living conditions. Which is what we should be doing with our children and citizens in this country: taking care of them and eating right!