I have enrolled in a #COVIDvaccine trial and last week got my first shot. This wasn’t always my plan, though. I had a surprising amount of hesitancy early on, so I want to share how I worked through it. As an avid advocate who believes that vaccines save lives, I found myself personally and professionally […]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re focused on this one, novel infection. It’s almost as if time has stopped and we’ve forgotten about the many childhood diseases that, thanks to science, we can prevent! Is it just me, or does it feel like flu season was eons ago? But it’s our job to […]
The world’s vaccinologists are racing against time to find a safe, effective vaccine to protect against SARS-CoV-2. In our latest Vax Talk episode, we talked to our friend and infectious disease expert, Dr. Stanley Potkin, about how vaccines are typically developed and what is being done now to make the one vaccine the world desperately […]
What happens when you bring to HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention champions together? A great conversation about how to encourage parents to start and complete the HPV vaccine series in order to prevent six forms of cancer. For this episode, we brought Minnesota champion Dr. Andrea Singh to talk to Karen and Nathan–the Iowa HPV […]
Nurses are trusted healthcare providers because they are caring, smart, and hard-working. We all love our nurses, so when they speak out against vaccines, they present a special danger. A few nurses have publicly come out or made the news for being anti-vaccine, and we want to provide ways for pro-vaxxers to combat this threat. […]
Thanks to decades of awareness campaigns, parents are no longer surprised at a well-child check that their babies will be getting vaccines. But often, they are surprised or confused by how many vaccines are given, what diseases they prevent, how immunizations are monitored for safety, and how to make the shots less painful for their […]
I guess it all started with my fascination with herbal medicine and other alternative healing practices. I had a very nice and sizeable herbal remedy bookshelf, the pride of which was my ‘The Green Pharmacy‘ by Dr James D. Duke. I’ll come back to that in a bit. I also used ‘Healing Foods‘ by Miriam […]
Or: Confessions of a Broken Record I post about two things on social media – science fiction and vaccines. The first, because I love it. I am a hardcore Trekkie/Star Wars/Firefly/Isaac Asimov-loving type of girl. The second, because I am a nurse and I practice evidence-based medicine. I never realized that opposition to vaccination was […]
As the person at the helm of Voices for Vaccines, I frequently hear the newest claims made by anti-vaccine activists about the alleged dangers of vaccines. Part of my job is investigating these claims, talking to experts about them, and helping to communicate to parents about which of these claims are valid and which are […]
There has been a lot of talk since 1998 as to whether vaccines cause autism. Though I have been loath to enter this conversation, it has become apparent that perhaps I should speak in order to provide a helpful, even fresh perspective. Here is our family’s story. In 1987, my youngest sister was born, the […]