Shelle Allen’s healthy, happy daughter, Madi, was 12 years old when she asked to be picked up from a birthday party. After a day, she figured Madi had “just the flu.” She never imagined that what would follow would be a months-long battle with influenza for Madi’s life. In the end, everything about their lives […]
I’ve always felt that National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW, which is this week, falls strangely late in the year. The CDC advised everyone get their flu shots before the end of October–or a month in the past. I, myself, even told people to get their flu shots before they bought their Halloween candy. So where […]
We know that parents refusing vaccines is an area of concern for all of us, but more frequently, parents are asking doctors to give vaccines at a slower rate or in different combinations than the CDC recommends. What is behind these requests, and are these “alternative schedules” a good idea? We asked Dr. Paul Offit […]
When the good folks at WithinReach in Washington state invited us to come talk at their immunization summit, we were more than thrilled. Recording a podcast in front of a live audience brings new dimensions to the podcast, and these new dimensions gave us an opportunity to talk about a subject we have been saving […]
Dr. Richard Pan has been a champion for community immunity his entire career, from his beginnings as a resident in Pittsburgh to his work in the California legislature to eliminate non-medical vaccine exemptions and curb fake medical exemptions. We invited him to the show to give us the broad perspective of the work he has […]
When I was pregnant I received a letter from the Oxford Vaccine Group asking me to enroll my unborn child in a meningococcal vaccine trial once she was born. I’ve always been in favor of vaccines; I am a scientist by training so it makes sense to me to follow the current scientific consensus. So […]
It’s still National Immunization Awareness Month, which means Vax Talk is still having Game Show episodes all of August. Melody Butler, of Nurses Who Vaccinate fame, swung by the podcast and threw down the gauntlet, challenging Nathan to a trivia duel. Who knows more about vaccines and their history? Listen to find out. Thank you […]
When I was eleven years old I learned why my maternal grandmother and my mother have always been vehemently pro-vaccine. It was the day I was to get the vaccine to prevent HPV. As we were on our way to our family doctor’s office, my grandmother asked me if I was scared. I wondered why […]
It’s National Immunization Awareness Month! Continuing with our GAME SHOW theme, we invited Keith Law to play Offit, Wakefield, or Dan Brown. I first met Keith on Twitter during a particular contentious battle against anti-vaccine activists. He is a follow-the-evidence guy, whether during his day job as an ESPN contributor and baseball stats expert, or […]
You’ve seen the social media posts–people purposely trying to get on your nerves about vaccines. Sometimes, though, trolling is actually satirizing for a cause. We decided to have fun with some vaccine-related trolling tweets in a game we called Troll or Be Trolled You first met him on Facebook when he pretended to be customer […]