Kimberly Coffey was 17 years old and days away from high school graduation when she caught what she thought was a case of flu. Days later, her family was saying good-bye. Many families would keep this story to themselves, but Kimberly’s mother, Patti Wukovits, knew that she could do something to stop bacterial meningitis from […]
Crossing the threshold into adulthood is marked by rites of passage: graduations, first jobs, and lowered vaccine uptake. Perhaps getting fewer vaccines isn’t a rite of passage, but ignoring vaccines as a hallmark of preventive health seems to be ubiquitous among adults who adhere gladly to well-child checks and immunization schedules for their children. Just […]
It all began on a warm afternoon in May of 1996. My 6-year-old daughter was swinging on her swing set when she suddenly stopped and, raising a hand to her neck, asked, “Momma, what is this?” I pulled her strawberry blond hair back to reveal a large blister-like bump below her ear lobe. “Does it […]
I remember during my second pregnancy seeing an ad informing me that I could pass along whooping cough to my baby. At the time, I didn’t know what whooping cough was or what I could do about that. Looking back, I’m not even sure what they wanted me to do. Now, years too lot, I […]
Vaccines are literally a life or death situation for people like my father, who battled stage 4 leukemia after being given six weeks to live. He beat the odds and has been in remission since 2009, but now suffers from GVH disease because the bone marrow transplant he received during treatment wasn’t a complete match. […]
August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), a month that is akin to St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July all rolled into one (but for vaccines). In fact, maybe it should be called National Immunization Celebration Month instead. With immunization advocates across the country, Voices for Vaccines is celebrating NIAM in style, with […]
August is National Immunization Awareness Month, and we hope your social media feeds have been inundated with vaccine talk. But we need to remember that people need vaccines all year long. It’s just about time for you to take your family for a flu shot, and babies receive the bulk of their protection against 14 diseases […]
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 […]
Ethan Posard got his Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis) booster on-camera, thanks to his older sister and the documentary film she was making at school, Invisible Threat. The vaccine (and the experience of learning about preventable diseases from his sister) led to a new kind of advocacy: kids talking to kids. Ethan, now fourteen, has published The Shots […]
Editor’s Note: A longer version of this piece originally appeared on Loura’s private blog. Several years ago, my state outlawed public smoking. As a non-smoker concerned with the terrible health risks of second-hand smoke, I was thrilled. My family could now eat at restaurants, go bowling, and watch a live baseball game without our eyes watering, our […]