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(Un) Informed Consent: A Few Things Parents Don’t Know About the Measles, Mumps & Rubella Vaccine – Part 1
by Louise Habakus
Green Med Info, 18 March 2015
How safe is the combination measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine? Is the information regarding these vaccines easily accessible to parents for them to make an informed and ultimately important choice? Here is part 1, vaccine safety followed by part 2, looking into the manufacturer Merck & Co.
I've been dismayed by the national brouhaha characterized by the Four "Astroturf" Horsemen of Vaccine Hysteria: Fear, Anger, Blame, Hatred.
- The unvaccinated must be hunted down and punished
- Measles is deadly
- We need a federal mandate for the measles vaccine
- No exemptions for anyone
There's nary a mainstream outlet that hasn't jumped in and piled on. For a group of investigative journalists, health reporters, seasoned writers, and popular bloggers that claims to wrap themselves in the cloak of modern science, there's precious little scientific or even analytic thinking, let alone responsible, measured discussion. It remains to be seen whether mainstream journalism will grow a spine.
In the meantime, however, what concerns me is how little parents know about the combination measles, mumps & rubella vaccine (MMR).
I worry about informed consent.
In this post (Part One), we address the safety of the vaccine itself. In Part Two, we'll investigate what's going on with its manufacturer, Merck & Co.
Part One: MMR Vaccine Safety
Documentation of adverse events following vaccination
Start with the basics:
- MMR package insert
- MMRV / ProQuad package insert
- Observed Rate of Vaccine Reactions – Measles, Mumps & Rubella Vaccines from the World Health Organization
- Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System
- Vaccine Injury Table of the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
- The Pink Book: Course Textbook, chapter 12 (Measles) from the CDC
- Can Measles Vaccine Cause Injury & Death? from the National Vaccine Information Center
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