11Mar 2011 by Walt Larimore

Unbelievable: Nearly half of Americans still suspect disproven vaccine-autism link

Children's Health, Parenting
Despite overwhelming evidence that there is NO association between any vaccine in particular, or vaccines in general, and autism, just a slim majority of Americans – 52 percent – think vaccines don't cause autism, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found. Conversely, 18 percent are convinced that vaccines, like the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, can cause the disorder, and another 30 percent aren't sure. (more…)
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11Mar 2011 by Walt Larimore

Public health officials urged to hold national discussion on vaccine risks, benefits

Children's Health, Parenting
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Michael Willrich, an associate professor of history at Brandeis University, writes , “Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, roughly one in five Americans believes that vaccines cause autism—a disturbing fact that will probably hold true even after the publication, in a British medical journal, of a report thoroughly debunking the 1998 paper that began the vaccine-autism scare.” (more…)
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11Mar 2011 by Walt Larimore

Commercially available prenatal tests will lead to more abortions

Bioethics
The Los Angeles Times "Booster Shots" shot blog notes that a recent study in the British Medical Journal reported on "a simple blood test that was able to determine whether a fetus had Down syndrome"; and reports in Science Translational Medicine and Nature Precedings "demonstrated the technical ability to analyze thousands of genetic markers with as little as 10 milliliters of blood." (more…)
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