When Making Decisions About Childhood Vaccination Balance Your Heart with Your Head
By Andrew J. Resignato

Before I agreed to take the job as Director of the San Francisco Immunization Coalition I did some soul-searching and extensive research. I have worked my entire career in public service mostly trying to improve the health and education of children.  I have always believed that if you want to improve society, improve the lives of children.

At first I was hesitant to work in the vaccine arena for fear that vaccines may not be healthy or may be just guided by a profit-driven industry not really looking out for the real interests of children. After all, I had read a lot of accounts on the internet and in the newspapers about parents refusing to vaccinate children because vaccines were unsafe. This concerned me. After much research, soul-searching, and thought - I took the job.

Since that time when I research arguments for and against vaccines I reach the same conclusion. Immunization and vaccines have saved millions of lives, prevented untold cases of individual disease and suffering those diseases inflict. They represent a preventive public health strategy to be embraced not feared. Immunizations have helped to create childhoods for millions of children that are free from the infections that have plagued and killed children for centuries. In developing nations where vaccines are considered luxury these diseases still interrupt children's growth and present major barriers to making it to adulthood healthy. However, immunization as any other medical therapy has risks. It is important to evaluate the risks and the benefits of immunization in an objective way to decide what is best for your child.

Here are some ideas for parents to consider when making decisions regarding immunization:

1. The parent or legal caregiver is the main decision-maker when it comes to their child's health. This is how it should be in a free society. In California you as a parent do have the right to vaccinate or not vaccinate. If you wish to refuse vaccination on religious, philosophical, or personal reasons you can submit this form.
   
2. Between the 'pro-immunization' and 'anti-immunization' camps there is a lot of gray area and room to make vaccinations even safer, more effective, and less intrusive on individual rights.  We have work to do.
   
3. Everything has risk. Do not let anyone ever get you to believe that there is zero risk in any activity. The chances of you and your child getting killed or injured in a car accident far exceed the chances of you or your child dying or being injured as a result of vaccines. Even though it is risky, has a friend ever stopped you before you put your infant in a car and said, "I can't believe you are going to put your new baby in that deathtrap. Do you realize that the government and car manufacturers know that cars are unsafe and that children die in car accidents every year." Why don't people say things like this? Because we all forget or simply do not know about the relative risks of certain activities. You may be surprised at the actual relative risk of your daily activities. It is important to know the real facts and the relative risks we take with ours and our children's health. It is easy to get caught up in the hype but hype does not always reflect reality. And you do not want to let hype determine the decisions you make about your children's health.
   
4. Q: What happens when you prevent disease? A: NOTHING HAPPENS. It is very hard for the media to get excited about nothing. Therefore the majority of the information about vaccines in the media is negative. It is easy to not want to vaccinate your child if you never see the consequences of not vaccinating. When the polio vaccine was developed there were lines of thousands of people lined up with their children to get the vaccine. Why? Because parents saw the crippling effects that the polio disease had on someone they knew. Think about the demand if an HIV vaccine was licensed for use. You would see a huge demand until the vaccine succeeded in effectively preventing the disease. One day after an effective vaccine is developed, the next generation of children will say, "HIV - what is that?"
   
5. Most people trust their doctor to make decisions about their child's health, therefore it is imperative to find a health provider that you trust to help you make important health care decisions.  The importance of a medical home that you feel confident in can not be understated.
   
6. Needles are scary. Sometimes they scare adults more than children. Fear can often be irrational. Emotions can sometimes lead to irrational decisions. Decisions require a careful balance of head and heart. As a parent it is important to be cognizant of risks to your child's health but there is a line between awareness and paranoia. And consider that political ideology can also have a distorting effect on ones objectivity.
   
7. Immunization is neither entirely a 'modern' nor 'Western' medical practice. Many people I meet do not trust the 'modern' or 'Western' medical institutions or practices. I let them know that the first immunization programs were developed and practiced by the Chinese in the 9^th Century A.D. The village healer would infect the village with a less virulent strain of smallpox in order to create immunity against more deadly strains that would come in waves across Asia. This process called variolation has been refined over thousands of years but the basic philosophy is exactly the same.
   
8. Remember, conspiracy theories (i.e. vaccination is a government plot, adverse reactions to vaccines are part of a grand cover-up, etc.) are rarely true. Don't base your children's health solely on conspiracy theories.
   
9. Understand that the internet is chock full of information, some of it misleading, and not backed up in any factual or science bases. I hear many people imply that science can be manipulated but many of these people do not understand the incredible intricacies and rigor that go into scientific analysis. While research is not always 100% correct the scientific process can eliminate many false hypotheses and spurious conclusions.
   
10. Vaccines are safer than ever. The technology in vaccines has significantly improved along with our ability to monitor their safety. With that said, vaccines can always be made more effective and safer.