In The San Francisco Chronicle, Liza Gross and Sharon R. Kaufman explain why appeals to authority are not dispelling fears of vaccines.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/21/ED0M1D11DB.DTL#ixzz0lniclgvNToday's parents are keenly aware of environmental risks, from lead in toys to toxic chemicals in baby bottles. And many are angry that government officials failed to ward off such hazards. Why should they believe experts' assurances about vaccines and autism?
It doesn't help that science can't explain the apparent explosion of autism cases, now an average of 1 in 110 children, which just happened to coincide with an expanded childhood vaccine schedule. And now, filled with vaccine doubts, many parents no longer view childhood immunization as their civic responsibility but as a personal responsibility - and potential risk - to their children. So they try to learn as much about vaccines as possible from as many sources as possible. And they inevitably encounter the profusion of commentary blaming vaccines for autism. Their research doesn't dispel doubt, but raises more questions. As a result, more parents are choosing pediatricians who will delay or skip vaccinations, break the MMR vaccinations into separate shots, or even give no vaccinations at all.
