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Safety of Vaccines and Medications Tops List of Priorities for Parents
Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Health & Safety: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers
Parents want more research done on the safety of children's vaccines. Credit: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images
When asked, nearly nine out of 10 parents rate research on the safety of vaccines, and effectiveness and safety of medicines, as the most important topics regarding children's health, according to the recent C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Poll on Children's Health.
This may come as no surprise in light of a marked increase in parental concerns over the safety of vaccines in the last decade, largely due to alleged, but later disproved, links between vaccines and autism and concerns about mercury and other preservatives used in the vaccines.
Government agencies and health care providers assure us vaccines are safe, but, for many, those assurances just aren't enough. The Poll on Children's Health results demonstrate that parents are looking to researchers to provide the layer of confidence they need when it comes to vaccine safety.
"Assurances from health care providers and government officials that vaccines are safe have been insufficient," Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the poll and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, says in a press release. "Rather, it's clear from this poll that parents want more research about the safety of vaccines for their young children and adolescents."
The safety and effectiveness of medications may be an issue that has risen to the top this year as a result of recent recalls of high-profile children's medications -- such as Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl -- and recent reports that suggest some common over-the-counter medicines may be ineffective for kids.
But no matter the cause, parents clearly recognize the importance of continuing research about medications, and recognize the role research can play in helping to inform them about the potential benefits and risks of treatments for their children, Davis says.
Issues that concern parents, according to the poll:
- Safety of vaccines (89 percent)
- Effectiveness and safety of medicines (88 percent)
- Things in the environment that can lead to health problems (72 percent)
- Foods that might protect against cancer (67 percent)
- New treatment for a rare childhood disease (66 percent)
- Foods that might cause cancer (64 percent)
- New treatment for a common childhood disease (64 percent)
- Leading causes of injuries in children (46 percent)
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
10-12-2010 @ 9:11PM
Jerry said...Dr. Davis' comments are completely inaccurate. If you go to pubmed (library of the National Institute of Health) and type in “autism and mercury” you will get references to 145 papers. The vast majority of papers that involve the generation of original data support the link between mercury and autism. The papers that don’t are literature reviews and epidemiological (statistical manipulation) studies that just regurgitate the same mainstream talking points. It’s hard to talk mercury without mentioning vaccines. Here’s why:
200 ppb mercury = level in liquid the EPA classifies as hazardous waste based on toxicity characteristics.
25,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose, Hepatitis B vaccine vials, administered at birth from 1991-2001 in the U.S.
50,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose DTaP and Haemophilus B vaccine vials, administered 8 times in the 1990’s to children at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months of age and currently “preservative” level mercury in multi-dose flu, meningococcal and tetanus vaccines. This can be confirmed by simply analyzing the multi-dose vials.
I won’t let my kids within 10 feet of a pediatrician ever again.
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