Vaccines are both safe and effective. So what’s behind the anti-vaccination movement of recent years?
The issue took center stage this week following remarks from Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), two probable contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, who both seemed to suggest that vaccinating one’s children is ultimately a personal decision for parents to make. (Christie’s office later issued a statement saying that “with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated.”)
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“Folks who were willing to take the shot were much more attuned to following… articles on swine flu in the media,” Schwirian said. “The whole scale of the swine flu outbreak — which was pretty big, you may recall — may have led people to develop a fear of infection… and the media played a big role [in that].”
The team’s findings were published online in the journal Health Promotion International.
