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In response to Pushpendra jain's comments... I am no longer amazed of anything in pediatrics. In 15 years of primary care suburban practice I have learned the following: I am an antibiotic nazi especially if i do not treat by telephone request, my medical expertise is compromised by my financial gains or relationships with pharmaceutical companies, my patients' parents do more "research" than I do--AKA reading a google searched internet account, I should be available at their whim and see them at a time convenient to their kid's soccer schedule as a walk-in service, and parents that think nothing of texting while driving their kids to said soccer game think that a 1 in 10,000-100,000 risk of a vaccination obviates its well documented scientific benefits. We are in a cycle where people no longer believe in science, but they'll be back when we see resurgences of diseases i haven't seen since medical school.

Dr. Segedy, I can assure you that your sentiments were shared by a majority of the attendees at the AAP conference. It seems as though we have gotten to a point where the element of surprise no longer exists; health care providers (for the most part) are numb to the fact that studies with ulterior motives (ie, Wakefield & vaccines/autism) and "celebrities" seem to have more of an impact on health care decisions than physicians who have dedicated their entire lives studying medicine. And when it comes to self diagnosing via Dr. Google, Offit specifically mentioned that a website like the "National Vaccine Information Center" (NCVIC.org) comes up on the first page of Google for a search for "vaccines" and yet the information on the website is extremely misleading and, in some cases, downright wrong. But that doesn't stop people from treating it as credible; after all, it's on the Internet so it must be true!

“It does not protect as promoted. It’s all a sales job: it’s all public relations.”

“I say, ‘Use this vaccine,’ ” he said. “The safety profile is actually quite good. But we have oversold it. Use it — but just know it’s not going to work nearly as well as everyone says.”

“Does it work as well as the measles vaccine? No, and it’s not likely to. But the vaccine works,” Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of epidemiology and prevention in the C.D.C.’s influenza division, said. And research is advancing to improve the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Rogobo, you make a welcome and important point. But reality is that this topic seems to give rise to insult because it has high stakes (precious cargo on board! kids! death and disease). If you think it's hard to hear a message while people are shouting insults, what's it like being deaf because your mummy got rubella while pregnant? I would put it like this: Notion 1: A world without effective serious infection vaccine is uglier and less pleasant than the alternative (polio, anyone?).  Notion 2: At a population level, vaccines improve outcomes more than they harm them.  Notion 3: At a population level, improved outcomes and the prospect of eradication is dependent on high individual participation. Notion 4: At an individual level, there is some risk associated with vaccination. Notion 5: Healthy people not taking the risks of vaccination are: (a) free riding on those who are taking the risks; (b) reducing the prospect of eradication; (c) increasing the prospect of passing infection to those medically incapable of taking the risk Notion 6: Individual liberty and freedom to choose might sometimes be trumped by requirements of public welfare Happy to have any of those notions challenged and discussed

vaccinemakers have introduced newer, "acellular" vaccines that consist of refined pertussis proteins that provide immunity against disease without severe side effects.

Children who had received only the acellular vaccine were more than 5.6 times more likely to get sick than those who received the old, whole-cell vaccine, the team will report next month in Pediatrics. Those receiving one or more of each type had an intermediate risk.

researchers found that children between the ages of 1 and 3 who were given the DTaP vaccine in their thigh instead of in their upper arm were around half as likely to have a local reaction

No approved human vaccine exists against San Joaquin Valley fever or, for that matter, against any other fungal disease (7).

Retrospective evidence from patient studies suggests that people who contract an acute pulmonary or disseminated Coccidioides infection and recover develop lifelong cell-mediated immunity against recurrent coccidioidomycosis.

Based on this observation, together with results of protection studies with experimental animals, it has been proposed that generation of a vaccine against this respiratory mycosis is feasible.

In a roundabout way, the C.I.A. has been blamed for the Pakistan killings.

The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio.

Since the vaccine ruse in Pakistan, she said, “Frankly, now, I can’t go to them and say, ‘The C.I.A. isn’t involved.’ ”

"We've been baking this bread for 60 years, and we're pretty good at it, buddy," said Kenneth Alexander, an infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago.

"I continue to be amazed that people bring this issue up," said Paul Offit, a pediatrician and noted University of Pennsylvania vaccine researcher. "There have been six exhaustive studies (of a possible link between thimerosal and autism). ... They each came back with a definitive answer: No. Three other studies were done to see if thimerosal caused any signs of mercury poisoning. All three answered: No."

Also, Protein Sciences Corp. of Meriden, Conn., landed a five-year, $147 million contract to develop a vaccine using its recombinant technology — flu proteins grown in insect cells. The hope is that the first doses would be available within 12 weeks of the beginning of a pandemic. That is about twice as fast as flu vaccine produced from eggs.

antibodies against a protein in the saliva of a pathogen's transmitting agent

has been shown to confer immunity when administered protectively as a vaccine.

Lyme bacterium known as