Chapter 9 Childhood Immunization

The following is the complete draft of the chapter on vaccination for the book I am authoring. Please feel free to read and comment. Thanks in advance.

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[CN]Chapter 9
[CT]The Shot Heard ?round the World
[IP]The topic of childhood immunization along can generate enough discussion and controversy to fill an entire library full of books. Since this book only has space to devote a single chapter on the subject, it will narrow its focus on the common public misconceptions and fears about vaccines. An overwhelming abundance of vaccine opponents are always working hard to abolish childhood immunization. They tend to be more vocal, and thereby garnering more media coverage. There is always a need for more authoritative medical sources to discredit their myths.
[H1]Irresponsible Media
[NF]Party due to the widespread audience of television programs like ?60 Minutes? and ?Nightline?, today?s parents are much more aware of any reported adverse reactions from vaccinations, real or imagined. Large organization against childhood immunization also utilized the internet to promote their views. Unfortunately, these groups almost always emphasize the risk of vaccinations rather than their merits. It?s unfortunate that a significant portion of the general public trusts the mass media more than their pediatricians and the scientific community.
[H2]Information Disconnect
Before attributing all the blames to the vaccine opponents, perhaps the doctors and the medical community themselves are at fault for this distrust. Physicians and academic researchers don?t speak the same language as the lay public, and they are often too busy or perhaps too arrogant to translate their language to the masses so everyone can understand. There is some truth in that doctors and other professionals have to go through so much academic training because they want to use an arcane jargon that no one else but them can understand. It?s a club of exclusivity.
[E-Fact]
[SB]Many doctors have already given up convincing parents who refuse vaccinations. They simply turn them away from their practice, and let someone else deal with the medical and legal consequences of not immunizing their patients.
[ESB]
However, when it comes to childhood immunization and its safety, it?s vital for the general public to understand what most health professionals know. Doctors take this information for granted, and the lack of communication with the parents enables those who are against vaccination to make so much strides in their smear campaign. Despite the knowledge and strong scientific evidence, the vocal minority is brain-washing many parents so they refuse vaccination for their children.
[H2]Bad Education
Contrary to common sense, most parents who refuse vaccines are generally highly educated and extremely intelligent. They often conduct extensive research on their own regarding immunization before reaching the conclusion that they are dangerous. However, their effort is often misdirected. Frequently, many of these parents utilize the internet as their primary source for research, and the internet is an extremely poor tool in this regard. Most claims on the internet are made by individuals without any medical training or with questionable background. Reliable sources do exist on the internet, but it can be difficult to distinguish from the trustworthy ones from the blatant quackery.
[E-ssential]
[SB]Don?t forget that your child?s pediatrician is the best source of information for questions regarding immunization. If you have any concern about vaccine safety, don?t hesitate to bring up the discussion with your doctor. Pediatricians are trained health advocates, and we love to inform parents on the virtues of immunization as well as the possible side effects.
[ESB]
Even printed materials can be a source of misinformation. Magazine articles written by non-professionals often misinterpret the results of scientific studies, and they often quote experts out of context. Books authored by evangelical parents with personal testimonial on the danger of vaccination are also widely distributed. In today?s media-frenzy world, parents can be easily misguided and confused by all the mixed messages.
[H1]How Do Vaccines Work?
[NF]Before any meaningful discussion about the benefit and risk of vaccines, parents must understand how do vaccines protect children from infections. Vaccines are completely different from antibiotics. Antibiotics are prescribed once an infection has established inside the body. Vaccines stops the establishment of a serious infection in the first place, therefore it is a superior strategy in fighting infectious agents. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
[H2]An FBI File
Giving your child an vaccine against a bad germ is equivalent of setting up an FBI file for that germ in your child?s body. Most vaccines are made from bits and pieces of the bad germ. When your child receives the vaccine, it?s like distributing flyers of the most wanted bad germs all over your child?s body. Your child?s immune system is alerted to the presence of this particular bad germ, and an equivalent of an FBI file is set up in your child?s immunologic headquarter.
If this specific germ tries to infiltrate past your child?s immunologic defense, your child?s security system would be alerted immediately, and before the bad germ can make much inroad to its invasion, it would be caught and exterminated.
Knowing how vaccines work, you can see that vaccines in no way weaken the immune system. If anything, they empower your child?s body in its defenses and beef up the border patrol against unauthorized germ invasion.
[H2]Booster Shots
The effect of most vaccines does not last forever. As the FBI file gets old, it tends to collect dust and gets pushed behind some cabinet. It?s not inconceivable that over long period of time, it can be lost or forgotten. The immune system?s memory isn?t perfect either, and that?s why your child often requires several booster shots for the same infectious agent. Getting these booster shots is just as important as getting the primary vaccine. You can?t afford to have your child?s immunity lose track of these dangerous bad guys.
[E-Alert]
[SB]Don?t forget that even adults need to get shots once in a long while. A tetanus booster is required throughout life, and it needs to be administered once every ten years. If you are unsure of your last tetanus booster date, check with your doctor. It?s only fair that your child gets to watch daddy and mommy receive shots too.
[ESB]
The boosters are typically scheduled at predetermined intervals. If they are given too early or too close together, the booster effect is not optimized. If the memory of a criminal germ is still fresh in the immune system?s mind, it would be a waste to refresh its memory so soon. Taking your child to the pediatrician at instructed interval is crucial in keeping the best record for your child?s immune system.
[H1]Getting Sick from Shots
[NF]Many parents fear that their child might get sick from getting shots. While mild reaction could result from vaccines, they are typically rare and extremely minor. Their fear might have arose from first-generation vaccines that were given out decades ago. Today?s vaccines are not your grandfather?s vaccines. They work better and they have significantly less side effects. Overall, the advancement in vaccine production has rendered these worries obsolete.
[H2]Dead or Alive
It is impossible to get the infection itself from receiving vaccines that do not contain live viruses. Most vaccines fall into this category, and parents never have to worry about their children getting sick from the vaccine. However, it is true that a few vaccines, including the chickenpox vaccine and the measles and rubella combined vaccine, consist of live viruses. For these vaccines, it is possible to get a very mild case of the infection. However, because the live viruses in these shots have been greatly weakened, they can never cause a normal infection. Typically, there might be some mild fever and a slight rash associated with the slight infections. No one will become very ill from these live but weakened viruses.
[E-Fact]
[SB]The polio vaccine used to have a live-virus formulation as well, which could cause paralysis in very rare circumstances (literally one in a million). However, this is now a non-issue because this type of vaccine has not been used in the United States since 1996. Nowhere in the United States is giving out this form of the polio vaccine anymore.
[ESB]
One of the biggest rumors out there is that the flu shot will make you come down with the flu. It?s unclear how this myth originated, but it has absolutely no scientific backing. There is no way that the flu shot can make you catch the flu, because the flu shot itself is made from viral particles. There isn?t even a whole virus in the vaccine, live or dead. Fearing catching the flu from the flu shot is like fearing being run over by a pile of hub-caps. Once the nature of the flu vaccine is revealed, this fear becomes quite ridiculous.
It is true that some people might experience flu-like symptoms after the vaccine, but they are not getting sick from the flu. The difference is that the symptoms are very short-lived (lasting for a few hours), and they are mild. These feelings never cause any life-threatening complications that the flu virus itself can cause, such as pneumonia or a brain infection.
[H2]Weakened Immune System
Some parents worry that by protecting their child from infections using a vaccine, it might weaken the child?s immune system because it doesn?t have the opportunity of getting sick from the infection itself. However, there are plenty of infections that are not protected by vaccines to challenge their child?s body.
For example, while most children do survive the chickenpox, getting these vaccine-preventable infections isn?t always benign. Children used to die from chick

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I read through about half of it and it looks good so far. Of course you're the professional so I don't imagine there is any input I could give you that you yourself don't already know.

It's good to have you back at the pit Satchmo.

First sentance seems to have a typo - 'along' should be 'alone' right?

I read about half of it too and scrolled through the rest(I find it
hard to read long texts from computer screen). :smile: It seems well
divided(for the lack of better word).

Good to see you back at the pit Satchmo. :smile:

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

i read bits and parts it seems good to me

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|*{im a noob at life simply ut}*|

First of all, let me say that I am impressed so far and think you have a lot of good things going. What I say below, while it may sound harsh, is intended as constructive criticism to help you make your chapter better.

The chapter lacks focus. Who is your target audience, and what do you consider to be the purpose of the book (or just this chapter)? Is it supposed to be an informative peice on the details of vaccinations? Is it a persuasive peice to convince people that vaccinations are good? Is it a how-to guide on what to do if there are problems after a vaccination?

Although there is a lot of good information in there, right now the chapter feels disorganized. And by disorganized, I don't mean that it lacks structure (you have broken it down into many subheadings and so forth). What I mean is that the chapter is not organized into a single coherent peice based around a set of big ideas.

It's like you have found a list of arguments parents use against vaccinations, and are just going down the line refuting them one by one, occasionally throwing in other random peices of related information. While that may work on an internet forum debate, for a book you should do better. The good news is that you have almost all the writing there, you just need to move around your sentences and paragraphs and add a few organizational/transitional sentences to make it all flow together.

Organize around big ideas, for example consider this possible ogranization (you don't necessairily have to use this)

Big Idea A: Vaccinations are important and your child should get them.
This is where you make your argument to convince the reader. Instead of dancing around the issue and trying to "counter the counter arguments" (you can do this later), just flat out say that the science overwhelmingly supports vaccinations and the risks are negligible compared to the benetits (if that is indeed what the science says). Even consider throwing in some references.

"It's true because I'm a doctor and I say so" isn't nearly as strong as "It's true because it is the concensus of the medical community, and is supported by studies X Y and Z <references>". The casual reader won't read the references, but they will make your case stronger, and give a foundation to your argument beyond simple appeal to authority.

Big Idea B: How vaccines work.
Your section on how vaccines work is pretty self-contained, so this section is already organized.

Big Idea C: The history of vaccinations.
There is a lot of history contained in this chapter, but it is randomly interspersed with everything else. You can put all the mercury stuff, how much vaccinations have improved, and other historical things here in their own section.

Big Idea D: Misconceptions.
The false link to Autism, the fact that you can't get the flu from a vaccine, and other misconceptions would go in this section. You can refer to other parts of your chapter as necessary here. For example, you can say something like "You cannot get the flu from a vaccine. After a flu shot, your child may experience flu-like symptoms, but these symptoms are almost always caused by other common reactions that are not dangerous. See the section on common reactions for more details". However, do not try to put specific details about the common reactions here. The fact that common reactions are often confused with the flu is important to your argument that people are confused about the risks of vaccinations. The specific details of those reactions are not important to the argument.

Big Idea E: Common reactions and what to do if something goes wrong.
Things like the fact that you can administer acetaminophin if the fever is over 104 should go in this section. The current organization of common reactions is pretty good, but just make sure that you don't blend this section with the section on common misconceptions.

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http://maze5.net

I'd say you should put a bit more in there about the mind control chips they put in the vaccines, and advise on exactly how to construct a foil hat. But then I realised that was a bit of a stupid idea, since youre probably in on it.

Seriously though, even though I didnt read the whole thing, the only problems I saw were minor typos. I'm not a good enough writer or doctor to judge your style or your facts, but they both seem good to me.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

This chapter is something my mom definitely needs to read.

Yeah, I'll be honest, I read about 1/4 of it. I rely on MazeMaster....

First sentance seems to have a typo - 'along' should be 'alone' right?

Oops! Thanks. I wrote the entire chapter in between seeing patients, and I haven't had the chance to proofread it.

The chapter lacks focus. Who is your target audience, and what do you consider to be the purpose of the book (or just this chapter)?

Thanks, mazemaster. I always appreciate an honest and detailed critique, whether it's on mapping or writing.

The book is written to dispell myths about pediatrics. It's never meant to be a comprehensive medical reference (there are already a lot of good references out there). This chapter is trying to convince parents that vaccines are safe for their children, and they are important to keep their kids healthy.

Big Idea A: Vaccinations are important and your child should get them

The We've Come a Long Way section is devoted to conveying the importance of childhood immunization. I didn't want to hit parents on the head with it because some skeptical parents might be turned off by the head-on proslytizing. I want to ease them into my argument slowly.

Big Idea D: Misconceptions

the entire chapter is really about misconceptions. In fact, the whole book is devoted to myths about childhood illnesses.

The specific details of those reactions are not important to the argument.

I tend to respectfully disagree with you there. I think parents are very much interested in the exact reactions from vaccines. If they don't know exactly what happens, what are they suppose to know when to panic?

I truly appreciate your analysis of the chapter, and I'll review the organization in more detail.

This chapter is something my mom definitely needs to read.

:smile: It'll be in bookstores around March of 2007. I hope Episode Two will be released by then.

Thanks guys, for the input.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

My father is a pharmacist. I think he would like what you wrote. It is scary to see how many parents refuse to vaccinate their children because of the most absurd fears. It's even scarier to see my friends still refusing vaccination in their adulthood because of what they heared as a child. :sad:

They've been brainwashed by their parents, and they don't even know it.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Finally, something sane!

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Better to be in denial than to be human.

Bill Gates understands binary: his company is number one, and his customers are all zeros.