News Release

TOMPKINS COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Alice Cole, RN, MSE – Public Health Director

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 31, 2008

For more information contact:
Theresa Lyczko at 274-6714 or Karen Bishop at 274-6614

 

Television Show Contains Misinformation on Childhood Vaccines

January 31, 2008 – The Tompkins County Health Department joins the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health organizations in warning parents that the January 31st episode of the ABC series “Eli Stone’ contains misleading information on childhood vaccines.

The fictional legal drama centers on a lawyer who sues a vaccine manufacturer on behalf of a mother of a child who has autism. A mercury-containing preservative in the vaccine is blamed for the child’s autism.

Health care providers are concerned that parents might forgo life saving vaccinations for their children based on medically and scientifically inaccurate information contained in this show. Scientific data from the United States and around the world does not support the association between thimerosal (vaccine preservative) and autism. Most recently, an article in the January 2008 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry reported that autism rates in California continue to increase despite the removal of thimerosal from vaccines in 2002.

Vaccines are safe, effective and they protect children and adults from unnecessary harm caused by diseases such as polio, whooping cough and measles. Before the development of vaccines, babies died or were seriously disabled from these diseases. Because immunization programs of the 20th century were so successful, many of today’s young parents may not understand that the risk for these diseases to re-emerge is real if children are not vaccinated. In Tompkins County, the incidence of pertussis (whooping cough) has increased as a result of children who have not received the vaccine that would prevent the disease and its transmission to others.

Entertainment-based television shows should not be the primary source of health and medical information. If parents have questions about childhood immunizations, they should call their doctor or the Tompkins County Health Department at 274-6614.

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