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Are you curious about health and wellness? During 2008, The Franklin Institute will help you and your students learn more about the science of wellness. Watch for more details about these and other programs throughout the year.
Vaccination Exploration - Part 2
Newly-introduced HPV vaccines are enjoying rapid acceptance, fueled in part by sophisticated marketing, advertising and education programs. These programs have established a new framework for how the public is introduced to a virus (HPV), associated disease outcomes (cervical cancer, genital warts, etc.) and the role of preventive vaccines. These efforts have also resulted in many states either adopting or considering various kinds of requirements and mandates around this vaccine for young women. Recommendations that girls as young as 9 years old receive the vaccine, with the attendant assumptions about onset of sexual activity, have caused concerns among some groups. Finally, these new vaccines are among the most costly vaccines ever introduced, challenging how limited public health department resources are allocated.
But the introduction of HPV vaccines is also occurring against a troubling backdrop: declining public confidence in vaccines overall.
Recent outbreaks of measles in several cities, the worst in a decade, are alarming, especially as many of the children affected were unvaccinated as a result of parental choice to exercise religious or philosophical objections to state immunization requirements. Groups raising concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy seem well financed and well organized. The American Academy of Pediatrics is among some 20 public health and science organizations that have formed a new coalition - The Immunization Alliance - specifically to address this public confidence issue.
This forum will explore the issues and lessons learned from ongoing HPV vaccine programs, and how this experience can inform strategies to address the crisis in public understanding and confidence around vaccines overall.
Vaccination Exploration - Part 1
Experts from the Center for Vaccine Ethics and Policy joined The Franklin Institute staff in a discussion of issues related to childhood vaccines and public health. The recent mandates for pre-school vaccines in New Jersey was a case study for discussion. This evening event was intended for high school students and adult audiences. This was the first in a year-long series with follow-up sessions being planned for the Fall. Watch www.fi.edu/wellness for updates.
