With Outbreaks, States Push Back On Anti-Vaccine Movement (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

The last ten or fifteen years have been a rough road for childhood vaccines and vaccination.  After a century in which they became the great bulwark against all kinds of disease – smallpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, more – suddenly vaccines were tagged as a threat.  Blamed for autism and more.  The science says it’s not true.  But uncertain parents have turned away.  Now vaccination rates have fallen enough to cut into what’s called our “herd immunity.”  We’re vulnerable again to disease.  Now states are pushing back.  This hour On Point:  the anti-vaccine threat and reaction.

– Tom Ashbrook

Interview: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/01/09/anti-vaccines-whooping-cough-measles