I wanted to follow up my recent post on why you should vaccinate your children with a few recent pieces of news that I think are really interesting.
First, a study published this month in The Journal of Infectious Diseases reports that the HPV vaccine has been a resounding success. Since it became available in 2006, the vaccine has lowered the rate of HPV infection among teenaged girls by 56%. This is wonderful news, and I hope it encourages more people to get this vaccine.
It seems that one main point (no pun intended!) that anti-vaxxers raise in objection to the use of vaccines is the delivery system: injections. Do you think they would be so opposed if needles weren’t involved? Someday in the not too distant future there may be an alternative. Delivery of vaccine by nanopatches on the skin, as proposed by Professor Mark Kendall at the TedGlobal conference in Edinburgh, would not only be a lot less scary and invasive-seeming than needles, it would also significantly lower the costs of each vaccine. Nanopatches are still a long way from being complete, but I think they’re a terrific idea. You can read more about it here.
Finally, I’m going to be appearing on the One Guy Talking Podcast (http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=122865&cmd=tc)
with Ethan Sincoff tomorrow (Thursday) at 8pm EST. I believe that we’re going to be discussing all things science, including my own research. Tune in if you can, or download later if you can’t!
Violent metaphors 
I don’t think the patch versus injection option will make a difference to the anti-vaccine crowd. They’re afraid of the chemical cocktail going into the body…a painless method might mitigate their fear, but I doubt it.
I’m not sure any amount of data or logic will make them change their minds. Losing a child to measles or whooping cough might…but that’s a harsh way to learn a lesson.