Getting the vaccination presentation right.

My latest article on Catholicmom.com was a resurrected post that I shared earlier this year on this blog called The Catholic Vaccination Dilemma. 

In my experience, this topic tends to bring out very strong emotions  in people from anger to fear.  Rather than taking a stand in either of the the pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine camps, I’ve come down on the side of research, information and informed consent.

Last week I saw a lot of buzz for a program put out by PBS called Nova/Vaccines, Calling the Shots. So I decided to watch it online and see for myself if this was the “definitive” program that would settle the issue once and for all.

Although this is a beautifully filmed and edited piece, it is definitely a “pro-vaccine” movie. In my opinion it did more to promote total vaccination on the current recommended protocol than to address concerns.  Although it did have two compelling anecdotal stories, I felt they tried to apply a one-size fits all approach from these stories to the general public. It was a clear attempt at appeal to the emotions.

If you’re a mom or a grandparent leaning strongly in the pro-vaccine camp and just need a little push in that direction – Nova/Vaccines, Calling the Shots would probably do that.

But if you’ve known someone injured by a vaccine, or if you’ve done research and reading, then this film probably did not persuade or compel you to just march up to the clinic and get updated on all of your shots!

I’ve done some reading and research on this issue, so the appeal to emotion approach from the Nova film left me cold.  Here are some things they did NOT include in the film that I would have been interested in hearing their perspective on.

• Infectious disease rates falling before the use of immunizations.
• The use of fetal cell lines in creating vaccines
• The government vaccine injury compensation program.
• Vaccine injury not covered by insurance companies.
• The research of Dr. Thomas Verstraten.
• Recent whistle blowers.
• The efficacy of immunizations vs. natural immunity.

Any documentary that attempts to compel and persuade those pesky “non-vaxers” into complying with the herd mentality is going to have to put forth some effort to address these topics if it wants to be considered compelling.