As more Maine parents reject vaccines, public health experts consider a new pitch [View all]

[jpak]

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/10/24/health/as-more-maine-parents-reject-vaccines-public-health-experts-consider-a-new-pitch/

Kelly Marshall’s son was just a baby five years ago when news coverage about a feared link between vaccines and autism had reached a fevered pitch.

The Bath woman was on the fence about whether to immunize little Miles. She researched the issue, found no substantial evidence that vaccines could cause autism, and thought back to her own healthy childhood as a fully vaccinated kid.

“We’ve been on time with every recommended vaccine since my son was an infant,” Marshall said.

A small study published in 1998 that stoked fears about childhood vaccines raising the risk of autism has been resoundingly debunked, and the British medical journal that published the study later retracted it.

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