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By Alex Olgin, WFAE
In 2017, Kim Nelson had just relocated her family to her hometown of South Carolina. Boxes were still scattered in the apartment and while his two girls were playing, Nelson was flipping through a newspaper article on his phone. Religious exemptions for vaccines have climbed nearly 70% in recent years in the Greenville area, where they had just left Florida.
She remembers shouting to her husband in the next room, "David, you have to come in here!" I can not believe. "
Nelson did not know any female friends who did not vaccinate their children.
"It really opened the eyes that it was a big problem," she said.
Nelson's father is a doctor. she had her vaccinations and her children too. But this news scared him. She knew that infants were vulnerable – they could not get most vaccines before the age of 2 months. And some children and adults have diseases that compromise their immune system, which prevents them from being vaccinated and relying on collective immunity. At the time, Nelson was already thinking a lot about public health and was even considering a career change from the banking sector to public health. She decided that she had to do something.
"I really believe that if you have the capacity to defend your interests, you have to do it," she said. "We have the responsibility if we want a change."
Like many mothers, Nelson had spent hours online. She knew how easy it was to fall into rabbit holes on the Internet, in a world of fake studies and scary stories.
"As a person who simply can not stand the bad things on the Internet," said Nelson, "if I saw anything with vaccines, I could very well respond to" That's not true "or "No, that's not how it works" … I'm usually banned. "
Nelson has created his own group, South Carolina Parents for Vaccines. She started posting scientific articles online. She started responding to private messages from concerned parents with specific questions. She also found that positive reinforcement was important and that she would move around mother groups, spreading assertions.
"If someone publishes" My child is getting her 2-month vaccines today, "Nelson said, she would quickly post a complementary comment:" Great job, Mom! "
Nelson, 33, was inspired by peer groups in the country doing similar work. Groups with national reach, such as Voices for Vaccines, and regional groups, such as Vax Northwest in Washington, are taking a similar approach, encouraging parents to educate and share information about vaccines with children. other parents.
Nationally, 91% of children under 3 are vaccinated against measles. But in some communities, the rate is much lower. In Clark County, Washington, where the measles epidemic has made up to 65 cases, about 76% of kindergarten children attend school without all their vaccines. Public health experts, concerned about the weakening of herd immunity, are increasingly raising concerns about the need to improve immunization rates.
But efforts to reach reluctant parents in the face of immunization often fail. And some parents remain grounded in the decision not to vaccinate, even with the facts.
Pediatricians can play a role – and many do – but they are not rewarded for having long discussions with their parents, and some of them find it frustrating. This leaves a great openness for alternative approaches. Nelson thought that it was better to focus on the mothers who were still on the vaccine barrier.
"It's easier to attack a reluctant parent than to be firmly anti-vax," Nelson said. She explained that parents who oppose vaccination often have such a strong point of view that they will not participate in a discussion. "They feel validated by this choice – it's part of the community, it's part of their identity."
The most important thing is timing: people may need information about vaccines before they become parents. A first pregnancy – when men and women begin to assume their parenting roles – is often the time when the problem first arises. Nelson refers to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed that 90% of pregnant women had made their decision about vaccines at the time of their six-month pregnancy.
"They do not go to a pediatrician [yet]Nelson said, "Their OB-GYN probably does not talk about the immunization schedule for children … so where are they going?" They go online.
Nelson tries to counter the wrong information online with facts. But she also understands the value of the dialogue in person. She organized a course in a public library and announced the event on the mothers' forums. Nelson feared that people who were hostile to vaccines would come forward.
"Are they there to tear me off a new one? Or are they here to learn more about vaccines? Nelson wondered. "I just decided, if they are here, I will give them good information."
Amy Morris was pregnant, but she drove an hour and a half to attend the class. Morris was not the typical mother of the first time Nelson tried to join. She has already had three children. But during this pregnancy, she was more and more worried about vaccines. She had just had a miscarriage and it was about the time she was vaccinated against the flu. Morris was reading articles about and against the vaccine in the mothers' forums and was beginning to have doubts. In Nelson's class, she learned the risks of do not vaccinated.
"It's been talking to me more than anything," Morris said.
Now, holding her healthy son, Thorin, 8 months on her lap, she said she was happy about her departure because she felt vulnerable.
"I always knew it was the right thing to do," Morris said. "I was listening to that scary monster in the back of my head."
Nelson said the anti-vaccine community feeds on fear. She learned to ask questions to help parents understand the source of their anxiety.
"I think they appreciate that you meet them with sympathy and that you're not just trying to reveal facts in their throats," Nelson said.
Nelson is now trying to get local hospitals to incorporate this vaccine talk into their delivery classes. She is studying at the Masters of Public Health at the University of South Carolina and also collaborates with the Bradshaw Institute for Promoting Children's Health in Communities. She even plans a race for the public service.
This story is part of a partnership that includes WFAE, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
Kaiser Health News is a non-profit news service covering health issues. It is an independent editorial program of the Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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