Tag Archives: vaccinations

Making vaccination information public

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

I support this. While most parents in Texas vaccinate their children, the number of parents opting out of immunizations for non-medical reasons is on the rise. Since Texas changed its laws to allow parents to opt out citing a conscientious … Continue reading →

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Still talking vaccines and measles

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Because it keeps needing to be talked about. Earlier this month, Dr. Peter J. Hotez, a pediatrician at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, detailed a disturbing prediction for 2017 in … Continue reading →

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Trump and the anti-vaxxers

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

In case you needed another reason to dislike Donald Trump. President Trump’s embrace of discredited theories linking vaccines to autism has energized the anti-vaccine movement. Once fringe, the movement is becoming more popular, raising doubts about basic childhood health care among politically … Continue reading →

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Plague vaccines

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Cool. More than six centuries after the Black Death wiped out more than a third of the population of Europe, a University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston team has shown that in experiments with rodents, their three vaccines effectively … Continue reading →

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The coming measles outbreak

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I hope we’re wrong about this. Peter Hotez used to worry mostly about vaccines for children in far-away places. An infectious diseases researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, Hotez is developing shots against diseases in poorer countries … Continue reading →

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We’re going to be fighting about vaccinations for a while

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I wish it weren’t so, but it is. Texas is one of 18 states that allow non-medical exemptions to the vaccines required for school attendance. California had a similar law allowing non-medical exemptions, until last year when it enacted a law that … Continue reading →

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Too many kids are not getting vaccinated

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

We let this happen, thanks to the fervor of a vocal minority. The number of Texans who exempt their children from vaccination for non-medical reasons rose nearly 9 percent last school year, continuing a now 12-year-long trend that public health … Continue reading →

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Anti-vaxxers gain ground in Texas

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a lesson in here that we need to learn. On a Friday night little over a year ago, a Texas mother of three was attending a school dance when she got a text message that stopped her cold. A … Continue reading →

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Fighting pertussis

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Sure hope these folks can make a lot of progress in their work. Of the more than 30,000 children hospitalized with pertussis in the United States each year, 10 to 20 will die. Worldwide, pertussis infects more than 16 million … Continue reading →

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How to deal with anti-vaxxers

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a big problem. Certain that they are right, struggling to find ways to get their message across, public health officials are exasperated by their inability to convince more U.S. parents to vaccinate their children. “I think we’re all kind … Continue reading →

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Abbott waffles on vaccinations

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Come on, dude. Weighing in on a national debate, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made clear this week that he supports laws that include exemptions to requirements that parents vaccinate their children. “Abbott recognizes the public health benefits of vaccines and … Continue reading →

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Improving infections disease response

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

This is an Ebola-inspired bill, but not an Ebola bill. So say the stakeholders, anyway. Months after three people in Texas were diagnosed with Ebola, several key state lawmakers on Wednesday proposed ways to prepare the state for the next … Continue reading →

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Ending exemptions for vaccines

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Hear, hear. A Texas Republican is taking aim at a provision in state law that allows parents with personal or religious objections to vaccines to opt their children out of school immunization requirements. State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, said Friday … Continue reading →

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Measles

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

We haven’t had an outbreak in Texas. Yet. Measles has replaced Ebola as the infectious disease threat of the moment, but the only recent case in Texas occurred in Fort Worth in mid-January and was unrelated to the current outbreak … Continue reading →

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It’s skunk vaccination time

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Again. Fresh from victories over rabies strains in the coyote and gray fox, Texas [launched] its annual aerial assault on one of the state’s top remaining carriers: skunks. The state health department Wednesday [began] dropping 1.4 million doses of edible … Continue reading →

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Please get a flu shot

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It’s always a good idea, even if it’s more effective in some years than in others. The flu vaccine may not be very effective this winter, according to U.S. health officials who worry this may lead to more serious illnesses … Continue reading →

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We really need to do better on vaccinations

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Cherise Rohr-Allegrini, PhD, MPH and self-proclaimed “crunchy granola hippie”, writes in the Rivard Report about how we are letting infectious diseases regain a foothold. In 1998, the World Health Organization declared that measles would be eradicated worldwide by 2007. In … Continue reading →

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Vaccinating skunks

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

To prevent rabies, of course. Texas, which has long campaigned for family pets to be vaccinated against rabies, is now attacking from the sky one of the state’s foulest carriers of the disease: skunks. Skunks would obviously put up quite … Continue reading →

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Teaching creationism in Texas

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Zack Kopplin reports on some unconstitutional behavior by a national charter school operator that has several campuses in Texas. When public-school students enrolled in Texas’ largest charter program open their biology workbooks, they will read that the fossil record is … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: For Christie

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron endorses freshman CM Jack Christie in At Large #5. At-Large council members act as a sort of minister without portfolio. While district council members focus on constituent issues, at-large members can set their own agendas. The previous incumbent … Continue reading →

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Pertussis

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Not good. State health officials warn that Texas is on track to see the highest number of whooping cough cases it has registered in 50 years if occurrences of the disease continue at the current rate. As of this week, … Continue reading →

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The HPV vaccine

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

This story about HPV and its vaccine is from a couple of weeks ago, but it needs to be read. The vaccine that blocks a sexually transmitted infection that causes cervical, oral and other cancers was hailed as a home … Continue reading →

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Some things you can vaccinate against

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Saying dumb things isn’t one of them. As the council considered a proposal Wednesday to accept $3.1 million in federal funding for childhood immunizations, Councilman Jack Christie voiced his opposition to the measure, apparently conflating it with flu vaccinations. “I’m … Continue reading →

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Eradicating rabies

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Did you know that the state of Texas has been funding a program to wipe out rabies in foxes and coyotes by dropping vaccines for it from airplanes. It’s called the Texas Oral Rabies Vaccination Project, and it’s been a … Continue reading →

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