Back to school time means time to make sure you kids have all of their vaccines. Dr. Pamela Rockwell sits on two vaccine advisory committees for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and tells us it’s helpful to have a close relationship with a health professional who knows the facts. She adds many parents these days have been reluctant to get their kids all of their shots.
“I think that people just are frightened and what has happened for about a generation and a half, and we’ve become complacent, because we really haven’t seen these vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Rockwell says adults also have reasons to ask about vaccines, from tetanus shots to the shingles and pneumonia vaccines for those in their 60s and older. The nonprofit Immunization Action Coalition offers extensive information on vaccine risks, as does the National Vaccine Information Center and the CDC website.