Vaccination Myths : Strong Risk Negations Can Increase Perceived Vaccination Risks

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Betsch, Cornelia, and Katharina Sachse. "Debunking Vaccination Myths: Strong Risk Negations Can Increase Perceived Vaccination Risks." Health Psychology 32.2 (2013): 146-55. EBSCOhost. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

This article is focused on the risks associated with vaccinations. Many of the popularized vaccine-adverse events are over dramatized on the internet by anti-vaccine activists. Because these people are anti-vaccination activists their information most likely contains bias, making their information unreliable. This article outlines some of the risks perceived by the public then gives scientific explanations negating the risk. In this study, subjects were asked to pretend they were the parent of an infant whose doctor recommended a certain vaccination. They were then told different information about this vaccine, including possible side effects and risks. Throughout the study, the severity of the risk increased and decreased to test whether the parent would react differently.
Two researchers that worked at universities conducted this study. Cornelia Betsch is from the University of Erfurt and Katharina Sachse is from the Technical University Berlin. This study seems to be a well-conducted, bias free study. Many different subject groups were used, statistical tests were performed, and references were listed.
Brunson, Emily K. "How Parents Make Decisions about Their Children 's Vaccinations." Vaccine 34.9 (2010). ProQuest. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

This article is outlining research concerning what factors affect whether parents choose to vaccinate their children or not. Vaccinations are very successful in preventing diseases through herd immunity, vaccinating enough of the population to protect even the ones who do not get vaccinated. T...

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...ons would be more effective. This article states that hospital admission rates for influenza are the highest in children under five years old. Although the highest admission rates are for children under five years old, the highest influenza-attributed death rates are in elderly people with preexisting conditions. In an attempt to help this, the UK government created a program to ensure children and elderly people had access to influenza vaccinations. This study used a computer-generated outbreak to determine the severity of the disease.
This study includes data tables, graphs, statistical tests, and references. This article was peer-reviewed, published in the journal Vaccine, and free of bias. This article assesses cost-effectiveness in respect to vaccination. Although this study is very informative, the language is too advanced for the average person to understand.

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