National Immunization Month
August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), which highlights the importance of vaccines for people of all ages. Vaccines help prevent serious diseases and protect individuals and the community by stopping the spread of illnesses. This is important with diseases like COVID-19. Immunizations are key to keeping everyone healthy. Vaccines have significantly reduced severe diseases in the U.S., and although no vaccine is perfect, they are crucial for preventing illness. NIAM is a great time to check with your healthcare provider to make sure you and your family are up-to-date on your vaccinations.
Books
The Vaccine Race; science, politics, and the human costs of defeating disease by Meredith Wadman
The children’s vaccine initiative: achieving the vision (EBOOK)
Vaccines by Noel Merino
The doctor who fooled the world : Andrew Wakefield’s war on vaccines by Deer, Brian
“A reporter uncovers the secrets behind the scientific scam of the century. The news breaks first as a tale of fear and pity. Doctors at a London hospital claim a link between autism and a vaccine given to millions of children- MMR. Young parents are terrified. Immunisation rates slump. And as a worldwide ‘anti-vax’ movement kicks off, old diseases return to sicken and kill. But a veteran reporter isn’t so sure, and sets out on an epic investigation. Battling establishment cover-ups, smear campaigns, and gagging lawsuits, he exposes rigged research and secret schemes, the heartbreaking plight of families struggling with disability, and the scientific deception of our time”
Defeating the Ministers of Death: The Compelling History of Vaccination by David Isaacs
“In 1919, Spanish flu killed over 50 million people, more than died in both world wars combined. In 1950, an estimated 50 million people caught smallpox worldwide, of whom 10 million died. In 1980, before measles vaccine was widely used, an estimated 2.6 million children died of measles every year. Less than 100 years ago, losing a child to an infection like diphtheria or polio was a dreaded but almost inevitable sorrow faced by all parents, from the richest to the poorest. Today, these killer diseases are almost never seen in industrialised countries, thanks to the development of vaccines. Immunisation has given modern parents peace of mind their ancestors could not imagine. The history of vaccination is rich with trial, error, sabotage and success. It encompasses the tragedy of lives lost, the drama of competition and discovery, the culpability of botched testing, and the
triumph of effective, lifelong immunity.”
“From the Black Death of the fourteenth century to HIV/AIDS and the recent COVID-19 crisis, pandemics and disease outbreaks have devastated societies, wiped out significant portions of populations, and necessitated political, social, and scientific changes to address these public health catastrophes. What have scientists and policymakers learned from historical pandemics, and what can be done to prevent future outbreaks? Journalists, politicians, medical professionals, and other experts from a range of fields weigh in on how pandemics happen and potential means of controlling them”–Provided by publisher.
Vaccine Nation: America’s changing relationship with immunization by Elena Conis
“While vaccination rates have soared and cases of preventable infections have plummeted, an increasingly vocal cross section of Americans have questioned the safety and necessity of vaccines. In Vaccine Nation, Elena Conis explores this complicated history and its consequences for personal and public health.”
Vaccine wars : the two-hundred-year fight for school vaccinations by Kimberley Tolley
Virus Hunters by Greer Williams
