In the late 80's, when I started researching vaccines,  I did things the "old fashioned" way. I sought out and read books and magazine articles; asked a lot of questions and talked with people who had experienced the illnesses we now vaccinate for. (I invite you to read "Why I started researching vaccines.") Fast forward 30 years, and thanks to technology and the internet, including a calculator and apps that you'll read about below, information is literally at your fingertips 24/7; so there's no excuse for not being well informed about vaccines before you make a decision that can and often does alter the rest of your and your child's life. It's not enough to simply trust your doctor's recommendation. Far too many parents, whose children are included at "We Remember" and "Families Speak" regret that they did just that.

​I urge parents (and grandparents) to research vaccines thoroughly. I've compiled a list of where to start here. Keep reading to learn more about those "techie" tools; and please tell others about them. They only work if people know about and use them!

Acellular pertussis vaccines protect against disease but fail to prevent infection and transmission in a nonhuman primate model
In this study, we show nonhuman primates vaccinated with aP were protected from severe symptoms but not infection and readily transmitted Bordetella pertussis to contacts...and a cross-sectional study showed that postpartum aP vaccination of mothers did not reduce pertussis illness in young infants. These data suggest that cocooning is unlikely to be an effective strategy to reduce the burden of pertussis in infants. Read full study.

Resurgence of Whooping Cough May Owe to Vaccine’s Inability to Prevent Infections
The startling global resurgence of pertussis, or whooping cough, in recent years can largely be attributed to the immunological failures of acellular vaccines, School of Public Health researchers argue in a new journal article...“This disease is back because we didn’t really understand how our immune defenses against whooping cough worked, and did not understand how the vaccines needed to work to prevent it,” said Christopher J. Gill, associate professor of global health and lead author of the article. “Instead we layered assumptions upon assumptions, and now find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of admitting that we may made some crucial errors. This is definitely not where we thought we’d be in 2017.” Read more.

Last month, The 5th International Symposium on Vaccines, sponsored by the Children's Medical Safety Research Institute (CMSRI) took place in Lisbon, Portugal as part of the 11th International Congress on Autoimmunity. The symposium brought together medical researchers from around the world to share the latest research on vaccine safety and potential links between vaccine adjuvants and adverse autoimmune reactions. Read more about the symposium, including participants, and abstracts for each presentation here.

While attending the symposium, Del Bigtree (Vaxxed, ICAN, HighWire) interviewed world-renowned aluminum toxicity expert and symposium organizer, Professor Christopher Exley, PhD; and world-renowned autoimmunity expert and Congress President, Yehuda Shoenfeld, MD.

Watch the interviews below and listen to what these brilliant scientists say about their findings, the integrity of scientific research today; the loss of funding and other challenges that university researchers face; and why it is increasingly difficult for scientists to do independent research. Please share this information with others, especially doctors and vaccinating parents who cling to the belief that "vaccines are safe and effective" and that when it comes to vaccine safety, "the science is settled." It's difficult for me to understand how anyone who listens to these interviews wouldn't question vaccine safety if they haven't done so already.