Media/Policy Watch
This section is intended to alert readers to substantive news, analysis and opinion from the general media on vaccines, immunization, global; public health and related themes. Media Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues CVEP is actively tracking. This section will grow from an initial base of newspapers, magazines and blog sources, and is segregated from Journal Watch above which scans the peer-reviewed journal ecology.

We acknowledge the Western/Northern bias in this initial selection of titles and invite suggestions for expanded coverage. We are conservative in our outlook in adding news sources which largely report on primary content we are already covering above. Many electronic media sources have tiered, fee-based subscription models for access. We will provide full-text where content is published without restriction, but most publications require registration and some subscription level.

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Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/home/uk
Accessed 21 February 2015
Ebola spurs healthcare insurance debate
16 February 2015
The one good thing to come from the Ebola outbreak in west Africa is a fresh debate on the urgency of improving access to basic healthcare and, in turn, the need for moves towards universal heathcare coverage. Years of neglect of prevention and treatment help explain why the lethal infection claimed thousands of lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, whereas it was effectively contained in Europe and North America. To some, the events have underlined the broader benefits of investment in health as a way not only to cut illness and death but also to support broader development. Given the poor response, Ebola has sharply set back economies in the region.

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Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 21 February 2015
15 Myths About Anti-Vaxxers, Debunked – Part 1
This is part one of a three-part series. Here are parts two and three. Alongside the measles cases that have spread across the country since late December has been a rising awareness among parents and the media of a problem that medical professionals and public health officials have been battling for […]
Tara Haelle, Contributor Feb 17, 2015
15 Myths About Anti-Vaxxers, Debunked – Part 2
This is part two in a three-part series. Here are parts one and three. Yesterday’s post introduced the first five misconceptions much of the public and the media have about parents who don’t vaccinate – and I’ve already heard some pushback. Regardless of whether parents fully, partially or never vaccinate, we all […]
15 Myths About Anti-Vaxxers, Debunked – Part 3
This is part three in a three-part series. Here are parts one and two. At last we arrive at the final installment in common myths about parents who don’t vaccinate (here are the first and second installments). The first post in this series focused on the tendency to think of all […]

The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Accessed 21 February 2015
About our Health Care System
Vaccinations – Balancing Community and Individual Liberties and Rights
18 February 2015
William Pierce
The measles outbreak has brought the United States face-to-face with a critically important question that spills over into many other areas and is in many ways at the heart of our political debate: How do we balance the protection of individual liberty with the liberties and rights of the community we all live in?
Vaccines are one of the true miracles of modern medicine. We have wiped out smallpox worldwide, are closing in on polio and have nearly eradicated measles, mumps, chickenpox in this country. That is, until recently, when we began to see a resurgence of measles, mumps and whooping cough in the United States. This is attributable to less-than-desirable vaccination rates nation-wide, but mostly in clustered areas around the country. The current measles outbreak is the most recent consequence of the purposeful inaction of too many of our fellow citizens.
This brings us to the issue of individual liberty versus community liberty…

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 21 February 2015
New Approach to Blocking H.I.V. Raises Hopes for an AIDS Vaccine
in monkeys that it may be able to function as a vaccine against AIDS, the scientists who designed it reported Wednesday. H.I.V. has defied more than 30 years of conventional efforts to fashion a vaccine. The new
February 19, 2015 – By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr –

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Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/
Accessed 21 February 2015
How to Get More Parents to Vaccinate Their Kids
A look at the financial and behavioral nudges that can provide incentives for change
February 19, 2015 |By Dina Fine Maron

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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/home-page?_wsjregion=na,us&_homepage=/home/us
Accessed 21 February 2015
Essay
The Return of the Vaccine Wars
The controversy over vaccines is as old as vaccination itself
By David Oshinsky
Feb. 20, 2015 3:22 p.m. ET
The controversy over vaccines is as old as vaccination itself. When Edward Jenner, a brilliant English country doctor, discovered the vaccine for smallpox in 1796, he faced as much criticism as praise. Ministers thundered against tampering with the Lord’s grand design. The economist Thomas Malthus worried that vaccines would lead to dangerous population increases. The very idea of injecting animal matter into the human body struck many as dangerous and repulsive. Cartoons appeared showing cows’ horns sprouting from the heads of recently vaccinated children…

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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 21 February 2015
Measles infections in California grow to 123
The number of measles cases in California has reached 123 in the wake of a December outbreak at Disneyland.
Associated Press | Health & Science | Feb 20, 2015
Washington state panel mulls bill to trim vaccine exemptions
Personal or philosophical opposition to vaccines would not be an authorized exemption for the parents of school-age children under a measure that received a public hearing before a House committee on Tuesday, drawing at least two dozen opponents to the proposed change.
Associated Press | Health & Science | Feb 17, 2015
Amid measles outbreak, few rules on teacher vaccinations
While much of the attention in the ongoing measles outbreak has focused on student vaccination requirements and exemptions, less attention has been paid to another group in the nation’s classrooms: Teachers and staff members, who, by and large, are not required to be vaccinated.
Associated Press | Health & Science | Feb 16, 2015