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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Associated Press
Accessed 14 March 2015
Liberia removes Ebola crematorium as outbreak is contained
8 March 2015
Marking the progress in controlling its Ebola outbreak, the Liberian government dismantled a crematorium and removed drums containing the ashes of more than 3,000 Ebola victims cremated during the height of the epidemic, whose last patient was discharged last week.

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Brookings
http://www.brookings.edu/
Accessed 14 March 2015
Innovation
Using mobile technology to improve maternal health and fight Ebola
March 11, 2015, Darrell M. West
In a new paper, Darrell West examines how mobile technologies have improved maternal health care and helped deal with disease outbreaks in Africa.

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Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 14 March 2015
Carlos Slim’s Foundation Recognized For Work On Health, Research To Develop Anti-Chagas Vaccine
The Carlos Slim Foundation has been awarded two international awards in the past week in recognition of its contribution to public health and promotion of new technologies
Dolia Estevez, Contributor Mar 10, 2015

Naturopaths–Not What The Doctor Ordered For Vaccine Exemptions
There are lots of reasons why measles, having gone to Disneyland, is enjoying a comeback around the United States and Canada. Unfounded fears of autism scare some parents. Others buy the daffy conspiracy theory that pharmaceutical companies are just pushing vaccination to make a buck. Some parents invoke religious concerns […]
Arthur Caplan, Contributor Feb 24, 2015

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The Guardian
http://www.guardiannews.com/
Accessed 14 March 2015
Meet the man leading Britain’s fight against Ebola | World news
16 hours ago … From his lab in Liverpool, Professor Tom Solomon is heading UK efforts to combat Ebola. He’s hopeful we’ll have a treatment and vaccine …

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New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/
Accessed 14 March 2015
Why Doctors Give in on Vaccines – The New Yorker
Mar 5, 2015 … Many parents are asking for their children’s vaccinations to be delayed, and many physicians are agreeing, even though it puts patients at risk.

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 14 March 2015
Vaccines Face Same Mistrust That Fed Ebola
MONROVIA, Liberia — West Africa’s Ebola epidemic may be waning, but another outbreak in the future is a near certainty, health officials say.
Now, the United States is helping to lead a large study of two vaccines against Ebola. But as researchers try to compress a clinical process that can take a decade into a fraction of the time, they are confronting the same volatile mix of skepticism, fear, false rumor and understandable mistrust that helped spread Ebola in the first place.
“When we look at Ebola, it came from America,” said Sylvester George, a pastor’s assistant, expressing doubts about the clinical trials at an information session. “It’s a man-made virus. So why didn’t they do this trial in America, but they decide to come to Liberia?”
Trials of Ebola drugs and vaccines are underway or planned in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the three countries most affected by an epidemic that has claimed about 10,000 lives. But the study in Liberia of the two vaccines is the most ambitious, with American researchers from the National Institutes of Health and their Liberian counterparts hoping to enlist more than 27,000 participants under an agreement between their governments.
The trial’s scale alone has posed tough ethical and practical questions. American and Liberian officials have debated how to attract so many volunteers, how much to pay them and how to mobilize the public to extinguish crippling rumors before they take root, like the one asserting that Ebola vaccines were being slipped into children’s immunizations.
And there is an added layer of mistrust directed at one of the most important partners in the trial: the Liberian government.
After a government minister called on Liberians to “step up” and volunteer to test a new Ebola vaccine, angry callers on talk radio asked why no high-ranking government official had gotten a shot in the arm…

Americans Evacuated After Possible Ebola Contact
By SHERI FINK
MARCH 14, 2015
The first of a group of 10 American aid workers who may have come into contact with the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone were evacuated on Saturday, an American government official said. They will be the largest group of Americans to have returned home over fears of exposure to the virus since an outbreak in three West African countries was declared last year.
The 10 worked with the American medical aid group Partners in Health and were determined to have varying degrees of risk but no symptoms, said Sheila Davis, who leads Ebola response efforts for the charity. A medical worker for the charity was confirmed to have Ebola last week and returned to the United States Friday morning.
Another American aid worker with the group, who was showing signs of illness, arrived in the United States on Friday evening. She became sick last week, but tested negative for Ebola twice, said several officials unaffiliated with the charity, speaking on the condition of anonymity. She was sent to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which has a specialized unit for Ebola patients. The hospital had no information to provide on the patient, an Emory spokeswoman said Saturday…

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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/home-page?_wsjregion=na,us&_homepage=/home/us
Accessed 14 March 2015
Oregon Lawmaker Drops Bill to Ban Most Vaccine Exemptions
Legislation aiming to pressure Oregon parents to get their children vaccinated was abandoned because of formidable opposition in a state that has the nation’s highest rate of nonmedical exemptions.
03/11/15

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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 14 March 2015
As Ebola’s death toll surpasses 10,000, this is how grief and recovery look in West Africa
Ebola infections are down and Liberia has reported no new cases since last week. Yet, there is still grief over the tremendous — and in some cases, ongoing — loss.
Abby Phillip | National | Mar 13, 2015
American health-care worker with Ebola virus arrives at NIH Bethesda
Officials: A person was transported by a private charter plane from Sierra Leone.
Dana Hedgpeth | Local | Mar 13, 2015