Vaccine News & Notes — September 2019

Pontifical Academy for Life clarifies position and stresses importance of vaccines

In 2005, the Pontifical Academy for Life published their position that vaccines made using cell lines obtained from aborted fetuses could still be morally used by practitioners of the Catholic faith. In light of ongoing concerns related to this matter and declining immunization rates, the Academy revisited the issue and again reached the same conclusion. However, their more recent statement contained even stronger language related to lack of immorality and the importance of protecting one’s fellow community members, stating in part, “the moral obligation to guarantee the vaccination coverage necessary for the safety of others is no less urgent ...”

• Read the full statement.
• See a video about the decision to use fetal tissues during development of the rubella vaccine.

Pinterest monitors vaccine information

The social media forum popular for DIY projects and creative ideas recently announced a bold move when it comes to vaccine information. Pinterest banned results for common vaccine-related search terms because of the prevalence of misinformation that was spreading in their online community. Before making this decision, when someone searched “vaccines” on Pinterest, anti-vaccine results were returned 75% of the time. After halting the ability to search for vaccine-related information, the company went a step further. They are now providing results from specific, credible public health organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Vaccine Safety Net, a program of the WHO.

The Vaccine Education Center (VEC) has had Pinterest boards as part of the Parents PACK program for several years. And although the VEC is a member of the Vaccine Safety Net program and you may see some of our pins there, our boards can also be accessed directly at pinterest.com/VEC_CHOP/.