'Anti-vaccine' attitude hampers H1N1 effort

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By William Ehart and Ann Geracimos

The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Monday said the unpredictable H1N1 flu pandemic is not over and implored parents to get their children vaccinated, rapping "misperceptions" about its safety.

Dr. Anthony Fauci urged against complacency and called for people to be persistent in pursuit of the vaccine -- even if they have to wait months as production catches up with demand.

"There are a lot of cases; it could peak and come down, it could come back again later on in the winter. So to think that you're out of the woods if you haven't been infected now is really inaccurate," Dr. Fauci told reporters and editors of The Washington Times.

"Right now, even though people have been waiting in line and may not have gotten the vaccine, this pandemic is not over, it is unpredictable," he said.

Some health workers have refused to take the vaccine, and some pediatricians and parents have refused to give it to children, even though they are among the most vulnerable groups.

"The risk that you're taking, even though there's a very small risk that your child is going to be hospitalized and require intensive care and perhaps even die [from swine flu] ..., that risk is greater than the risk of the vaccine being a problem. That's the thing the people don't seem to understand," he said.

He said there was an "anti-vaccine" attitude among some Americans, prompted in part by distrust of the government.

"Thirty-six thousand people a year die of seasonal flu. There is no way that 36,000 people die from vaccines. The numbers are strikingly different," he said.

Dr. Fauci said that opponents of the vaccine are a small but vocal group, and that the government is trying to "educate" them through local medical societies, public service announcements and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.