Executive Summary

Childhood immunization has been one of the foremost public health measures of the twentieth century. It has allowed control and prevention of many diseases from which morbidity and mortality can be staggering. Medical personnel in the United States currently rarely see a case of the infectious diseases against which the vaccines are directed. Yet, recent measles epidemics on college campuses and in inner cities suggest that vaccine-preventable disease is not to be ignored. The first health initiative of the immunization programs to boost vaccination rates in the United States, particularlyfor children under age 2 years.

The public policy debate regarding immunization stretches beyond the question of how to meet the goals of universal immunization. Concern over the safety of pertussis vaccine was long-standing in Great Britain by the time of the 1982 airing in the United States of a documentary entitled "DPT: A Shot in the Dark (Coulter and Fisher, 1985). Concern has stretched to other vaccines and has spawned the formation of groups of interested citizens throughout the United States, for example, National Vaccine Information Center/Dissatisfied Parents Together, Determined Parents to Stop Hurting Our Tots, Concerned Health Professionals and Others, and Parents

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