Opportunity from UMass Med Students to Raise Awareness of the Importance of Childhood Vaccinations

Hey BUSM!

As you all have probably heard in the news (or experienced in your clinical rotations), a lot of parents are opting-out of vaccinating their children, as many organizations have questioned the safety and utility of the vaccines that we are using. Because of the expanding anti-vaccination movement, there are more unvaccinated communities today than there have been in recent history. This is weakening herd immunity and putting everyone at risk – particularly the young and immunocompromised.

We have seen several measles outbreaks occur in the US after vaccination rates started to decline here, and it’s very important for us to join the conversation to provide our future patients, friends, and family with accurate information about vaccines and their safety!

We are going to start a social media campaign for medical students (just starting at UMass Medical School and expanding to others in the area) with our slogan being “Keep Calm and Vaccinate.” There will be a Facebook group for all of us to join that will provide information (with reliable sources) about vaccine-preventable illnesses that you can share to all of your Facebook friends!

If any of you are interested in joining the Facebook group, please let us know via this Google doc, and let us know if you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt! The design of the t-shirt will include the logo that you see in the attachment. The more people that want a t-shirt, the cheaper it will be! Once we have an idea about price, we’ll email out to those interested to give you final details.

https://docs.google.com/…/1R1wj-8mFmlu7JixlbvmWhA…/viewform…

Thanks everyone!