JAM - you know that I respect your opinions, and I never meant to insinuate that you were uniformed. But I would just like to offer this observation. If parents wish to protect their children from all things that they cannot control, they will have to keep them locked in their homes full time. The world is not a safe place and you cannot guarantee that bad things will not happen to you when you walk out into it.

The relative unknowns/risks related to this vaccine are far less than most things that children are exposed to these days, and I do not just mean medicines etc. As to the Federal Government (at least in its current incarnation) they SHOULD be afraid of it. It does not have the American population in a proportionate level of concern compared to big business, and more. I fear we are a distant second or third in their priority lists. If mothers are afraid of the guidance of their pediatricians, they need a new one, just like we say about dentists that do not offer screenings. The information and courses for these doctors about this vaccine have been around long enough for them to get up to speed, even off the Internet in CE courses there. Today parents are too protective. Jeeze, think what it was like decades ago...Oh my God, I drank out of the garden hose, ate a bug or two out of the yard, and some handfuls of dirt as well, and that doesn't even count the things I wouldn