It's Blogust! Time to Give Kids a Shot@Life!

It's Blogust! That time of year, that annual August period when life-saving advocacy couldn't be easier for good people like you to take part in. When Shot@Life donates a life-saving vaccine to a child in need every time you share the #Blogust tag on public social media (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter).

The tl;dr version?

One #Blogust Comment, One #Blogust Share or One #Blogust Like = One Vaccine 

The just-the-facts version:

• Humanitarian: A child dies every 20 seconds because they don't have access to life-saving vaccines, and 1 in 5 children lacks access to vaccines. Plus, immunizations save the lives of 2.5 million children, each year.
• Public Safety: Measles infects 95% of the unvaccinated people who encounter a carrier; polio is only a plane ride away from returning to the United States. And babies can't be vaccinated in against measles in their first year of life. To keep ourselves safe, we must help eradicate vaccine-preventable disease in the rest of the world.
• Cost-savings: The costs of eradicating smallpox are more than recouped by an annual savings of the one billion dollars that would have been needed for treatment, etc. And we're so close to eliminating polio! The current goal for a polio-free world is 2018, and it's reachable.

The How You Can Help Right Now version:

To kick off #Blogust, the @ShotAtLife team will be hosting a Twitter party on August 3 from 1-2 p.m. ET. We would love to see you there - every tweet with #Blogust or @ShotAtLife during this hour equals one vaccine for a child around the world

And since the subject of autism still (still!) comes up sometimes when we're trying to save lives with vaccines, I've compiled a Pinterest page on Busting Autism-Vaccine Myths. Please feel free to use it as a resource, or let me know about any resources I'm missing.

It's Giving Tuesday: Give a Shot@Life Today

Today is Giving Tuesday, an initiative to remind people that the holiday season is about giving, not just shopping.

Ideally, Giving Tuesday is about supporting non-profit organizations. Organizations like Shot@Life, the UN Foundation's global vaccines initiative. An organization that, as a vocal vaccine advocate, I support wholeheartedly.

I want to ask you to support Shot@Life today, too.

Giving Tuesday is a great day for you to support Shot@Life, because you won't be alone. MAM USA, maker of unique baby products, is celebrating Giving Tuesday by pledging $25,000 to Shot@Life -- and then Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged to match it -- for a total of $50,000. Which is definitely a great start.

But if you participate, every dollar you donate today will be matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- up to $200,000. Up until 11:59 PM PT.

Even better -- during the "doorbuster" (5am-9am PT), every dollar you donate will be matched 2:1. That means if you donate one dollar during that time, it magically becomes three.


If you want more convincing about vaccines themselves: Bill and Melinda Gates believe that vaccines are one of the best investments you can make to improve global health. I agree, which is why I've both written for the Gates Foundation about the importance of vaccines, and work with Shot@Life to help get life-saving vaccines to those who need them.

So please: spread the word, donate -- I've set up a personal Team Immunity Shot@Life Fundraising Page -- and thank you for making today all about Giving.

Blogust: When Your Comments Save Lives

August = Blogust. And Blogust is the wonderful time of year when the UN Foundation's Shot@Life taps members of the social media milieu and Blogosphere, to use our synergistic connectivity to save lives: "Every time you comment on or share the Blogust posts, Walgreens will help provide a life-saving vaccine for children around the world who need them most."

That means that every comment -- on this post, or on one of the Blogust14 posts that will be rolling out during this month of August -- is literally a chance to save a life, to get a vaccine to a child who otherwise would not get have that chance. It couldn't be easier, so please comment comment comment and spread the word.

Here's more of what Blogust is all about:

Image description: tiny beige-skinned girl,
age 3, holding an inflated purple latex
glove in front of her face.

Why do I care so much about getting vaccines to kids in countries where vaccine access is limited? Besides being a mom, besides having a heart, besides being grateful to be be part of a movement that makes taking action -- real action -- so damn easy?

Because I'm lucky. Because my third child, Mali, didn't get her first vaccinations until she was three because her brother, Leo, is autistic, and in 2003 no one could tell me why, and I fell for the vaccine-autism causation hoaxes of the era.

I know better now -- there is no link between vaccines and autism, and autism is nothing to fear -- and thankfully nothing happened to Mali -- she didn't die from pertussis as a baby, and she didn't die from measles encephalitis as a toddler. But she could have. And other kids, shamefully, still do. And you can help prevent more of those deaths simply by commenting on Blogust14 posts and social media.

So please, please participate. Every child belongs to all of us. Every child is valuable. Every child matters. Every child could be your child. Every child deserves, well, a Shot@Life.

More information:

• Shot@Life and the UN Foundation: Vaccines Save Lives
• Busting Anti-Vaccine Myths While Supporting Autistic People 
• Pinterest: Vaccines, and Autism: Get the Facts

Lobbying My Congresswoman on Behalf of Autism and Vaccine Policies: If I Can Do It, You Can Too

At Congresswoman Jackie Speier's San Mateo office,
with staffer Samantha Roxas.

It's funny, really, that I've been doing in-person policy advocacy lately. Personality inventories usually recommend I live in a cave by myself, and avoid selling real estate or doing any kind of political lobbying. So the fact that I've been  lobbying on autism and vaccine policies anyhow demonstrates how much I care about both topics.

Which is why I went to Congresswoman Jackie Speier's office today and talked with staffers including Samantha Roxas. Well, not the only reason. Last month, when Shot@Life sent me to talk about global vaccine policies with Senators Boxers and Feinstein's teams, they also sent me to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo's office. Which was a great meeting! Except I live 200 feet inside Rep. Speier's district. So I wanted to have a chance to talk with my own Rep's team.

From my perspective, the meeting went well. I spend my days so deeply involved in autism and vaccine advocacy that it's sometimes hard to calibrate my information firehose appropriately. Fortunately the staffers were interested, and asked good questions.

First we talked about the re-authorization of the Combating Autism Act, which expires in September of this year. The CAA is a matter I view guardedly. It's not that I don't want more government funding to go towards autistic people; I'm just worried about how that funding is allocated. As my concerns align closely with those of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN), so I explained my concerns using the five talking points from ASAN's CAA memorandum:

1) Re-Balance the Autism Research Agenda to Include Research on Effective Services, and Adults

We need to focus on supporting the autistic people who are already here. My son is starting to use assistive technology to communicate, there are many autistic people whose unaddressed sensory needs interfere with daily living, we need better housing, education, employment. The CAA budget is too heavily focused on causation research.

2) Prioritize Funding for Autistic Adults

Most autistic people are not children; most autistic people are adults. And my own autistic son is already a teenager. We need to prioritize supports and resources for the autistic adults who are already here, who have always been here.

3) Transfer primary responsibility for management of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) from the National Institutes of Health to the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD) within the Administration for Community Living (ACL)

Another way to focus less on causation research and more on supporting existing autistic people -- make the department administrating the IACC one already focused on the interests of autistic people, rather than one that tends to view autism as a disease and fund causation research.

4) Change the composition of the IACC to require that at least half of the public members be autistic people and to add representation by DOJ, NCD, HUD and other relevant service-oriented federal agencies.

There are more than enough qualified autistic individuals to serve on the IACC. Busting the myth that such individuals are rare, and they myth that individuals who are non-speaking or have multiple disabilities could not effectively serve, were particularly rewarding areas of discussion with Rep. Speier's staffers. (I recommended they review TPGA's current Autism Acceptance Month interview series.)

5) Change the name of the Combating Autism Act to end the use of stigmatizing language. 

Some might dismiss this as quibbling over semantics, but I disagree. Language matters -- it influences thinking and attitudes. I don't want the government to tell people they should combat my son, or my autistic friends. Autistic people themselves don't like the language, either, and have started a #StopCombatingMe social media campaign.

And then the meeting's focus shifted to my other priority, Global Vaccines. I told the staffers that I advocate for vaccines, in part, as penance for the harm the anti-vaccine autism contingent causes with regards to public health, global health, and autistic people like my son. We talked a bit about how it's reasonable to ask questions about vaccines and autism, but how frustrating it is when people won't accept the answer that vaccines do not cause autism. About how hard it is to unscare people who fell for lazy media vaccine-autism fear mongering, and how silly it is for anti-vaccine blowhard Jenny McCarthy to pretend she bears no responsibility for the current outbreaks of vaccine preventable disease.

And we also talked about why our congress should continue to support global vaccine initiatives:

1) It's the right thing to do

A child dies every 20 seconds from vaccine preventable disease. Emphasis on preventable. Vaccines are a low-cost and effective way for the US to continue its tradition of international goodwill and support, in the best way possible -- by helping to save lives.

2) Diseases like Polio are just a plane ride away

Vaccine uptake in our country has been reduced, mostly due to irresponsible stoking of false autism/vaccine concerns. All those unvaccinated kids have no protection against vaccine preventable disease -- as recent measles outbreaks have demonstrated. If we help eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases in other countries, that helps protect American children whose misinformed parents are putting them at risk.

3) It's cost effective

The cost of vaccinations are so, so much less than the cost of treating a person who has a vaccine-preventable disease -- it costs $20 to vaccinate a child against polio, pneumonia, measles, and diarrhea, but can cost $100 to treat a child who contracts those diseases.

The conversation ended with warm affirmatives all 'round and me unable to keep in a "yay!" which I am guessing is not how many congressional staff meetings conclude. Again, I am not a professional lobbyist. But I did feel I made a difference.

Please believe me: if I can lobby, you can, too. Shot@Life has Global Vaccine Advocacy Guidelines, ASAN has guidelines for joining its #StopCombatingMe campaign. You don't have to meet with anyone in person if you don't want to -- you can write, donate, tweet, call, and just plain agitate. So, what are you waiting for?

Walking the Capitol Hill Walk for Life-Saving Vaccines

"There is no evidence to support a vaccine-autism link, and irrefutable evidence supports vaccination as one of the best ways to protect the health and lives of children all over the world."  

"In the context of global vaccine efforts, vaccine hesitancy makes no sense and rarely comes up." 

These two statements underscore why I speak out about the critical importance of vaccines. I've lived in a country and gone to school with people affected by polio. Trust me, no one who has the real-world experience of living in fear of vaccine-preventable diseases questions the necessity of vaccines.

So I wince, almost daily, at the harm done by vaccine denialists, in opening the gate for resurgences of preventable diseases like measles. And I wince again when I see anti-vaccine misinformation  spread by tiny but zealous factions within the autism communities, then blithely repeated by media outlets that value page views more than they do public health [shakes fist].

Anti-vaccine misinformation is a double whammy of dangerous ignorance: It makes people fear autistic people like my beloved son Leo, and it endangers the health and lives of children all over the world. So I counter that misinformation with my own double whammy: I speak out against anti-vaccine information and fight for good vaccine information whenever I can, as hard as I can.

Champions on Capitol Hill. Photo: Shot@Life

Which means I was thrilled to be invited to Washington DC by the United Nations Foundation's Shot@Life Campaign: as a UNF Global Issues Fellow to further the vaccine awareness work other bloggers and I did during Blogust, and as a Shot@Life Champion, trained on global vaccine awareness and issues and then unleashed on Capitol Hill with ninety-nine other Shot@Life champions to meet with our Senators and Congressional Representatives, in order to urge them to continue their support of life-saving global initiatives.

It was an life-changing experience, walking the halls of the Capitol Hill office buildings in the company of people who gave such incredible damns. Realizing, that, as a constituent, I have the same right any other constituent to have my say, directly to my members of Congress (or their staff). Which we did! We talked with staffers for both Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

With James Hamos, Legislative Fellow, and
Megan Thompson, Legislative Assistant
Office of Senator Dianne Feinstein

And here is what we told the Senators' and Representatives' Congressional teams: Thank you for supporting global vaccine initiatives (because, thankfully, California and Silicon Valley were already on board). Let us know how we can support you -- and if you get blowback from your other constituents about diverting money internationally when we have so many domestic needs, we're here to provide you with information to address most any concern (and I also offered my services as a pro-vaccine autism parent). We need to keep funding international immunization programs for these reasons:

• Humanitarian: A child dies every 20 seconds because they don't have access to life-saving vaccines, and 1 in 5 children lacks access to vaccines. Plus, immunizations save the lives of 2.5 million children, each year.
• Public Safety: Measles infects 95% of the unvaccinated people who encounter a carrier; polio is only a plane ride away from returning to the United States. And babies can't be vaccinated in against measles in their first year of life. To keep ourselves safe, we must help eradicate vaccine-preventable disease in the rest of the world.
• Cost-savings: The costs of eradicating smallpox are more than recouped by an annual savings of the one billion dollars that would have been needed for treatment, etc. And we're so close to eliminating polio! The current goal for a polio-free world is 2018, and it's reachable.

With Stacy Mintzer Herlihy, co-author of Your Baby's Best Shot
and Melody Butler of Nurses Who Vax

If the thought of meeting with a Congressional Representative scares you, don't let it. It's not that hard, as long as you're prepared. And were we ever prepared! Because when Shot@Life brought together 100 Champions from around the U.S. -- doctors, public health officials, nurses, parents, students -- they gave us a two-day crash course on global vaccines issues  (Storified for you to absorb in smaller bites), led by agencies supporting global vaccines initiatives. We had the privilege of hearing directly from representatives of the UN Foundation, Shot@Life, the World Health Organization (WHO), and GAVI Alliance reps, as well as polio survivor Dennis Ogbe. My favorite quote from the training was by pediatrician Dr. Margaret Fisher, who reminded everyone:

"When you choose not to immunize your child, you're playing Russian Roulette with your child."

And before the Champion Summit, Shot@Life invited a group of bloggers to participate in the UN Foundation Global Issues Fellowship, which was like our own mini TED conference on Conversations About Global Agencies, Public Health, Vaccines, and Communication: Challenges, Goals, Myths, and Next Steps. I felt so grateful and lucky to participate, and to spend time with the group pictured below. So grateful, in fact, that I've put together Storified versions of most of the talks below (just click on the "they talked about" links), so you, too, can share what we learned.

Some pretty damn amazing people. Recognize anyone?
Photo: Migdalia Rivera

Here are some of the write ups from the other Shot@Life/Global Issues Fellows (I'll add more as they come in):

• Dresden Shumaker at Creating Motherhood: Revolutionary Optimists: Watch an Inspiring Clip
• Caryn Payzant at The MidLife Guru: What Is a Blogger Anyway (And Why Do They Matter?)
• Ellen Seidman at Parents.com: Scary Vaccine Realities You Can't Argue With
and at Love That Max: Because We Fight for Kids Who Can't Fight for Themselves

• Sili Recio at My Mamihood: He Deserved a Shot
• Dresden Shumaker at Creating Motherhood: Almost Five
• Chloe Jeffreys at Chloe of the Mountain: Chloe Goes to Washington

Here are the wonderful people we ever-so-fortunate Global Issues Fellows got to hear from:

Ambassador Jimmy Kolker, former US Ambassador to Uganda and Burkina Faso, current Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, US Dept of Health and Human Services, along with Peter Yeo, Vice President for Public Policy at the United Nations Foundation, spoke about health challenges around the globe -- include violence, and violence against women.

"Simple solutions to global violence against woman include having
a female police officer at the hospitals, as Namibia does."

Marie Claudet, a news producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Noam Levey, a National Health Reporter for the LA Times, spoke about the challenges and ethics of, and strategies for, reporting on global health issues like vaccines.

 

"Life expectancies in parts of US, like the Mississsippi Delta,
are dismal by global standards, due to lack of health care."

Dr. Asad Majeed Khan, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Pakistan graciously talked about the Pakistani government's unwavering commitment to eradicating polio within its borders, and the challenges it faces in doing so.

"When public confidence in vaccines is eroded,
trust restoration takes time."
Photo: Migdalia Rivera

Teddy Ruge is co-founder of Project Diaspora and Hive Colab, and the Lead Social Media Strategist for the World Bank. He talked about our obligation to "Create the Right Buzz" while supporting, not displacing, local development efforts.

"The merits of your campaign should be: real, local, current issues,
not making non-locals feel good."
Photo: Flickr/Mashable (cropped)

Sarah Craven is Washington DC representation office Director of the United Nations Population Fund, the "Agency that Makes Sex Boring." She talked about current crises in global women's and reproductive health -- and if her facts and stories don't outrage you, read them again.

"Half the girls in Ethiopia are married before their 15th birthday,
often by well-intentioned parents."
Photo: Chloe Jeffreys

Will Davis is the Director of the United Nations Development Programme, Washington Representation Office. He spoke about the United Nations' role in today's world, including why "Global goals should not be about rich countries preaching to poor countries."

"Peacekeeping is an attempt to get a country back on its feet after a crisis,
including jobs, and access to justice."
Photo: Chloe Jeffreys

Devi Ramachandran Thomas, Director of the United Nations Foundation's Shot@Life program, spoke about prioritizing global children's health, including reducing child mortality through vaccinations and also by combating malnutrition, diarrhea, and malaria.

"In Mozambique, many parents will not name their child until after they've been vaccinated."
Me, Devi (center), Lucrecer Braxton

The incredibly engaging Aaron Sherinian is the United Nations Foundation's Vice President of Communications and Public Relations. He spoke about translating online efforts into real world global engagement that can actually make a difference.

"At the end of the day, social media trends remind us that humans have a lot in common."
Photo: UN Foundation

Now, hopefully, you're wondering "How can I help? Tell me tell me!" And of course, the answers are "get involved!" (Shot@Life's site has an excellent advocacy toolkit) and "donate!" Donate your time, donate funds, donate your voice in spreading the messages above, especially about global vaccine issues. You can always donate to Shot@Life directly, but you can also manage your advocacy and outreach with the Shot@Life app, or even donate photos -- each worth $1 towards global vaccines -- through the Donate a Photo app.

If there is a single message you should be taking away from the onslaught of information above, it is this: You have so many options for helping to get life-saving vaccines to the children who need them. Pick an option, and get going!

----

Again, my sincere thanks to the UN Foundation and Shot@Life, and everyone who made this incredible experience possible -- including my companions in the Shot@Life Champions Summit and Global Issues Fellowship. Disclosure: The UN Foundation provided my travel & lodgings for the two events.

The Coolness of Being Thirteen

Thirteen is cool, says my eldest daughter Gisela, who should know. She says thirteen is when people take you seriously, because you're finally a teenager. Thirteen is different. It matters. You matter.

For me, hers is a bittersweet declaration. I am astounded by the lithe, strong, clever, independent-minded young woman she is turning into, but I'll admit -- I really liked the before-teen phase, with kids who were not self-aware about coolness, still mostly obedient, who still looked up to me as the ultimate font of knowledge, had no hangups about hiking with Mommy, playing family geography trivia games, and agreed that Star Trek marathons are a fantastic way to spend quality time together. These days, she'd much rather code Tumblr themes.

Mine is a selfish perspective, admittedly. But I suspect many parents in my spot also long for the days when their now-skeptical, slightly haughty teens were still kids, as well as wide-eyed, trusty companions & sidekicks, even as we embrace the people they are becoming.

I write 'kids' because Gisela has a younger brother Leo, who is also approaching teenhood. She is a few months past thirteen, he has a few months until thirteen. Leo pushes those teen buttons differently than Gisela because he is not her, and also because he is Autistic with a capital A. While Gisela will now debate with me outright about choices and chores, Leo -- who reserves the right not to speak unless it really matters -- will merely give me a sidelong glance to let me know that he heard me but has no intention of complying, then take off in the opposite direction.

What thirteen has not changed is their relationship with each other. They have never known a life outside each other's periphery, have always had a deep affection and connection with each other (though they both bicker like jaybirds with their eight-year-old sister India). Gisela is one of the few people who can help Leo calm down when he's distraught and not able to self-soothe. Leo always accepts Gisela as she is -- he doesn't care whether she has the right shoes, makeup, or hair (all potentially earth-shattering choices for Gisela's version of thirteen), he's always glad to see her. I am glad they remain the sweetest of companions to each other, even as they push back at me, even though I don't hold them even remotely responsible for how that pushing back makes my heart ache.

But whenever that pushing back really hurts, I can always remind myself how lucky our family is, just to have all three of our kids so alive and so healthy. Gisela and I just returned from a trip to visit friends in Ghana, a country that has had many successful vaccine campaigns. However, it was very clear during our visit that other African countries still struggle to get vaccinations to all those who deserve protection from vaccine-preventable disease. Gisela's good fortune in being fully vaccinated was not lost on her.

I am also glad my kids are alive and healthy, because when Leo was first diagnosed with autism, I was one of those smart, well-informed parents who nonetheless blamed vaccines. I regret this lapse in judgment, hope my ignorance was not contagious, and now work very hard to share legitimate vaccine information (i.e., the evidence is against a link to autism) in the autism and parent communities.

And I will continue to hug both my teens as hard as I can, any time they will let me. Even if it's not always cool.

This post is inspired by Shot@Life, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation that educates, connects and empowers the championing of vaccines as one of the most cost effective ways to save the lives of children in the world’s hardest to reach places.

During Shot@Life’s Blogust, 31 bloggers, one each day in August, are writing about moments that matter. For every comment on this post and the 30 other posts, Walgreens will donate a vaccine (up to 50,000 vaccines). A child dies every 20 seconds from a vaccine-preventable disease. We can change this reality and help save kids’ lives!

Sign up here for a daily email so you can quickly and easily comment and share every day during Blogust! Stay connected with Shot@Life at www.shotatlife.org, join the campaign on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Every last comment on this counts -- even a WOOT -- so spread the word, and help stop the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.