Have learned because theres just really no set curriculum that can be guaranteed. [ applause ]. Today the civic club of cleveland, we have enjoyed a friday forrum from anne neal. Thank you, ms. Neal, for your informative remarks. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This forrum is now adjourned. [ applause ]. [ bell rings ] on the next washington journal, well discuss the latest news from ferguson, missouri, and about the resignation of defense secretary chuck hagel. Our guests include andrew tilghman. And later, bill shore will be here to talk about hunger in america. Our show is live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern 4 00 a. M. Pacific on cspan. Looking ahead to tuesday night, well have a look at one community in america is handling the recent influx of young, undocumented immigrants. Youll hear from republican mayor jude it kennedy who describes efforts to provide undocumented children with education and health services. Then on cspan2 at 8 00 p. M. , a sis dis cushion on cronyism and government. Steve simpson shares his thoughts from the hungry minds speaker series. And on cspan, interviews with retiring members of congress. Will feature Iowa Democratic senator, tom har kin and howard coble. Its part of our weeklong series. Here are a few of the comments we recently received from our viewers. I just have to tell you that to see these people in person, to hear them, have the Panel Discussion or congressional hearing, it is so important to understand the context and to listen to the statement in its entirety. I have been watching book tv for a few years and i think book tv is the greatest program on tv. I just really like, you know, how these authors pick the times not only to present some gist of what they write, but the moderator always does a great job of stimulating the conversation. Yeah. Its what i look forward to on the weekends for me, to watch as much as i can. I watch cspan all the time when im home. Its the only station i have on most of the time. I think its absolutely excellent. I watched all of the debates around the country. Thank you for the book talks and for the history. I like all of it. And i am thankful that its there and i use it in my classroom. I teach at a Community College in kentucky. Thank you very much. And continue to let us know what you think about the programs youre watching. Call us at 2026263400. Email us at comments at cspan. Org. Or send us a tweet at cspancomments. Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. The National Press clubs Journalism Institute hosted a discussion on vaccine safety. Experts explained why diseases like measles or mumps which has largely been eliminated generations ago are now making a comeback. This is an hour and a half. Welcome back to the National Press club and its Journalism Institute and a special welcome to the vast audience viewing us today via cspan. I am myron belkind, the president of the press club and we are pleased to be hosting this briefing with the pbs show, nova and tangle bank studios, the coproducer on the upcoming show on vaccines. No question, from maine to ohio to california, there have been many outbreaks of preventable diseases that many in my generation thought were no longer a threat. Measles, mumps, whooping cough and even polio. On a personal note, i was a foreign corespondent for the Associated Press for 40 years, when i am asked, what was the most important story i ever covered i respond, that it was covering the eradication of smallpox in india. When i went without a group of World Health Organization epideemologyists to remote eastern india to report on how they isolated areas of smallpox to ensure that everyone was vak indicated. And those vaccines in india helped make the world smallpox free a few years later. And that is why it is essential not to forget the role of vaccines. No question, this issue of vaccines is being talked about by news media around the United States and the world. And i am pleased that today we will be hearing from a distinguished panel, including journalists who are on the front lines covering this issue, persons like joe lawlor, the health and Human Services reporter of the Portland Press harold main sunday telegram. Who to better examine the Science Behind vaccination, the risk of opting out than nova, the premiere pbs show on science, health, education, and more. I want to welcome paula offit. The executive producer here in the audience and julia kourtd, the senior producer who are based at wgbh in boston, one of the pbs flagship stations. And our moderator today is michael rosenfeld. I gather the term tankle bank was inspired by Charles Darwins on the origin of species and his tangle bank hypothesis. So we look to you, julia, michael and other experts on the panel to help us better understand the complicated echo systems of vaccines. Thank you so much, again, for having this important discussion, this very important discussion at the National Press club under the os miss sis of its Journalism Institute. Im pleased to turn over the floor to julia court. Thank you, myron. And thank you to the press Club Institute for hosting this briefing and thank you all for coming this morning. Were here to talk about reporting on vaccination and outbreaks of vaccinepreventable diseases and to share some insights weve gained while preparing our Upcoming Program vaccines calling the shots. Vaccination is a perfect topic for nova to cover because our primary mission is improving the publics understanding of science through accurate and engaging journalism. In fact, today nova and pbs are among a very small handful of places one can find good science journalism on television. And still, the need for science journalism has never been greater. Science and technology is involved in so many Public Policy issues today. Like vaccination, its crucial that people not only get the facts but get clear accessible explanations and sis of the facts so they can make informed decisions. Yet, providing these can be really challenging for journalists, especially on subjects like vaccines because not only is the science very complicated but were presenting this to readers, viewers, our audience who are not just engaging with the facts but are engaging with powerful emotions, like fear, mistrust. So this is a challenge our producer, our whole Editorial Team faced putting together this program as we aim to provide solid, Scientific Understanding in a field thats full of misinformation and misconception to an audience that includes parents who are confused who have a lot of questions but are trying very hard to do the right thing for their children. Paula, Senior Executive producer of nova who is here today and i were very fortunate to be working with an extremely talented team of veteran science journalists including Sonya Pemberton and michael rosenfeld, who took on this really difficult and complicated but extraordinarily important topic. So, we hope todays discussion is helpful to you as you report on vaccines and on these outbreaks and wrestle with some of the issues that weve been wrestling with. So, now i would like to turn things over to michael rosenfeld, head of television and film at tangled bank and executive producer of vaccines calling the shots. Thank you, julia, for that kind introduction and thank you, myron for the opportunity to pash tis pate in this briefing. Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for coming. The subject of vaccination is on the minds of Many Americans right now as we send our kids back to school at a time when vaccinepreventable outbreaks are making headlines around the country. The cdc puts the numbers in perspective. Measles was declared eradicated in this country in the year 2000, but theres been almost 600 cases so far this year. Thats the highest level in the u. S. In almost two decades. Pertussis or whooping cough is also a problem. 2012 was an especially bad year with nearly 50,000 cases and 20 deaths in the u. S. And this year the state of california declared a pertussis epidemic. These are diseases that vaccines can and do prevent, so the numbers would make anyone but especially a journalist wonder whats going on. At tangle bank studios our mission is to shed light on complex topics so the story of vaccines in the context of these outbreaks was irry cystable to us. Weve been fortunate to partner with nova and pbs to explore some of these issues. The as a result is a new documentary vaccines calling the shots which airs at september 10th at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. We hope the film will help the audience understand the science on these issues. At the same time, we know that this is a story that will continue to unfold over the coming weeks and months and years. I think its safe to say that journalists will have their work cut out for therm as they cover the return of vaccinepreventable disease which is cant be fully explored from any single beat. This is not just a science story, its a Public Health story, a medicine story, its economics and policy, psychology and history as well. Our panelists today reflect that breadth. You have their bios, so i wont repeat that information, but i would like to add a few things about them. As you see when you watch the film, paula offit to my left cares passionately about Public Health. He was a leader in the row toe virus vaccine that saved hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. He has extensive years of experience on the front line of Pediatric Medicine at Childrens Hospital. Paul has a lot to say about the role of vaccines and the return of vaccinepreventable diseases. The way to make a smart film is to immerse yourself in the topic and Sonya Pemberton, next to paul, really goes deep. When i first discussed this film with her several years ago, i was impressed by how much she already knew about vaccines and sonya has spent the last four and a half years immersing ners this topic. In addition of acquiring a detailed understanding of the topic, she given a lot of thought on how this story should be told. Her goal was to craft a film to bring claire toy a very complicated science and be accessible to the general public and to parents who as julia said have a lot of conflicts thoughts and emotions about vaccination. Brian zikmundfisher grapples with one of the hardest things to communicate, risk. He studies how people make decisions at the university of michigan, he is great at explaining tough concepts. Those subjects are especially important for vaccine conversation because how you see risk can have a big impact on whether you vaccinate your kids on schedule, delay some shots or skip their vaccination entirely. Finally, im pleased to welcome joe lawlor to the panel. Journalist covering the health beat for the Portland Press harold in maine. Joe has firsthand experience covering vaccination. He has called attention to the rise in vaccine exemption rates and potential legislative responses. He has generated lots of discussion on the web. So thats the panel. Im now going to ask each of the panelists to speak for roughly five minutes about the subject of vaccines from their particular Vantage Point and then well open the floor to questions. Paul . Okay. If we could start actually theres twominute clip about heard immunity that will lead into my five minute miss sminut. So roll it. The 2013 Measles Outbreak in new york hit hard and fast, but remained within the brooklyn area. Why didnt it spread to the other 8 Million People in the city . The virus was in circulation, even though it often wasnt obvious. And it was being carried by people who often had no idea they were infected. But the vast majority of people who came into contact with the virus had protection. They were vaccinated. Theres two things that matter for whether or not im going to get sick. One is, if i bump into somebody who has the disease, am i protected against it or not . But the other piece and the more important piece is the chance i will bump into somebody in the first place who has this disease. And you can think of this as these sort of concentric circles of people and the less the disease exists in my circle or the next circle or the next circle, the safer i am. Its known as herd immunity. And it protects everyone, including young babies and people who cant be vaccinated for medical reasons. And in new york, it worked. If we didnt have the high vaccination levels that we do, you know, in new york city and even in this community, i can promise you we would have had hundreds if not thousands of cases. But this protection is fragile. For highlyinfectious diseases like measles, we need 95 of the community vaccinated for Herd Community to hold. If the rate drops, even just a few percent, herd immunity can collapse. So, we live in a country of about 300 Million People. In that among that 300 million, there are 500,000 people who cant be vaccinated. They cant be vaccinated because theyre getting chemo therapy for their cancers or getting immune suppressive therapy for their chronic disease or cant be vak nated because theyre too young. They depend on those around them to protect them. When herd immunity starts to break down, what you see is exactly what youre seeing now, which is the most contagious diseases come back first. And for example, among the most contagious diseases are measles, bumps and whooping cough. Now, as michael said to introduce this, look at the current measles epidemic. I think its instructive. The current measles epidemic has 060 cases. Thats the biggest epidemic we seen since the mid 1990s. 600 cases. Now, if you look at this sort of how that happened, the way that its happened is that generally citizens from this country travel to areas where measles is endemic. Meaning it occurring generally year round. For example, the philippines. In the philippines last year there were 31,000 cases of measles and 42 deaths from measles. A traveler goes to the philippines, catches measles and comes back and spreads it for the most part among a group of unvaccinated children. The reason those children are unvaccinated is because the parents had chosen not to vaccinate them. Now, although it is the biggest epidemic weve seen in two decades, i mean, its worthwhile looking at what this this disease was before we had a measles vaccine when the first measles vaccine was introduced in 1963. Before the first measles vaccine, every year there were 3 to 4 million cases of measles. 48,000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths. Everybody saw measles. I mean, measles was a scourge. Today all though there are 600 cases, i would bet few people if anyone in this room has actually seen a case of measles. In fact, when measles when suspicion of measles case comes into our hospital, a child who has fever, rash and theres a question of measles, they generally bring old people like me down into the Emergency Department to see whether or not it really is a measles case because people dont remember what measles looks like. For example, when a recent larry king live show, generalmy mccarthy, who is my personal goto person for health care advice, i dont know if shes yours. She said, when asked when sort of addressing the issue of whether the combination of measles, mumps, mmr could cause autism, she said and i will quote, ill take the freaken measles every time. What that tells you is that not only has she hasnt seen measles, she doesnt appreciate how sick it can make you but she has no recollection of measles. Weve forgotten what measles looks like which is remarkable. I remember when i was a attending at Childrens Hospital of philadelphia in 1991, we were in the midst of a massive measles epidemic. It centered on two fundamentalist churches in our city. This was 1991. This is 30 years into the development of a measles vaccine. We had nine deaths. Five deaths in a tenday period in february of 1991. I mean, our city was in a panic. And so, theres certainly those of us who understand the power of measles. For example, about 50 of children with measles will have an abnormal chest xray. So i would like to think that what we experienced in 1991 in philadelphia is a lesson from the past and not a prologue to the future. Thanks. Sonya . Hi. Im Sonya Pemberton. Im a film maker and a science journalist. And like many people in this room, i see myself as a conduit between the experts and the public. Translating science for the public is kind of what i do and what i focus on. Im initially started thinking about this film way back in 2009 actually after i made a different film called catching cancer. That was about how viruses can trigger cancers and how in a funny way thats good news because if you can find a virus causing a cancer then you have a chance of creating a vaccine to stop it. And the film went to air and it got lots of nice reviews and things happened, but then i received a rather large proportion of nasty mail and what many people might call hate mail and abuse. I was actually shocked because i spent most of my life growing up in a medical family. I make medicalbased films. I started to study medicine. This was my area. I was surprised. So i decided that i wanted to understand why people could be so upset and so angry about vaccines that they would take the time to write me these letters. So i began a process really four and a half years of digging really deep. I really wanted to understand why people would be really frightened of vaccines. For me, this was alien. I saw it as a lifesaving medicine. I didnt understand it. So, i had to really confront my own bias, my own provaccination stance and try to understand what it felt like to be someone who was fearful of vaccines. And that is what led to the film. I thought today what i would try to contribute was fi