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refusal," Ramirez said. Fretting over fact, fiction ough mostly on the fringes, the anti-vaccine movement, and general distrust of vaccines, is very much alive. While vaccines can cause various side effects — redness and swelling most commonly, according to the Centers for Disease Control — some celebrities have lent their voice to more fringe claims. One of the most prominent is that vaccines can cause autism; medical scientists say there is no such link. President Donald Trump made news early this year when he met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has alleged that the federal government covered up a discovered link between a vaccine ingredient and autism. Scientists say studies have found no evidence of any such link. "is link between autism and the [measles, mumps, rubella] vaccine has been disproven, yet some people still distrust this information," Ramirez said. Distrust in vaccines crosses socioeconomic lines. In fact, a 2011 study by Public Health Reports found that families of unvaccinated children are more likely to be wealthier and more educated than average. Dr. Nicholas Bennett, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, said he has seen anecdotal evidence of that finding. People who aren't doctors, aer all, may have a hard time parsing through competing claims and complicated medical studies. "ey read just enough to be worried and not enough to be re- assured," Bennett said. "It's not that they are stupid." Going beyond the many conspiracy theories, one common argument against mandatory vaccines for school children is that they are a violation of First Amendment rights. Some say parents should be able to make medical decisions for their own children and that recent upticks in measles and other illnesses have been overblown. Doctors counter that more unvaccinated children increases the chances of a disease outbreak. Elissa Diamond-Fields is a Stamford chiropractor and director of outreach and education for Health Freedom Action Connecticut, a group that advocates for the rights of parents to decide whether or not their children should be vaccinated. She has testified against several vaccine-related state bills in the past several years, including a 2015 law that requires parents to submit notarized P H O T O \ \ C O N T R I B U T E D CT Vaccination Rates Estimated vaccination coverage rates among CT kindergartens, 2015–2016 school year. Measles, mumps, and rubella DTap Chicken pox CT 97% 97% 96.3% U.S. median 94.6% 94.2% 94.3% Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Continued from previous page Connecticut Children's Medical Center nurse Gail Karas gives a shot to patient Rebecca Griffin. 14 GREATER HARTFORD HEALTH • Summer 2017