BOULDER, CO — Lindsay Diamond, the Boulder County-based immunization advocate who won the Center For Disease Control’s Colorado Immunization Champion award in December, has a new campaign — and this one is larger than life. Diamond and her non-profit, Community Immunity, have paid to rent the billboard on Colo. 93 heading south from town.<\/p>\n
I bought a billboard near #boulder to remind our community about the importance of #vaccines & #publichealth <\/p>\n
Timing is impeccable w\/ confirmed #measles case in Denver reported yesterday. <\/p>\n
@Voices4Vaccines @DrPaulOffit @PeterHotez @SBMPediatrics @doritmi & all vax advocates pic.twitter.com\/gbNnuITLj6
— Lindsay Diamond (@neurdy) January 16, 2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n“Preventing Immunity is worth a shot,” the billboard reads in large letters. Fine-print statistics are printed below to bolster the claim: “Immunization currently prevents between 2–3 million deaths a year.”<\/p>\n
Boulder often draws comparisons to Portland, Oregon, and Asheville, North Carolina. Here’s one that most people haven’t heard: All three have recently documented high numbers of parents opting their kids out of vaccines. An Asheville school saw a chickenpox outbreak last fall. A rash of measles diagnoses spread across Portland last weekend. Experts say that to effectively protect against a disease like measles, a community needs a 93 to 95 percent immunity rate. The 2018 up-to-date vaccine rate for both Boulder and St. Vrain Valley School Districts was about 90 percent.<\/p>\n
The Asheville Citizen-Times noted that “Parents who reject vaccines are more likely to be college-educated with higher family income.” Exemption rates are often highest at private schools — yet scientific evidence of vaccination risks haven’t played out.<\/p>\n