August week 1: MMR & Autism

Articles:

CDC chart of Immunization Safety and Autism Studies
CDC vaccine safety information
Lancet retraction
Original paper in Lancet 
Hopkins Vaccine Safety site

Cases:

You are in your continuity clinic and a medical student has seen one of your patients. She reports back that the parents do not want any vaccines for their child.

What are some common reasons why parents refuse vaccinations? 
How do you counsel a parent who is concerned about autism and vaccines?

How would you counsel the following parents?

A mom who wants to “space out the vaccines”
A dad who wants to wait until the child is closer to school age
A mom who wants to give each component separately (ie DTaP separate from IPV, etc)
A dad who is okay with all the vaccines except MMR
A mom who wants to wait until the child is “feeling better” to get the vaccines

What are good resources to give parents about vaccines? 
Which vaccines have thimerosal? 
What is VAERS? What is considered reportable? 
What are the ABSOLUTE contraindications to vaccines?