The measles outbreak fuels the child vaccination debate, The American Academy of Pediatrics wants more research on medical pot, tech tips for a better Super Bowl.
Pro-vaccination messages can push anti-vaxxers further away, study says
As of now, there are 88 confirmed cases of measles - most of them in California, with some in Arizona, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Oregon and even Mexico.
This outbreak, which originated at Disneyland last month, has stirred up a tremendous amount of debate over vaccines. Some parents are angrily wondering why other parents would choose not to vaccinate their child, when a bulk of evidence points to no connection between vaccines and autism.
But according to one study published in the journal Pediatrics, trying to spread a pro-vaccination message may actually push those opposed to vaccines even deeper into their beliefs.
Brendan Nyhan, one of the study's authors and assistant professor of government at Dartmouth who studies health policy, joins Take Two with more.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
What made you and your colleagues study vaccine denial?
"My co-author and I had been studying political misperceptions for some time, and we came to realize that vaccines were a lot like politics, which I think any parent who's ever talked about them has realized. They're emotional and controversial, people feel very strongly about them, and it can often be really hard to change people's minds about them."
Tell us about how you conducted your study and what you found.
"We wanted to see what would happen if you tried to give people correct information, de-bunking the myth that vaccines cause autism, which is one of the most prominent myths about vaccines. We did a nationally represented survey experiment, with parents in the United States with children at home under the age of 18. And we tested what happened if they read information from the CDC presenting the scientific evidence that vaccines actually don't cause autism.
"And what we found was that information was effective in reducing belief in the myth itself that vaccines cause autism. But it had a potentially counter-productive effect on the parents who were most at-risk of opting out of vaccination. So for those parents who had the least favorable attitudes toward vaccines, giving them corrective information about the vaccine/autism myth actually made them less likely to say that they would vaccinate a future child, rather than more. And we think that suggests to think more carefully about how to present information to parents in a way that's going to be effective."
Why is that?
"What we think is going on is that when people are challenged in that way, they may think about why they hold those views in the first place. So if you're one of the parents who has concerns about vaccines, you may think about why you have those concerns in the first place, and in the process of bringing those to mind, defending those beliefs potentially, you make actually come to convince yourself more in those views than if you hadn't been challenged in the first place. This won't always happen, but it's a risk, and it's one we should take seriously."
New ebola cases decline, but challenges remain
The ebola epidemic has killed more than eight thousand people in the region, but health officials say the worst-case scenario has been avoided.
According to the latest information from the World Health Organization, cases are clearly falling in the three worst affected countries— Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone— but experts caution that the fight isn't over.
John Service, Ebola response coordinator for Catholic Relief Services, joined Take Two for an update on the effort to bring the number of new cases down to zero.
Sports Roundup: "deflate-gate" clouds the pre-Super Bowl frenzy, Austin Rivers comes to the Clippers
It's official: the defending champion Seattle Seahawks will face the New England Patriots in this year's Super Bowl. But a controversy over deflated balls during the Patriot's AFC championship game has sparked more controversy leading up to the big game. Plus, Clippers coach Doc Rivers gets his son, Austin Rivers, to join the roster.
It's time for sports with
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Tech out your Super Bowl party with HDTV deals, apps and more
To play football, you don't need much: a ball, helmets, couple of goal posts.
To watch football, you don't need much either. But if you have the cash to spare, there are all sorts of ways to make Super Bowl Sunday a high tech extravaganza.
Jennifer Jolly, consumer tech contributor to USA Today, tells Take Two of HDTV deals, margarita machines and more to take your football party to the next level.
Rialto considers Cuban sister city
The city of Rialto is reaching out to the our long-embargoed island neighbor in hopes of forging a special relationship with one of its cities--a sisterly bond, to be exact.
Facebook earnings report: What to expect
Facebook has been trying to keep up with a younger demographic -- and the success of its efforts will be revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday.
Beloved Santa Monica video store Vidiots set to close
Local film buffs mourn the loss of Vidiots. But due to competition from online streaming, it's set close its doors in April after almost 30 years.
Writers Emily Spivack and Susan Orlean tell their 'Worn Stories'
You know what they say: "Clothes make the man." But the man, and the woman for that matter, also makes the clothes. We imbue our garments with meaning, depending on how and where we got them and when and why we wear them.
Building on that idea, the book "Worn Stories" features more than 60 pieces of clothing, along with stories from the people who own them.
Brooklyn-based artist and writer Emily Spivack, the author of "Worn Stories," says the inspiration for the project came in part from a trip to a thrift store distribution center in New York.
"These clothes that had once been worn by people, that had once gone through various experiences with their owners... it was like the meaning had been completely zapped out of them."
But she says she knew that "each of those garments had been worn by someone, and that something had happened while each person was wearing those garments. But those stories were lost, they hadn't been documented."
Setting out to find some of those stories, Spivack tapped a wide range of contributors— including soccer star Brandi Chastain, chef Marcus Samuelsson, and writer Susan Orlean, who says the idea for the book immediately made sense to her.
"I have great associations and all sorts of complicated feelings about all of my clothes," Orlean says. "I get clothes in a lot of different places so a lot of them have a story of their own even before they become mine, and I just fell in love with it as an idea."
To hear the story behind the item of clothing that Susan Orlean chose for the book, click on the link above.
And to submit your own "Worn Stories" click here.