Vaccine Information Resources.

Official sites. . . I'd start with www.cdc.gov

An informative, but on the anti side is www.nvic.org

Does your school have a library either online or onsite? I would stick with scientific journal articles for this. There is so much mis-information on the anti-vaccine side in books and on the internet that I would have a hard time choosing any resources to cite unless they were peer-reviewed and published articles in scientific journals.

Books are not fact-checked. Anyone can publish or even self-publish a book these days. Same with the internet, of course.

The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears. Very unbiased, very informative- what's in the shot, how it's made, why some parents object, and what the disease is that the vaccine protects against.
I think he also lists extra resources in the back of the book. I lent out my copy, so I can't check for sure.
hth

One book, not specifically about Vaccines, but more about Autism is called "Changing the Course of Autism." http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Course-Autism-Scientific-P... The book is FULL of research and data - filled to the point where I skip half a paragraph b/c it just explains the who/when/where/documentation of the research.

For your research, regarding vaccines, some chapters in the book are titled:
"Measles and the MMR Controversy"
"Does Mercury Cause Autism - subchapter "What is Thimerosal?""
"Basics of the Immune System"
"Further Evidence Against Mercury" (lots more about Thimerosal, how bad it is)

(On amazon, there are a ton of reviews. The most liked review is supposedly from a real doctor. Here's part of the reason he loved this book:
""In the last 14 years, the CDC has made a number of changes and additions to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule. I purchased "Changing the Course of Autism" with the intent of systematically debunking it to put my wife at ease before we began vaccinating our infant daughter. To my surprise, I found the text to be a scholarly, thorough, even-handed analysis of the current controversy about vaccinations and autism. The more I researched known pro-vaccine sources (e.g. CDC, National Institutes of Health, etc.) to debunk the book, the more I realized that the authors had collected a wealth of credible scientific evidence that supports the theory that the recent significant increase in the number of childhood vaccinations may be directly related to the recent dramatic increase in cases of autism in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and other developed countries. The most damning case is made against MMR - the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine currently recommended by the CDC for administration at 1 year of age."")

Best of luck in your research! Are you a grad student?

Someone suggested the CDC website, which is a good start. I would also check the following places

*National Institute of Health website.

*The American Medical Association (AMA)

*Public Health

*Web MD

*Any PEER reviewed medical journal

Good luck, and have fun writing your paper!

Stay away from any site that's trying to sell you something.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/default.htm

PBS had a very good documentary a few years ago (maybe 2010). I caught parts of it a few weeks ago, but can't recall the name. It was a very informative and fair documentary.

Good discussions about vaccine usage (sprinkled through with hard facts) can be found at the seattlemamadoc website. She writes in a casual, informative way, accessible to most. This is not a medical journal site.

Google seattlemamadoc immunizations. She's done a ton of posts on the topic, including the conundrum of how to communicate respectfully with anti-vax parents.

Good luck finding hard facts from the anti-vaccination viewpoint.

Www.the doctorwithin.com or nvic.org

The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin (sp?) was a well-researched, interesting read.

I also enjoy Dr. Paul Offit's vaccine books. He is adamantly in favor of vaccination and backs up his view with science, as well as exploring the politics of vaccines.

For official pro-vaccine information - your local health department, the CDC website. For a "yes, but..." point of view, Dr. Sears. For other varying points of view, many of which are backed by some research (and a few that are out in left field), check back issues of Mothering magazine. Perhaps you could also interview a pediatrician. Or interview someone in your community who is old enough to remember life before vaccines, when children died of diptheria, were paralyzed by polio, or lost their fertility to a bout of the measles.

You may also want to consider that there is a middle ground between "all vaccines" and "no vaccines." Some medical professionals (and moms) believe that the necessity of the vaccine depends on the illness, and that some of the vaccines being recommended are not needed. For example, there are vaccines out there now for ear infections. Are those really as important as the MMR?