In a message dated 12/9/98 11:30:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>
>  I understand concerns regarding mass rotavirus vaccination.  However, if
>  you've ever had the unfortunate experience of caring for a child with a mod
>  to severe rotavirus infection, you might feel differently.


Dr. Chai-- I appreciate your thoughtful post. I'm also so glad that your baby
came through scary rotavirus with minimal problems :-) My point in my post was
not that the rotavirus vaccine is automatically a Bad Thing. My point was that
it represents a troubling ethical problem when pharmaceutical companies are
marketing one product (the vaccine) for an illness  which is caused or made
more severe by their heavily promoted suggested use of another of their
products (routine use of infant formula). Parents need to know how all this
ties together.

Katie Allison Granju
Knoxville, TN