NOVA - Official Website Vaccines—Calling the Shots. Vaccines—Calling the Shots. PBS Airdate: September 1.

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NARRATOR: Our lives are linked as never before, connected every day in a thousand unseen ways. Quantum Leap Final Episode Answers on this page. But sometimes, these connections can pose an invisible threat, if the object we touch, or the air we share, carries a dangerous germ. DR. SIMON FENSTERSZAUB (Quality Health Center): You don't have to cough, you just have to breathe. It's the worst kind of contagion: it's airborne.

NARRATOR: Diseases largely unseen for a generation, are returning. SIMON FENSTERSZAUB: This can't be.

This child looks like she has measles. This is New York. You don't see measles in New York!

DR. JANE ZUCKER (New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene): It's astounding to me that you can have people dying of measles in the developed world. NARRATOR: Today, children are getting sick and dying from preventable diseases, as nervous parents skip their children's shots. ALISON SINGER (Autism Science Foundation): You are injecting a substance into your child, so, I think it's very natural to wonder whether that substance might actually be doing harm.

YULIA PATSAY (Mother): There's just so much information there, and I don't, I don't know who to ask. Who am I supposed to trust? NARRATOR: In a world of often conflicting information, parents are seeking what's best for their families, while doctors worry about losing lives.

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DR. PAUL OFFIT (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia): Your job is to try and save children's lives, and when you stand helplessly by and watch them die, it gets to you. DR. AMY MIDDLEMAN (University of Oklahoma): We ask a lot of parents. We ask them to trust that we are recommending the best thing for their children. Watch The Ultimate Life Online Fandango more. That's a big deal. NARRATOR: The science behind vaccines: why they work, how they work and how we decide to vaccinate or not…DR. BRIAN ZIKMUND- FISHER (University of Michigan): It's not about saying, "Oh, my gosh, I'm afraid," and now that's the end of the conversation.

No, that's just the start of the conversation. NARRATOR: …Vaccines—Calling The Shots, right now, on NOVA. Happy, healthy children, it's what every parent wants. And, in this era of modern medicine, it's what most parents expect. Many dangerous diseases have all but disappeared, thanks, in good part, to vaccination.

In the U. S., more than 9. That's up to 2. 8 immunizations in the first two years of life, to protect against 1. But today, powerful concerns are in circulation.

GABRIELLA MAKSTMAN (Mother): I'm concerned about how many vaccines we have to give our children at once. MARIANNA FASTOVSKY (Mother): So, I'm kind of debating whether I will do them, but I'm also debating the age. Watch After School Special Online (2017).

When should I have them done? YULIA PATSAY: There's just so much information there, and I don't, I don't know who to ask. There's no such thing as an unbiased source. NARRATOR: At least 1. And in some places it's far higher. What's driving some people away from vaccines? And what are the consequences for those who vaccinate and those who don't.

Osman Chandab is seven weeks old. He was due to be vaccinated against whooping cough in the next week, but the germ has gotten to him first. His mother brought him to the hospital two days ago. What started as a runny nose and slight cough has become frightening episodes where he's struggling to breathe. Whooping cough, or pertussis, as it's formally known, can be life- threatening for babies.

DR. DARYL EFRON (Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia): Whooping cough is caused by a really nasty bacteria called Bordetella pertussis, and that produces a toxin that attacks the airways and causes a really nasty bronchitis. And they get really sticky, thick phlegm that they can't shift, and they try to and that causes them to cough. And the cough needs to be really, really vigorous, but they often…it's not very effective, and then, sometimes, they stop breathing. And if they stop breathing for long enough, they go red in the face at first and then sometimes, if it's an extended period of not breathing, they can go blue, and that can be very, very frightening. NARRATOR: Half of all infants younger than one will be hospitalized; about one in 1.

Antibiotics can reduce the chance of infecting others, but there is no cure. Osman's tiny body must fight the illness. A generation ago, whooping cough was rarely seen in developed countries. Now it's back. In 2. U. S. and 2. 0 deaths. Babies too young to get the pertussis shot may have no protection.

And because the vaccine's effectiveness can wear off after a few years, older children and adults without boosters are also vulnerable. Since the beginning of our young century there have been outbreaks of vaccine- preventable diseases, flaring up like so many wildfires. In 2. 01. 1, there were over 3. Europe. Although the disease is often mild, thousands had serious complications; eight died. In 2. 01. 2, the outbreak continued in the United Kingdom; in 2. United States. A young American travelled from London to Brooklyn, infected with the virus. He returned home to his tight- knit Orthodox community, where most people vaccinate, but he came from a group of families strongly opposed to vaccines.

Measles quickly spread through unvaccinated families living in the same building and then out into the community. Children were hardest hit, especially those too young to be vaccinated. SIMON FENSTERSZAUB: The first case that, that I saw was a 1. And I'm looking at this child, examining this child, and I was like "This can't be. This child actually has measles." And I've never actually seen measles, but, uh, I've seen them in textbooks, never in real life, so I was a little taken aback. Three or four days later, perhaps, we have another case and then the next day, another case and then another one.

And it just, it started getting overwhelming. Now wait a second.

NARRATOR: The Department of Health tried to stop the spread. JANE ZUCKER: The thing about measles is, you know, it's droplet- spread. So, for example, you know, your respiratory secretions, if someone coughs, but it's also airborne. So the virus can sort of hang out in the air for up to two hours. NARRATOR: One case was traced back to an infected person taking the elevator up to an apartment, shedding the virus along the way. The measles virus usually infects the cells of the throat and lungs, but it can also survive in the air and linger on objects.

SIMON FENSTERSZAUB: You don't have to cough, you just have to breathe. It's the worst kind of contagion: it's airborne. NARRATOR: Ninety percent of people who are exposed to the virus and don't have immunity get the disease. In this instance, two hours later, another unvaccinated person entered the same elevator. A week or so later he, too, became ill. JANE ZUCKER: It was a very brief encounter, you know, seconds in an elevator! It just speaks to how infectious measles is.

It will find those people who are unprotected in, in a community. NARRATOR: In three months, more than 3,5. Brooklyn area. Fifty- eight were infected, including two pregnant women. One miscarried. All were confirmed as unvaccinated at the time of infection. JANE ZUCKER: Measles was declared eliminated back in 2. SIMON FENSTERSZAUB: It's like telling me "Look, we found smallpox!" Smallpox is eradicated. I mean no one sees measles.

Who sees measles? Yeah, you'll see measles in third world countries, in other countries. This is New York.

We don't see measles in New York! NARRATOR: Around the world, pockets of low vaccination are appearing, often in affluent, mainstream communities. Anthropologist Heidi Larson, studies why people do, or don't, place trust in vaccines. DR. HEIDI LARSON (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine): There isn't just a world polarized between pro- and anti- vaccine populations.