It is common that patient searches for information and products related to the word "vaccine" yield top results pointing to harmfully inaccurate information about immunization safety. This place of prominence given to medical disinformation is deeply troubling to America's physicians, especially amid alarming new reports regarding measles, tetanus and other vaccine-preventable conditions. 

The AMA sent a letter to top executives at Amazon, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube urging them to do even more to stem the "proliferation" of "health-related misinformation" that has helped vaccine-preventable diseases to reemerge. 

"We applaud companies that have already taken action but encourage you to continue evaluating the impact of these policies and take further steps to address the issue as needed," Dr. Madara, wrote in the letter to the social media and digital technology executives. "The overwhelming scientific evidence shows that vaccines are among the most effective and safest interventions to both prevent individual illness and protect public health." 

Dr. Madara noted that, when immunization rates are high, children who are too young to be vaccinated and others whose health conditions prevent them from being vaccinated, are protected from disease because exposure is so limited. These conditions include allergies to vaccine components, HIV infection and having a compromised immune system as a result of receiving chemotherapy cancer treatment. 

Read more here.