Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch A billboard furnished by Learn The Risk attributing the death of 20-month-old Nicholas Catone of New Jersey to childhood vaccinations flashes above Hal Greer Blvd., Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018, in Huntington.
Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch A billboard furnished by Learn The Risk attributing the death of 20-month-old Nicholas Catone of New Jersey to childhood vaccinations flashes above Hal Greer Blvd., Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018, in Huntington.
HUNTINGTON - Driving down Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington, you might catch a glimpse of the late Nicholas Catone's smiling face, contrasted by a grim, red-lettered claim that the 20-month-old New Jersey boy's death was caused by routine childhood vaccinations.
Similar billboards have popped up in Dunbar and Parkersburg in West Virginia this month, part of a nationwide campaign by Learn The Risk, a national nonprofit promoting the alleged risks of childhood vaccinations. More than 30 similar billboard ads in states including Pennsylvania, New York and Missouri have been posted by the group this year.
The billboards tell the story of Catone, the infant son of former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Nick Catone, as a cautionary tale. The cause of death was officially ruled sudden infant death syndrome, but the organization says the otherwise healthy child's death is the direct result of receiving the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, or DTaP, vaccination less than three weeks earlier.
The nationwide campaign is organized to promote "awareness of vaccine side effects, including death," according to the organization.
"It's important to me that parents have the right information to make an informed choice about vaccines," said Brandy Vaughan, Learn The Risk executive director. "It's been my mission to tell what the pharmaceutical companies are hiding."
Vaughan continued that parents are almost never aware of the side effects of vaccines, and claimed medical professionals themselves may either be unaware or willfully ignorant to it.
"It's clear, and everybody admits there are deaths," Vaughan said.
The Catones' case is tragic, said Dr. Michael Kilkenny, physician director for the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, but the medical community's consensus that vaccinations are safe and effective remains unchanged.
"I certainly can't support their claim," Kilkenny said. "I think that we find ourselves in a time where misinformation can be promoted as effectively as actual information, and it makes it difficult for people to actually make up their minds when they want to do the right things for their children or themselves."
While vaccines are recommended, he continued that nothing is 100 percent effective or without the chance of side effects, though most events are rare. Common side effects, if any, may come as pain, redness or swelling at the injection site, achiness and possibly a fever, Kilkenny said.
As for the billboards, Kilkenny saw it as free expression of opinion and encouraged families to do their own, scientifically founded research.
"I certainly don't blame (the family) for wanting better answers than what they have, but a situation like that will make somebody reach for an explanation that may not be proven," Kilkenny said.
The billboard is located at 825 Hal Greer Blvd. in Huntington.
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