[www.cbsnews.com]

"Vaccines are doing their jobs preventing disease and death, and even bringing down societal costs, according to a new study in Pediatrics.

But another study, published in the same journal issue, found that public health campaigns touting vaccines' effectiveness and debunking the links between autism and other health risks might actually be backfiring, and convincing parents to skip the shots for their kids.

Clusters of people with like-minded beliefs leading them to forgo vaccines can leave them susceptible to outbreaks when measles is imported from elsewhere," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in September 2013.

Rates of whooping cough, which is vaccinated against starting adolescence, have also risen in recent years.

But, a dose of evidence-based medicine doesn't seem to be convincing some parents to get their kids vaccinated.

To find out why, Nyhan and his team conducted a trial and exposed parents to one of four different campaigns promoting the MMR vaccine based on strategies commonly used by public health officials.

The first campaign attempted to correct misinformation by explaining the lack of evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism. The second presented information on the risk of measles in text form. The third showed powerful images of children who developed diseases that could be prevented by the MMR vaccine, and the fourth focused on a dramatic story of one infant who almost died of measles.

A control group was given a sheet of text explaining the costs and benefits of bird feeding, completely unrelated to vaccines.

Participants were asked whether they disagreed or agreed that some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, whether children will "suffer serious side effects" from the MMR vaccine, and how likely they would be to give their future child a vaccine.

None of the designed public health messages increased parental intent to get their child vaccinated. "