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from the and-the-oscar-for-vaccine-education-goes-to... dept.
Catherine Saint Louis reports at the NYT that according to a survey of 534 primary care physicians, a wide majority of pediatricians and family physicians acquiesce to parents who wish to delay vaccinating their children, even though the doctors feel these decisions put children at risk for measles, whooping cough and other ailments. One-third of doctors said they acquiesced “often” or “always”; another third gave in only “sometimes.” According to Dr. Paul A. Offit, such deference is in keeping with today’s doctoring style, which values patients as partners. “At some level, you’re ceding your expertise, and you want the patient to participate and make the decision,” says Offit, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases. “It is sad that we are willing to let children walk out of our offices vulnerable to potentially fatal infections. There’s a fatigue here, and there’s a kind of learned helplessness.”
Part of the problem is the lack of a proven strategy to guide physicians in counselling parents. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a solid evidence base in terms of how to communicate to patients about vaccines,” says Saad Omer adding that although he does not sanction the use of alternative vaccine schedules, he understands why primary care physicians keep treating these patients — just as doctors do not kick smokers out of their practices when they fail to quit. Dr. Allison Kempe, the study’s lead author and a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, thinks the time has come to acknowledge that the idea that “vaccine education can be handled in a brief wellness visit is untenable” and says that we may need pro-vaccine parents and perhaps even celebrities to star in marketing campaigns to help “reinforce vaccination as a social norm.” "Whether the topic is autism or presidential politics," says Frank Bruni, "celebrity trumps authority and obviates erudition."
(Score: 5, Informative) by compro01 on Thursday March 05 2015, @01:37AM
And that "concern" is as much bullshit as the rest of the anti-vaxxers' nonsense [aappublications.org]. Infants are bombarded with a vast array of pathogens before they're even finished being born. Vaccines are a drop in the ocean compared to everyday exposure.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:24AM
The vast array of pathogens aren't typically injected into infants.
How did we come to the current scheduling model anyway?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:31PM
Science and Medicine. All done by really smart people. Stop being the idiot that thinks they are smarter then that person who *actually* is smarter than you.
(Score: 1) by stormreaver on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:55PM
How did we come to the current scheduling model anyway?
That part is simple: the pharmaceutical industry created new cocktails for which it needed new profits. Nothing else mattered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @08:14PM
The pharmaceutical company gets pennies for each dose of vaccine. You can make that claim with many other drugs, particularly lifestyle drugs, but vaccines are not a profit maker for them. They might even be considered a loss leader, as in they help keep you alive now, so you can buy their lifestyle meds later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @06:52AM
Pakistan Arresting Anti-Vaxxers To Curb Polio Crisis [carbonated.tv]
This isn't a personal freedom thing; it's a public health matter.
Get with the program or find your own desert island to live on.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:34PM
I'm waiting for the back lash to all the Anti-Vaxxers in this country when we have our first polio outbreak since the 50's. You think the measles crap from Disney was news? Wait until you have kids that loose the ability to *breath*.