I’d take a close look at that doctor’s advice (and whether it’s in accord with consensus good medical practice) and consider the risks of pulmonary complications from contracting the diseases which are preventable through vaccination.
The previously linked to article in Pediatrics by a pediatric immunization expert noted that
Now this measured an overall association between childhood asthma and getting vaccinated, and involved a form of this particular vaccine (DTP) discontinued in developed countries in favor of the DTaP which is thought to be even safer to use. So the findings aren’t directly applicable to your child’s situation. But it’s noteworthy that the study found a small protective effect of the DTP vaccine against asthma. While this is of dubious statistical significance, it certainly didn’t demonstrate that vaccination causes asthma.
Pediatricians vary in how they approach vaccination issues. The vast majority approve of and encourage the use of the vaccination schedule recommended by the CDC and American Association of Pediatrics, as well as immunizing their own kids in accordance with it. Some recognize that parental fears and misinformation will prevent this from happening, and go along with a non-evidence based partial or delayed schedule, figuring that some protection is better than none and that it is best to compromise rather than driving the parent(s) to a physician who is opposed to vaccination altogether. I have no idea what type of doc you’re dealing with.
They’re a small but loud and embarassing minority of physicians; I wouldn’t call them “exceedingly rare”. Two pediatricians who’ve gotten a disproportionate amount of media attention for their antivaccination views are Dr. Bob Sears (who promotes an “alternative vaccine schedule”) and Dr. Jay Gordon (Jenny McCarthy’s pediatrician), who has acknowledged online that he gives very few vaccines, though if parents insist he apparently will grudgingly acquiesce. Both of these physicians would bristle at being called “antivax”, but both have spread a great deal of antivax nonsense.
Here’s another “alternative vaccine schedule”-promoting doc (Google for more) who has a classically nutty take on vaccine fearmongering.
Sometimes you’ll see references on antivax sites to the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, a fringe group whose positions include opposition to mandatory vaccination, abortion, public health programs (which it calls “tyranny”) and climate change denial. They publish a “medical journal” featuring bizarre and offensive screeds on their favorite topics. A kindred spirit when it comes to Libertarian sentiments and opposing mandatory vaccination is Ron Paul, a physician who some take seriously as a candidate for President.
They’re out there.
And of course, chiropractors and “alternative medicine” practitioners are generally quite likely to deride and oppose vaccination because it violates their wooist principles, as a means of attacking mainstream medicine, or both.
Well, I think this thread shows that the question is never going to be settled, no matter how many studies come out. Like the saying goes, you can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.
:smack: I wouldn’t have given him peanut butter sandwiches then, either.
Good thing I never said that it did. :dubious:
I think there’s a difference between me who has had her child immunized on damn near everything available but had a very bad complication and the parent that just refuses to do anything based on tweensy chance that something will happen.
As long as you keep regurgitating classic antivax tropes, you’ll resemble “the parent that just refuses to do anything based on tweensy chance that something will happen”.