The concern over child vaccines is growing among health conscious
parents. In a new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers
found that 49 percent of children ages 2-24 months did not receive all
recommended vaccinations or did not get vaccinated according to the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices schedule.Researchers analyzed immunization records of 323,247 children born from 2004-2008 and found that the number of under-vaccinated children increased significantly during those four years. In fact, researchers found that 1 in 8 under-vaccinated children’s parents intentionally chose not to adhere to immunization guidelines.
Parents are waking up to the dangers of vaccines
The lead author of the study, Jason Glanz PhD states: “While a large majority of parents in the U.S. choose to vaccinate their children, a growing number of parents are concerned about vaccine safety and choose to vaccinate their children according to alternative immunization schedules. The medical community doesn’t have a lot of data on these alternative schedules, so we are hoping the results from this study will open the door to more opportunities to examine their safety and efficacy.”
The mainstream media reported this news and state that parents may be putting their children at risk by delaying vaccinations, some news organizations are incorrectly stating that the study showed that children who were under-vaccinated had more emergency department visits than those who were vaccinated, but this is not what the study stated. The authors actually concluded that children who were under-vaccinated because of parental choice had significantly lower utilization rates of emergency department visits and outpatient settings – both overall and for specific acute illnesses – than children who were vaccinated on time.
The mainstream media attacks health-conscious parents
Another assumption made by the media was that the under-vaccinated children belonged to parents who do not believe in vaccines and did not visit their pediatricians for well-care visits, but this is not the case. This study was conducted by Kaiser Permanente and the authors stated that in order to be included in the study, a child would need to be part of one of eight ‘managed care organizations’ and that they needed to have at least 1 outpatient visit by 12 months of age and the child would be eliminated from the study if the child’s enrollment in the managed care organization was discontinued. For an abstract on the study, please visit: http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1558057.
Some parents have been delaying vaccines or following alternatives for years and in 2011, Pediatrics reported that 77 percent of Washington stated pediatricians report that they are sometimes or frequently asked to provide alternative childhood vaccine schedules for their patients. Researchers also found that 61 percent of these pediatricians are comfortable using an alternative schedule when asked by a parent. In particular, they felt most comfortable delaying three vaccinations; DTaP, Hib and PCV.
According to the New York Times, following an alternative vaccination scheduled makes it difficult for the AAP and the IOM to monitor vaccine safety. According to Dr. Jackson, Division Chief of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Mercy Hospital of Kansas City, Mo: “We want to drill down as far as we can, and make vaccines as safe as we can. We’re not going find the one-in-a-million serious adverse event if you have thousands of different vaccine schedules out there.”
Dr. Jackson cited a withdrawal of the rotavirus vaccine in 1999, by the CDC, as an example. “We want a vaccine that’s as safe as possible. We realized, as that rotavirus vaccine came back, that in order to pick up that very rare side effect, we have to be able to look at tens of thousands of children. If we have all these different vaccine schedules, we’re going to miss things like that.”
About the author: Sima Ash of Healing 4 Soul is a clinical and classical homeopath and certified clinical nutritionist who utilizes a unique approach pioneered by Tinus Smits, M.D. called CEASE therapy. The aim of CEASE treatment is systematic detoxification of the causes of illness, leading to step by step improvement and restoration of health in the individual. For additional information, please visit – Healing4Soul.com. You can follow Sima on Facebook at ‘Cease Therapy California’ and through her weekly blog on NaturalHealth365.com
