Member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on infectious diseases, Dr. H. Dele Davies said, “For these physicians, what I’m hearing them say is they strongly feel not immunizing their children is such a great risk that they’re taking a stand. They may be reflecting their sense that, if you don’t want to do this, I don’t want to expose my other patients to potential risk”, Chicago Tribune reported.
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A few pediatricians (Peds) and family physicians (FPs) have begun to discontinue care for families who have adopted this practice.
A new USA study revealed 21 percent of pediatricians in the country refuse to treat unvaccinated children, a practice most common in states that allow families to waive vaccinations due to religious beliefs and personal preferences.
Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, and colleagues, have reported that almost a fifth that is 21% of pediatricians surveyed have said that they would “often or always” dismiss a family from their practice for saying no to at least one infant vaccine, in comparison to just 4% of family physicians. In addition, the authors note no causal relationship between the practice of dismissing families for vaccine refusal and state-level policies. However, the results of this study should encourage providers to explore the consequences of dismissing families.
At this time, 20 states allow the parents to waive vaccinations of their children for philosophical reasons.
Despite a growing nationwide anti-vaccination movement, those who refuse vaccinations are still rare, with doctors reporting that only 1 to 5 percent of patients in a given month refuse. The issue is complex, and more research is needed on vaccine refusers and on pediatric practices, the study concluded. “Alternatively, attitudes in these states may be driving policy, and therefore because vaccine refusal is more of a social norm, dismissing families is less acceptable for physicians”. “Do those children end up getting vaccinated or not?”
Slightly more than one out of every five US pediatricians has dismissed families because parents refused to vaccinate their children, according to a recent study.
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That second sentence is important; despite all the attention that places – like this blog, come to think of it – give the antivaxers, they’re a tiny subset of reality in most places.
