This is a guest blog from Karen Ernst. Karen is the mother of three boys and a military wife. She sometimes teaches English and enjoys advocating for and working with children. She is the co-leader of Voices for Vaccines and one of the founders of the Minnesota Childhood Immunization Coalition.
The preschool class party was one of the last hurrahs for my then five year old. The entire family attended, including our ten-day old newborn, whose only interest was nursing. His lack of other interests turned out to be good fortune because another mother-son duo at the party were contagious with chicken pox and began showing symptoms the day after the party. Had the mother held my newborn or the child played with him, the results could have been fatal for our son.
Having immunized my older child, who played with his contagious friend, I was relieved that no one in our home contracted chicken pox and no one passed it on to our new baby.
While I was angry when the mother revealed that she’d purposely left her son unvaccinated against chicken pox, I felt proud that I had chosen well, I had protected both my children, and I had understood and agreed with what public health officials had proposed: that children need the varicella vaccine. I had both done what I was supposed to, and nothing bad happened. So that’s the end of the story, right?
Obviously, it’s not the end of the story. Unfortunately, this was not the last mother I met who felt that this vaccine or that vaccine or every vaccine was unimportant or unsafe or just plain dumb. People passed their opinions from parent to parent without regard to the facts, and sometimes their opinions endangered my child’s and my community’s health. I wanted parents to feel as responsible to the community my children were growing up in as I did. At first, I wondered why doctors and people working in public health couldn’t get the message through. I wondered if they were really reaching parents or knew how to craft their message. From my standpoint, it felt like they indeed were doing their jobs.
I have always been grateful to those who work to keep our children safe and healthy, and I have long relied on them and their dedication to our communities. So what was the deal with all these vaccine-hesitant parents? I realized, over time, that I was the one not doing my job, that for too long I had been complacent. I had been happy to vaccinate my children and had not worried about the anti-vaccine message broadcast on the news or the mom who was convinced organic foods were all her children needed to prevent disease. I let them have their thing, and I had mine. I could only do my part to protect my children and my community.
The 2011 measles outbreak was a game-changer for me. Children in our community were sickened by measles for no reason other than their parents’ unfounded fears about autism and the lies that connected it to vaccines. I realized that I needed to protect my community against not only measles, but also the lies about autism and vaccines that had circulated for too long from parent-to-parent like its own disease.
Parents can no longer be complacent. It is our job to bring our children in to be immunized, but it is also our job to be sure that the story told about vaccination is truthful. For that reason, I am one of the parents behind Voices for Vaccines. We are working to help parents speak up for immunization by getting the tools they need to advocate for them. In order for our children to live in healthy communities, we must take on our share of the responsibility to make those communities healthy. We must not allow space for misinformation or untruthfulness. It’s time for our voices to be heard. Please join us and work to keep your community and mine safe from vaccine-preventable disease.
Bao Chau says
Dear Doctor, It seems that I could not post a comment at
your other more pertaining entries. Therefore, I would like to ask
you to write blog about Teen Agers’ and young adults’ gambling. Our
children are under 7 years old. But I have seen highly-educated
people that would have close ties with gambling friend(S). While
you are at it, would you also write about alcohol, drugs and sex,
to name a few. Thank you .
E says
Autism fears are not the only reason not to vaccine. I use a European schedule which I feel is safer and the statistics stand by that. We have one of the highest infant mortality rates and the highest amount of vaccines given to kids before age 5. There is not only one side to this story and one right answer. International studies show very different results than those conducted in the US fueled by special interest and drug companies. I think we need to respect others thoughts and opinions and not say that those of us who vaccinate different are ignorant or believing lies.
Viki says
It’s true, Europeans don’t make varicella a priority.
Varicella isn’t tracked closely by most countries’ centers for
disease control (except Spain and Germany where the vaccine is
implemented). They don’t know what the true rates of infection are
unless there is a large outbreak (UK 2007) or death. They dont know
what the true cost of the disease is in terms of healthcare. Hence,
they don’t know what the economic or social impact is (loss of
wages when kid is home for 3 weeks, loss of productivity, loss of
instruction time for student). The decision making is on a per
country basis, and many countries aren’t doing the research on the
vaccine despite the WHO strongly urging implementation. They are
waiting to see how things go for USA, Germany, Australia. That
doesn’t sound smart to me. It sounds like willful ignorance.
Varicella aside, European counties also vary on whether HepA and
HepB are offered to all kids, at risk kids, or at all. Other than
that Western European countries have almost identical schedules to
the US for the standard vaccinations children get from birth to age
18 months. There’s an important lesson about vaccine hesitancy that
we do learn from Europe. In 2012, Europe had 22,000 measles cases,
reported in 51 (96%) countries. The United States had 220 cases,
reported in 31 states. The United States had eradicated measles as
of 2000. 90% of our cases were imported, and 76% of the people
infected were vaccine refusers. Half of the infected people got
measles – you guessed it! – in Europe. The European countries where
measles is running rampant are Russia, Romania, Ukraine, and other
parts of Eastern Europe. If you look at their vaccine schedules,
they didnt have adequate measles coverage for their populations
until they were in the heat of an outbreak.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Agreed, E, that autism fears are not the only reason families delay or decline vaccination. I hear less and less about autism concerns as time unfolds from the Andrew Wakefield controversy.
As I sit and type this, I’m in Europe after giving a talk here earlier this week. And I must say, I had an astounding conversation here with the CEO of the public health system (The Netherlands) about vaccines and decisions of how those schedules are made.
I was inquiring about influenza vaccinations here and why they weren’t immunizing infants and children. They did immunize for H1N1 (children under 4 years) but don’t immunize yearly. They also don’t give VZV from what I can find. The doctors and (relatively few) people I spoke in admin roles really didn’t believe that infants got influenza (which is of course not true) but I didn’t speak with any pediatricians (yet) involved in vaccine decisions.
I plan to write about this experience more. And I’d love to know more about why you think a Euro schedule is safer. Have you read a well-done, controlled study or read/seen a report about infant mortality rates/immunization rates in Euro versus US?
C.O. says
You don’t actually have to have a medical school education (which I do have) to understand that the advent of vaccinations resulted in dramatic declines in deadly infectious diseases. Even the autism advocacy group, Autism Speaks, now clearly states that vaccines do NOT cause autism.
The complications that can accompany these infectious diseases can be devastating.
Now we have a nationwide measles outbreak tied to unvaccinated children and adults in,
guess where, California.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Yes, this helps! You make antibodies that protect you and those antibodies are transferred to your baby while in-utero. Win-win!
Susannah Fox says
Without meaning to I held my breath while reading your post, only exhaling when it was clear that your newborn escaped both chicken pox and measles. Powerful post!
Karen Ernst says
Thanks for your comment! I was surprised not only to get the call from the preschool, but also to learn how dangerous chickenpox can be for newborns. Now I know!
Th1Th2 says
You know your children won’t be safe either had those guests been vaccinated recently with varicella vaccine.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
What are you implying, Th1Th2? Do you think newborns aren’t safe around children recently immunized?
Here’s an awesome, extensive Q&A from Immunization Action Coalition on Varciella that answers a ton of questions:
https://www.immunize.org/askexperts/experts_var.asp
cia parker says
Th1Th2 is right, all live virus vaccines are capable of transmitting the disease itself, so chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and the live flu vaccine can all transmit the disease, especially to a newborn whose immune system is so undeveloped.
Lenore says
Of course there are different schedules that are worthy of
serious consideration – remember, though, that in Europe health
care is easier to come by, lower cost, and it’s simpler to go in
multiple times to space out vaccines. In the US, those visits can
be expensive and hard to get if you live in a rural area, so the
vaccine schedule is compressed. I spaced out my daughter’s schedule
a little but not a lot with the blessing of my US pediatrician. The
schedule in the US is unfortunately not driven solely by what is
safest and most effective but also by how likely a schedule is to
actually get the kids in the door for the shots. Too many visits =
kids miss vaccines. Let’s get our healthcare system fixed so it’s
easier to come in on a safer schedule for the vaccines. Of course
we have to guard against big pharma. No need to say any more. Of
course recent vaccines are not protective. That’s why most
pediatricians advise against taking newborns out in public until
they reach a certain age. (I forget what the recommendation is
because my daughter is now 7.) But I was surprised to hear that day
how vulnerable newborns are – I’d had no idea, thinking that my
immune system and mother’s milk gave her what she needed. Nope. I
was shocked that day to learn that day that Seattle has one of the
highest rates of non vaccination in the US. I had no idea! I
continue to be shocked. We need each other, people! Talk to your
doc, find a schedule you can live with, and get those vaccines. Go
in more often if you need to. We in this part of our state are so
well educated, so thoughtful, so eager to do what is right for our
children and our communities. It’s our culture. We recycle at high
rates, we drive hybrids and plug ins (and are in fact driving that
industry!), we eat organic/non GMO/ and do so much for our families
and communities… but many of us do not consider vaccination to be
important. I can’t figure it out. What exactly is the barrier to
vaccination? I know people don’t trust big pharma (and I sure
don’t), hate going to the doc and paying copays and taking time off
work or missing soccer, hate the idea of shots in general. The
evidence for vaccination, on some reasonable schedule, is UTTERLY
COMPELLING. What is it about our region that leads many parents to
decide to not vaccinate at all? It doesn’t have to be all on the
US/big pharma schedule or nothing. It can be something that works
for your family. Please don’t decide not to vaccinate because of
problems in our health care delivery system. And thank you to Dr.
Swanson for tackling this tough issue in Seattle.
G says
Special interest and drug companies fueling the schedule?
Pls elaborate!
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Are they? Please elaborate what you’re thinking, I’m not certain I know how they are…
The vaccine schedule is determined jointly by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) via the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP).
ACIP: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/index.html
Do you mean in the ways that vaccine makers fund (in part) some scientific studies? (sincere questions here)
G says
The previous comment before my question stated that big pharma impacts the vaccine schedule. I’ve heard this in the community when discussing vaccines with other parents. My kiddo is fully vaccinated but a lot of seattleites believe the pharm companies have some control, meaning its not in the best interest of kids – I’m just wondering if that’s all true, and how to respond to people who make that point…
Courtney Schmidt says
Thank you so much for this post. I agree that the voice
that has been missing is ours- parents who care deeply about the
issue, but don’t want to offend or argue. As a healthcare
professional, though, I also think that the medical community
really struggles to communicate effectively on a large scale.
Doctors talk about it with their patients in office visits, but
their voice is often missing or ineffective when it comes to public
discussions. The public discussions are often shaping people’s
opinions, and causes them to circumvent their physicians entirely
because of mistrust and misinformation. We can and must do better.
I also wanted to mention this line: “I wanted parents to feel as
responsible to the community my children were growing up in as I
did.” That seems to be one of the major keys to this debate. Not
only are parents misinformed about what is healthy for their child,
they seem to have a blatant disregard for the health of others. I’m
not sure how we overcome that aspect of the problem.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Thanks, Courtney. As you know, you’re preaching to the choir on this one. We have such incredible tools (a blog, twitter, Facebook, etc!!!) now to communicate in the one-to-many format, as you likely know, I feel just the same. And I’m working so hard to get more and more of my peers involved online and and in sharing what they know more publicly.
Medical Student says
Was it really safe to take your 10 day-old out to a
(presumably) very crowded pre-school known for being a haven of
germs? I fully support your decision to vaccinate your children. I
wish everyone did the same. But the risk you exposed your 10d
infant to was completely your choice.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Hi Med Stu–I’m really surprised by the comment. It comes across as so vindictive…so punishing.
I do recommend that families keep home and avoid big crowds for the first month or so. I always tell new parents to avoid “passing the baby” around parties, etc and to use me (or the pediatrician) as the excuse.
But I wonder, if a mom takes her infant (say she has 2,3,4, or 5 children) to a place with many children (a school, for example) out of necessity– at any age during infancy, would you be so harsh?
Karen Ernst says
I can understand these questions. Because of space constraints, I did not provide every detail about the party. As it happens, the party coincided with my preschooler’s fifth birthday, and since we had just added a new baby, I felt compelled to attend in order to show my child he hadn’t been replaced and that he was still an important member of our family. Up until that day, I had not been bringing my newborn to the school at all, but that may be a moot point since the following week he needed to go with me for drop offs and pick ups.
I maintain, though, that we avoided the real danger by vaccinating the preschooler. Had he not been vaccinated, he likely would have contracted chickenpox (since his exposure was closer and more prolonged) and would have brought it home. In that case, it would not have mattered where my newborn had been since the chickenpox would have been in our home. So I did make the choice not to have chickenpox in my home, but the choice to attend a party on my child’s birthday and have it be free from chickenpox was taken from me by someone who was well-meaning but a victim to the lies of the anti-vaccine movement.
I also wonder what you thought of the rest of the post. Do you think that my bringing a newborn to a party with preschoolers negates the message that parents are responsible for speaking up for immunization?
Medical Student says
I am attempting to point out the juxtaposition of her criticism of other parents’ choices. She argues they are putting their children at risk to harmful but avoidable diseases, yet she then exposed such a young (10D!!) infant to an easily avoided situation. A “preschool party … one of the last hurrahs” doesn’t quite sound like necessity. No, I wouldn’t be so harsh with other circumstances. One cannot protect children from everything, especially considering the demands of a job, other children, and various necessities (grocery shopping, getting out of the house for sanity’s sake, etc). This was not the situation explained in the article.
Heather Brown says
It is simply not realistic for parents of multiple children to keep a baby at home for the first month of life. And, for parents of only children with no childcare options, it may not be a mentally healthy choice for mom.
If Ms. Ernst had chosen to keep her baby home and not take the older child to the party, I’m sure she would face criticism for that choice as well.
Fortunately that was not the point of the article. The point is that babies are often a part of our society. A very vulnerable part that deserves protecting.
Elizabeth C says
I wonder if you would have the same attitude towards Ms. Ernst’s actions if instead of a newborn, she brought a 3 year old with a congenital heart defect, or had just finished a round of chemo. The entire reason everyone that can get vaccinated SHOULD get vaccinated is exactly so those that are vulnerable don’t have to live their lives as shut-ins.
Dorit Reiss says
Thank you for sharing your story. This post makes the point about how important it is to vaccinate your children very clear. How frightening it must have been to know of the danger, even though your son was vaccinated, since no vaccine is perfect. It is sad that some parents chose not to adopt such a simple, safe precaution to protect first of all their own children and secondly those who cannot be vaccinated against painful, dangerous diseases. And it’s not just newborns that are at danger from chicken pox – as the tragedy of this healthy teenager shows: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6214a1.htm?s_cid=mm6214a1_e.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Thanks for these replies
Jen says
Fantastic post. I have felt this way for years. How horrible I would feel if because my child was unvaccinated some one else’s child got sick or worse died. I have three fully vaccinated kids. One of which is Autistic. I have never bought into the vaccine autism debate. Thank you for speaking up for those of us on the other side
Karen Ernst says
Thank you, Jen. I think the anti-vaccine movement has been especially harsh with parents of autistic children. I am grateful to those parents for debunking anti-vaccine myths, and I truly believe that all parents need to follow suit!
Medical Student says
Your comment just appeared apparently as I was typing. I understand the demands of other children, especially navigating the territory of a new child in the family. However, I still do not agree with your choice of bringing him into the facility at such a fragile age (given that your article was criticizing the risks to which parents choose to expose their children). I was not contesting the rest of your article at all. I think it is important for sensible, informed parents to take a stand for the other side of the issue. The media only covers the anti-vaccine side and it appears to come off as doctors vs. the “only parents who are truly concerned for the welfare of their children”. It’s wonderful that parents who agree with the medical community are willing to show their support. Herd immunity is critically important for those children who cannot (by nature of allergy, or in your case, age) receive vaccines.
Karen Ernst says
I think it is easy to level criticism at people on the internet, and perhaps your criticism is fair and we should have remained quarantined at home until 4 days later when I began to bring him along for dropping off and picking up my child at school. At the time, I may have been naive about the dangers of bringing a new baby out into public.
However, I did take precautions, as I noted in the post: “The entire family attended, including our ten-day old newborn, whose only interest was nursing. His lack of other interests turned out to be good fortune because another mother-son duo at the party were contagious with chicken pox and began showing symptoms the day after the party.” In other words, my newborn’s exposure was limited the entire party because he was at the breast or in my arms the whole time.
The purpose of the tale was not to shame the other mother. She’s actually a kind enough person who happened to think that the chickenpox vaccine was not important. The purpose of the tale was my growth from someone who didn’t think twice about vaccines and the anti-vaccine movement to someone who became aware of the need for all vaccinating parents to be informed and to speak up about vaccines.
People who are too young to be immunized or immunocompromised or otherwise medically fragile cannot be expected to be quarantined away from the public. While there are risks about going out into public, risks of vaccine-preventable diseases really should not exist.
Julie says
Not sure if my other comment made it through so sorry for the repeat but where we can limit exposure we should even if it means sacrificing some fun or impacting older siblings. Asking for help from others so siblings aren’t as hugely impacted by the birth of a newborn is a worthy thing but if the life of a newborn is at risk that should carry the most weight generally in who is impacted and how. But that is all much easier said than done and unavoidable exposure is bound to happen through no fault of the parents typically because people are making poor choices with consequences that impact not just themselves but the whole community.
In terms of speaking up in favor of vaccines it’s long overdue. Those vaccinating parents overall in my experience in advocating for vaccination have a really apathetic attitude toward non vaccinating families because they just don’t see how poor herd immunity rates can impact their families. There is also imo a whole lot of assuming going on – “I’d assume if they are at school they are vaccinated.“ “I’d assume if it was important it would be a law or rule or regulation and it would be enforced.“ “I’d assume if something is important or I was at risk I’d be warned about it.” Clearly this isn’t the case. This is a good wake up call to ask a lot of questions about the vax status of anyone that might be around your newborn especially at places like co op preschools where most new parents are only allowed to bring their newborns up to the age of three months while they work in the school. Getting to know the real rate is not as easy to pin down as it should be (and it is all self reported anyway) and when the rate is known parents might be surprised at how low it often is typically around 70%.
Julie says
btw – as another example – daycare workers caring for newborns in this state have so far only been encouraged to get up to date on Tdap boosters by the DOH. Why is that?
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
Julie, You ask a great question. I’m uncertain how vaccine rules come to be for daycare workers in our state and around the US. Will send out an email or two to see if I can get a response.
Kellymgc says
Thank you for this story Karen! It shows the importance of how we as parents need to not only protect our own children but be aware of the communities we live in. There is no reason why a mother shouldn’t be able to attend their child’s preschool birthday party with their newborn because of fears that another parent would knowingly bring an unvaccinated child. It is pure recklessness of that parent. No vaccine is 100%, but it gives us piece of mind that the benefits out way the risks and that we are doing what we can to prevent spread of these deadly diseases.
amy hardin says
She’s lucky her newborn did not catch chicken pox as it is respiratory spread as well as contact AND the mom and little boy were highly contagious if they came down with symptoms the next day. Most likely her immunity if she had had chicken pox was somewhat protective of her baby. BUT we saw 4 cases last summer of kids (all under the age of 1) who all caught chicken pox b/c they were too young to be vaccinated at a ball ground from a child whose parents chose not to vaccinate. One had to be hospitalized due to a staph infection from infected pox. This is what infuriates me with parents who “choose” not to vaccinate. They are selfishly thinking of their own family (and not knowing the science of what could happen to their kids) and not the infants or immunosuppressed kids who could get really sick from pox.
mary says
just a few comments.
Dr. Sue and Karen. interesting post.
babies and chicken pox…i understand your concern. But if you had chicken pox or vaccine your newborn would have passive immunity. Thank goodness…My 4 yo and my 2 you had chicken pox when i had a newborn too. No chickenpox for the baby. She later was immunized but developed shingles at age 13!
Chicken pox is initially spread by respiratory, that cough and sneeze, so the proximity is not really so important as you thought.
Lastly, remember the idea of a cocoon for newborns…it is so very important as pertussis is highly contagious and newborns are not immune. We have 10-12 yo with a persistent cough and have a high number of cases of pertussis in WA State.
We cannot predict when our children will be exposed to infectious disease, be mindful and talk, talk with your pediatrician about your schedule for vaccines. We love our babies and children !
Karen Ernst says
The pertussis outbreaks definitely scare me the most when it comes to newborns. When my baby was new those years ago, I was completely unaware of what pertussis was and how dangerous it could be. Within a year, when I learned more about vaccination and the anti-vaccine movement, I felt crushing guilt that I hadn’t received my Tdap before leaving the hospital and that I hadn’t had more awareness about pertussis in general.
Just one of many reasons it’s important that none of us remains silent!
Jay Gordon says
The med student’s post was factually in agreement with with your answer, Dr.Swanson. Routine toddler and childhood viruses pose a far more likely risk to this 10 day old and bring the newborn to a party filled with five-year-olds is not responsible parenting. I think this student’s answer was neither harsh nor mean.
The EU decision not to implement routine chicken pox vaccination was based on a study which showed that the risk of shingles, including fatal shingles, in older age groups exceeded the risk of chicken pox in children. At the present time, I believe only two countries in Europe give this shot routinely.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1177968/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X02001809
I don’t think anyone is really worried about the varicella vaccine causing autism. I give this vaccine to children almost every day and can’t recall seeing any complications of any kind.
I was doing a fellowship at a cancer hospital (Memorial, Sloan-Kettering) when the vaccine was invented and implemented for high risk children including immunocompromised cancer patients or children with asthma on high dose steroids. The vaccine was a godsend. For years, the manufacturer attended AAP meetings attempting to get the vaccine approved for universal use. They were laughed out of these meeting and a literature search from the seventies and eighties will yield articles rejecting universal varicella vaccination. Economic incentives eventually changed minds.
I recommend varicella vaccination for all the kids in my practice who have not gotten the illness by age 7-10 years. We don’t know how long immunity lasts, when to give boosters and then more boosters and what the consequences will be to older adults not exposed to immunity-boosting children with chicken pox. Some day, not reserving this vaccine for use only in high risk children or in adults without varicella immunity will be viewed as one of the major medical errors of the Twentieth Century.
Nathan Boonstra says
I also recommend to parents that newborns should avoid crowds of children (and adults, for that matter) when possible. But Dr. Swanson is correct in that the way Ms. Ernst is being chastised is harsh – I’d say bordering on sanctimonious.
It’s pretty clear from her testimony that she had a parental decision to make, and chose to share a very meaningful day with her son (his birthday, no less). This kind of attention to a sibling, when there is a new member of the family, is something we as pediatricians encourage. And it is clear that she shielded her newborn and keep him away from others. I’ve had the luxury of never having had to make that decision, so I don’t see how I or others can pass judgment and call that “not responsible parenting.”
I do find it somewhat contradictory, however, to call it “not responsible” to have a newborn at a school due in part to the risk of chickenpox exposure, yet advocate for children to get wild chickenpox before 7-10 years of age. It seems to me that the risk of unvaccinated siblings bringing chickenpox home to baby is much greater, especially if every healthy child in the country followed suit rather than only the patients of clinics that go against the recommendations of experts.
As far as shingles, the evidence that widespread vaccination leads to significant increases in shingles is not conclusive, and postvaccination studies have not shown a consistent trend.
https://cmr.asm.org/content/23/1/202.full
But moreover, even assuming the trend develops, it is bizarre to me to think that nearly every child should suffer a week of illness, that 10,000 children should be hospitalized, and that 100 or more should die, so that prevaccine generations can reduce the the morbidity and mortality of shingles. Not to mention leaving unvaccinated children with a ~30% risk of shingles themselves. I find it even less palatable when the risk of shingles is mitigated by the zoster vaccine.
This is precisely the opposite of how we should view chickenpox and children. Our children should have the benefit of growing up without chickenpox, and with a lower risk of shingles. It is not our children’s responsibility to be ill in order to keep us healthy.
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE says
I agree with Nathan Boonstra.
We parents make decisions in the context of our lives. The context of a newborn’s life often (fortunately) involves multiple family members and multiple needs. It’s a huge challenge to raise a newborn with multiple siblings and adults. In my experience in the office, I’d also say especially hard when a newborn is born around the holidays…
I don’t believe newborns are at equal risk when exposed to vaccinated children versus infected children. There simply isn’t data to support the claim that newborns are at risk when exposed to those recently vaccinated. We don’t hold off on any immunizations in family members when a newborn is around. In fact, we encourage it to cocoon a newborn.
https://www.wendysueswanson.com/cocoon-a-newborn-only-an-email-away/
One of the joys of being trained and being fortunate enough to be a practicing pediatrician, is you learn to help parents make gut-wrenching decisions for their children at all stages. In some decisions the stakes are low (2% or whole milk at 12 months–which can be gut-wrenching for some parents) and some where the stakes are higher (exposure to the world for a newborn, or the decision of when it’s safe to travel with a newborn or what treatment path to pursue). But all of these parenting decisions are complex.
Judging a parent on a decision without the experience or expertise in knowing the stakes hinders us all.
Karen Ernst says
There’s no doubt that I underestimated the risks of bringing my newborn to preschool. And even though I was angry at the other mother whose child was not vaccinated, I wouldn’t judge her behavior as irresponsible parenting, even though she put my children at risk, because she made her decision in good faith based on the information that had been presented her. She would likely have made a different decision if she’d had different information or had Dr. Swanson or Dr. Boonstra caring for her children.
It wasn’t until years later that I even realized how much anti-vaccine information was out there and how many of the other parents, whom I liked in many ways, had fallen prey to it. Anti-vaccine tropes were spread from parent-to-parent like a contagion, and oftentimes when parents shared such incorrect assumptions about vaccines, there was no one (doctors, public health experts) at hand to correct these assumptions.
When measles hit my community, and children were exposed in ERs and homeless shelters, I couldn’t not get involved. I realized that Generation Rescue had been in my community and had created such panic about both autism and the MMR vaccine that the outbreak had been an inevitability.
I could have merely become upset with Generation Rescue or with the department of health or with any other numbers of groups or people. Instead, I felt a personal mission. Others had done their part, obviously, but they can’t post a doctor on every playground or on every online forum to help correct misinformation.
I am responsible for my community. I’m responsible not only for vaccinating my own children on schedule, but also for making sure others know to vaccinate their children.
Michele Roberts says
What a great discussion and I apprecaite Karen and all of the parents who are speaking out to share why immunizations are important to them and their communities; we’ve been a silent majority for too long. Julie – great questions about child care workers and adult immunizations. For many years the Department of Health and many other partners, like local health departments, the Immunization Action Coalition of Washington and the Coalition for Safety and Health in Early Learning, have been working to educate child care staff and directors about the importance of immunization for child care workers. The last couple years we’ve offered a free continuing education course for child care workers on all immunizations recommended for adults (not just Tdap) and nearly 1000 people have taken it! There was a lot of work down in 2012 to reach out to child care workers specifically about the Tdap vaccine because of the whooping cough epidemic. This work is ongoing and will continue to be a priority so we can keep babies protected.
Karen Ernst says
I love that you are reaching out to childcare workers. Since they are collecting immunization records, they present a perfect opportunity to help educate parents on the need for immunizations.