I have been gearing myself up for weeks now to write a really thoughtful, really complete post about issues surrounding childhood vaccines.
In fact, last night I tuned out the world and sat for five hours typing an eight-page essay on the subject: what my experience has been, how I understand the perspective of people I know who don't vaccinate, why I think it's so effing complicated, etc.
This morning, while searching online for a particular statistic I wanted to include, I found this essay, and realized that if I ever tried to publish my own, I would be accused of plagiarism (and not particularly well-executed plagiarism-- it's been a while since I've written anything formal). Seriously, this is just a five-times-better version of everything I wrote last night, complete with the opening anecdote about the makeup-free doctor, the quotes she's included (some of them identical!), even the conclusion she's come to.
Anyway, this goes a long way to explain what I think is a crucial, and way too often absent, element of this whole discussion: why it's confusing for parents. Smart parents, good, well-intentioned parents. Maybe eventually I'll clean up my own essay (and shorten it, I swear), and post it, but for now, I will tip my hat to Sari Weston for pulling together a very articulate and sensible discussion of the matter. Finally.
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4 comments:
That's a great article.
Here's what I like about this article: this doctor is candid and respects her patients and their parents. I know it must be so hard for some doctors when they know what terrible things CAN happen to communities when too many children aren't immunized, but they only have to see ONE child who has a devastating reaction to a shot to question what is the right thing to do. I confess that I simply trusted my pediatrician completely - and I still feel like he gave me the best advice. If I hadn't, I probably would have read a thousand books and articles, too. God bless Tom Wolk.
Devil's advocate about the "power of one": I see the point that if you see one patient with a bad outcome you might be less inclined to vaccinate. But if you saw one patient who suffered from not being vaccinated, you'd be convincing your patients to vaccinate based on personal experience. All I'm saying is that I don't think personal experience on the part of the physician should play a role in recommendations. That's why people do research.
Oh, PCJ, now I feel like I've really entered the blogosphere! Thanks for your nice comments on my blog. If you have a moment, email me - my direct email is christine @ deercottage . net. Take care!
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