Truth in Vaccination, that's the goal. It's not that we disavow all vaccines for all people, it's that we want to know before we allow our children to drink the KoolAid what might happen, and we want to know the whole truth with percentages and possible interactions for the family history. Remember Agent Orange and the atom bomb, read WHITE LIES and spread the word. What arrogance for a specialist to tell a non-specialist (read Dr. Howard and parent with or without graduate degrees) that the doctor is the only one who can possible dictate what is best for someone else's child. Dr. Howard sounds like Captain Hook.

Josh that would be CHOP shop. I think we have a new term.

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/pat_care_fam_serv/staff_profile_page.jsp?id=20627&sid=26617

I've mentioned before how we don't plan on taking our healthy 2 year old to the pediatrician again. They're running a chop-shop... or a shot-shop... waiting for up to 2-3 hours, telling the nurse NO, we will not sign another refusal form, and thank you so much for giving us a poor copy that we can't even read, then an utterly useless "appointment" with the doctor to tell us stuff we already know and give us "information" on milestones and feeding produced by Gerber and the formula companies!

The only positive thing about all this is our ped. is decent and doesn't mess w/ us nor patronize or attempt to intimidate us.

We may well be forced to stick with her, but I really want to cut into their bottom line by being ONE LESS in their shot-shop warehouse. A decision made out of principle.

Articles like this only strengthen my resolve.

Why the HELL would I want to contribute to the pediatric industry's well-being when I could go to another M.D. without all this baggage? To a doctor who... get this... may actually treat us and our kids like fellow humans and... are you ready... show some empathy and appear to actually -- this is shocking, brace yourself -- CARE about our concerns and take a moment to get some family history?

There are doctors and nurses out there like that. I've met a lot of them. Even a fair amount who share similar concerns about vaccines and have experienced reactions leading to chronic conditions in either their children, relatives, or themselves. It's always a shock to me when they quietly say, "It's not a problem," or lower their voice even more and add, "I agree."

I would love to meet a pediatrician like that, but I doubt I ever will.

Talking down to parents, treating them like it's not possible they haven't taken a statistics course or jeez, I don't know, may actually have a bachelor of science and maybe even done their own university-level scientific research.

My god, who are these people?

I can tell you they are... they're the people who I definitely do not want around my son.

Some time ago a pediatric medical student, in residency I think, posted here. Carrie, her name was. There's one thing I take away in particular about the exchange:

She made the argument that essentially the expert is the final authority, and that by dabbling in the field of The Expert bad things will happen. She likened this to a car mechanic, saying how she didn't try to do the work herself but relied only on the expert, and thus so should we.

What an absolute disconnect from reality and plain old common sense... how many times have you been taken for a ride by your mechanic? Or they fixed the wrong thing, or they didn't fix or even find the problem at all?

"Oh, just leave the thinking and expertise to me in regards to the care of your child. What medical school did you go to? Do I come to your place of work and tell you how to do your job? Trust me, everything will be fine. Now that's $200 and the next well-baby visit is in four months."

"P.S. According to the CDC's schedule, the rotavirus vaccine is supposed to be given at age 2, 4, and 6 months. At such a young age, how would anyone know whether the baby has any of the conditions which are listed as making this vaccine potentially unsafe?"

Twyla, I honestly think that it is to simply find another way to blame the babies' 'faulty' genes and give the vaccine-makers yet another 'out'..after all, NOW they are warning us, so it's our turn to react, to somehow get our newborns tested for these conditions and if we vaccinate before doing so, and they get sick, die, become autistic, have life-threatening asthma later in life, whole-body, bleeding eczema, etc....well, hell....it's not the vaccine's fault now is it? I mean, they DID warn us, right? ;o) Another way to blame us, the parents, for getting our genetically-faulty kids those 'perfect, herd-protecting' shots when our kids were clearly imperfect to begin with.

I have now seen at least 3 vaccine ads on TV in the last month that now state directly in the ad that certain people with these (lists of conditions) should not take (insert new, poorly-tested vaccine here).

You go guys! I have been at it for 28 years now. My daughter had Kawasaki at two years old, shortly after a DPT shot. She then reacted to her last DPT shot at age five with 105 fever and passing out. My son reacted to his second DPT shot and after being bullied by his peditrician, I allowed him to have a third DPT shot.Now they are trying to be nice about it, I am so sorry. Any way my son reacted to his third DPT shot six hours later and now he has autism and epilepsy. I am on my third try for SSI,I have been informed that the government no longer just gives autistic people SSI automatcally like they use to. Getting to be to many of us I guess. My husband kept getting tetantus shots every time his work place gave them out,and every time he had an accident. When he was 28 years old he finally reacted to one and passed out. At age 34 he stepped on a nail,and the doctor gave him another one! AFTER much suffering he was dignosed with a mitochondia disease. I actually spoke on the phone to the then secretary of health. In those days the internet was not so crowded and I reached her by that way first. She gave me her number by email,and I called her. She said, she guessed they would be hearing from me. (I not sure what she meant) since I could find no lawyer at the time to represent me. Over the years I have prayed to God to help my family, but sometimes I pray to God to smite and curse them all, including my children's pediticians.

I found it very interesting at the recent NVAC meeting (I was in group 1 breakout) that a CDC official was criticizing the AAP for listening to parents, and 'giving in' to requests for a staggered vaccine schedule. She went on to say that there have been no safety studies on a customized, or staggered vaccine schedule, and this is dangerous practice. She reassured the audience that there have been many safety studies showing the entire CDC childhood vaccine schedule, when administered according to the protocol, is safe and effective. Of course, there was a backlash from parents. I could not believe what I was hearing...CDC attacking AAP for listening to parents! In defense of some pediatricians, there are more that have serious vaccine safety questions than ever before. They are asking more questions and as they too have children diagnosed with autism...they are coming into our world.
Of course, I still have Ari Brown in my town :(

Barf! I gave up after the first few sentences. 35 pages for the parents and 1 regarding liability for the Doctors!?!?!?

Dr. Howard suffers from Boughtism.

Like someone else mentioned, having to read around the Rotateq ad takes the cake and says it all.

Erika - thank you for saying that. My son is in that category - no live vaccines until after 3 years old - then autistic after the kindergarten round of shots at 5. NO 'brain development' timing with vaccines for him...just terrible and clear vaccine reaction. Its awful to say - but this will become EVER more apparent as more and more parents delay vaccines but still end up with autistic (vaccine damaged) kids.

I really don't believe its about the herd anymore. At one point , I thought that maybe all the peds were brainwashed and indoctrined to thinking that this could be the only way it is...hello 2006, new vax introduced- now each and every child born in or after 2006 MUST get it or DIE.
It defies logic and makes no sense to me why my poor child has to suffer more than children born years earlier and did not get the vaccine and did just fine but now he's a threat to the herd and "causing POLIO to make a comeback" because I'm not comfortable giving him a new vax.
There's no logic - the doctors want gratitude (and my money) while they shoot up and potentially injure my child with their "ALL vaccines are safe and ALL children are the same "school of medicine. If my child is harmed, the problem must somehow be my defective child.....
Every mother of every unvaxxed child will tell you that we almost never need to see the doctor for anything - my baby was born in July 2008 and has'nt even had a sniffle to date- something I doubt would have happened if he recieved 16 or is it 18 shots of vaccines as per the schedule required.
The point that is becoming clearer to me ( and I think all mothers of unvaxxed children) is this vaccine schedule is the only thing keeping them (the peds)from not having a job. Line the babies up, shoot them up quickly before they can speak or tell parents about reactions, ensure they fall sick regularly and keep coming back to the peds to treat the very illnesses they created a window of oppurtunity for in our defenseless babies in the first place. The more people reject their vaccine schedule, the healthier the population will be and they will be out of a job....

Okay. And this lady works for Johns Hopkins?

1. “It’s comprehensive, and—at 35 pages—perhaps a tad overwhelming for the typical mom or dad balancing work, budget woes, meal planning, day care, a cranky baby, and, invariably, the broken washing machine or sick dog.”

Irony: Hey Barb, try living that 24/7 for the rest of your life. Heck, I would have read that puppy a 100 times over if it would have saved my son from “autism”.

2. “….timing of vaccines and developmental reorganization of the brain;….. we still can’t fully explain to parents or even ourselves why rates of autism are increasing at such a rapid clip.”

Irony: Can you say, “Connect-the-dots?” Gee Barb. Wonder if mercury, aluminum, viruses, rec’ing 9 vaccines in one visit might have something to do with “answering” the million-dollar-question that you’re so puzzled about??

3. “What it all means is that there are a great many doubts and unspoken agendas, on both sides, before a mother or father ever expresses the slightest concern about how vaccinations might affect their child.”

BS/Pisses Me Off Response: Ahhh, Barb? The ONLY agenda I have is to 1) make sure NO other child/family has to EVER live with “autism” and THAT means making sure parents hear the current vaccine schedule has never been tested for safety and it’s basically a “crap shoot” and 2) make sure my son is taken care of. I’ll pit that against your “covert agenda” any day of the week!!!

4. “It means listening. Find out why they’re skeptical.”

Irony: And then she quickly dismisses it by saying, “If their concerns are based on faulty logic or scientific confusion, remember that their theory could make perfect sense if you hadn’t studied microbiology, immunology, physiology, and metabolism, not to mention statistics.”

Another BS/Pisses Me Off Response/TRANSLATION: If-they-question-vaccine-safety-in-any-way-shape-or-form-they-are-illogical-but-we-can’t-blame-them-because-after-all-they-don’t-have-MD-behind-their-names-and-therefore-they-can’t-possibly-read-a-scientific-study-on-their-own.

5. “If the family has been traumatized by a diagnosis of autism that coincided with timing of the vaccine schedule, discuss the option of a customized vaccine schedule to avoid the peak diagnostic age for autism spectrum disorders.”

Freudian Slip Statement or If You Remember Anything From This Lame Article Remember This Response: Maybe vaccines DO cause autism.

Okay, that's 5 (count 'em) 5 Mega Goldstars!!

Note to Barbara Howard, M.D.:
Parents don't need patronizing patter.
Their children need lab tests.

Biopsies. Bloodwork.
Microbiology, immunology, physiology, metabolism.
F*** the statistics.

If our kids' vaccine injuries could be treated by flaky psych-speak, we'd park them in front of the TV to watch Dr. Phil.

Good God.

That is really depressing--the Rotateq ad, and the tone of Dr. Howard's entire op-ed piece.
What bothers me (more than the Rotateq ad? hard to say) is that Dr. Howard is completely wrong when she implies that doctors understand the statistics behind children's risks of catching diseases, and parents don't. In fact, the exact opposite is true in the case of parents who want to refuse or delay vaccination.
For example, Hepatitis B has a near-zero rate of infection for individuals who are not sexually active and do not use intravenous drugs. There is no reason for a child born to a Hep B-negative mother to receive the Hep B vaccine--no reason, of course, except Dr. Howard's admitted secret agenda: protecting those in the "herd" who are difficult to reach with a vaccine (prostitutes, IV drug users, etc.). Doctors use scare tactics, like focusing on the possible consequences (like death) of Hep B infection, while spending absolutely zero time on the "SAT-like formulas" that would let a parent know that Hep B is, quite simply, not a risk for her infant or small child.
Let's think of another one--how about HPV? The number one killer of women is still heart disease, so if doctors were really any good at math, they'd be focusing on a heart-healthy diet and exercise regimen for female patients, rather than trying to ring the register with three doses of Gardasil. Or perhaps we should ask Dr. Howard if she has an SAT-like formula for calculating the odds that a girl will contract HIV, gonorrhea, or syphilis when having unprotected sex because she has been falsely led to believe that she's protected because she has been vaccinated against HPV. What are the odds of that girl getting pregnant? (If she's having unprotected sex, the odds are roughly 1 in 4--far higher than the odds of a woman developing cervical cancer, which had an incidence rate of 7 cases per 100,000 US population in 2004.)
Then we have Dr. Howard's implication that the very real incidence of autism (1 in 150, at least, which parents see in their own neighborhoods and schools) is somehow not as much of a threat as the chickenpox, which has not in the last 40 years killed more than 150 people in a single year. (Compare: 1 in 150 vs. 150 in 280,000,000 ... which is a more frequent occurrence?) Here is a case in which numbers are available, and are easily interpretable. Does a mom want to protect her kid from autism or a seizure disorder (like Ben Zeller: http://theresma.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!80EE15D075B65A13!871.entry), or does she want to protect the 150 people (who are not her child) who might have chickenpox-related complications in any given year? That math seems pretty easy to do.
But hey, I got a perfect score on the SAT, so maybe I really am better at math than Dr. Howard is.

"Does he "count" as an intelligent being? "

Good point - the article adds a bit of hypocrisy, to garnish the irony

He does count if he is an unquestioning proponent and toes the line. If he steps outside the box (as Dr Poling has) then he's just another MD "technician", a "non-scientist", straying beyond the boundaries of his limited area of expertise - the "superior intellects" (those who want to do all the thinking for us) would place him in the latter category by virtue of his actions, not his intelligence.

"Why don’t parents just want what’s
best for their children? Why don’t they trust me when I tell them, “The vaccines are worth the risk"

We do want what's best...autism by far isn't "the best". Most peds use scare tactics. It's unfortunate that they won't consider that parents *can* make educated decisions to not vaccinate.

Dr. Barbara Howard, of all the crap that is sent our way, you take the cake! Icing and all.

Yeah, as others have ponted out, this statement really takes the cake: "If their concerns are based on faulty logic or scientific confusion, remember that their theory could make perfect sense if you hadn’t studied microbiology, immunology, physiology, and metabolism, not to mention statistics." Especially in the context of:

- So many parental reports of taking their kids from one doctor to another and receiving no help with or insight into immune system dysregulation (allergies, inflammation, IBD...), microbe overgrowth (yeast, viruses, chlostrida...), or metabolic disorders -- until they start networking with other parents, reading books written by parents (or a grandmother), and/or seeing the few doctors who are treating medical issues in children with autism (many of whom are also parents, or grandmother...) and

- the complete ignoring by mainstream medicine and gov't agencies of the impact of our vaccine schedule on "microbiology, immunology, physiology, and metabolism" including the refusal (as described by Dr. Bernardine Healy and Sharyl Attkisson) to study the injured children.

This quote is also terribly ironic: "meaningful give-and-take discussions about statistics and science" as the entire article seems to be founded on the assumptions that:

- Parents have no valid reasons for concern.

- Parents are ignorant and don't understand medicine or science.

- If you just pretend to listen, parents will feel better about giving their children all the vaccines which of course you as a doctor know they should receive.

Where is the give and take? The doctor is not even considering that there may be valid concerns.

And the Rotateq info is tied for taking the cake!

I agree completely with everyone's posts and just want to add this quote:

"Sometimes the vaccine talk is your
first window into anxiety in the family,
or a sense that these parents consider their child particularly vulnerable to medical
risks."

OK and what then? I have seen so many posts from parents on the yahoo groups that have done this very thing -- ask their doctor about their concerns with egg allergies, having a fever at the time of vaccination, other siblings past adverse reaction, the child's GI issues since last vaccination, etc etc and a general feeling that something is not right so you ask, you question.

The whole purpose of this pamphlet is the art of bullshitting (again, good word, Mark!). The above quote here once more: "a sense that these parents consider their child particularly vulnerable to medical
risks" is never addressed in a true sense. There is no mention of mitochondria testing though it is now known that Hannah Poling was shown to have it and descend into autism as a result of her vaccinations (and now ADEM, as well) These doctors do not appear to have a desire to discuss TRUE medical implications but more BULLSHIT their way into stopping that discussion.

These folks from AAP are your neighborhood used car salesmen and we all just read their most recent customer relations tactic -- SMILE and SELL!

For me, nauseatingly patronizing. Just a different approach to get parents' agreement to vaccinate. And why not? The other approaches aren't working so well these days.
They try to make the parents feel they have
a seat at the table.
PS I trust the weatherperson more too, even if they say tomorrow 70 and sunny and it happens to snow.
maurine

Dr. Howard,

Recall this statement upon graduation from medical school: "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone." (translation Hippocrates)

My question to any pediatrician: How many healthy children is it acceptable for you to maim or kill for the good of the herd?? 1 in a million, 1 in 100,000, 1 in 150??

Nowhere in medical ethics (or any professional ethics code for that matter since the client pays your salary) is it acceptable for a physician to do harm to their patient for the good of the "herd." This work must been left public health authorities, not real doctors.

The Rotateq ad beneath your picture is a nice touch to explain where AAPs bread is buttered. Thank-you for your clarity explained how the field of pediatrics has lost its way.

Regards,

Doctor and parent of autism child

I know people don't appreciate swearing here, so I'll abbreviate. WTF? The weatherman is an authority figure? Actually I do respect the weatherman more than the pompous immunology, physiology, metabolism, statistic studying pediatrician who is taught to PRETEND to give a "crap" about their patients, but first and foremost, they must protect the herd. Wow, all our suspicions about the uncaring AAP right there in black and white.