Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Filmmakers
Cheap Chicken Wing Deal Ruined by Gunslinging Teens
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
A state disciplinary board fined Dr. Mark Nesselson $10,000 and ruled that the pediatrician could only work under supervision from now on. Nesselson filled out fake paperwork for parents who did not want their children to receive required immunizations before attending school, which is required by law. The doctor was caught when he moved to Hawaii and handed off patient records indicating that he had never actually immunized some children to another doctor, who reported him to state authorities.
Some parents feel that vaccinations at an early age can lead to autism in their children due to the presence of a preservative in the vaccines called thimerasol, which contains mercury. The Centers for Disease Control maintains that there is no link between vaccinations and autism.
Since the introduction of widespread vaccinations at childhood, the levels of diseases like polio, measles, mumps, bacterial meningitis, whooping cough, and diphtheria have all but dropped to zero in the general population. Critics of mandatory vaccinations counter that while the link between immunizations and autism may not have been conclusively proven, parents should be able to make up their own minds about whether to give their children shots. The controversy rages on even into kids' teen years. Some states are proposing that teenage girls be mandatorily vaccinated against HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer. HPV is normally transmitted sexually.
(Image of child with measles from the American Academy of Pediatrics)
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Just great. Don't vaccinate your child because of some ridiculous notion that the kid will come down with something else.
Don't vaccinate the little shits and watch them die a painful death from a preventable disease. Go to a third world country if you don't like vaccination. Most of the third world Muslim run countries think it's an American ploy to kill their children. You can also eat bush meat and see what develops from there.
I have a three month old. I am currently going through the whole vaccination situation. Before I begin, I want to say that we are vaccinating our baby but we're not giving him EVERY single shot at the recommended CDC schedule. Reason? At one point, your kid can have up to 6 shots in one visit. As a parent, I feel that's too many for such a small person. Plus, I really want to know, should he suffer form a side effect, which shot is to blame. (The last two we gave him came with mild side-effects and he had a pretty shocking personality change directly following one of them.)
Also, there are a LOT more shots now a days. Many are new and who knows what they side effects are yet. And you are fooled if you think that the CDC isn't swayed by lobbyists. They can't be trusted 100% with everything they suggest. Some of the shots are absolute life savers but that doesn't mean that the CDC isn't suggesting more than necessary. And putting your faith in their recommended schedule without doing any research is just as irresponsible as NOT vaccinating your child at all.
Like I said, we are vaccination our son, but we're not being as aggressive as the government would like. And we are skipping a few. If we were to agree to all the shots they suggest, our son would be injected with 23 vaccinations before he's even two years old.
When I was a kid, I had DTaP, the MMR, and IPV. That's it. Three vaccinations. That's not to say that there aren't others created now that aren't necessary for the social contract, but 23 shots? Yikes.
Once you have a kid, your views may change slightly on this subject. Hopefully not enough to warrant the refusal of all shots, but enough to go about it very carefully.
All that said, what this doctor did is reprehensible. To put other children at risk is just terrible. I am not sure why anyone would do this especially since all by 48 states (I think) have a clause saying you can opt out for religious and/or philosophical reasons. Then again, I'm not sure those reasons are enough to get your kid into said schools.
Point well taken. 23 vaccinations is way over what we had our children take about twenty years ago. No reason to have our children be the human guinea pigs for drug companies.
Thiomersal has not been used in childhood vaccines since 1999. It is still used in tetanus, diptheria and flu vaccines. However the most convincing argument against thiomersal as a cause for autism come from Denmark (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/290/13/1763) Basically Denmark eliminated use of thiomersal in 1992. They followed children vaccinated prior to that date versus those vaccinated after. Measurements were done between the years 1990 and 1996 and followed nearly half a million children. They showed that rates of autism went UP with the elimination of thiomersal. The exact opposite of what one would expect if thiomersal caused autism.
Those parents should blame their own genes for their children's autism.
Oh, snoopy, i wasn't directing that long and poorly written comment at you. so sorry. :]
mihow: you should be aware of the several vaccination products that combine several vaccines into one injection. For example, Comvax combines HIB with Hepatitis B and Proquad combines MMR with Varicella. There is no longer a need to give kids 20 or more shots in their first two years. Discuss these products with your pediatrician/family practitioner. Doctors do make more money giving multiple shots, but your kid's comfort should be his/her #1 priority.
While this pediatrician's actions are unethical and illegal, the pressure on a busy practitioner from "educated, informed" parents anxious about the supposed (now definitively debunked) relationship between vaccines and autism is enough to drive some to make poor choices. This guy was a good doctor who cared about his patients, but made a very poor (and dangerous) choice. The disciplinary action was appropriate. Hopefully, he's in a less stressful practice in Hawaii.
famdoc, I know all about the combinations and to be honest, they make me more nervous than giving him individual shots.
But thanks for looking out for me. :]
We have a two year old, so we have gone through this. My way of dealing with it was to be very careful when picking a pediatrician (getting many recommendations and interviewing him before our son was born) and then asking a lot of questions. In the end, we trust our doc to help us make the right decisions. We may be the parents, but I don't feel qualified to make his medical decisions alone.
Our doc has done the combined shots and it hasn't been too bad. Kid gets a little grumpy, but never any real negative reaction to speak of.
I do think it's odd that kids have to get chicken pox vaccinations these days... that was like the best week off of school ever!
...er, except if you got chicken pox in your throat or eyes. That pretty much sucks.
In reality though, you want your kid to be vaccinated for chicken pox so that they don't get shingles when they are elderly. It can be really painful. The chicken pox virus just waits around in your spinal cord for you to become elderly or severely ill, and then it strikes as shingles...and the pain and rash can last for weeks. NOT fun.
someone get this kid a shirt