Question: My brother and his wife have decided not to vaccinate their son because they believe shots can cause autism and other health problems. This makes me nervous because I think they may be putting him at risk. What’s your take?
Dr. Hibberd's answer:
You are correct. The false claims about autism and links to vaccination have been clearly shot down. Failure to vaccinate children should not be a choice when such clear benefits to vaccination are very clear.
In my opinion, failure to vaccinate children is shameful and negligent. I believe the failure to vaccinate is a form of child abuse. This is about as clear as I can state it: Vaccinate your children. Why make our children live with the risks we had in the dark ages when the average age of death due to now-preventable disease was 35 years of age?
Do not rely upon herd immunity (the immunity of others) to protect your son. There are many families who have had to learn this lesson the hard way through the death or disability of their children. I would like to try and be sure that we all protect our children, and would not advise vaccination if I thought harm would come from it.
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