Readers React: Backlash against vaccine-skeptical parents and doctors

Articles on the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and declining immunization rates tend to draw passionate responses both from people dismayed that generations of progress fighting deadly infections may be reversed and parents reluctant to inoculate their children.

This week was different. Two articles — one on Dr. Bob Sears, an Orange County pediatrician who caters to vaccine-wary parents, and an editorial encouraging parents to immunize their kids — drew nearly three dozen letters, nearly all of them from readers worried that pockets of wealthy, relatively well-educated parents may be putting so-called herd immunity at risk. Among Sears’ harshest critics were his fellow medical professionals

Sandra R. Canalis of Santa Monica encourages worried parents to consult physicians:

When I was a pediatric nursing instructor at Children’s Hospital in Chicago, one of our patients was an adorable 2-year-old girl who had been brain damaged apparently after receiving a pertussis vaccine.

Did I have a lot of discomfort when it came time to have my own babies vaccinated? Certainly.

I based my decision to vaccinate on the fact that such a complication was extremely rare and that the possibility of damage being caused by these so-called childhood diseases was so great.

I am old enough to have lived through, and survived, horrendous polio epidemics. If people do not have the knowledge to make a wise decision, they should consult the people who do: their physicians.

Pediatrician George Saade of Downey recalls fighting vaccine-preventable infections:

My guess is that Sears didn’t spend much time at L.A. County Hospital or Rancho Los Amigos during his pediatric training. Had he done so, I think he would have a greater appreciation for the devastation caused by vaccine-preventable infections.

Coming from an era when I cared for an infant with Haemophilus meningitis (an illness I haven’t seen in 20 years because of the vaccines available), I am thankful for the ability to prevent these illnesses.

One can look up “Dancing With the Stars” runner-up Amy Purdy on the Internet to appreciate what these infections can do in the unvaccinated person.

Nipomo resident Marsha Epstein urges pediatricians to take action:

Much of the growing problem of unvaccinated children could be resolved if pediatricians refused to accept unvaccinated children as patients. If doctors truly believe that vaccination is vital for the health of children and the community, this act would have greater impact than anything else they could do.

As someone who lived through the polio and measles epidemics of the early 1950s, the willful ignorance of otherwise informed people is shameful.

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