Vaccine Policy Statement

• We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.
• We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.
• We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities. We firmly believe that thimerosal, a preservative that has been in vaccines for decades and remains in some vaccines, does not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
• We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health-promoting intervention we perform as healthcare providers, and that you can perform as parents/caregivers. The recommended vaccines and their schedule are the results of years and years of scientific study and data gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

These things being said, we recognize that there has always been and will likely always be controversy surrounding vaccination.

The vaccine campaign is truly a victim of its own success. It is precisely because vaccines are so effective at preventing illness that we are even discussing whether or not they should be given. Because of vaccines, many of you have never seen a child with polio, tetanus, whooping cough, bacterial meningitis, or even chicken pox, or known a friend or family member whose child died of one of these diseases.

After publication of an unfounded accusation (later retracted) that MMR vaccine caused autism in 1998, many people in Europe chose not to vaccinate their children. As a result of under immunization, there were large outbreaks of measles, with several deaths from complications of the disease. In 2010 there were more than 2,000 cases of whooping cough in California, with nine deaths in children less than six months of age. Again, many of those who contracted the illness had made a conscious decision not to vaccinate.

We are making you aware of these facts not to scare, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We recognize that the choice may be a very emotional one for some parents. We will do everything we can to help you understand that vaccinating according to the schedule is the right thing to do. However, should you have doubts, please discuss these with your healthcare provider in advance of your visit.

Please be advised that delaying or “breaking up the vaccines” to give one or two at a time over two or more visits goes against expert recommendations and can put your child at risk for serious illness (or even death) and goes against our medical advice as providers at Community Health and Dental Care. Please realize that you will be required to sign a “Refusal to Vaccinate” acknowledgement.

All patients in the practice are strongly encouraged to receive hepatitis B vaccine at birth, DTaP, Hib, polio, pneumococcal, and rotavirus vaccines by three months of age; measles, mumps and rubella, varicella (chickenpox), and hepatitis A vaccines at age 12–15 months; HPV and meningococcal vaccine at 11–12 years (HPV can also be given as early as 9 years); and annual influenza and COVID-19 vaccine. Also, if RSV vaccine was not given during pregnancy, your newborn should receive an RSV preventive antibody before or during the RSV season. You can view a parent-friendly version of this schedule at www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4050.pdf.

Please recognize that by not vaccinating you are putting your child at unnecessary risk for life-threatening illness and disability, and even death.

As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating your child on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do to protect all children and young adults. Thank you for taking the time to read this policy. Please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you may have about vaccines with any one of us.