Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
When vaccinating your kid (a US citizen) what vaccination schedule should you go with?
The standard US one
The standard of a different country which you think is better run (I picked Denmark)
Something else
I had a discussion with Grok 3 about this, and it seemed like it wanted to defend the US schedule (35 shots) until I pressed it about the Danish schedule (11 shots). Then it claimed that US schedule is necessary in the US because of different socioeconomic conditions. It seems like the US recommendations are based on helping the underclasses. For example, Hep B. My wife doesn't have Hep B. My kid won't get Hep B as a child. But a kid whose mom is a prostitute very much needs to be vaccinated for Hep B at birth.
In any case, after the censorship and disinformation promulgated by the US health agencies during the pandemic, I don't trust them. And clearly there is a corrupting profit motive here too. In this corrupted epistemic environment we simply don't know what the effects of giving kids 35 vaccine shots (plus annual flu and Covid shots) will be. I make no strong claims about vaccine injuries, and I think most vaccines are net positive. But I think, for my child, the Danish schedule + chicken pox is sufficient. At a minimum, I am deadset against any Covid vaccines. Can't say I look forward to arguing with nurses about this.
Please please please follow the vaccination schedule.
Pediatricians take a 6 figure pay cut because of how much they care about protecting kids, everything on there is for a reason - COVID nonsense aside.
If you have something specific other than COVID you have concerns about you should dig into that separately.
Keep in mind we've already started to have things like Measles outbreaks because of people become vaccine hesitant. Many of these disease are very deadly.
You also may introduce logistical problems down the line as your kid can't go to certain schools or get certain jobs (like healthcare) without jumping through extra hoops.
Also considering almost every kids gets this stuff we'd know about problems for the older stuff at this point.
Did you read my post? Of course I am giving my kids the MMR vaccine. They’ll get all the vaccines I got plus probably chicken pox as well. But why the US schedule and not the Danish one?
Yeah sorry lemme rephrase as "please please please follow the *U.S. vaccination schedule."
Not accusing you of not going for MMR but just using it as an example of downstream effects.
Something to keep in mind is that the U.S. schedule is optimized for "we are the wealthiest country in the in world" others may have more resource limitation focused choices.
COVID you can skip.
Using your other post as a reference point (and please forgive me Peds is not my area so I my professional level knowledge of this is distant).
Also several of these can impact getting jobs or housing at university (ex: the Heps, Meningitis), and skipping them will put you in the naughty bucket in your pediatrician's mind which isn't necessarily appropriate but is the reality.
Hep A - prob rare in Denmark? Hep B - prob rare in Denmark? Chicken Pox - no idea why they aren't doing this. Per PLOS Glob Public Health. 2023 Apr 5;3(4):e0001743. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001743 eople are advocating it? Rotavirus - this one is super complex and can't really be summarized here. Covid - skip if you want. Flu - don't skip please. Tetanus (from age 12) again probably low yield. Meningitis (from age 12) - don't skip please, looks like they have it but don't give to kids? Maybe it's pre college matriculation? IDK seems strange.
Keep in mind that incidence of disease varies country to country and the sheer variety and amount of immigrants in the U.S. (as well as poor health) put people at higher risks of somethings. This impacts the schedule.
Hep A and B are rare in the US among high SES whites, which I am.
Somewhat related anecdote:
We got a bill for like $1200 for our pre-natal blood screening, which included a Syphilis test. Then, when we came back for a later appointment they wanted to give my wife a second Syphilis test in case she banged some dudes and got Syphilis in the last 3 months. We said no to that one.
I get why they give infants Hep B vaccines. Because some small percent of moms will have it and pass it to their babies where it has a high chance of causing chronic disease. But my wife doesn't have any risk factors for Hep B and also tested negative to Hep B.
A lot of this medical advice is just targeting people who have risk factors which we don't.
And I don't believe vaccine risks are as low as they say they are. They tell parents to give their children annual Covid vaccines. Insanity.
Ultimately you don't know what you don't know - see the chickenpox party bit.
Also, the COVID vaccine is uniquely politically compromised but is a. not insanity, b. has an incentive we understand for the handwringing on both sides - political bullshit.
Vaccines in general have little incentive (as many are mature at this point it's not a money thing) to over push them or hide flaws. If you do the research on say the polio vaccine you can see exactly what went wrong in the past and why and the rationale behind the U.S. (and Danish) schedules. This stuff is out in the open and risks and benefits are known and the people who decide them are extremely competent and knowledgeable.
And the risks of the vaccines are minuscule (again with little incentive to lie or minimize them) and the benefits are immense, if rarely applicable for some things like Hepatitis A in the U.S..
Not following the schedule is essentially gambling with your child's life with the justification being "eh, the risk of this bad outcome is low but I won't take very easy steps to avoid it anyway because I'm mad about COVID."
You are welcome to be obstinate about the public health response to COVID but if you are putting other people at risk, especially your own children you should really look inside yourself and think about what you are doing.
That's putting aside the whole sentencing your child to a bunch of extremely avoidable paperwork and administrative headache in the future and the risk of things like ending up with a lower quality pediatrician because you refused to follow the vaccine schedule.
Importantly, if you are going to decide not to listen to medical advice and potentially put your child's life at risk you need to actually research what you are doing. Do not just jam it into an AI which you already admitted misled you or go "well shit this can't be right because COVID." Raising a child is one of the most important things someone should do and if you decide you will not listen to the medical consensus then you must actually put in time or effort or a reasonable person may judge you a poor parent.
Generally I don't get too heated with the questionable medical content that appears here because people aren't doing anything more than promulgating misinformation (which I'm committed to allow as a free speech person) and harming themselves - and people here do come up with novel things sometimes.
Putting a kid at risk and under baking your thought process is not that however.
Oh spare me. You're putting your kid at more risk every time you put them in a car then I would be by not vaccinating for Hep B.
If I was a conflict theorist, this sounds like what a anti-vaxxer would say to reverse-psychology someone into holding their viewpoint. This type of emotionally charged and accusatory language only works to make people do the opposite of what you say.
Don't worry, it's not going to change how I feel. But something to consider.
Yes and I'm aware of that risk and I think about it and I take steps to mitigate it when appropriate.
You are choosing risk for no reason. That's the issue.
Furthermore you need to be responsible. Engage with the rest of the comment. The ask is to actually do your homework instead of being mad about COVID.
That should be easy.
It's clear you didn't even read my initial posts or replies and just want to argue with an anti-vaxxer of which I am mostly certainly not. Then you said I'm a bad parent and put my children at risk. I believe this is when a southerner would say "bless your heart".
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link