By age 6, children should have vaccinations against 14 diseases, the U.S. government advises. More than 1 in 10 parents reject that, refusing or delaying shots mainly because of safety concerns, a national survey found.
Worries about vaccine safety were common even among parents whose kids were fully vaccinated: 1 in 5 said they think delaying shots is safer than the recommended schedule. The results suggest more than 2 million infants and children may not be fully protected against preventable diseases, including some that can be deadly or disabling.
The nationally representative online survey of about 750 parents of kids ages 6 and younger was done last year, and results were released online today in the journal Pediatrics. They are in line with a federal survey released last month, showing at least 1 in 10 toddlers and preschoolers lagged on vaccines including chickenpox and the measles-mumps-rubella combination shots.
Kandace O’Neill of Lakevillehas a 5-year-old son who has had no vaccinations since he turned 1; her 7-month-old daughter has received none of the recommended shots. O’Neill said she thinks parents — not doctors or schools — should make medical decisions for her children.
Study author Dr. Amanda Dempsey, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of Michigan, said skepticism is fueled by erroneous information and reports that sensationalize misconceptions. Some parents dismiss the severity of diseases because they’ve never seen a child with those illnesses.
But vaccine-preventable diseases can be deadly, said Dr. Buddy Creech, associate director of Vanderbilt University’s Vaccine Research Program. “From being someone in the trenches seeing children die every year from influenza and its complications ... I would not do a single thing to risk the health of my kids,” he said. Creech has served on advisory boards for vaccine makers and has accepted their research money.
Dempsey, the survey’s lead author, has been a paid adviser to Merck but said that company made no contributions to the research. Knowledge Networks conducted the survey, which had an error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points.