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Originally Posted by liamona  Aside from stories that HMO doctors get financial bonuses for how many kids they vaccinate, what do you think those "well" baby visits are for? They center around the vaccine schedule for infants.
Strangely enough, if you take your kid to a family doctor rather than a pediatrician, they aren't as concerned or aren't concerned at all about whether or not your kid is vaccinated. Could it be because that's not their bread-and-butter? Or is it just that pediatricians are soooo much more altruistic than general practitioners?
I have HMO insurance, but I also see a doctor who doesn't take insurance. I wonder if it's a coincidence that he has NO BigPharma posters, pens, cups, etc. etc. in his office, and he is against vaccinations.
The HMO docs always have the BigPharma goodies.
And strangely.....they are the ones who are really interested in prescribing you meds, often the ones that are featured in the posters, paper pads, and coffee cups.
Oh, but that's got to be a coincidence, right?  |
You go to a doctor who is
against vaccinations!? That is insane! Not to mention wildly irresponsible. Your doctor opposes every vaccination that is out there?
I go to a good medical school in the United States (ranked higher than a couple of the Ivy League med schools) where pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to give us as much as a pen. We cannot accept gifts in any form from these people. I have yet to meet a single doctor here who is against vaccinations, and I have yet to meet a single doctor here who did not get his or her own kids vaccinated.
Here is one study on the efficacy of a flu vaccine in a certain cohort, if you google scholar search you can find more:
CIDRAP >> Study finds flu vaccine benefits for older workers.
And what about facts like the following:
"A physician entering practice today will most likely never see a case of Hib meningitis. Before the introduction of effective vaccines, approximately one in 200 children developed invasive Hib disease before five years of age -- about 20,000 cases annually. Hib was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in children under age five C accounting for 50 to 65 percent of all cases. From 15 to 30 percent of affected children became hearing impaired and 2 to 5 percent died in spite of effective antibiotic therapy."
The science behind vaccines is sound, the antibody titers are very testable, and although vaccines are not 100% effective in all cases they are an excellent tool from a public health perspective. Those doctors who are getting paid more for getting kids vaccinated are getting paid because it reduces the disease burden (and thus the payments that must be made for treatment) in those children later.