Nov 13, 2007 9:09 pm US/Eastern
More Parents Opting Out Of Vaccines For Children
by Lisa Hughes
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
There's another health worry and a controversy that won't go away, and it's causing some Massachusetts parents to send their kids to school without the required vaccines.
Some parents are worried about the safety of childhood shots for diseases like measles, mumps, chicken pox and whooping cough.
But some medical officials are worried about something else -- the health of those children.
The Goodchilds, of Beverly, have never had their five-year-old son vaccinated, and they don't plan to.
"He might react to something that's in the vaccine as a stabilizing agent, or a preservative," said father Sargent Goodchild.
Many parents are worried, and some say the vaccines play a role in a host of problems, especially autism.
"I believe they're contributing factors to a lot of auto immune, or immune struggles that we have as a society today," Goodchild said.
For parents, the concern about vaccines seems to be everywhere.
The concern is causing a small but growing number of Massachusetts parents to opt out of the vaccinations.
There are two ways to do that in Massachusetts. One, by claiming a medical exemption or, two, a religious exemption, and it's the religious exemptions that are growing probably because they're easier.
All you have to do is file a letter stating that vaccinations conflict with sincerely held religious beliefs. Nobody is going to investigate your claim.
A medical exemption is harder to get and requires a doctor's signature.
"I think it's shortsighted, and I do think it does put their children at risk," said Dr. Mark Pasternack, of Massachusetts General Hospital.
Pasternack is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Mass General. He says there's no statistical basis to show that childhood vaccines do anything but good.
"These are infections that have not disappeared," he said. "They've simply been depressed."
And he says he worries they could come back.
"In countries like Japan and in Italy, and parts of Scandinavia where it became unpopular to give pertussis vaccines because of concerns about safety, the incidence of pertussis and all the complications from pertussis shot right up," Pasternack said.
"I think parents should be able to make an informed choice," said Dr. Peter Martone.
Lynnfield chiropractor Dr. Peter Martone, who practices homeopathic treatments, says not so fast.
"More research needs to be done to really show how vaccines are working, and you know, if they're effective, and another thing, what the long term effects of vaccines are," Martone said.
As the debate rages on, there are a growing number of parents like the Goodchilds saying no.
"I think you're going to see more and more people opting to do this," Goodchild said.
Let's put this in perspective. Massachusetts has one of the highest immunization rates in the nation.
So it's a small number of kids who are attending school without them. In the 2006 school year, fewer than 800 kindergartners received exemptions, most for religious reasons.
Theoretically, there is a risk to others should kids go to school without immunizations. But since most of the other children have been immunized they're probably protected. But since the vaccines aren't 100 percent effective, there could still be the possibility of a wider problem.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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