To see this in an interactive format visit this survey here:
Tableau Public – To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate.
Below, we share some of the open ended responses to the survey.
These are not presented in any particular order, they are presented according to which ones came in first. Medgoo is only presenting the data and responses, we do not take a stand either way.
“Where there is risk, there must be choice. This was established back during the Nazi Nuremberg trials. It is a fundamental human right to choose or consent or not consent to treatment.” – Family Practice, Iowa
“The big problem is the prevalence of anti-intellectual attitudes in the U.S., in spite of the country’s incredible pragmatism.” – Psychiatry, New York
“Vaccines have changed how safely our children get to grow up. Ask grandparent-aged people what it was like to raise a child in the early 50s, when Polio was a reality.” – Pediatrics, Colorado
“Today’s measles epidemic in NY should have been prevented. The community that has been most effected by the outbreak (Orthodox Jews) hid behind religion as the reason against vaccination. But as the epidemic grew, rabbis strongly recommended vaccination, thus negating the religious objections. Herd immunity protected for many years, but only when the large majority are vaccinated.” – Dermatology, New York
“Way too many vaccinations are trying to be mandated. Parents are their children first and main teachers, if a virus is NOT deadly of which many are not, allow parents to parent including medical decisions!!” – Dermatology, California
“In our current climate of government distrust and “fake news” it is very hard to persuade patients that the VAST majority of all patients are much better off with routine vaccination. We have a public relations mess and trust in health care providers is low and slipping farther every year.” – Emergency Medicine, Oregon
“It’s sad to me to see that a well established and scientifically proven public health most effective tool be challenged by antivaxers who do not bring evidence based facts to the discussion except their personal beliefs and opinions.” – Pediatrics, California
“The US is not a police state. If you can poison yourself with tobacco which is PROVEN to kill, affect others around, and increase health care dollars, then you can choose not take medical treatment. Get vaccines if you choose and you can believe you are protected. If you dont get them and you get a disease that there is a vaccine for that was your choice. Period.” – Sports Medicine, Florida
“The people against vaccines are ignorant of what happens when you do not vaccinate and are listening to people who do not know all the facts. The 2 states with the highest current rate of measles is NY and California and there are not that many immigrants there who could cause the uptick in measles, more likely secondary to unvaccinated kids here. Wake up and smell the roses: kids die from childhood illness. Less now than when I grew up, but the diseases are returning due to non vaccination.” – Internal Medicine, New York
“Everyone needs to be vaccinated!! We are getting diseases back that were supposed to be eradicated. People my age have seen what these diseases do. Do we have to have a lot of children/ people die before the general population understands this??” – Urgent Care, Washington
“The only exclusions should be individuals with immune deficiencies that would make live vaccines high risk to the patient.” Infectious Disease – Ohio
“I vaccinated my daughters when they were young. My oldest, now 40, does not vaccinate. My youngest, pregnant with her first, plans to vaccinate. My oldest daughter does not label herself ‘antivaxer’ but rather a ‘pro parents’ choice.'” – OBGYN, New York
“More reliable information about “efficacy” of immunizations is needed and needs to be made public.” – Neurological Surgery, Tennessee
“People are protected by vaccines. Respect those who do not choose to get vaccinated for only they are at risk. Everyone vaccinated should not be afraid due to the protection provided. If the vaccine is only 97% successful, then check antibodies to see if protected.” – Internal Medicine, Massachusetts
“I work in HIV and worry that my immunocompromised families could be infected. I have worked in Haiti and seen children die of preventable infectious diseases.” – Family Practice, New York
“Human beings continue to struggle with the concept of the world being described by empiric observation and “science” versus feelings and magical beliefs. Unfortunately, the relative absence of childhood infections diseases in our civilization has allowed people to become complacent and focused on feelings rather than data.” – Internal Medicine, North Carolina
“Vaccines are
made by companies that exist to make a profit. They take no liability
or responsibility for the safety of their products. You cannot sue
them. Why would you put their poisons in your child’s body? You can sue
car makers if their defective products kill you or cause permanent
injury, but you cannot sue for-profit vaccine makers, think about it.” –
Family Practice, Nevada
“It is our office policy not to
continue treating patients who are not vaccinated. I have had one
patient that wanted to withhold vaccines for religious beliefs. At
her next visit I had researched this issues and found that there are
no major religions that feel vaccines should be withheld. She now
vaccinates her child.” – Pediatrics, South Carolina
“The mother had a very different behavior when she thought the child might die from the disease. It was hard for me to keep from saying, ‘I told you so.'” – Family Practice, Oklahoma
“Young parents have rarely seen these diseases and therefore look only the risk of the vaccine. Parents need better education. If excluding unvaccinated children is what it takes to get their attention, I am all for it.” – Internal Medicine, Virginia
“I believe that vaccines are 1 of the most important advances that modern medicine has brought to the human civilization.” – Family Practice, Wisconson
“I am amazed that parents that trust their doctors on all sorts of issues that are much less science based than vaccines, are unwilling to trust their strong recommendation to immunize.” – Pediatrics, Minnesota
“I think alternative vaccine schedules with a more graduated time frame and less vaccines at a time is wiser than CDC’s schedule.” – Family Practice, Maine
“Education is the answer. We must educate and expose the antiscience groups who prey on fear and superstition and the uneducated. The money we spend will be worth the money we save in treating preventable disease.” – Oncology, Florida
“Vaccinations have protected children from the ravages of disease which killed and crippled them in the past. Again we must learn the lesson of the need for vaccination the hard way. Again we confirm the old adage that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – Internal Medicine, Michigan
“I had a child die from chicken pox and another from pertussis.” – Family Practice, Pennsylvania
“Public health concerns outweigh individual rights when diseases can result in death-like measles.” – Family Practice, Nebraska
“Vaccines are one of the most successful public health initiatives in history. Children should absolutely be vaccinated unless there is a clear (and REAL) MEDICAL contraindication (i.e. compromised immune system, allergies to vaccines or their components).” – Psychiatry, Georgia
“It’s not as simple as your questions imply. An unknown number of vaccine recipients have serious and permanent adverse effects unrelated to autism. The general belief is that these are covered up. Remember, the law says one cannot sue any company that manufactures vaccines. They have no liability. Would inject your child with a foreign biological substance for which the manufacturer takes no responsibility (and has no liability)whatsoever if your child has a bad outcome??” – Internal Medicine, New Jersey
“Children should be vaccinated and if the parent does not allow then they are legally responsible for illness spread by their child. Why is the discredited Lancet paper on Autism not posted everywhere by everyone… Parents can have the freedom to choose for their kids, but also get to reap the consequence. Your kids spreads measles at the school or amusement park you can pick up the tab for the costs and damages to other children (especially if they were are risk from immunosuppression and no choice of their own).” – Dermatology, Colorado
“We all need to remember that NOTHING in medicine should be one size fits all. And that the first rule of medicine is Do NO Harm. And, oh yeah, the Nuremberg Code is there for a reason. Vaccines are not safe for everyone and they don’t possess the efficacy that’s claimed.” – Emergency Medicine, Colorado
“I have been a pediatrician long enough to see children die from the disease current vaccines prevent. People need to understand the reason they don’t have personal experiences with these disorders is that vaccines protect children. It is criminal to have children suffer from preventable diseased just because their parents haven’t seen the diseases themselves!” – Pediatrics, Florida
“My practice is stem cell transplantation and my patients that are now unprotected because of their new immune system’s immaturity are VERY anxious about the measles outbreak. Vaccinations have prevented many a mother from crying over their dead child’s grave. Two of my father’s siblings died of what are now preventable diseases. People have forgotten.” – Oncology, Oklahoma
