Forty states saw rises in parents citing religious or other personal concerns for not vaccinating their young children.
The number of kids whose caregivers are opting them out of routine childhood vaccines has reached an all-time high, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of children unprotected against preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.
The report did not dive into the reasons for the increase, but experts said the findings clearly reflect Americans’ growing unease about medicine in general.
“There is a rising distrust in the health care system,” said Dr. Amna Husain, a pediatrician in private practice in North Carolina, as well as a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Vaccine exemptions “have unfortunately trended upward with it.”
I distrust the medical system too… But there is no alternative, so while I choose not to use it when I don’t absolutely need it, my kids are vaccinated and I’m sick right now and I take the medicine my doctor gave me. If a legitimate alternative came, I would go for it, but it doesn’t exist.
I trust it, but only as far as I trust anything else. I want evidence and reasoning. If I’m being recommended a procedure that seems fishy, I’m going to get a second or third opinion. I’m going to use reputable sources to research it.
The old company I worked for had a saying in the engineering department, “Trust but verify”. I think it applies really well here.