As we wrap up our series on childhood vaccinations and the recommendations to get them, we want to consider with you more broadly the concept of ecosystems.
 
While we discussed in depth the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases on the balance of the body’s internal ecosystem, this whole series of columns has been just as much about the ecosystems we find ourselves in as members of families, communities, sports teams, religious organizations, school systems and online groups. It is these groups and our need for community that often shape our personal opinions and perceptions, and our decisions about vaccinating our children are a prime example.
 
Our articles aimed to give you clear, reliable information you need to make an informed decision that is best for your family.
 
Regardless of your beliefs, or the current vaccination status of your child, we pediatricians want to be a part of your family’s community. Because at the end of the day, just like you, pediatric providers always want what is best for your child. We want every child to grow, thrive and experience joy while building a future. We have a calling to try to ensure that babies, children and teens are safe and healthy.
 
With information and opinions spreading so quickly online, we as pediatric providers understand that parents can feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of advice and messages they encounter. We are here to listen and help you navigate this. With the recent change in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services verbiage encouraging “shared decision-making” with regard to vaccination of your kids, please remember that pediatricians love shared decision-making — we participate in it all the time. Engaging parents in their children’s health and well-being is one of our top priorities.
 
It’s what led us to create this eight-week series of columns.
 
But we didn’t want to stop at engaging you as parents, caregivers, friends and other members of the community — we aimed to empower you with knowledge in a world of vibes and “hot takes” on the internet.
 
Changing landscape
Vaccine schedules vary around the world because each country faces different health challenges, disease patterns and public health infrastructure. The U.S. schedule is designed around the epidemiology, health system and age-related risks specific to the United States. Just as every child has individual needs, each country develops a schedule that best fits its own population. The goal is always to follow the evidence that keeps children here as safe as possible.
 
The health care landscape has changed significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, and many parents have continued to encounter mixed or confusing messages about children’s health. As pediatricians, that concerns us because caring for children should never be complicated by outside noise. Science is built on careful and repeated testing, consistency of results and shared understanding across many researchers. It isn’t about popularity, politics or platforms. It’s about evidence that reliably keeps children safe.
 
Vaccines save lives
Our stance on vaccination is based on massive volumes of evidence linking higher vaccination rates to declines in disease and deaths.
 
Historical data supports that the current vaccine schedule is safe and has been proven to save lives. According to a study published in 2024 in the medical journal The Lancet, vaccination has saved 154 million lives, including those of 146 million children younger than 5 years, since 1974. The measles vaccine has had the most significant positive impact.
 
Let’s not forget that our own bodies are ecosystems as well.
 
In these columns, we have demonstrated that the liver’s functions impact every other body system (circulation, metabolism, detoxification, digestion and others) and liver damage from hepatitis thereby affects the entire body.
 
Meningococcal bacteria can cause brain and spinal damage but also affects all tissues of the body by traveling via the bloodstream and attacking the organs it visits on its circulatory journey.
 
Measles is an airborne virus that quickly attacks the lungs, where it initially settles, but then uses the vast blood supply of the lungs to enter the bloodstream and affect the immune system’s function and the functionality of brain cells.
 
Rotavirus causes severe inflammation of the gut, but digestion isn’t the only body function that suffers — the impaired absorption in the intestines and rapid loss of electrolytes overwhelm the kidneys and can cause seizures due to the imbalance.
 
HPV lives in our skin’s regenerative cells forever, and the secondary cancer it causes can metastasize throughout the body.
 
The diseases prevented by vaccines were chosen for vaccine production because they are each notorious for disrupting the entire body’s ecosystem, sometimes to the point of severe permanent injury or death.
 
As we wrote each column, highlighting each disease and how it affects children and communities, one thing was clear: It is impossible to predict who is at risk, or when disease will strike. The only way to protect your child from these diseases is to vaccinate your child. Trying to measure your child’s risk of hepatitis B, HPV or meningitis would require a crystal ball we do not have.
 
Collaborative approach
Being parents as well as pediatricians, we too struggle with the fearful reality that life is never risk-free. Taking a neutral position on vaccination and not vaccinating your child to avoid a risk of a potential side effect is not choosing safety — it’s choosing the alternative risk of getting the disease and the potential short- and long-term consequences of that disease. And every parent can understand the point we’ve tried to convey in this series of columns: A loss of any child is devastating, and the loss of even one child is too many.
 
So, yes, this means that at your child’s yearly well visit, we will bring up the subject of vaccines.
 
Authoritarian physicians of the past used such terms as “iron lungs,” “brain damage” and “dead babies” when talking about immunization; this led many parents to believe that physicians rely on scare tactics.
 
But as clinicians we now steer away from shame as a tactic and instead adopt a more collaborative approach in gaining patients’ trust in our commitment to their child. Our commitment to open conversation does not mean we support inaccurate or unsafe health information. We rely on evidence and established scientific standards in our recommendations. We encourage you to discuss any vaccine concerns you have with your pediatric health care provider. Never skip a well checkup just because you are nervous about this conversation. It’s ultimately your decision — we want to make sure you’re equipped with the scientific and medical knowledge needed to make it.
 
We hope that this series has benefited you, and we hope that you continue to involve your child’s pediatrician in your family’s ecosystem. This world will never be risk-free. But with preventive measures such as car seats, increased physical education, universal access to healthy foods, less screen time, access to mental health services and vaccinations, we seek to lower the odds that any child’s potential is thwarted. Ultimately, we are all working toward the health of our community’s kids.
 
Reprinted with permission from LNP | LancasterOnline.