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IMMUNIZATIONS

“You’re a

Doctor, Should

I Vaccinate

My Precious

Child?”

By Melissa Garcia, MD

he overwhelming and only answer to this question
should be YES! We all learned about immunizations in
medical school, and most of us thought we would never
see certain diseases again in our practice lifetime. I understood the
immunology and the disease process, and I saw the pictures of the
consequences of these diseases. I am not going to review the disease
processes or statistics for vaccine efficacy and safety, but I will tell
you vaccines work and they save lives and it is our responsibility as
physicians to disseminate that information to anyone that will listen.
My mother’s generation can tell stories of lining up to receive the
polio vaccine as well as knowing someone that was in an iron lung. We took an oath to first do no harm, and I value the opportunity
One of my greatest fears during training was encountering epigloti- to protect the health of our children. We must all answer the vaccine
tis, because who really wants to face that in a child? question with confidence and relay the message that vaccines are
As a Pediatrician in the trenches, I can see that the anti-vaccina- safe and essential in order to protect our children and those that
tion movement is alive and kicking. Our great state of Texas as well surround us who truly can’t be vaccinated. Vaccines should be given
as local counties have some pockets of abysmal school vaccination on time and at the recommended intervals, otherwise the child con-
rates. When combined with the prevalence of measles throughout tinues to be at risk of vaccine preventable diseases. If you have
the country, we stand to lose our “measles elimination status” if the questions about vaccines, please ask your friendly Pediatrician or
cases of measles continue to rise. This is absolutely unacceptable Family Medicine physician.
in this day of modern medicine when readily available vaccines can We as colleagues need to take a stand against the misinformation
prevent disease. I really never thought I would have to spend so that undermines the evidence-based medicine that we all practice
much time convincing parents to vaccinate their child. on a daily basis. We must advocate to our legislators for elimination
In my 20 years of medical practice, I can honestly say that I have of the personal vaccine exemption in Texas to help ensure that the
never encountered a circumstance where a vaccine could not be ad- climbing vaccine exemption rates begin to decrease across our
ministered due to vaccine safety or side effects, (with the exception schools and in our great state of Texas. Even California has a more
of not giving live virus vaccines to an immunocompromised child, stringent vaccination policy than Texas. We can do better. We should
or when the vaccine is truly contraindicated, which is extremely all feel confident to answer the question, “Should I vaccinate my
rare). Full disclosure, I did not practice in the whole cell pertussis precious child?” with an overwhelming YES!
vaccine era; that is a lot of vaccines given through the years. I have
never given a student vaccine exemption waiver except when live Melissa A. Garcia, MD is a Pediatrician at ABCD Pediatrics in New
virus vaccines are contraindicated. Braunfels, Texas and is a member of the Bexar County Medical Society.

18 San Antonio Medicine • November 2019