Dear Honorable Governor Newsom,
I am a California-licensed, board-certified, Stanford-, NYU, & UCSF-trained pediatrician. I am not anti-vax. I administer vaccines in my pediatric practice. I believe that vaccines can be effective at reducing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases for MOST children. I believe that vaccines are safe for MOST children. But not for all…
I am not a “hysterical anti-vaxxer.” I am not the mother of a vaccine-injured child. I am not an unethical doctor selling “fake” medical exemptions. I am not a bureaucrat or a politician.
I am a pediatrician in the trenches. And I am unashamedly, unabashedly, and unequivocally PRO-CHILD. I believe in public health, yet I care for individual children and families who sit across from me everyday, trusting that I am giving them valid, scientific, evidence-based information that will keep their individual baby safe and healthy, and believing that I am providing them with true informed consent.
I am a pediatrician trying to do the best I can for the children in my practice. And the best is not simply repeating that vaccines are “safe and effective.” Because they’re not 100% safe. Because they’re not 100% effective. Because parents are asking questions. And because we, as primary care physicians, need to be able to practice the art and science of medicine to the best of our abilities, for the child sitting in front of us, without bureaucratic handcuffs and fear of retribution.
SB 276 continues to place the decision regarding an individual child’s vaccine risk/benefit assessment and whether or not that child qualifies for a vaccine medical exemption in the hands of the government. As clearly stated by Andrew Kroger M.D., M.P.H., Communications and Education Branch of the Immunization Service Division of the CDC: “It would be inappropriate for anyone other than the treating provider to determine who should be allowed to get a medically-necessary exemption.”