"Some will ask, 'Can you recommend a good pediatrician who does not believe in vaccines?' No, I say, no more than I can recommend a good physicist who does not believe in gravity." -Eleanor R. Menzin, M.D. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... - ThreadSky

ryanmarino.bsky.social • 15 hours ago

"Some will ask, 'Can you recommend a good pediatrician who does not believe in vaccines?' No, I say, no more than I can recommend a good physicist who does not believe in gravity."

-Eleanor R. Menzin, M.D.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2414640

Reposted from Natty

Just yesterday the local moms FB group had a post asking for advice on finding a non-vaccinating pediatrician (this seriously gets asked like every week). I couldn’t take it and went off about how all these moms are asking this while we have a Measles outbreak in 2025.

Comments

keys266.bsky.social•6 hours ago

While I agree with this sentiment completely, as a non medical parent it does seem stunning how many injections newborns, infants, and toddlers get these days.

awithonelison.bsky.social•3 hours ago

Each of them prevents a disease that used to regularly do horrible things to children. Which diseases would you like to bring back?

captainwest.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Believe me, this mom will NOT take responsibility if her child/children, get sick and/or die , from measles. She will blame it on a bad doctor. Also know that RFK jr's children were vaccinated as was he.

ramblingwoods.bsky.social•15 hours ago

You unfortunately don’t get to choose your parents. A good pediatrician who doesn’t believe in vaccines. Yeah sure.

ryanmarino.bsky.social•14 hours ago

And the parents are always vaccinated. It’s sick.

ramblingwoods.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I remember getting chickenpox and mumps. I remember our pediatrician giving my sister and I gammaglobulin because measles was everywhere. I don’t remember measles being as awful for us as chickenpox and mumps are, but we were coming out of the polio era, and my grandmother had had polio.

ryanmarino.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I have antivaxx relatives and my grandmother would never let them get away with saying anything about it without stopping them to talk about all her beloved friends who died from polio, etc. I miss her.

ramblingwoods.bsky.social•13 hours ago

My mother described how terrifying it was to grow up in an age of polio because it seems like you never knew when it was going to strike. I also miss my grandparents and now my parents would be horrified at how things are. So happy to have a vaccinated family.

pawsrpg.bsky.social•3 hours ago

People are *shocked* to learn someone like me in my 40s caught chicken pox before the vaccine was widely available and are horrified learning just how sick I got from it; my entire grade class caught it and most of us did not fare well.

Polio feels “too far away” to many. Society forget quickly.

pedsortho.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Can you recommend a pediatrician who will support me in making the most important medical decision I will make as a parent into a really bad one?

calyps09.bsky.social•7 hours ago

These people want the benefits of being in society without the social contract. The people with poor vaccine uptake that we have historically tolerated were in insular communities with cultural/religious beliefs which encompassed larger views on modern medicine. Those aren’t the ones asking these qs

mochalives.medsky.social•15 hours ago

Oxymoronic

ryanmarino.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I wish this weren’t behind a paywall because it’s incredibly well written:

"Much of pediatrics advice is more cultural wisdom than science.

Does it matter whether an infant consumes green vegetables before orange ones? Unlikely…”

ryanmarino.bsky.social•15 hours ago

"…Some of what we do (antibiotics for acute otitis media) is probably of limited benefit.

There are so few things —like car seats or sleeping on the back— for which we have robust data. And the greatest of all these is vaccines."

It’s no surprise why prominent antivaxx docs are never pediatricians

nmgeologist.bsky.social•6 hours ago

I'm old enough to remember polio. It was terrifying for parents and crippled kids in my school. Anti-vaxxers can go straight to hell.

therealzman.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I don’t mean to keep asking the same question, but is it possible to consider the covid vaccine (administered today) & every other vaccine we have, on two different levels when labeling who is an anti-Vaxer?

I just don’t see the harm in not getting the covid vaccine TODAY

The Others are a must

ryanmarino.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I don’t follow. Do you believe that any current COVID vaccines are worse than COVID infection? The same risk:benefit analysis that should be applied to any medical therapeutic (everything has risk; do the benefits outweigh the risks?) shows significant benefit for COVID vax & risk for being unvaxxed

ryanmarino.bsky.social•15 hours ago

This has been well studied/documented for all approved versions and all approved age groups. To suggest otherwise is antivaccine misinformation, yes.

therealzman.bsky.social•8 hours ago

That being said, they have all to the one, been staunch advocates of all other vaccines & masks

I want to find a way to accommodate their vote, but calling them Idiot Anti-Vaxers is definitely not the way, so…

Anti/Covid vaccine
Pro other vaccine

Is the closest as I can Come

Thanks again

therealzman.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Thanks for that Doc, I appreciate your words.

This is a tough issue for a lot of folks, it’s one of the top questions on my show from non-maga republicans that are liberal curious

While most have taken some form of the covid vaccine, they are not happy about it & will never get it again

senorgreygoose.bsky.social•7 hours ago

I'm 69 and have had every COVID vaccine, plus every recommended vaccine suggested for my age group. I caught COVID once (yes I was vaccinated) and it is not something I wish to ever experience again. Get vaxxed early; get vaxxed often. The reward is much greater than the risk.

therealzman.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Thank you for that,

I understand the science and remember the entire process we went though as a country

I’m not arguing for not getting vaccinated with the Covid vaccine

I just am trying to find a way to phrase this to swing voters that call in my show without calling them idiot antivaxers

pedsmdatl.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Pediatrician here 👋 Agree “good pediatrician” and “ok without vaccines” is an oxymoron, but these patients (unvaccinated, alternate schedules, etc) really need good pediatricians who will recognize that they are at much higher risk of vax preventable illnesses and be able to diagnose/treat them. \

pedsmdatl.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I know Dr. Marino knows this, but in addition to terrible viral illnesses (Measles, Mumps, COVID, RSV, flu), they are also at higher risk of invasive bacterial infections (pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis, epiglotitis), many of which can be significantly reduced by vaccination (hib, pcv, men, dtap)

diane18.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Have these parents walk through an old cemetery and read the names, ages and dates of deaths of children in the same family. Then ask them how they think all those children died within days/weeks of each other.
A critical thinking lesson on vaccine effectiveness.

jdhawes.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I just wanna know wtf they need a Ped for if they don't want vaccines. You don't care about that but you wanna keep up on the head circumference measurements? Wanna do the lil questionnaire about whether your kid reaches for a toy at 12mo? Seems insane to be on board with everything but the vaccines

ryanmarino.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Exactly. It seems like such a glaring fallacy that we don’t bring up enough: if you think you know better than the entire specialty dedicated to children’s health and wellbeing - with its decades of practice, data, and evidence - then why would you ever need anyone at all? You already know better!

jdhawes.bsky.social•6 minutes ago

Yea every example I come up with of questions I asked my son's pediatrician seems like the stuff that's been 100% solved by any terminally online FB mom group 😂

adrianucf.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Gravity is just a theory.😏

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