Written by By Marnie Hunter, CNN Washington, D.C.
Medical professionals who field calls from pediatricians’ offices are often trying to get patients to take preventative measures to protect them against serious and often fatal diseases.
While childhood vaccines are largely well-researched and proved to save lives and prevent illness, not all diseases are easy to prevent. Many children are not old enough to receive certain vaccines. (Remember those whooping cough and measles outbreaks that happened in 2016?)
Part of this is due to the fact that, in the early 2000s, several biotech companies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed controversial practices that, in some cases, led to the mass distribution of many vaccines before a child was recommended to receive a particular vaccine. Critics said children, and perhaps themselves, were not adequately prepared for this over-vaccination of otherwise healthy children. (For example, the CDC began scheduling routine vaccinations for infants as young as six months, well before the immunization age of two.)
Today, many over-vaccination debates continue, with many parents voicing a clear preference for an opt-out system over being required to be vaccinated. Despite the controversial birthdates of some of these vaccines, medical professionals remain concerned about the well-being of children who have not received certain vaccines, or the risks associated with them.