Kicked Out For Delaying Vaccines

Despite pressure from her doctor and husband, this mom went her own way

About a week ago I received a message from a reader, a young mom who—when her daughter was first born—hadn’t been sure what to do about vaccines.

Should she vaccinate her baby with some or even all of the recommended childhood vaccines?

If she didn’t feel confident about following the CDC’s recommendations, which vaccines did the baby really need? MMR? Pertussis? Hib?

Conversely, if she did decide to do some, or even all, vaccines, what would the best timing be to reduce the risk of vaccine harm?

Here’s an edited version of what she wrote (reprinted with her permission):

“I messaged you four years ago about my daughter not being vaccinated and how at the time I felt a lot of pressure to get her vaccinated from her doctors and her dad. 

“In the spirit of Thanksgiving and being thankful,” she wrote, “I wanted to give you an update. 😊

The courage to stand my ground

“I never got her vaccinated and she’s a happy and healthy 5-year-old now!” she said.

“Your Facebook pages (Jennifer Margulis, and Your Baby, Your Way), helped me have the courage to stand my ground and not get her vaccinated.

“She’s been very healthy. No allergies, no ear infections, no behavioral issues,” her message continued.

Dismissed by her daughter’s doctor 

This family, however, was dismissed by their pediatrician, a practice that has become increasingly common.

To wit, a peer-reviewed article in the prestigious medical journal Pediatrics reported that between 2006 and 2013 pediatricians saw a significant increase in parents who had concerns about childhood vaccines.

According to this study, which was published in 2016, parents were increasingly refusing vaccines because they believed they were unnecessary, they had concerns about the vaccines causing their child discomfort, and because they were worried that too many vaccines too soon caused “immune system burden.”

The study also reported that, while in 2006 only 6 percent of doctors reported “always” dismissing children from their practices if the parents wanted to delay vaccines, by 2013 that number had nearly doubled, with some 11.7 percent of pediatricians saying they “always” kicked out vaccine-concerned parents.

AAP says it’s “acceptable” to bar babies access to the doctor

Also in 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a clinical report that stated that barring children from access to doctors based on their parents’ concerns about vaccines was “acceptable,” specifying that this was an effective way to counter “vaccine hesitancy.”

As vitriol against unvaccinated families mounts in the United States, an increasing number of medical doctors have been firing families.

In fact, according to a 2020 research letter written by a team of MDs and published in JAMA, more than half of pediatricians’ offices in the United States said they had a dismissal policy for children whose parents were vaccine hesitant.

Their justification for kicking infants and children out of their practices varied but most said they had put these policies in place either to encourage families to vaccinate their children or to safeguard their other patients against unvaccinated kids.

Though there were only 303 pediatricians involved in this study, more than half of them (51 percent) reported that their practices had dismissal policies. Thirty-seven percent of these doctors surveyed said they had personally kicked out families.

The mom who wrote to me told me that her first pediatrician kicked her family out because of their differing views about vaccine safety.

Dismissed from one doc, they found a better one

However, this dismissal ended up being a boon for the family. They found “a wonderful and brilliant pediatrician, who accepts parents’ right to choose if their child gets vaccinated.”  

That doctor did not instantly materialize, though.

The mom told me that she had to call around to several pediatricians in the area. And that most of the pediatricians told her, No, they would not take her. I’m so grateful, she said, for the pediatrician they eventually found. 

“I also found a preschool that takes children who have vaccine exemptions,” she wrote. “When I called around to the private preschools, I’d say it was about 50/50 who said they would accept exemptions.

“Living in Texas, all the public schools take vaccine exemptions. So, everything has turned out great.

A husband comes around

I asked her if and how she managed to convince her husband that not vaccinating their daughter was the best choice.

She told me that her husband eventually came around and no longer pressures her about getting their daughter vaccinated.

“What changed his mine, I believe, were all the articles I would show him about kids being vaccine-injured,” she said. “And telling him about how the vaccine system works. In my opinion, it’s the best money-making scheme ever: I have this product, a vaccine, and you have to have it if you want to go to school. Or get certain jobs. BUT if you have ANY adverse reaction, you can’t sue me. So where is the motivation for these vaccine makers in doing any rigorous testing? There’s none.

“I also told him about my friends (and I have plenty) whose children are vaccine-injured. And I showed him graphs of autism rates that have climbed in tandem with the increase in vaccinations. We talked about how he and I only had a few vaccines in the 1980s. But they have so many more now. 

“Finally, my husband hates Bill Gates and he started to doubt the vaccine agenda when I pointed out how pro-vaccine Bill Gates is. He’s very Republican. So when I told him how a lot of Republicans don’t want vaccines to be mandatory, that really resonated with him. And that our Republican governor in Texas gives us the right to choose.”

Communication, she said, was the key. “I basically had lots of conversations with him about it until he started seeing things my way.”

Glad she didn’t succumb

This mom had advice for other families. “If parents can push through the early years and the pressure, they can see it’s easier once the child is older,” she said.

“I’m glad I didn’t succumb to the pressure early when she was a baby. I remember how anxious and worried I felt back then about having to possibly get her vaccinated. 

“Your site and your book, Your Baby, Your Way, helped me make the decision to not vaccinate her.

“Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving! 🙏🏼”

About the author: Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an investigative health journalist, book author, and mother of four. She has appeared live on prime-time television in Paris, France; taught non-traditional students in inner-city Atlanta; and worked on a child survival campaign in Niger, West Africa. A graduate of Cornell University, she earned her Master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and her Ph.D. from Emory University. She has written/co-written eight books, including the #1 Amazon bestseller The Vaccine-Friendly Plan, and won dozens of awards for her writing. Her work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on the cover of Smithsonian magazine. Support independent journalism and medical freedom by becoming a paid subscriber to Vibrant Life.