Why follow a vaccine schedule?

Right now, many people are hoping for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus. While that’s still on the horizon, new research suggests that families who do vaccinate their children may not be following the recommended schedule. Vaccines are given on a schedule for a reason: to protect children from vaccine-preventable disease. Experts designed the schedule so that children get protection when they need it — and the doses are timed so the vaccine itself can have the best effect. When parents don’t follow the schedule, their children may not be protected. And yet, many parents do not follow the schedule. A third of families change vaccine schedule In a study recently published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers looked at data from the National Immunization Survey from 2014 and found that only 63% of families followed the recommended vaccination schedule for their children. The majority of those who didn’t followed an alternate schedule, spacing vaccines out, skipping some, or doing a combination of both. The study did not include the influenza vaccine, one that many parents choose not to give. The vaccines in this study were routine vaccines, given to all children and required for many schools and daycare programs. Not surprisingly, children whose parents used an alternate vaccine schedule were four times as likely to be behind in their immunizations or missing vaccines entirely. This can be very dangerous. In the first two years of life, vaccines protect ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs