Holidays

This time of year the days get shorter, the weather cooler and we are all blessed with the Holiday spirit. I look forward to the many family traditions that our family has as well as hearing the one's that our patients look forward to. Share with us your favorite family tradition for the Holiday, a memory, or maybe a good recipe! --Dr. Nern

A response to hysteria

I apologize that this is the first posting since...yikes...August! From the flavor of the previous post you can probably guess that we've been rather busy with all the influenza we've been seeing. Anyhow, that's the reason for not posting sooner and the reason for this post today.

In my previous post, you got a good look at my personal conviction that vaccines are safe and effective, perhaps even the most important tool towards preventative medicine known to man. You might have also noted a comment that was written by an anonymous person to that post. It was the rant against vaccines in general, flu vaccine specifically, me, and my purported bosses... the pharmaceutical companies.

Though I despise censorship, I removed the comment based on its general mean spirited tone and specifically its libelous slant towards me that I do what I do because the pharmaceutical companies tell me what to do. The author must tread lightly when attacking me professionally...The days of drug representative perks are gone and have been for quite some time, at least all of my professional career. There are laws in place to prevent this conflict of interest. I've never been offered, nor asked for anything, that might affect my decision to use one medicine over another. I choose my medicines based on personal experience, efficacy and at times cost.

We (all of us at PTP) practice evidence based medicine. This means that any decision made to start a medicine, do a procedure, give a vaccine or withhold treatment is based on medical research that has been shown to support our decision making process. The papers that support this medical research and hence our decisions are themselves supported by mountains of statistical analysis to weed out bad data and frank bias. Sadly many of the "internet experts" on which the author of the comment (and others) rely have absolutely no data to support their claims (honestly, next time show me the data...put up or shut up...).

During our residency training we took call and stayed up all night every 4rth night for three years straight. We've stayed late after hours, worked weekends, worked Thanksgiving and Christmas, stayed late when you've walked in after office hours, and seen you in our homes when you've shown up on our door steps. We do what we do because we love your children...period.

Vaccines are a victim of their own success. We are living in a glorious age of social amnesia to the times of Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Pertussis, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Haemophilus Influenza type b, Varicella. Why else would these diseases be so rare now? Further more, giving vaccines for most pediatric offices are not money makers, they cost to buy, store, and give. Many offices actually lose money on giving vaccines. We break even. We give vaccines because they take a lot of the guesswork out of what to do with a child with fever.

At any rate, I will leave this alone for now. I will however mention that we started this blog for our patients and others who would like to participate in constructive dialog regarding our children's health. Feel free to respond with constructive ideas but please keep your hysteria to yourself. --Dr. Nern