The percentage of parents who refuse all vaccines for their children is small, roughly about 3%. There is, however, an increasing number of parents who refuse or want to defer individual vaccines or use an immunization schedule for their child that is not recommended. That’s according to Children’s Hospital Colorado’s primary care pediatrician and health services researcher Allison Kempe, MD, MPH, and pediatric infectious disease specialist Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, who’ve been working on vaccine research related to hesitancy for over two decades.
Together with Children’s Colorado, the Anschutz Medical Campus, and a myriad of local, regional and national organizations, Drs. Kempe and O’Leary are using their research to educate parents and inform providers on how best to address a debate that, at least according to nearly everyone in the medical community, really shouldn’t exist — but does.