Vaccine Policy Statement from Pediatric & Adult Medicine
- We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.
- We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.
- We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, California Department of Public Health, and West Coast Health Alliance.
- We firmly believe, based on all available literature evidence and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
- We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health-promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can perform as parents/caregivers.
- We recognize that the choice to vaccinate may be very emotional for some parents. We will do everything we can to assure you that vaccinating according to the schedule is the right thing to do.
- We recognize that you may still have doubts and concerns.
- We may alter the vaccine schedule to accommodate parental concerns or reservations, while following AAP guidelines.
- We will ask that children be current and up-to-date with their vaccines by age two.
Please note that delaying or “breaking up the vaccines” to give one or two at a time over two or more visits goes against expert recommendations and can put your child at risk for serious illness, or even death, and goes against our medical advice, as physicians at Pediatric & Adult Medicine. Such visits may require additional co-pays on your part and may or may not be covered by your insurance company. You will be required to sign a “Refusal to Vaccinate” acknowledgement in the event of lengthy delays.
As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults.
Finally, if despite our best efforts, you should absolutely refuse to vaccinate your child according to the current schedule, to protect our patients that are too young to receive vaccines, you will be advised to seek future medical care from another provider.
To remain with our office, your child will need to be up to date on the following vaccines:
By 3 months of age (to begin the series)
- DTaP
- Pneumococcal
- Varicella
- HIB
- Polio
- MMR
By 2 years of age
- All of the above must be completed and up-to-date
By 6 years of age
- MMR (2nd dose)
- Varicella (2nd dose)
By 13 years of age
- MenQuadfi
- Tdap
Thank you for reading and acknowledging this policy. Please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you may have about vaccines with one of us.
Pediatric & Adult Medicine, Inc., follows the immunization guidelines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). For information about these vaccines and the diseases they protect against, please visit https://www.aap.org/.
