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“Consult Your Doctor” on Vaccines?

There exists a general belief among the public that medical doctors are “experts” with regard to vaccines. Newspaper and magazine articles and medical and public health websites frequently advise that, when it comes to vaccination, people should “consult your doctor.1 2 3 4 The counsel is the equivalent of the “ask your doctor” to which TV viewers have grown accustomed to hearing at the conclusion of advertisements for prescription drugs.

The underlying assumption is that doctors have received considerable vaccine education and training when they attended medical school—so much, in fact, that they merit the public’s belief that they are indeed experts on the subject and that they can be trusted to provide accurate, scientifically based information. But is it right to assume that is true? Do medical school students learn a lot about vaccine science, history, and ethics?

According to many doctors, medical schools teach almost nothing about vaccines, other than the federally recommended schedule of when they are to be given and that vaccines are “safe and effective.”5 In other words, it resembles more indoctrination than education. As Suzanne Humphries has noted, “We are indoctrinated with the mantra that ‘vaccines are safe and effective’…”

An article titled “Doctors Are No Experts on Vaccines” published last year in The Vaccine Reaction highlighted the four-year curriculum for University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and found only one brief reference to “vaccines” or “vaccination,” and that was under the course on Immunology during the first year.5  It read:

Finally, medically relevant forms of immune dysregulation and intervention are explored, including vaccines, immunomodulators, hypersensitivities, immunodeficiencies, autoimmunity, graft-versus-host disease, transplantation immunology, and tumor immunology.5 

Nothing more was mentioned about vaccines or vaccination within the course descriptions throughout the second, third and fourth years of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s curriculum. So the question is, “Is the four-year curriculum at medical schools in the United States fairly standard, or does it vary from school to school?”

According to Larry Palevsky, MD, “All the information that I was taught was pretty standard in all the medical schools and the teachings and scientific literature throughout the country.”6 

The existence of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which consists of “all 145 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies,” would certainly suggest that Dr. Palevsky’s recollection is correct and that there is at least some standardization in medical education curriculums in North America.7 

One of the primary services the AAMC provides is the Curriculum Inventory and Reports (CIR), described as the “premier benchmarking and reporting tool on content, structure, delivery, and assessment of medical school curricula.”8 

A random selection of different curriculums at leading medical schools in the U.S. clearly shows there little or no mention of vaccines or vaccination. There are certainly no dedicated courses on the vaccine science. Take Harvard University, for example, which ranked as the best medical school in the U.S. for research.9 

The first year includes the following courses: Introduction to the Profession; The Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine; The Human Body; Human Genetics; Patient-Doctor I; Introduction to Social Medicine and Global Health; Clinical Epidemiology and Population Health; Introduction to Health Care Policy; Scholarship in Medicine (SIM); Physician in Community (PIC); Integrated Human Physiology; Immunology, Microbiology & Pathology; and Medical Ethics and Professionalism.10

If the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s curriculum is any indication, whatever is taught about vaccines and vaccination in Harvard’s curriculum is done within the Immunology, Microbiology & Pathology course. The second year of Harvard’s medical school curriculum includes courses in Human Systems; Human Development; Psychopathology & Introduction to Clinical Psychiatry; and Patient-Doctor II.10

The third year consists of courses in Medicine I; Surgery; Obstetrics and Gynecology; Pediatrics; Neurology; Psychiatry; Radiology; Patient-Doctor III; Primary Care Clerkship; and Principal Clinical Experience. Courses for the fourth and final year includes Medicine II or Advanced Pediatrics; Clinical Elective (CE); and Unspecified (CE or nonclinical elective [NCE]).10

The University of Washington in Seattle is ranked as the best medical school in the U.S. for primary care.9 Its first year medical curriculum includes the following courses: Primary Care Practicum (PCP); Clinical Skills; Molecular & Cellular Basis of Disease (MCBD); Invaders & Defenders; Primary Care Practicum (PCP); Clinical Skills; Circulatory Systems; Blood & Cancer; and Energetics & Homeostasis.

The second year includes courses in Ethics; Introduction to Clinical Medicine II; Urinary System; Pharmacology; Epidemiology; Hormones/Nutrients; Hematology; Genetics; Rheumatology; Gastro-Intestinal Systems; Reproduction; Pathology; Mind, Brain and Behavior; and Skin.11 

The third year requires clerkships in Family Medicine; Obstetrics and Gynecology; Pediatrics; Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; and Surgery. The fourth and final year includes clerkships in Chronic Care​; Emergency Medicine​; and Neurology​.11 

If you search through the curriculums of dozens of other medical schools in the U.S., you find that there is not much variation from those mentioned above. Vaccines and vaccination are simply not featured prominently in American medical school curriculums. Thus, it’s hard to grasp the idea that medical doctors are authoritative sources of knowledge and wisdom when it comes to vaccine safety and effectiveness.

Perhaps pediatrician Bob Sears, MD best sums it up when he said,

Doctors, myself included, learn a lot about diseases in medical school, but we learn very little about vaccines… So when patients want a little more information about shots, all we can really say as doctors is that the diseases are bad and the shots are good. But we don’t know enough to answer all of your detailed questions about vaccines, nor do we have the time during a regular health check up to thoroughly discuss and debate the pros and cons of vaccines.12 

This is not what the public has been led to believe, and it does not inspire confidence in the often-repeated phrase “consult your doctor.


References:

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines and Immunizations. CDC.gov.
2 Kritz FL. Injecting Some Perspective. The Washington Post Dec. 5, 2000.
3 Technically Speaking: Simple Tips to Expedite Vaccination in Your Practice. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Mar. 28, 2014.
4 When is your next visit to the doctor? Vaccines Today Feb. 5, 2015.
5 
Cáceres M. Doctors Are No Experts on Vaccines.The Vaccine Reaction Nov. 28, 2015.
6 
Mercola JM. Vaccination: The Neurological Poison So Common Your Doctor Probably Pushes It. Mercola.com Apr. 11, 2012.
7 
Association of American Medical Colleges. About the AAMC. AAMC.org.
8 Association of American Medical Colleges. Curriculum Inventory and Reports (CIR). AAMC.org.
9 2017 Best Medical Schools. U.S. News & World Report.
10 Medical Education at Harvard. Harvard Medical School.
11 MD Program Curriculum. University of Washington Medicine.
12 Sears RW. Ask Dr. Sears, Inside the Vaccine Book.

8 Responses

  1. During a Twitter discussion last night; I talked with an 20 yr Veteran RN who worked in Pediatric ICU. She said that neither her, her Colleagues nor MD’s she worked knew nothing about VAER’s. This is where all vaccine injuries are to be reported. This includes death. I had two other Nurses say the same thing.

    Supposedly, Doctors are supposed to report them. So, the rhetorical question of the day is how many Doc’s know about VAER’s? How many injuries or deaths have not and are not being reported? It’s shocking to say the very least.

    I’m going to punch the next person who says injuries are one in a million.

    1. DB Cooper: I heard a state senator make that very claim last year, but he is a renowned sprinter who flees like a jackrabbit at the drop of a pin.

  2. It’s beyond upsetting that these activist groups have not covered the basics by this point already. State and national legislation which requires furnishing of VAERS data and standard paperwork to hospitals to provide each and every doctor and parent of children whom accept vaccination. Every time a shot is delivered, a copy of the VAERS database statistics on injuries for that particular shot should be provided and the parent should be forced to sign. Automatic immunity from prosecution regarding vaccine injury should be something the parents should sign away on an individual basis, and such a protection should absolutely not be a blanket rule which applies to all. Did you hear the one about how NVIC is about to lose this whole battle in one fell swoop? Upcoming legislation seeks to remove the insert from the vaccines. While tobacco has long since been defeated and soon we’ll look forward to actual pictures of mouth cancer patients on the can of chew, the big pharma has abused the representative governance system to the point there no longer is representative governance in place. Imagine having to see a picture of a retarded vaccine injured kid on the insert and VAERS stats form you had to sign off first, prior to accepting the shot. What do you suppose the average parental reaction to that would be? These activists have no clear focus, which is why they make such ineffective headway and are unable to keep up the pace with the heartless mindless machine which is big pharma. It should be illegal to push vaccines for profit and if these are truly ‘for the public good’, companies whom promote vaccines should be required to be non profit 15% limited companies. That’s where we’re at now. It’s already over the top, and then some. 10,000 anti vaccine articles on the web, and not a single legal action to force disclosure? One single organization fighting the legislative efforts of multiple big pharma corporations world wide? Pathetic organizational skills are being demonstrated, which is why vaccine manufacturers continue to grow their market position. They’re much better organized. If any countries military was as well organized as the big pharma industry is, they could stage a land grab in China and alter the governmental rules to make that legal. We are already defeated, yet the activists remain complacent and fearful. This is an argument about ethics. The winning argument lies in the ethical position, not the medical certainty or uncertainty, depending on which side you choose. Ethics is much more cut and dry black and white. It is unethical to buy the vote. Plain and simple. Force them all to be non profit and strike their market position flat in a single blow. Organize!

    1. Colorado – you are obviously too intelligent, ethical, and logical to be listened to.

      Don’t put out suggestions to fix things – you’ll jam the udders of the cash-cow.

  3. Consult your local medical educational community, and find a single avenue of professionally accredited schooling programs which allows one to go LPN, RN, or DR without accepting vaccines themselves. There is none. All that big pharma profit flows into sponsorship of schooling, which in turn results in mandates for student vaccinations, which in turn removes dissenting voices from the student body permanently. It’s not rocket science. Nobody in the schooling program is antithetical to the pro vaccine position, because they were denied such educational opportunities for taking that position in the first place! Seeking RN schooling for my wife in CO, without having to receive shots. We don’t need loans, we have the time, we will pay cash and pay extra if necessary. You cannot tell me a place to receive RN accreditation in CO without getting shots, because there is none. Such is true nationally, and is an obvious root cause why there is no critical educational development in place which questions vaccinations as being supposedly legitimate and harmless.

  4. Why would you consult with your doctor? They are so misinformed with Big Pharm agenda, they don’t know the truth! You have to get the truth from alternate sources. There is tons of data available proving coercion between big Pharm and CDC. Even when they present proof and data to Congress, congress refuses to act because of the political contributions (payoffs) from Pharm to politics. If you haven’t watched Vaxxed, you need to!

  5. As a RN, we are required to be immunized to work, on the consent that is required it states that you submit to being immunized and it states that you have no recourse if you have a reaction. They will not grant workman’s comp and multiple doctors denied that it was due to the vaccination (flu). This was the only thing it could have been. One of my co-workers experienced this and was extremely frustated after over 6 months of missed work due to the immunization.

  6. BUT, BOB SEARS HAS THE TIME TO MAKE OODLES OF MONEY OFF OF THE BLEATING SHEEP WHO GO TO HIM FOR ‘ADVICE’.

    The typical doctor’s office is an assembly line. Get in, get a prescription, get a referral to their friend, and get out.

    Doctors don’t WANT to know about anything that will upset their apple cart full of money. The young ones want to pay off loans and the older ones want to get out by age 60 and play golf 24/7 and go fishing out on their boats.

    So because medical schools don’t teach anything about vaccines, doctors are off the hook, and don’t NEED to know anything about anything other than what the Rockefeller funded medical schools tell them, correct??

    Scr*w them.

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