Seattle Children’s pediatrician takes unique stance on vaccinations

It’s rare to see compromise these days when it comes to public policy. It may be even more odd to see any leeway in the world of public health.

But that’s what a group of Seattle doctors is proposing.

Dr. Douglas Opel, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz about a proposal written by he and his colleagues published in the journal Pediatrics that suggests Washington parents should be able to opt out for all vaccines – except for measles.

“I want to emphasize that we support immunizations, we think parents should immunize their children and immunize them on time,” Opel said. “What we’re arguing is specific to the ability for parents to opt out of school-entry vaccines.”

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Washington parents are currently allowed to limit vaccinations for personal and religious beliefs, but lawmakers have increasingly discussed the possibility of limiting vaccine exemptions for parents of children in public schools. Opel, who is also an assistant professor of bio-ethics and pediatrics at UW, says the strategy is focused on policy-makers, not parents.

He says the proposal is actually more restrictive than the current laws but allows parents the ability to retain at least some choice. Measles, however, is just too risky.

“We believe that there are very justifiable reasons, scientific reasons, why policy should not support allowing parents to opt out for the measles vaccine specifically,” he said.

Opel says this proposal has been seen as controversial because, since the Disney Land measles epidemic, policy-makers are trying to slash choice from the immunization equation. He thinks there might be a better strategy that won’t inflame so many people and might find a compromise of sorts.

“We’re saying maybe there’s a better policy strategy to … get to the same goal, to get as many kids immunized and immunized on time, but as a middle ground,” he said. “Remove the ability to opt out for measles … but retain, as we currently have in our state right now, the ability to opt out for the other vaccines.”

Opel acknowledged this stance is a risk that could be used as propaganda.

“What we wanted to promote by writing this was a dialogue,” he said. “Is this middle-ground strategy worth pursuing as a way to balance the two competing goods here: Protecting public health, which we firmly believe in, but also retaining another competing good, which is the right to choose. So where that balance is has been a long sought-after issue over US history, specifically with vaccines, and this is simple one other alternative to try and find that balance.”