Why Will Paul Thomas’ Patients Be Excluded from School in Oregon?

Like several other states, Oregon is working to strengthen their vaccine laws by making it harder for parents to skip or delay a child’s vaccines.

This is in response to growing measles outbreaks in the area and the abuse of non-medical exemptions.

Why Will Paul Thomas’ Patients Be Excluded from School in Oregon?

Not surprisingly, a local pediatrician, Paul Thomas, who seems dead set on becoming the next Bob Sears, complete with a book that pushes a so-called alternative non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedule, is protesting Oregon’s new vaccine bill.

“Although we give vaccines in my office every day, I oppose HB 3063. As you consider HB 3063, I thought you should have the real-world data from the largest pediatric practice in Oregon with the most patients who will be affected by your proposed bill.”

Paul Thomas

Paul Thomas goes on to explain why his patients haven’t received all of their recommended vaccines.

One reason is that he doesn’t even offer the rotavirus vaccine, although he doesn’t mention that. But how do you make an informed choice about a vaccine when the vaccine isn’t even available to you?

“Most of my patients make the educated decision not to give one vaccine-hepatitis B – to their infants. This is because you catch hepatitis B from sex and IV drug use so if a child is born to a mother that does not have hepatitis B, the child is at no risk of getting this disease. Preschool and young school-aged children are not at risk for hepatitis B, which is why most countries in the developed world only recommend this vaccine for at-risk groups and not for everyone.”

Paul Thomas

Since he doesn’t think they are at any risk when they are younger, does Dr. Thomas advocate that his patients catch up on their hepatitis B series when they are older? Does he mention that until we switched to a universal vaccination program, some infants were missed and developed perinatal hepatitis B? Or the risks of needle sticks, etc.?

“These are the kinds of details and nuances that we must discuss with every vaccine. Whether we are talking about vaccines, antibiotics, ADD medication, or even a surgical procedure, we spend a good deal of time with our patients providing what we in medicine call “informed consent.” We explain the risks and benefits of the recommended medical intervention, the risks and benefits of not doing the intervention, and the alternatives. These conversations are best had in the privacy of a doctor’s office, not in the state legislature. As each child is different, we do not believe there should be any one-size-fits-all medicine. “

Paul Thomas

Although Paul Thomas talks about informed consent, a very important part of medicine, it is important to keep in mind that like most folks in the modern anti-vaccine movement, he doesn’t really seem to offer it.

He provides misinformed consent, pushing propaganda that overstates that risks of vaccines, underestimating the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases, and rarely stating the benefits of getting vaccinated.

“Finally, I am also concerned that thousands of families will either leave Oregon-as tens of thousands of families have left California – or leave the public school system and homeschool instead. While I have nothing against homeschooling, I believe this would result in a large and unfortunate loss of revenue for Oregon’s already underfunded public schools. “

Paul Thomas

Perhaps Paul Thomas missed it, but California is doing just fine after they passed their vaccine law, despite issues with some California doctors have taken advantage of fearful parents, and instead of doing the work to help parents understand that vaccines are safe with few risks, they are writing unjustified medical exemptions.

It’s a good reminder that the one lesson Oregon can learn from California is to make stricter rules on what counts as a medical exemption…

“We all have the same goal, which is to help Oregon’s children survive and thrive. No one wants a recurrence of infectious diseases in Oregon or anywhere in the United States. “

Paul Thomas

If Paul Thomas’ real motivation was to stop the outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease and keep states from passing new vaccine laws, then maybe he should stop scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

“I hired an independent data expert, Dr. Michael Gaven, MD, to analyze the outcomes from my practice as part of a quality assurance project. Dr. Gaven studied the outcomes for those patients born into my practice during the past decade, since I opened my doors on June 1 2008.”

Paul Thomas

What outcomes? Is it how many of the kids in his practice developed vaccine-preventable diseases unnecessarily?

No, Paul Thomas published data that he thinks says that his unvaccinated kids get less autism than everyone else, except that there is a lot of bias in the numbers, we don’t know how many kids left his practice (especially any who might have developed autism), or even what criteria he uses to diagnose kids with autism. The numbers likely aren’t even statistically significant.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and they are necessary. And they are not associated with autism. Stop listening and spreading propaganda, vaccinate your kids, and let’s stop these outbreaks.

More on Paul Thomas

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