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When an Holistic Pediatrician Answers Questions About Vaccines

By / / blunting effects, Bob Sears, Brian Thornburg, cherry-pick vaccines, deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases, hepatitis b shot, holistic pediatricians, immature immune system, immature kidneys, pertussis deaths, pertussis titers, pregnancy vaccines, RSV vaccine, titers, vitamin K

What kind of answers can you expect when a self-described holistic pediatrician answers questions about vaccines?

“So I came out of residency and I said I would not take any patients who would not vaccinate and then I had a lot of intelligent parents hand me documentation and scientific literature about the opposite side. The safety and the ingredients and how we don’t know what they are doing and how there can be alterations to the DNA from the ingredients and yet we don’t study if that is possible with the vaccines and that is inside the vaccine inserts …”

Brian Thornburg, MD, FAAP

A pediatrician whose evolution on the topic, his awakening, was reading anti-vaccine literature people handed to him.

When an Holistic Pediatrician Answers Questions About Vaccines

And that’s not too surprising.

After all, Bob Sears had his big epiphany about vaccines after reading the book DPT: A Shot in the Dark.

It also isn’t surprising the kinds of answers Brian Thornburg gives you to the questions he posts about vaccines.

On the question of when is a good time to start vaccinating your child, he is against the immunization schedule of the AAP because he claims that a baby’s immune system is too immature.

When an holistic pediatrician, like Brian Thornburg, answers questions about vaccines, the answers are basically anti-vaccine talking points we have refuted a thousand times already.
In addition to an immature immune system, Thornburg claims infants and toddlers have immature kidneys that can’t fully function or detoxify pollutants until they are two years old.

Thornburg suggests waiting until kids are older to give vaccines because:

  • he claims that allergists won’t see kids until they are two to three years old because “you really can’t measure the functionality of the immune system.” Neither or these things are true!
  • you can decrease the number of shots if you wait until your child is 15 months to 2 years old. This is true for Hib and pneumococcal vaccines, but then, as you play catch up with these vaccines, your child is left unprotected when they are most at risk for severe disease!

What’s missing from this advice?

In addition to all of the stuff about the immature immune system not being true, there is the very simple fact that delaying your child’s vaccines leaves them at risk to get those diseases during the time that they are unvaccinated!

And think about it. If your infant does have an immature immune system, then how are they going to handle getting pertussis, Hib, pneumoccocal disease, or rotavirus, etc?

Wouldn’t you want the extra help from vaccines if you are so worried about their immature immune system?

Brian Thornburg on How to Cherry Pick Vaccines?

Brian Thornburg also reviews how you can ‘cherry pick’ vaccines if you decide to go with an alternate immunization schedule.

When an holistic pediatrician, like Brian Thornburg, answers questions about vaccines, the answers are basically anti-vaccine talking points we have refuted a thousand times already.
When an holistic pediatrician, like Brian Thornburg, answers questions about vaccines, the answers are basically anti-vaccine talking points we have refuted a thousand times already.

His idea is to equate your child’s risk of getting a vaccine preventable disease with the risk of an asteroid hitting the earth (hepatitis B and polio), plane crashes (meningitis vaccines – Hib and Prevnar), and car crashes (DTaP and rotavirus).

He believes that this will help parents “conceptualize the severity and likelihood of contracting the diseases.”

Of course, it doesn’t.

In the first place, asteroids don’t actually hit the earth. Asteroids orbit the sun. If they actually enter the atmosphere (meteors) and hit the earth, they are called meteorites. And believe it or not, thousands of meteorites hit the earth every year!

Still, if your risk of getting diphtheria, tetanus, and/or pertussis was as high as your risk of being in a car crash, would you ever think about skipping or delaying your child’s vaccines? There are nearly 20,000 car crashes, the leading cause of injury and death, in the United States each and every day…

Brian Thornburg on Getting the Tdap Vaccine When Pregnant?

Thornburg has also made up his own advice for you about whether or not to get the Tdap vaccine when you are pregnant.

When an holistic pediatrician, like Brian Thornburg, answers questions about vaccines, the answers are basically anti-vaccine talking points we have refuted a thousand times already.
To protect your baby from pertussis, the “CDC recommends all women receive Tdap during the 27th through 36th week of each pregnancy, preferably during the earlier part of this time period.”

His alternative to getting vaccinated and protecting your newborn baby from pertussis?

Even if your pertussis titers are positive, you will have no idea if they are high enough to protect your baby, something Thornburg fails to mention.

Titers, even though there is no FDA approved test for pertussis titers.

Before widespread use of the pertussis vaccines, when you would expect that most adults had already had pertussis and could pass antibodies on to their babies, many infants still died with pertussis.

And we don’t know the level of pertussis antibodies you would need to protect your baby, so checking titers and skipping the Tdap while pregnant is a risk not worth taking.

Thornburg, after trying to minimize the risk of pertussis by saying only 1-3 infants die each year, also claims that if a mother gets the Tdap vaccine while pregnant, then “the ultimate level of antibodies of the baby has after their primary series of DTaP they have less antibodies.”

Is that true?

“Maternal Tdap vaccination was highly protective against infant pertussis, especially in the first 2 months of life. Even after infant DTaP dosing, there was evidence of additional protection from maternal Tdap vaccination for the first year of life. This study strongly supports the United States’ current recommendation to administer Tdap during each pregnancy.”

Effectiveness of Vaccination During Pregnancy to Prevent Infant Pertussis

While we do worry about the blunting effects of maternal antibodies, which is why we wait to give the MMR vaccine until infants are 12 months old, that isn’t a concern for most non-live vaccines.

In fact, most studies show the opposite – additional protection for your child if you get a Tdap vaccine while you are pregnant! And most importantly, none of the studies show any greater risk of pertussis if you get a Tdap while pregnant.

Brian Thornburg on Hepatitis B Shot for Newborns?

On the hepatitis B vaccine, he claims that it is only effective for 10 to 12 years, so the benefit of the vaccine is gone when kids get older if you give it when they are newborns, especially if the mother isn’t high risk.

Is that true?

“The vaccine protects against hepatitis B for at least 20 years and probably for life.”

Hepatitis B Key Facts

Not surprisingly, it isn’t.

And not surprisingly, Brian Thornburg recommends that you skip your baby’s hepatitis B shot unless you actually test positive for hepatitis B.

Why is that a bad idea?

Well, when we did that, a lot of babies ended up getting hepatitis B, which puts that at risk for chronic hepatitis B infection, which puts them at risk for cirrhosis and liver cancer. It is only the universal hepatitis B immunization plan that has worked to get hepatitis B under control in infants and children.

And since it is safe and effective, why not get the hepatitis B vaccine when it has the added benefit of making sure newborns don’t get congenital hepatitis B?

Brian Thornburg on the RSV Vaccine

What is a bit surprising, since he is a pediatrician, in a ten part series, he actually down plays how serious RSV can be!

When an holistic pediatrician, like Brian Thornburg, answers questions about vaccines, the answers are basically anti-vaccine talking points we have refuted a thousand times already.
Thornburg did some nice cherry picking and found one study to align with his beliefs, but ignored the dozens that don’t.

RSV is not causing death???

“In the United States, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections cause an estimated 58 000 to 80 000 hospitalizations and 100 to 300 deaths in children aged <5 years each year.”

Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Hospitalizations in Children <5 Years: 2016-2022

Does anyone really believe that RSV isn’t a big killer?

“This study suggests that RSV poses a greater risk than influenza to infants, while both are associated with substantial mortality among elderly individuals.”

Mortality Associated With Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus in the US, 1999-2018

Or that a pediatrician, now that we have multiple save and effective options to prevent RSV infections, should really push misinformation that might lead parents to skip protecting their kids?

“RSV infection is associated with substantial morbidity in U.S. children in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Most children with RSV infection were previously healthy, suggesting that control strategies targeting only high-risk children will have a limited effect on the total disease burden of RSV infection.”

The burden of respiratory syncytial virus infection in young children

That’s actually anti-vaccine propaganda 101 though.

By trying to minimize just how dangerous or deadly these vaccine preventable diseases can be, anti-vaccine influencers push you into thinking you don’t need to get vaccinated.

Of course, they also try and scare you into thinking the vaccines are dangerous or don’t work.

Thornburg spends a good part of his 10 part RSV series questioning the design of the RSV studies. His expertise? He listened to the ACIP recordings…

He came away thinking the RSV trials for infants are valid because their wasn’t any RSV during COVID, when some of the trials were done. The problem with that idea?

Well, for one thing, by the time Thornburg made his videos, there were already several studies published with reports of how effective the RSV vaccine was for infants!

“These early real-world data provide evidence that nirsevimab protects infants against hospitalisation for RSV-associated LRTI.”

Early estimates of nirsevimab immunoprophylaxis effectiveness against hospital admission for respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory tract infections in infants, Spain, October 2023 to January 2024

Trials that showed Beyfortus was extremely effective!

“Eleven infants (0.3%) in the nirsevimab group and 60 (1.5%) in the standard-care group were hospitalized for RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infection, which corresponded to a nirsevimab efficacy of 83.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 67.8 to 92.0; P<0.001). Very severe RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infection occurred in 5 infants (0.1%) in the nirsevimab group and in 19 (0.5%) in the standard-care group, which represented a nirsevimab efficacy of 75.7% (95% CI, 32.8 to 92.9; P=0.004).”

Nirsevimab for Prevention of Hospitalizations Due to RSV in Infants

He doesn’t mention any of them.

And anyway, RSV didn’t totally go away during COVID…

Brian Thornburg on Vitamin K Shots

What else?

“After reading the last two pages, parents are understandably electing to use oral vitamin K1 with their babies. The important point to remember is the oral regimen must be followed as directed. “

Injectable Vitamin K1 vs. Oral Vitamin K1 for Newborns

Thornburg has published a very biased article about vitamin K for newborns and infants.

An article which ignores the latest policy statement from the AAP and warnings that oral vitamin K might not prevent late onset vitamin K deficiency bleeding. An article which ends with an ad for the oral vitamin K drops he sells!

What to Know About Holistic Pediatricians

So what have we learned?

An holistic pediatrician can help if you what to buy supplements or are simply looking for someone to help you justify your decision to skip or delay their child’s vaccines, putting them at risk to get a vaccine preventable disease.

If you are scared or on the fence and looking for help making a decision about the real risks and benefits of vaccines, you likely aren’t going to get it from someone like Brian Thornburg.

More on Questions About Vaccines

Last Updated on July 10, 2024

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