Reaction to last week's Star Tribune story on the anti-vaccine movement was intense — reflecting the frustration of scientists whose overwhelming evidence on vaccine safety is being disregarded, and the exasperation of skeptics who say the science doesn't match up with their reality.
One reader called asking about a middle ground, perhaps because as a grandmother she doesn't play favorites. Her daughter vaccinated her children, she said, but her daughter-in-law did not.
Grandma's question: What about stretching out or delaying the vaccine schedule?
It's a question that has emerged since a couple doctors broke ranks with their peers and wrote books encouraging delayed vaccination schedules for children.
The idea appeals to parents who can't bear seeing their toddlers scream at multiple shots during one office visit, and to skeptics who think too many vaccines at one sitting will make kids sick.
Patsy Stinchfield, a local nurse practitioner and an adviser to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination policies, replies with unambiguous advice: "Get 'er done."
Stinchfield said there is no evidence that multiple shots at one sitting "overwhelm" the immune system or increase risks of vaccine side effects.
And she offered multiple reasons for getting shots on time.
