Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
(USA Today)—At a time when measles is making a dramatic comeback, a new study finds that more than 70% of children’s doctors have agreed to parents’ requests to delay vaccinations, even though most believe it puts children at risk, a new study shows.
The study highlights the pressure faced by pediatricians, who have only about 18 minutes per clinic visit in which to persuade parents to vaccinate their children, perform physical exams and discuss critical things such as sleep and nutrition. Doctors say they spend about half their time with patients discussing vaccines, according to a study out today in Pediatrics. One in five doctors say more than 10% of parents have asked to delay vaccinations.
More parents are skipping selected vaccines or delaying others, sometimes out of concern that immunizations cause autism, an idea that has been debunked in dozens of studies. Some parents worry that children get too many vaccines too soon, so they ask their doctors to space out shots rather than administer several at once.
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