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Editorial
December 2013

Delaying Vaccination Is Not a Safer Choice

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
  • 2Division of Infectious Diseases and the Vaccine Education Center, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
JAMA Pediatr. 2013;167(12):1097-1098. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.3071

According to a recent study of surveillance data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink published in this journal, 48.7% of children were undervaccinated at some time prior to their second birthday and 1 in 8 were undervaccinated owing to parental choice to delay or refuse certain vaccines.1 Undervaccination has been attributed to access to health care services and missed opportunities. Now, however, it has become increasingly evident that it is the result of vaccine hesitancy as parents question the need for certain vaccines and request alternate schedules.

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