Unvaccinated Children Should Not Be Allowed in Public Schools According to 79 Percent of SERMO Doctors Polled

BOSTON, Aug. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SERMO, the leading physician social network with over 270,000 (40%) of U.S. physicians, announced today its community is actively discussing the implications and key concerns of the anti-vaccine movement as families around the country prepare for going back to school.

In order to gauge the sentiments of the broader medical community, SERMO conducted a poll which posed the question "Outside of medical exceptions, should unvaccinated children be allowed in public schools?" With 3,114 responses from the SERMO community, an overwhelming 79 percent of respondents replied "No" and 21 percent of respondents replied "Yes" to allowing students in public schools.

Linda Girgis, MD, family practitioner, broadens the anti-vaccine discussion with a blog post titled "Debunking the myths fueling the anti-vaccine movement" that details seven vaccine myths. In the post she describes the need for vaccines to act as agents for herd immunity, and the growing threat from nearly eradicated diseases that are rising again due to parents opting out of vaccinations for their children. She clearly shows the flaws in claims that purport to link vaccines and autism, and the ineffectiveness of strategies that call for spreading out immunization schedules.

"Few topics in modern medicine produce such impassioned arguments as vaccinations," said Peter Kirk, CEO of SERMO. "Our company provides physicians with an outlet for them to collaborate with one another to best handle parents that do not want vaccinations for their children and to discuss the latest anti-vaccination trends. The overall sentiment of SERMO-user doctors on this subject is clear, with very high support among them for restricting unvaccinated students from attending school due to the considerable risks."

Some individuals feel the threat from communicable diseases which were nearly eradicated is low because there are not many current causes. However, some diseases such as whooping cough and measles are seeing a resurgence, with 6,931 cases of whooping cough reported in 2014 in just California.

The debate surrounding vaccinations amongst members of the public and physicians is becoming heated. Doctors increasingly are faced with parents that are skeptical about the benefits of vaccines and are fearful about what they perceive as the adverse effects of vaccines.  Physicians need to be able to carefully address this topic with patients and learn the optimal ways to work with parents that do not wish to vaccinate their children.

To learn more about the anti-vaccine movement, visit the SERMO blog at:
http://blog.sermo.com/2014/08/18/debunking-the-myths-fueling-of-the-anti-vaccine/.

About SERMO
SERMO is the United States' leading social network for physicians. With over 270,000 verified U.S. physicians from 96 specialties and subspecialties, SERMO facilitates clinical collaboration, knowledge sharing and discussion throughout 40 percent of the American medical community. SERMO is a meeting of medical minds; it's the virtual meeting place for physicians where they are free to engage with other physicians regarding everything that's important to them in the business and practice of medicine.

The SERMO Physicians Poll is a weekly question opinion poll sampling the 270,000-member, physicians-exclusive social network to take the pulse of how they feel about current events and trends. Representing 40 percent of US doctors across 96 percent specialties and sub-specialties, members participate by the thousands each week, indexing consistently against with the breakdown of the US physician by specialty.

Founded in 2005, SERMO's vision is to provide physicians with a safe, private and trusted platform for free and open discussions. By harnessing the collective wisdom of physicians to solve patient cases, SERMO also enables medical crowdsourcing and thus the accelerated advancement of medicine. To learn more about SERMO, visit http://www.SERMO.com.

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SOURCE SERMO