A New York Times article accuses the recently appointed chairman of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), pediatric cardiologist Kirk Milhoan, M.D., of “rejecting decades of science” in holding that polio and other vaccines should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician.
The article implies that children will die of horrific diseases if informed consent for vaccines is required. It quotes Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the infectious disease committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics, in claiming that informed consent is “an ideological agenda not grounded in science.”
In fact, consent is a bedrock principle of medical ethics. According to established law, treating a patient without consent is medical battery. According to scientific principles, there is no “established science”: conclusions are always tentative and must change if evidence indicates.
Physicians following the Oath of Hippocrates swear not to harm individual patients. A public-health ethic, on the other hand, holds that individuals may be sacrificed for a hypothetical benefit to others.
All medical interventions can cause harm. There are both risks and benefits, which may differ greatly between individuals and at different times. Serious adverse effects of vaccines, including death, may have been systematically underreported. At present, the risk of paralysis from a vaccine may be greater than the risk from polio.
ACIP should be thoroughly and objectively evaluating evidence, including that which has been used to claim safety and efficacy. A conclusion that cannot be challenged is religious, not scientific.
Physicians should advise patients to the best of their ability, not defer to a remote nonaccountable bureaucrat. But the decision belongs to the patient, who has an inalienable right to life and liberty.
Dr. Milhoan is on solid ground, scientifically and ethically.
