Vaccine Policy

We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.

We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.

We firmly believe all children and young adults should receive all the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities. 

We firm believe vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as healthcare providers, and you can perform as parents/caregivers.  The recommended vaccines and their schedule given are the results of years and years of scientific study and data gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientist and physicians.

These things being said, we recognize there has always been and will likely always be controversy surrounding vaccination.

We recognize the choice may be a very emotional one for some parents.  We will do everything we can to reassure you vaccinating according to the schedule is the right thing to do.  However, should you have doubts, please discuss these with your health care provider in advance of your visit.  in some cases, we may alter the schedule to accommodate parental concerns or reservations. Please be advised, delaying or "breaking up the vaccines" to give one or two at a time over two more visits goes against expert recommendations, and can put your child at risk for serious illness (or even death) and goes against our medical advice as providers at SUN COUNTRY PEDIATRICS.  Such additional visits will require additional co-pays on your part.  Furthermore, please realize you will be required to sign a "Refusal to Vaccinate" acknowledgement in the event of lengthy delays.

All patients in the practice are require to receive a minimum of one DTap, Hib, and prevnar vaccines by 6 months of age, all AAP-recommended immunizations by two years of age, and meningococcal vaccine and booster doses of Tdap by age 12 years.

Finally, if you should absolutely refuse to vaccinate your child despite all our efforts, we will ask you to find another health care provider who shares your views.  We do not keep a list of such providers, nor would we recommend an such physician.  Please recognize by not vaccinating you are putting your child at unnecessary risk for life threating illness and disability, and even death.

As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults.  Thank you for your time in reading this policy, and please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you any have about vaccines with any one of us.