[Semi-rant] What to say to anti-vaxers

I think the unfortunate truth is you are never going to win over this pediatrician's patients in the span of their ED visit. Best case scenario, the family doesn't know any better, but will still trust the word of their established doctor over a random ED doc. Worst case scenario, the family actively sought out an anti-vax doctor and nothing in the world is going to change their mind.

The best thing you can do is just treat their child and then calmly and as concisely as possible say that one of your recommendations is that their child be vaccinated and that the consequences of not doing so can be severe and even life threatening. As I'm sure you are aware, anything you say that is accusatory or demeaning is only going to put parents on the defensive and cause them to shut down.

As for the pediatrician, I'm sure reporting them to a state board is always an option. However, I have no idea how successful that would be, how to go about it in a way that gets taken seriously, or likelihood of having some sort of backlash against you unless you had other people supporting you.

/r/Residency Thread