Dr. Jennifer Reich

You should only take it if it's entirely necessary.

But of course, that's also not always true.

Less insulin is not better than the correct amount of insulin.

Less albuterol for someone who has asthma is not better, right?

So we could think about the right amount of medications are often the right answer, but it feels like you should try to avoid it if at all possible.

And vaccines have really fallen into that category.

One of the ways that's helped me think through this is I was often asked by parents, why does a 200 pound football player get the same dose of a vaccine as an eight pound baby?

And I thought that was a really interesting question.

So I asked vaccine researchers in the course of my research, I asked them about this question.

And what they explained to me was really helpful.

They said, vaccines are not medications.

They don't have a volume of distribution.

And the way I could understand that was if you sneeze on a 200 pound football player and you sneeze on a baby, they don't become differentially sick.

It triggers their immune system in very similar ways.

And that vaccines are a kind of immune trigger, not a kind of medication.

But we haven't really talked about it in this way because for so many decades, I think, parents were just told to trust their healthcare providers and not ask questions.

And that's not how any of us accept healthcare anymore.

We all want to ask questions.

We all want to...

gather our own information or do what people often call do their own research.