Trust Your Pediatrician: Vaccines Protect Children, Not Profits

Many pediatricians cite their decision to enter the field as a calling. The concept of taking care of children and improving their health is a critical, noble, and inspiring career path – but not a lucrative one.

U.S. pediatricians earn the second-lowest compensation among physician specialists in 2024.

That makes recent national dialogue accusing pediatricians of putting profits ahead of patients based on false information about vaccines especially damaging to Americans’ confidence and trust in the profession.

And it’s flat-out wrong.

In reality, health clinics hope to break even with their vaccine distribution programs – if they’re not losing money overall.

Most pediatricians maintain medical-grade refrigeration units and pay to ensure extensive vaccine inventory and supplies. They keep thermostats and generators to ensure safety and pay specialized nurses to help administer them.

Pediatricians administer vaccines to all children who need them, regardless of ability to pay, thanks to the federal Vaccines For Children (VFC) program, which provides no-cost vaccines to child whose parents or guardians lack health insurance of otherwise cannot accord them. The most recent CDC data estimated 54% of U.S. children 18 years or younger were eligible to receive VFC vaccines in 2023. However, Medicaid often does not meet the costs of maintaining and administering vaccines through VFC.

The argument that pediatricians profit off vaccines is counterintuitive.

Vaccines carry significant benefits that reduce health care costs and the need for medical visits overall. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule created $402 billion in national medical cost savings across two decades.

“If it was really about all the money, it would be better for kids to be sick so you’d see more sick children and get to take care of more sick children, right?” Dr. Christoph Diasio, a pediatrician in North Carolina, said in a recent interview.

The disparagement of doctors and experts reflects a deeply troubling trend of sowing confusion for American parents trying to make informed decisions about immunization for their children. Effectively telling parents not to trust their child’s pediatrician risks worsening the dangerous decrease in national vaccination rates. That leaves children vulnerable to preventable illnesses and weakens the doctor-patient relationship.

Vaccines remain the most effective tool to fight infectious disease. Pediatricians are qualified professionals living within the communities they serve. They should be consulted and can be trusted. It is critical for public health leaders and policymakers to correct the record.

Pediatricians routinely recommend vaccines because protecting children’s health is their life’s work.