As a father of nine and a grandfather, Dr. Lazarus Gehring understands the anxieties and concerns that parents may have regarding childhood vaccinations. As the medical director at the Broome County Health Department, he brings a wealth of medical expertise to the conversation. In this interview, Dr. Gehring addresses common parental concerns, emphasizes the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, and underscores their vital role in protecting children from preventable diseases.
Q: How long have you been practicing family medicine?
A: This is my 25th year. Most of that time has been in the Binghamton area but I’ve also practiced in refugee camps, in Haiti, and on Navajo lands. I’ve seen a lot of frightful situations when it comes to children not having vaccines or only some vaccines. Partial vaccination can sometimes make disease presentation very muted. If someone only has one vaccine and not a full series and they get that disease, it may not appear as severe for them. That can make it hard to diagnose and in the meantime the disease is spreading to others who may get really sick.
Q: What is one of the biggest changes you’ve seen over the last 25 years?
A: We’re more globalized now so it’s easy for disease to spread. There’s also a lot of fragmented information. But people are generally the same and that spans generations. The vast majority of people believe that vaccines work; they believe the facts. Even though we get bombarded by a lot of headlines about vaccine hesitancy, the majority of people are still with vaccines and against diseases.
Q: What do you say to parents who may be wary or unsure about vaccines?
A: It’s about being human. The best way is to listen to where the concerns are coming from and to keep the goal in mind. The goal is the health of the children. Healthy children and caring for people who can’t care for themselves is a sign of civilization. But just last fall, there were children in New York State who died from diseases that vaccines could have prevented. We didn’t protect our children when we could have and that’s sad to see.
Q: Why do they need so many vaccines when they’re so small?
A: Although we give kids a lot of vaccines, the antigenic load, in other words what they’re actually fighting, is far less today than it was before 1990 or so. We don’t see nearly as many side effects as we do today than we did 35 years ago. And we've switched to vaccines that have a lot fewer side effects and reactions. It is so different from when I started practice. So kids may get more vaccines today but the pressure on the body from those vaccines is way less! And that will continue to get better as we improve these vaccines. That’s progress!
Q: You’re a father; do you vaccinate your kids?
A: I have 9 of my own kids and they’re all vaccinated. I’ll admit with 9 kids it is a mayhem of vaccine schedules. But they were all vaccinated at the right time.
We just celebrated my grandson’s first birthday. There is a great tradition of celebrating the one year birthday in many cultures. And that is a public health victory! It means we survived the first year and that is when most child fatality from disease would take place if it weren’t for vaccines. Any of us can look in our family history and see instances of 12 children being born but only 5 surviving over and over again. But we don’t see that today in the United States because of vaccines. The fact is no other health measure in the history of humankind has saved more lives than vaccines. Not antibiotics, not sewer and water systems, not chemotherapy. It’s not even close. And most of those lives were young children.
This article is sponsored by the Broome County Health Department, a valued sponsor of Macaroni KID Binghamton. We appreciate your support in reviewing our sponsors' articles and hope that their offerings are useful for you and your family.
Macaroni KID Binghamton is run by a local mom and this website is supported solely by our local sponsors. If you would like to join our network of family-friendly businesses and connect with local parents in Binghamton, Johnson City, Vestal, Apalachin, Owego, and beyond, please reach out and learn how you can share your offerings with our readers!
 |  |  |
