Study: Taking Your Child to a Pediatrician Increases Flu Risk – Doctors are a Health Risk for Children

A new study published in the March issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology shows that routine well-child visits to pediatricians actually increase a child's chance for catching the flu within two weeks. This confirms what many parents have already discovered, that well-child visits are counterproductive, and usually a primary method of distributing vaccines. Renowned pediatrician Dr. Robert Mendelsohn wrote about this phenomenon years ago in his best-selling book, How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor. He has a whole chapter devoted to this topic: How Doctors Can Make Healthy Kids Sick. The study conducted by researchers at the University of Iowa was based on a large data sampling of over 84,000 families. They concluded that well-child doctor appointments for annual exams and vaccinations carry a risk that translates to more than 700,000 avoidable cases of flu-like illnesses each year. Dr. Lisa Saiman wrote in the commentary that the true effects are quite likely much larger, since the study only looked at actual records visits to doctors or hospitals, and therefore would not include those who got the flu but never went in for a doctor exam. So the well-child visit could easily be causing over 1 million cases of the flu each year. The only statement made by the lead author, Dr. Phil Polgreen, that seemed to have no corresponding data referenced, was this statement: "Well child visits are critically important." Important for whom? The financial health of the medical system and its sales of childhood vaccines?