Immunizations

Vaccine Policy Statement

We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives. We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines. We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health-promoting intervention we perform as healthcare providers, and that you can perform as parents/caregivers. The recommended vaccines and the vaccine schedule are the results of years and years of scientific study and data gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians. Because of vaccines, many of you have never seen a child with polio, tetanus, whooping cough, bacterial meningitis, or even chickenpox, or known a friend or family member whose child died of one of these diseases. Not vaccinating puts a child’s health and the health of others around them at a significant risk. Because we are committed to protecting the health of your children through vaccination, we require all of our new patients to be vaccinated with the vaccines required by the state of Massachusetts. If you should absolutely refuse to vaccinate your child despite all our efforts, we will ask you to find another healthcare provider who shares your views. Please recognize that by not vaccinating, you are putting your child and other children in the community at unnecessary risk for life-threatening illness and disability, and even death. As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating your child on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do to protect all children and young adults. Please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you may have about vaccines with any one of our providers.

Gary J. Nielan, M.D.
Amy C. Kasper, M.D.
Kimberly J. Martins, M.D.
Kimberly A. Dewey, M.D.
Priya S. Malik, M.D.
Thirza C. Lareau, M.D.
Melissa Maciborski, M.D.
Julia Komatsu, M.D.
Solmaz Masoudi, P.A.
Rachel McKenna, N.P.