A pediatrician's warning: “Diseases that frequently killed children in the past will return”

One of the most well-known and appreciated pediatricians in Romania, Dr. Mihai Craiu, sounds the alarm about the “anti-vaccinist current” and the serious problems that will arise. “The diseases that frequently killed children in the past will come back,” warns the doctor.

“I have been thinking these days about how an extremely serious warning could be conveyed without falling into the vortex of disputes with the opponents of vaccination. But reading the news of the last few days, including the signal from the European Center for Disease Control ECDC, I decided to make this post. For those who have doubts and want some answers about the benefits of vaccination in the first year of life”wrote Dr. Mihai Craiu, primary pediatrician at the “Alessandrescu-Rusescu” Institute for Mother and Child Health in Bucharest, on his Virtual Children's Hospital Facebook page.

The doctor claims that the boomerang effect of imperfect communication during the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a significant drop in vaccination rates for children around the world.

“UNICEF says it is, as early as 2023, the biggest drop in parents' confidence in vaccination in the last 30 years (link in the comments). And the same article talks about a number of more than 320,000 children in Europe with zero doses of DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) vaccine… What happens in a region where hundreds of thousands – millions of people susceptible to a disease? Epidemic outbreaks occur. In addition to the measles, whooping cough also came (already!) to us, to all Europeans. I will not post pictures of our patients in the hospital NOW. It would be unethical and unhelpful to a parent who already has emotions.”explains Dr. Mihai Craiu.

The specialist also has a message for “the great champions of the antivaccinist current”.

“I can invite them to see with their own eyes how much a child with pertussis suffers. And to assume the emotions of a discussion with the parents of these children. Tell them what whooping cough is and reassure them about their children's progress. To tell people faced with real danger about hypothetical or imaginary dangers. They have a choice… There are seven children hospitalized only in the INSMC, four of them in the Intensive Care Unit. And one of them is in critical condition, for several days”said the renowned pediatrician.

Doctor: “We will have patients in the family or among friends”

Even worse, claims Dr. Mihai Craiu, they will come back “diseases that frequently killed children in the past”.

“We will lose everything that has been gained in the history of more than a century of global vaccination if we continue to close our eyes and pretend not to see, on the principle of . And when we have sick people in the family or among friends it will probably be too late. For some…”, warned the doctor.

If you have doubts, go talk to your doctor, recommends Dr. Craiu. “Check the vaccination schedule. Recover arrears, if any. For children in Romania, the recovery of vaccination is done free of charge, at the family doctor”, concluded Dr. Mihai Craiu.