Glad I caught this, thanks for posting.

the convenience of the doctors and parents rather than on the best outcome for the babies. The standard schedule clumps a bunch of vaccines together, so that the parent has to make the fewest appointments possible, even though this means that if there is a serious reaction, it won't be clear which vaccine caused the problem.

And maybe the more educated parents have access to more up-to- date information, as I did when I took my child to the health department for his killed-virus polio vaccination, because my own doctor's office only offered the live vaccine. By the time my next son was born, the killed virus vaccine had become the standard and I could get it from the pediatrician.

Unfortunately, none of that has a thing to do with reality.

replaced by the safer killed vaccine; and that if more than one vaccine is given at a time and side effects occur, it is difficult to determine which vaccine caused the problem.

Sorry, nope.

You also seem to think that no one has studied the vaccine schedule ad nauseum.

Well, you can think what you want. But that doesn't make the "more educated" smarter on this issue.

Keep dreaming.

When I use the term reality here, it is actually choosing to go with the scientific evidence.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2937226/?tool=pubmed

Expert commentary

It is apparent from this review that infant immune responses differ in many ways to adults. Assumptions from animal and adult studies have often proved inappropriate, illustrating the importance of human infant studies. Cord blood studies have demonstrated the immaturity of the immune system at birth but the difficulties and acceptability of venous blood collection make it more difficult to study infant responses. The confounders that affect responses to vaccines include prior infection, sex and nutritional status, and are particularly important in low-income settings. Understanding the mechanisms for these interactions is still limited but is of great importance to vaccine development. Indeed, it is now possible to vaccinate against many life-threatening infectious diseases. However, the downside of this is that in particular settings the number of vaccines delivered to an infant population is extensive and include many multivalent formulations and complicated sequences of vaccines. Thus, more evidence regarding these potential interactions, and their effects on specific vaccine responses, and morbidity and mortality in general is needed. This has been a controversial area of research but is becoming more widely studied within high-infant-mortality settings.

And I understand the scientific process develops out of a consensus. I understand the value and the lack of value of a single study. I don't push a ridiculous agendas based on single lines pulled from single studies. That's not how science works. In fact, it's called cherry picking to fit your agenda.

Vaccine studies: Examine the evidence
http://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/Documents/vaccinestudies.pdf

I have had a couple of younger friends starting families within the past year. I was surprised that every one of them wanted to extend the vaccination schedule. They all knew the importance of vaccinations - none were anti-vac. When my kids were born, I never thought about it. We had zero problems with the standard schedule. So, I do not know if there is any merit for extending the schedule.

BTW - We are all PhD level scientists at a highly prestigious research institute.

PhDs are meaningless when people can't make an actual risk - benefit analysis.

PS:

Vaccines – Too Few, Too Late
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/vaccines-too-few-too-late/

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/alternative-vaccination-schedules/

"it was more common for alternative vaccinators to indicate that they themselves (41%) or a friend (15%) had developed the schedule. Among the 36% of respondents who endorsed the “other” response to this query, several indicated in the free-text section that they had “worked with their child’s physician” to develop the alternative schedule."

Thus, we see how many people think far too much of themselves.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2010/05/new-vaccine-scheduling-study-deals-blow-to-safety-fears/

Which, of course, begs the question: Why do the more educated among us seem more likely to fall for baseless fear?

have very little exposure to science and math courses. They learn some accepted facts, but they don't learn how scientists and engineers think. They don't understand why or how yesterday's "fact" is discarded, so as a result, they become skeptical of all current science.

The scientific process should be taught to everyone. The value of different types of studies. The concept of plausibility. How consensus develops, etc...

These are things that can be taught at a very young age, but are not.

Edumacation means to think for oneself.

And you're not the first short-timer offering up oddness on a thread regarding vaccines in the last week.

Hmm.