Dr. Christine M Privitera, MD

I left the earlier review re: our great disappointment with being unable to obtain the Salk vaccine instead of the Sabin vaccine with this practice some decades ago. Although this is still our position, the stance back then was the practice among 99+% of pediatricians. It was and is a problem not specific to this provider, but to the whole system which dictates to the providers. So I am leaving this new review with five stars to compensate for the previous two stars. What seemed to me at the time as an arrogant disregard for the wishes of the customers - the parents, I now view the way Dr. P's understated but expressed unwillingness to meet our wishes as being due to her quiet and reserved nature. She was under the thumb of her medical overlords and likely had no choice in the matter. Our pediatric MD family friend in another state, who provided the Salk vaccine for us back then, was in his own practice. Therefore he had freedom to research. He had also previously been a state… epidemiologist, and from his experience had chosen to use only the Salk vaccine in his practice, some years before the AAP stopped endorsing the Sabin in favor of the safer Salk vaccine. But Dr. P. did not have that advantage. So in spite of our frustration with this at the time, in every other interaction we had with her, we found her to be both reserved and kind, and very helpful in an emergency.

I hope she's changed; decades ago when our pediatrician friend in another state advised against the live polio vaccine in favor of the Salk k i l l e d virus vaccine, she refused to give the Salk and was condescending toward us when we opted to obtain the Salk vaccine elsewhere. Ten years later we were vindicated when the American Academy of Pediatrics stopped endorsing the use of the live virus in favor of the Salk k i l l e d virus vaccine. I can't recommend a doctor who will not think outside the box but who blindly follows the dictates of so-called medical "authorities". Yet this is not uncommon in this profession, where doctors commonly expect "compliant" patients to be blind followers, and to do none of their own research or to think for themselves. (We also opted for the DT vaccine without the P, with a similar response from this doctor.) The majority of doctors seem to be cut from this some cloth of arrogance toward their patients, but this is gradually changing. There… are doctors with whom you can work as partners toward the same goal, though they are not easy to find. And perhaps this doctor has changed in the years since our disappointing encounters. Two stars instead of one, because she did well in an emergency prior to this vaccine experience.