Vaccines - Necessity, Luxury or Liability?

I agree that vaccines are not perfect and there is room for improvement. But I do believe that research and studies are being done to improve vaccines and not just to cover up issues.

Angela at mommy bytes ( http://www.mommybytes.com )
BlogHer Contributing Editor in Mommy & Family Cribsheet

Yes, these diseases ARE highly contagious.  So are colds, so is the flu--and those can be deadly to those who do not have proper nutrition, or who suffer from other health issues.

However, the number of children with severe reactions to the vaccines is greater than the number of children in the US who died from the diseases the vaccines are supposed to prevent. Shouldn't that count for something?

I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to prevent these diseases--just that the current way is causing irreparable damage that is either unrecognized or outright ignored, and that we need a safer way.  Safer vaccines, and a safer vaccine schedule, with adequate testing, would be a great start. 

You do know that there are NO studies of the long-term safety of 36 vaccines by the age of 18 months, right? There are only short-term studies of individual vaccines. 

Rubella is such a mild disease, most people don't even know that they've had it.  BUT--it can cause horrible birth defects if the mom is exposed while pregnant.  So I totally understand wanting to keep that one under control.  But there's no good reason why it HAS to be administered together with measles and mumps.  How often in real-life exposure does the immune system have to deal with all 3 in the bloodstream at once?

 It would be so much wiser to give individual vaccines--from individual ampules, NOT containing preservatives and antibiotic agents--and to give them when the child is a little older.

 Did you know that vaccine dosages are not varied per the body weight of the child? So my 4.5 pounder got the exact same dosage that his 9 pound brother got--when he was 4 hours old.

But, Melissa, most of those who are deemed "militant anti-vaccinationists" have children who have had severe reactions to a vaccine!

Imagine having a perfectly healthy child who, after being given several vaccines at once, nearly died within hours of those vaccines. Or DID die--all you have to do is check VAERS (the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System) to find cases--aned WAY more cases than those who died from measles. In fact, imagine your child has one cousin who DID die from a vaccine reaction, and another who has video footage of the day before vaccination(healthy child joking and coversing with parent) and the day after (child twirling, flapping arms, shrieking, banging head on floor, and refusing all contact with parent, and yes, for some children, it DOES happen just that quickly).

Imagine that every doctor you speak with says that it COULDN'T be the vaccine, vaccines don't cause those reactions, so your child's case (like 90%) and his cousin's case get reported to VAERS.

Imagine that you've had a documented severe reaction as an adult to vaccine, but the doctor still won't even consider that there's some kind of family history.

 Imagine that your research has uncovered statement from both the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the British Medical Journal  saying that the flu shot is ineffective in both children and the elderlly. But if you live in New Jersey, you are not permitted to send your child to school or daycare without it, even though both you and he were hospitalized from the reaction to the last one.

Those of us whom you want to term "non-vaccinating militants" do not want anyone's child to suffer from any illness--but we would like our children to stay alive.

Please do some research on some non-pharmaceutical-sponsored links to see the "other side of the story" (you know that there are always two sides).  www.nvic.org ( http://www.nvic.org ) is a good place to start.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to stop vaccinating.  If your child doesn't have a severe reaction, doesn't suffer from autoimmune issues, then inject away.  We won't even get into a detailed discussion of the tainted research and the financial conflict of interest in the agencies that determine the recommended vaccine schedule.

But please don't vilify those of us who have either lost a child, or spent a frightening week or two in the hospital fearing just that, and not wanting a repeat episode.  Please don't assume that direct allergy to eggs is the only medical condition that precludes vaccination.

Melissa, just imagine that nobody BELIEVED that your child was really allergic to eggs! For many of the adverse reactions to vaccine ingredients, there is no test available to confirm; the reaction, while potentially deadly, is not a histamine reaction, so it's technically not an allergy.So our child reacts every bit as severely as yours, but the doctors say "it can't POSSIBLY be the vaccine."

Now multiply that by several thousand previously healthy babies, because that's how many similar cases have been reported.

 Everything I've asked you to imagine above is not imaginary.  It's all really happened, to real people. All of it happened to our family, only the child who died was not related biologically.

I should point out that I have since found several mainstream doctors who agree that vaccines are no longer in the best interest of our children--but the first dozen or so doctors that we saw did their best to make me feel like some kind of hysterical, uneducated, overreacting housefrau.  In fact, one of those same doctors laughed at me for bringing my suddenly yellow-skinned 7-week-old in with whathe doctor insisted was either breast-milk jaundice or Asian heritage.  It turned out that he was in congestive heart failure and his liver was enlarged due to a large ventricular septal defect.

PLEASE realize that most of us have absolutely no political agenda--we just want our children to stay alive and healthy, too--and we don't want our children sacrificed for herd immmunity.

Because these diseases are relatively rare these days, people have forgotten how highly contagious they are. In the measles story, news reports had to remind people that anyone in the same space within 100 feet and within 2 hours of the infected person could contract the measles.

I'm glad that your experience turned out fine. It is scary to think that this would be a more common experience if more people decide not to vaccinate.

Angela at mommy bytes ( http://www.mommybytes.com )
BlogHer Contributing Editor in Mommy & Family Cribsheet

We had a mumps outbreak this summer that started in a religious community that doesn't believe in vaccination. When my son was 6 days old we had to take my preschooler to the ER because she ate some wild mushrooms. We brought the baby because we didn't really have any other option - both kids needed me. It made me more than a little nervous to have my very young child in a hospital during the mumps outbreak. Luckily they were able to find us a place away from the crowd where we were at less risk of exposure to whatever was going around.

Thankfully the baby was fine. But it drove home the point - our actions affect each other more than we think sometimes.

~ Amber

www.strocel.com ( http://www.strocel.com )

Thank you so much for posting the link to GAVI. I almost did as well when I was doing research for this post, but I wanted to keep it neutral. Parents and children all over the world desperately want vaccines, where here in our privileged country, we've come full circle and refuse it.

Angela at mommy bytes ( http://www.mommybytes.com )
BlogHer Contributing Editor in Mommy & Family Cribsheet

First of all, BRAVO! I really enjoyed the perspective of the blog. I think too often in the vaccine debate, children in the poorest countries that need vaccines most are forgotten. I work for the GAVI Alliance, which helps provide vaccines to children in the 72 poorest countries. Thanks so much for bringing this important issue to light! Check out our web site http://everychild.gavialliance.org ( http://everychild.gavialliance.org/ ) for more info!

 I vaccinate my children, but on my own schedule.  Wrong to needlessly expose others to disseases we can vaccinate against, I agree.

but

I do wish vaccines were made safe for all.

http://superfabuloushousewife.blogspot.com/

There is another population that has already been damaged by the miitant non-vaccinating crowd, those with medical conditions that preclude vaccinations.  There is a very small percentage of the population that are severely allergic to the medium that vaccines are grown in.  Prior to the militant non-vaccinators, they were not dismissed by their doctors when they brought up their concens.  They have been unfairly lumped in with this group of militants.

Imagine having a severely egg allergic child (reactive enough that vaccines are potentially deadly) and being dismissed as a crazy anti-vaccinator.  It has happened to some parents of food allergic kids.  Their very legitimate medical concern is being dismissed as political.  It happens.  I blame the anti-vaccination crowd.

MLO / Melissa

The whole point of vaccinating the herd is to protect the people who are unable to become vaccinated either because they are too young or have a severe allergy. Once a high enough percentage of the population is vaccinated, the risk of the disease spreading is minimal. But once this percentage gets below a certain percentage, the risk goes up exponentially.

If you don't have a severe allergy to vaccines, you should vaccinate. If you don't, you are relying on the good graces of every one else who does.

Angela at mommy bytes ( http://www.mommybytes.com )
BlogHer Contributing Editor in Mommy & Family Cribsheet