I always thought that it is good to take as many vaccine in order to prevent your loves one from getting sick. However, today while surfing the internet, I came across this blog.
There are a lot of stories written, but this is what I would like to share:-
When Parent Question Vaccination
As the use of vaccinations continues to grow, so do the controversies
surrounding them. Numerous medical problems, including rising rates of
autism, thimerosal/mercury toxicity, asthma, eczema, allergies, ADD/ADHD
and even cancer, are being scrutinized as part of the vaccine-injury
“spectrum.”
Research still is being performed to substantiate whatever
connections may exist, but the problems with vaccines have caused enough
concern to spark the formation of dozens of grassroots political
organizations that promote the right of a parent to refuse inoculation
for their children. In addition, The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System (VAERS) was created via a cooperative effort of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). VAERS collects information about adverse-vaccine
events and side effects.
Deciding whether to have a child vaccinated is one of the most
important choices a parent will ever make. In the interest of informed
consent, a pediatrician should present a full disclosure of the pros and
cons of innoculation. Unfortunately, pediatricians rarely give parents
the opportunity to learn about their option to not vaccinate. Often
pediatricians or family doctors confront parents with strong opposition
when merely questioned by parents about the potential risks of
vaccination.
Parents should seek information on the pros and cons of vaccination
on their own in order to make an educated, informed decision. A number
of questions about vaccination follow. Each offers a statement commonly
given by pediatricians and family doctors in support of vaccination.
Information that rebuts this statement and supports the decision not to
vaccinate follows.
1. Is vaccination necessary to prevent childhood disease?
Support of Vaccination: Immunization has been repeatedly
demonstrated to be one of the most effective medical interventions we
have to prevent disease.
Rebuttal: Most of the common childhood diseases were declining in
terms of morbidity (complications) and mortality (death) prior to the
introduction of vaccinations, according to information obtained directly
from government sources.
2. How many lives does vaccination save?
Support of Vaccination: It has been estimated that immunizations
currently save three million lives per year throughout the world.
Rebuttal: A negative cannot be proven. For example: how can you know
that a vaccine saved a life? Do all people contract all infections? How
do you know how many infections have been prevented by vaccines and how
many infections have been prevented by other means?
3. Is vaccination cost-effective?
Support of Vaccination: Immunization is one of the most cost-effective health interventions.
Rebuttal: We do not know the actual cost of vaccination worldwide but a few costs are known:
The wholesale price for vaccines used in the U.S. pediatric schedule
is more than $170 per child. Given that there are more than 77,000 live
births per week in the U.S., that equals more than $13 million each week
to prevent a few childhood infections.
More than $1.3 billion has been spent to eradicate polio from Third World countries.
The estimated lifetime cost of caring for one autistic (possibly vaccine-injured) child is more than $4.5 million.
4. Are vaccines safe?
Support of Vaccination: Vaccines are safe and do not cause untoward effects on the immune system.
Rebuttal: Safety studies have been too short, too small and too few
in number to enable us to declare vaccines safe. In addition, the
natural immune system of infants has not been studied and is not yet
fully understood. The long-term consequences of vaccines on the immune
systems of children under two years of age cannot be predicted. And as
of yet, this information is not being tracked. If a child develops an
autoimmune disorder, the cause is not studied; instead, a
therapy/medication is developed to treat it.
5. Do vaccines contain toxic additives?
Support of Vaccination: The additives in vaccines are in small concentrations and are non-toxic.
Rebuttal: Vaccines contain a combination of at least 39 different
toxic additives, preservatives and cell types introduced during the
manufacturing process. The cumulative effect of these toxins,
particularly the heavy metals, is hotly debated. Most vaccines are given
in combination, and in doing so potentially create a cumulative effect
of toxicity. In addition, vaccine contaminants have included bovine
(cow), avian (chicken) and monkey viruses and bacteria such as
streptococcus in the DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine
[Pediatrics, Vol. 75, No. 2, Feb 1985] and Serratia marcesens in the
influenza vaccines [2004 influenza season].
For example, DTP, a common vaccine given to most newborns, is
produced using formaldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate,
polysorbate 80 and gelatin. In some cases, thimerosal still is used. The
polio vaccine is produced using three types of polio virus and can
contain formaldehyde, phenoxyethanol (antifreeze), sucrose (table
sugar), neomycin, streptomycin, polymyxin B and VERO cells (a continuous
line of monkey kidney cells).
It is also important to consider an infant’s developing filtering
system for eliminating toxins. For example, aluminum is eliminated from
the body primarily through the kidneys. Infant kidney function
(glomerular filtration rate) is low at birth and does not reach full
capacity until one to two years of age. [Simmer, K. Aluminium in
Infancy. In: Zatta PF, Alfrey AC. (Eds) Aluminium Toxicity in Infants’
Health and Disease. 1997, World Scientific Publishing.]
6. What do vaccines protect against?
Support of Vaccination: Vaccines provide high levels of protection against several diseases, as well as disability and death.
Rebuttal: Vaccines vary in efficacy, and many who have been
vaccinated still contract the disease. Therefore, vaccines do not
necessarily protect against disability and death from disease. In
addition, vaccines have been documented to cause certain disabilities,
even death.
7. Are adverse side effects of vaccination common?
Support of Vaccination: Serious adverse events following immunization are rare.
Rebuttal: Between mid-1999 and Jan. 4, 2004 (for all vaccines and
all reactions), 128,035 adverse reactions were reported to the Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). It is estimated that only 10% of
all reactions are actually reported to VAERS. Therefore, this may
actually represent between 1.28 million (10%) and 12.8 million (1%) of
all vaccine-associated adverse reactions. In that same period, there
were 2,093 deaths reported to VAERS. This may actually represent between
20,930 (10%) and 209,300 (1%) of the deaths thought to be associated
with vaccines.
Even though this data does not prove an association to
vaccine-related injury and death, the magnitude of the numbers certainly
takes exception to the concept of a “rare” event. It is worth
mentioning that more than $1 billion has been paid in settlements to
victims of vaccine-related injuries and death through the Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program (VICP) since the program’s inception in 1988.
The decision to vaccinate or not is important and complex. Parents
must take on the responsibility to seek enough information to make an
educated, informed decision. Armed with as much information as possible,
parents then can make the choice in consultation with their own
health-care providers.
