Posted on 11/04/2011 4:28:40 AM PDT by surroundedbyblue
Here’s a website that gives the ranking of countries by infant mortality rate (from 2004):
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20081015/infant-mortality-us-ranks-29th
And here’s a great website with vaccines schedules for every country (from 2009):
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20081015/infant-mortality-us-ranks-29th
Look at the difference between the US and Japan in both infant mortality rate and vaccine schedule. Japan has 2.8 deaths per 1000 and US is up at 6.9 deaths per 1000. As I said, I’m not anti-vaccine, I just don’t see that there’s any additional benefit (and possibly there’s harm) with all of the extra vaccines that the CDC recommends versus what other countries’ schedules are. Of course, not that I think vaccines are the only contributing factor to the difference in mortality, but it’s suspect. And the US ranking in the world has fallen since I was born in 1974 and now. But I would also like to see the rates of home births and breastfeeding until age 6 months and 1 year and compare those.
Not all vaccines are the same, none of them are completely “safe”, some are safer than others and some of them are frankly not necessary.
Good example of this is the vaccine for Anthrax, so ineffective, your chances are 1 in 3 of survival, even with vaccination. In fact, immediate antibiotic treatment for anthrax is more effective than the vaccine.
Tell that to the smallpox virus, if you can find any.
Vaccines managed to entirely wipe out any naturally existing populations of that virus.
Before drawing any conclusions, you may want to spend time looking at how different countries compile their infant mortality rates. The US has the most stringent rules in the world, other countries have much more lax requirement. This renders any comparisons useless.
Sorry, I forgot to add that the main reason the US has such a high infant mortality rate is due to the very high number of pre-term births. Preterm infants have much higher rates of death. And there is no way to tie pre-term births to vaccines.
Of course, there’s always *some* reason that the stats are wrong. So done with this conversation.
Behind International Rankings of Infant Mortality: How the United States Compares with Europe
Summary
In 2005, the United States ranked 30th in the world in infant mortality, behind most European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Israel. There are some differences among countries in the reporting of very small infants who may die soon after birth. However, it appears unlikely that differences in reporting are the primary explanation for the United States’ relatively low international ranking. In 2005, 22 countries had infant mortality rates of 5.0 or below. One would have to assume that these countries did not report more than one-third of their infant deaths for their infant mortality rates to equal or exceed the U.S. rate. This level of underreporting appears unlikely for most developed countries.
The United States compares favorably with Europe in the survival of infants born preterm. Infant mortality rates for preterm infants are lower in the United States than in most European countries. However, infant mortality rates for infants born at 37 weeks of gestation or more are generally higher in the United States than in European countries.
The primary reason for the United States’ higher infant mortality rate when compared with Europe is the United States’ much higher percentage of preterm births. In 2004, 1 in 8 infants born in the United States were born preterm, compared with 1 in 18 in Ireland and Finland. Preterm infants have much higher rates of death or disability than infants born at 37 weeks of gestation or more (2-4, 6), so the United States’ higher percentage of preterm births has a large effect on infant mortality rates. If the United States had the same gestational age distribution of births as Sweden, the U.S. infant mortality rate (excluding births at less than 22 weeks of gestation) would go from 5.8 to 3.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, a 33% decline. These data suggest that preterm birth prevention is crucial to lowering the U.S. infant mortality rate.
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The study posted above mentions pre-term births, but then dismisses it out of hand without any discussion or reasoning.
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