Posted on 12/21/2006 2:12:31 PM PST by Kimmers
Witness the "flu vaccine shortage."
That was brought to you by the same trial lawyers who forced some vaccine companies out of business, others just got out of making vaccines - thus, vaccine shortages.
"Trial lawyers (dims) lie - people die."
Oh for the days when half of all little kids died before their 5th birthday (which is still the norm in most of the world). No thanks -- I'll take a vaccines instead.
*sigh*
Some things are listed as potential triggers: an allergy to eggs or latex can indicate potential life-threatening problems with vaccines.
Our oldest started life vaccinated--and within the first eight months of her life, had 5 bladder infections, 7 ear infections, and seizures after every single injection.
We stopped, on the advice of a neurologist. The only lasting damage has been an enamel defect on the permanent teeth that were beginning to form during that time (the sudden high fevers that caused the seizures were not good for enamel formation); a good dentist has been able to correct all of it on her front teeth, and even with the damage, she's had no problems with tooth decay.
Since stopping, she's not had a single seizure. She's had two colds. No ear infections. One bout of flu. No bladder infections. No persistent coughs. She's played with chicken-poxy kids and shown no clinical symptoms. She's nearly eleven now.
Going back to my mom, dad, and siblings (the only members in our family to have been vaccinated), my dad and multiple siblings had severe reactions to vaccines. I got to delay starting college by two weeks when I came down with a lovely case of measles from the mandatory measles booster.
Vaccines can't be tolerated by everyone--so for those of us who cannot reliably vaccinate, there are things we do to minimize all risks. Things like never having our kids in day care (not even church nursery); teaching excellent hygeine practices; doing selective, individual, and delayed vaccination (such as tetanus by itself, without diptheria or pertussis), etc. We've had the help of some great medical practitioners who are supportive of our options, and were able to give good advice for minimizing risks (the big one being: don't do any international travel until the kids are in their teens, and have been selectively covered)
Not everyone who opts out of vaccination is doing to out of some amorphous "fear"--some of us have very solid medical reasons.
Life can never be made risk free, pain free, illness free, or death free.
I am all for people getting to choose whether or not to vaccinate themselves or their children.
That's interesting information. Thank you. My question about whether you could tell which children would be at risk from vaccines was a serious one, and you answered it.
The rest of your answer I think confirmed my other belief, which is that for most children, vaccinating is preferable to not vaccinating. I certainly prefer my smallpox vaccine scar to the results of smallpox before it was (questionably) eradicated.
I don't know anyone who had complications. I know they occurred but medical care has come a long way since those days. Many of those complications could be dealt with better. And what if there's an outbreak because of all the people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccines aren't effective? Childhood diseases are pretty serious in adults. This could all backfire some day.
And how many kids do you know that get sick with measles, mumps, ruebella, chicken pox, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hep B, and HiB all at once? Yet that's the kind of load being put on an infants immune system. No way that simulates what happens in nature. Maybe the vaccines would be more effective if given individually and the kids system gets to work on one at a time. Of course, it would be a major inconvenience, so it's not likely to happen.
There are some diseases that need to be immunized against because they are not the normal childhood type diseases, tetanus and polio are two good examples.
Vaccines aren't without their complications either. Kids have bad reactions from them, too, and there's supposed to be the autism link. If that's the case, which is worse then? Mentally retarded or autistic?
Trust me, the complications would still be awful. There is no treatment for blindness for example. I've been practising medicine since 1982 and have seen exactly TWO cases of measels, one when I was a med student and the peds attending called us all in because "we may never see this again".
We DON'T want to go back to the days before the vaccine was common.
Yeah, but it wasn't all from childhood viral diseases. Burns from open fires accounted for a lot and bacterial infections and lack of good medical care for some too. Injuries and broken bones, appendicitis, allergic reactions,... No way we'd have a 50% mortality rate just from childhood diseases these days. It didn't happen when I was a kid and things are much better now. That's just alarmism.
If people understood the risks of diseases, they would understand the blessings of vaccines. E.G. Many people seem to think that tetanus is contagious and not more risky than chicken pox. As you probably know, tetanus is contracted from wounds such as pricks while gardening. It is still >50% fatal. A person w/ tetanus experiences such severe muscle spasms that sometimes the back of their head can touch their heels -- causing spinal fractures.
Now let informed people make the choice. While most kids shake off chicken pox and measles there are many side effects & sequelae that are not pretty.
There is no scientific evidence that autism is secondary to vaccines.
Have you ever wondered if diet soda causes obesity? I notice that overweight folks prefer diet drinks therefore there must be a link.
We have to be careful what conclusions we draw.
Childhood diseases that are now preventable once used to spread a wide swath of death and destruction through this country, and they still do in the majority of the world. We're blessed to have the vaccinations that put a stop to this.
I didn't way there WAS, I said there's SUPPOSED to be. IF it's true, it's not much of a trade off.
Lets see, before, there was Typhoid Mary. So, do we call her Molly Measels????????
Ditto.
Do 1 in 1000 kids who are vaccinated die, as was the case with measles?
If that's the case, which is worse then? Mentally retarded or autistic?
Has the autism link been proven? How much actual evidence is there for it? And what's the incidence rate?
I had Scarlet fever as a child in the 50s. I don't know of anyone who's had this disease in at least 20 years. Do kids get it anymore? If not, why not? I don't recall my son getting a vaccine against it, but I could have forgotten.
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