Vaccines - scary....

[Suzie]

If you really want to scare the wits out of yourself about vaccines and what is in them, just read the introductory piece on the FM website (http://www.foodsmatter.com/infant_child/research/vaccines_townsend_letter.html) to an even longer and scarier piece in the Townsend Letter....
What happens if we are legally obliged to vaccinate our children?.....

[bridewolf]

just skimmed the first bit...........but overly concerned here.

we all take risks in life, and haveing seen , personally the effects in my family from such childhood illnesses, my kids have had the jabs.
even the egg allergic child.

we have to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages as a parent, but really, life is one big gamble.

i see the vast majority of kids alive and healthy today, and that is due , in part to inocculations, and also, am seeing the return of forgotten diseases, such as rickets, and tb in citys. measles is coming back........

[bridewolf]

sorry meant to say NOT overly concerned, typing with the kids bouncing around me!

[tcmbsmum]

I think this is a tricky one - but it has to be the parents decision with regards to whether you take the risk to either give your child something awful for life if you DO vaccinate or if you don't. Then there is the argument that you are irresponsibly returning the disease to society if you don't vaccinate your child, but again, this can be argued either way: if you don't vaccinate then your child may get the disease, and it won't infect the inoculated children, or, your child will allow the disease to mutate by carrying it and so pass a new strain.

But, really, as bridewolf says, life is one big gamble, and if there is anything we all know, it is that bacteria are FAR more powerful than we humans. SO it probably won't make much difference on a grand scale whether we vaccinate our kids or not, to whether strains of viruses and bacteria mutate!

My son will be up for his second round of MMR soon as he is about to turn three, and I still haven't made up my mind. But I am very grateful that he does not have a compromised immune system, and that I am wealthy enough to feed him fresh organic foods and some supplements (when he complies!). I remember my mum feeding me cod liver oil (disgusting) followed by a tablespoon of malt (yum!), which were almost the only extra things we needed thirty years ago (??) but now food seems to lack so much nutrition that we seem to need plenty of other stuff.

Plus (forgive me for going on so long), there is SO much pollution for our poor children these days, in the air, water, soil. If one thinks about it too much it becomes awfully depressing.

There is some good reading out there to help you make decisions, do have a look here: http://www.aneducateddecision.com/ This website will let you know what is really going on and keep you informed.

I'll let you know what my husband and I decide for our son.

tcmbsmum x

[John]

Hi tcmbsmum

This new article is worth reading while you make up your mind about the next MMR shot:

http://vaccinations.suite101.com/article.cfm/vaccination-controversy

PS. Since posting this, just a few hours ago, this article has completely 'disappeared' from the Suite 101 site, and the link now takes you to a page listing other articles on vaccination! I'm investigating, and will report back as soon as I can find out what has happened to this piece. This looks interesting...

[John]

THE ARTICLE THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO READ

As I suspected, the article I gave a link to, above, has been "pulled" - removed from the internet by an editor who was unhappy with its content. However, thanks to Suite 101's policy of allowing writers to post their own material online before it is seen by an editor, this piece was left on the web for a couple of days, during which I made a copy of it. So, now you can read what the Suite 101 editor doesn't want you to see, and you can make up your own mind about the likely reason for this decision.


Vaccination Controversy

Apr 26, 2010 Rachel Sadler

Medical professionals are continually revealing confronting statistics showing the darker reality of what vaccinations may actually do to your children.

Since the late 1800s it has become commonplace to vaccinate children from an early age. Noticeable declines in morbidity and mortality rates propelled vaccinations into a multi-million dollar health scheme supported by governments and healthcare experts around the world. However, there is a darker side to the consequences and residual effects of vaccinations that result in this preventative scheme emerging as an ever-growing enigma in healthcare.

The controversy surrounding vaccinations has continued to rise as scientists and medical experts have begun refuting the “advantageous” effects of vaccinations with alarming statistics of hospitalizations, life-altering side effects and deaths.

Statistics That Tell a Frightening Story:

(Dr Joseph Mercola 2010 "Vaccination Statistics” http://www.mercola.com/article/vaccines/statistics.html)

A 1992 study published in The American Journal of Epidemiology shows that children die at a rate 8 times greater than normal within three days after getting a DPT vaccination (a class of vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus).

Whilst the risks of getting the vaccine became increasingly pervasive, the effectiveness of the vaccine also came into question when a 1994 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that over 80% of children under 5 years of age who had contracted whooping cough had been fully vaccinated.

Similarly, a preliminary study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found children who received the HiB vaccine (to prevent a type of influenza)... were found to be 5 times more likely to contract the disease than children who had not received the vaccine.

A clear pattern in vaccination inefficiency has lead to more extensive investigation which has continued to reveal a similar horrifying reality. Alarmingly, the Sabin oral polio vaccine (OPV) is the only known cause of polio in the US today.

The Danger of Seasonal Flu Vaccinations:

In Australia, April 2010, National health authorities ordered doctors to stop giving seasonal flu vaccinations after a two-year-old girl died just twelve hours after receiving the vaccine and dozens of children suffered serious injuries including convulsions. (Suellen Hinde news.com April 2010)

This tragic death is on top of the mounting concern that the mercury in vaccinations is a direct cause of autism. Cases of autism have increased 1,500 per cent since 1991, when the number of childhood vaccinations (http://www.naturalnews.com/vaccinations.html) doubled; whereas one in every 2,500 children was diagnosed with autism before 1991, one in 166 children now have the disease.

Thimerosal is the preservative of choice for vaccine manufacturers and contains 49.6 per cent mercury by weight. (Dawn Prate 2005 “The great thimerosal cover-up”)

When it comes to whether or not to vaccination a child, the statistics would cause anyone to think twice. As early as the 1800s, adverse effects as serious as death were being recorded, yet vaccines were continually promoted.

The Gardasil Controversy:

The latest drug to burst through healthcare promotions is the revolutionary Cervical Cancer vaccine Gardasil. In Australia the vaccine was available free to girls between the ages of 12 and 26 for a period of two years.

Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the now controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15. (The Bulletin 2009)

A couple of years after the introduction of Gardasil, reports have revealed staggering statistics. The US Gardasil Reaction Report (June 2006-November 2008) revealed:

Total reports: 10,151
Life Threatening Cases: 152
Vaccinations resulting in Emergency Room: 5,021
Cases that did not recover: 2,017
Cases left disabled: 261
Total died: 29

The US Watchdog Network (2010) stresses that Gardasil will inject the Genetically ModifiedDNA of 4 Sexually Transmitted Diseases into your child and can increase a girl’s chance of getting cervical cancer by 52%.

As well as this, Dee Nicholson, National Communications Director for Freedom in Canadian Healthcare noted that "Gardasil contains polysorbate 80, also known as "Tween 80," which has been linked to infertility in mice."

Merck, the manufacturer bringing Gardasil to the market also made VIOXX, a vaccine that caused 27,000 heart attacks. (USA Watchdog Network 2010 http://deathbyvaccination.com/)

The problem is that people are fundamentally unaware, and the more research is invested into vaccinations, the more vaccines appear as an abundantly dangerous healthcare initiative thwarted by side effects and risk.

[tcmbsmum]

Well, yes, you see I absolutely agree! But whilst this all evidence is prevented from becoming mainstream news, it is very difficult to convince one's friends and family that getting some alternative immune strengthening methods for one's children is a good and sensible thing to do, as opposed to sending him into the nurse for a shot in the arm...

I feel like I am talking from the point of view of a real world mum, rather than a mum who has practice at being different! I mean it is hard enough defending the position not to feed my son cow's milk products, let alone the - shock horror! - decision not to vaccinate him... I feel in my gut that he should not have any more vaccines, but I am fighting the cowardice I feel at carrying out my feelings!

I suppose one must just get informed. I should buy an Educated Decision....

Confused of London.

[John]

You may find this article (http://www.townsendletter.com/Oct2007/vaccinate_null1007.htm) helpful, and perhaps want to make a few copies to give to anyone who questions your decision, if this is not to vaccinate. It's a very detailed three-part article which helps separate the facts from the myths about vaccination in general, and looks at all the main vaccines separately, in detail, including the MMR vaccine.

If you decide against vaccination, be prepared for medical professionals to try to dissuade you.

I remember, many years ago, having taken my young daughter to see our GP, and being in the middle of our consultation with him, when one of the nurses from the practice entered the room, hovered over my daughter and me and announced to the doctor, "This is the young lady who hasn't had her rubella jab!"

The doctor - one of the best I've known - said, "Thank you nurse," and waited for her to retreat, before saying to me, "She can always get the vaccination if and when when she becomes pregnant."

Clearly, the nurse had expected to have the doctor join her in ganging up on me, and this is probably what would have happened if this had been your average GP. They would have gone all out to try to persuade me to accept their 'professional' opinion.

In such an event, the parent's secret weapon is the Vaccine Consent Form (see below), which I recommend parents copy and print out, and present to any medical professional who tries to pressure them into vaccinating their child. The medics' confidence in the vaccine will almost certainly wither at the sight of this form, because they are rarely prepared to put their money where their mouth is.


VACCINE CONSENT FORM

CHILD'S NAME: .................................................. .................................................. .................

I give my consent for my child to be vaccinated with the .................................................. . vaccine(s) subject to the following conditions:

1. That the information which has been supplied is fully accurate both as to the safety and the efficacy of the vaccine.

2. That the doctor or nurse performing the vaccination, the Health Authority, the manufacturer of the vaccine and the Department of Health will accept full joint and several responsibility for any injury caused to my child as a result of the vaccine being administered.

3. That, in the event of any such injury being caused, my child will receive full compensation, assessed in accordance with the normal principles of English Tort Law.

If these conditions are not acceptable, the vaccination should not take place.

DATE: .................................................. ......................

SIGNED: .................................................. .................................................. .................. (Parent)

SIGNED: .................................................. ........... (Nurse, doctor or Health Authority representative)

[bridewolf]

my four children, including the allergic child , have all had jabs.

i am very happy with my choice.

i have seen the results of the severe end of these diseases, some in my family and some through my work.

am sure that these diseases will come back, and we will see more cases of children damaged by them. it will , of course effect my grandchildren's generation, ...........( the herd will no longer protect those children without the vacinations as it will no longer exist , and certainly in london, at this time, one third of children havent had some/or all jabs. measles outbreaks are back)

as for the kind gp who said that a woman could have the jab before she gets pregnant, well, a large proportion of the world is made up of surprise /unplanned pregnancy........

also am debating the worthiness of the idea that because you feed your child non dairy, and organic food is enough to stop disease and infection........seems a rather innocent view.
we have no idea how a illness may swing, or that a child who is recovering from a previous illness, then gets another infection, like measles, and so a mild case of measles is quickly severe.
i am certainly a woman who breastfed each of her children for years and gave them a good diet etc etc, but was never confinced that these choices would influence disease to that great a degree.




my cousin was brain damaged by whooping cough, and i can remember the noise, and the panic as the gaps without breathing got longer and longer......
her parents didnt give her the vacine because they were worried about the side effects.

[tcmbsmum]

It would be great to have some people tell us their stories of alternatives to vaccinating....

[John]

Have a look at this extremely good source of vaccine-specific information that can really help parents to make intelligent, informed decisions about which vaccines to administer to themselves and their family members. The National Vaccine Information Center (http://www.nvic.org/) is reputedly the best resource for vaccine safety and efficacy information on the internet and provides loads of objective unbiased information that you simply will not get from the media, the government, or your doctor.

I completely agree that vaccination really is a big deal, and I well remember the agonies that I went through myself when trying to decide whether or not to have my own children vaccinated. In principle, vaccination is a sound idea, but the safety of today's vaccines is a big problem.

Unfortunately, no-one is advocating for the patient in all of this, and the drug manufacturers are very much in control of vaccination. The medical profession, which should be rooting for the patient, is made up of practitioners trained exclusively in pharmaceutical medicine, and dependent on the pharmaceutical industry for information as well as for therapeutic products and funding for the vast majority of medical research. And the government is dependent on doctors and drug company representatives for all their advice on vaccination issues, so, ultimately, the vaccine manufacturers call the shots.

It has also to be remembered that vaccination is a huge money-spinner for the pharmaceutical industry. It is the great new frontier that has opened up their market exponentially by allowing them to target products at the well in addition to the sick. With every man, woman and child a potential customer for tens of vaccines each, some of which require additional booster doses, the Big Pharma executives are laughing every step of the way to the bank!

Whatever their carefully controlled hype may suggest, the drug companies are not in the slightest bit interested in the health of the world's population and are actively engaged in seeking, by various means - some of which are extremely devious - to discredit any alternative therapy that looks like it might actually work, and spending vast sums of money lobbying governments to get laws in place to restrict access to the so-called 'complementary and alternative' treatments that might potentially take sales way from their own products.

Information about all of this is available at Mercola.com (http://www.mercola.com/) and Natural News (http://www.naturalnews.com/index.html), both of which I recommend everyone, especially parents, subscribe to in order to keep up to date with how all of this impacts us on a daily basis as we try to maintain a reasonable degree of health in an increasingly challenging environment.

[tcmbsmum]

Had a dream last night that my mother-in-law told me I HAD to take my son to the clinic for his next vaccinations.... I'm not sure when the next lot are. Please can we have some stories of alternatives to vaccinations? Anyone?

[tcmbsmum]

I've just been reading back through this series of posts because I have just read the review of Heather Fraser's book 'the History of the Peanut Allergy Epidemic' (http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_intolerance/peanut_treenut/articles/history_peanut_allergy_epidemic.html).

I do feel that to generalise because of personal circumstance is rather dangerous. I know two people who suffered brain damage at birth - one was born in hospital, one at home, so I don't think there is necessarily any 'less' danger in giving birth at home....

Similarly, there are people who, in spite of vaccinations, contract diseases and suffer horribly. At the same time there are people who have vaccinations and avoid illnesses.

The point, I think, is really, at what price? What is the price we are paying for avoiding all these childhood illnesses? The starting age of vaccination was brought down from 2 years to within a few days of birth in the 1980s or 1990s. This difference in age is huge, when you think that humans develop hugely from birth until two years - especially the development of the immune system.

And one of the prices we are paying for avoiding childhood illnesses is the thousand-fold increase in peanut allergy. To live with peanut allergy, which I don't, must be an unimaginable burden for parent and child. To know that your child could die from encountering peanut dust, and yet having to let them go to school or go off to friends' houses and have a normal life must cause a huge psychological strain.

For a better description of all this, do read the blog of the editor of foods matter, it is much better written than I could ever write. But I really think that, even though I am aware of the benefits that childhood vaccinations have had, it may be time to stop and take stock of the motives behind major vaccination programmes, and possibly to lobby for a raising of the age of first vaccination.

Lastly, I would just like to say that I may well be naive and romantic, but that I know for sure that nutrition can go a very long way, much longer than most people realise, towards strengthening the immune system and helping children especially fight off infection. There is some interesting stuff on the importance of nutrition on the FM website too.

Thank you.

[John]

And don't forget the importance of vitamin D in preventing infection of all types. Whether or not a parent vaccinates their children, they will almost certainly be deficient in vitamin D and benefit hugely from taking a realistic amount of vitamin D3 as a supplement. The best source of information about this is the Vitamin D Council (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/).

Regarding anaphylaxis, whatever the cause of the huge increase in this condition, it can fortunately be both treated and prevented by helminths (http://autoimmunetherapies.com/candidate_diseases_for_helminthic_therapy_or_worm_ therapy/peanut_allergies_anaphylaxis.html).

Perhaps one day, when the population finally gets wise to the truth about vaccination and eventually rejects the toxic cocktails that pass for vaccines today, a more enlightened approach will include giving babies appropriate helminths, along with whatever bacteria are eventually found to be the most beneficial, to reinstate the natural inheritance of which they are currently being deprived as a result of caesarian births, bottle feeding and our general obsession with hygiene. See: Babies need friendly bugs (http://blog.autoimmunetherapies.com/gut_buddies/2010/06/26/babies-need-friendly-bugs/).

[Micki]

I never know what to advise when parents ask me about this tricky issue. It's SO hard. One thing I can say is that I personally used homeopathic travel vaccines for non-essential (ie can't get into a country without a certificate) ones. Homeopaths are well placed to advise on this I reckon. If you need to have them, they can often be offset with homeopathy or even NAET treatment to lower any potential damage. Worth a thought and a chat to a local practitioner at least.

[Franky]

Anyone with an interest in vaccines will want to read "The perversion of science for profit, politics and principle (http://www.foodsmatter.com/miscellaneous_articles/vaccinations/articles/bsem_perversion_science_2011.html)".

This provides a dissection of several vaccine issues in the form of a number of presentations given at the recent Spring conference of the British Society of Ecological Medicine.