The vaccination decision February 27, 2008
I was interested to read via this post from MamaTried that the government has quietly conceded a vaccination-autism link in at least one case. Thedetails are sealed, as are all cases that pass thru the special “vaccination court” that hears vaccine injury cases outside our general court system.
(For the record: C. is fully vaccinated, H. is fully vaccinated and J. and E. are partially vaccinated. Decisions were made on a child-by-child basis. E. didn’t start his vaccines ’til he was one year old.)
Meh. Courts are lousy adjudicators of scientific facts, and since the case is sealed we don’t know why the government conceded the case.
Here’s an AP story WBIR.com ran on a published study that found that autism rates in California continued to rise even after Thimerasol use was discontinued.
Yes thirmerisol was taken out of the new vaccines made but not removed from shelves and many are still being used today.
I don’t have any of my own, but I am a lover of children and a staunch supporter of parents who choose to go against the grain in raising their little ones.
This scares the living shit out of me, frankly. Those poor little fractured souls.
Thanks for sharing this. Vaccinations have been a very stressful area for us over the years. I agree with Laura that this is a decision to be made by each parent for his or her own child. Our pediatrician disagreed, and kicked us out of the practice for DELAYING vaccines, even though the AAP recommends against such an action.
There are all types of attitudes from doctors too, my doctor told me the unvaxed kids in his practice were healthier overall, and if they were breastfed and not in daycare, their chances of getting seriously ill were very small. The chance of a vaccine reaction would actually be higher.
After reading Canadian research, it appears as though the timing of the vaccinations could be problematic for increasing other illnesses in later life.
Researchers found that by delaying the injections on mice by a month or two, the mice were not as probable to develop illnesses such as diabetes and myelin based illnesses such as MS.
I find it very interesting that a lot of the women who develop MS seem to show symptoms at the same general time in their lives. I can’t help but think that it could have something to do with the vaccination schedule.
There also appears to be a corrolation between herpes strains and MS- such as German measels, chicken pox, etc. So, a patient could have a plate agglutination (serological test) bump positive for a herpes virus yet when a PCR test is done they are negative.
While there may also be genetic and environmental reasonings for the progression of MS it just all seems to also have something to do with the vaccinations.
It may not be what, but more a question of when the vaccinations are administered.
It would be a difficult decision to decide whether or not to proceed with childhood vaccinations. I know that I was vaccinated against Rubella (German measels) as an infant, had a slight outbreak (two or three spots), had a booster and then had to have the vaccination again before I went off to college.
Basically, I have three times the suggested amount of antibodies and that cannot be a good thing.
my aunt had MS and she was born quite a bit before any babies got vaccinated. If she had lived I believe she would be over ninety. MS has a much higher prevalence in coolish climates. I doubt that correlates well with vaccination rates. I live in a part of the country which has one of the highest rates of MS in the entire world. There are also a lot of people up here who don’t believe in vaccinating their kids. Their reasons range all the way from health concerns right on up to thinking the government is secretly microchipping us all along with the vaccines. So what if they all get ill at the same age. MOST diseases present at a “typical” age. Clearly this theory does not hold water.
Well of COURSE unvaxxed kids stand very little chance of getting sick. Most everyone else around them is vaccinated so the reservoir of infection is much lower than in say, subSahara Africa. I’ll tell you what scares the living shit out of me: if tons and tons of parents take this no vaxxing stuff to heart and stop vaccinating their kids AT ALL. Obviously all these fearmongers are too young to remember people in iron lungs from polio and kids regularly dying from childhood diseases that many people have never even seen. THe death and disfigurement rates were MUCH higher from these diseases than any of the things that some claim to be caused by vaccines. There are conflicting studies on both sides of this. MOST seem to point to no link. ONE pops up that shows maybe a link and out they come from the woodwork. Lets just say its possible that some cases of autism and SIDS MIGHT be caused by vaccines in prone individuals. Which is not totally farfetched. Would it not be saner to pour research into finding ways to identify these people before the fact rather than fomenting mass hysteria which could result in something far far worse than a few isolated cases of autism here and there? Epidemics kill MILLIONS. Polio alone probably devasted many many many more than are autistic. It is also of note that some of the explosion of “autism diagnoses” can possibly be attributed to the inclusion of high functioning autistics and Aspergers. Which a hundred years ago, would simply be seen as “weirdos” You do know that Bill Gates is considered “Aspergers” don’t you? It seems these days anyone who doesn’t fit into a box now has a “diagnosis”. This must be considered when contemplating statistics. I am very very skeptical of the link here. People want something to blame…they can’t accept that sometimes things go wrong and no one knows why. I am really afraid that uneducated, uninformed people could draw unwarrented conclusions because they do not have the resources to put this into a bigger picture.
Leigh,
MS has been around for centuries. It was first described in the Middle Ages and the first documented autopy which described the characteristic plaques was from 1838.
If you had read my post a bit closer you would have realized that I was not specifically stating that vaccination causes MS rather that the time the vaccination was given may be a critical piece of information in determining some of the pre-causes of the disease.
If children born from 1965-1970 had the same suggested vaccination schedules and some of their young systems were not able to handle the vaccination add that to possible genetic factors along with environmental ones this could produce a pattern of exhibiting factors that would parallel a general time for symptoms to be expressed.
As a child of an internationally recognized Medical Microbiologist (who was also with CDC) and personally as a virologist and microbiologist with a private vaccine company for eight years I’ll be sure to tell them that “Clearly this theory does not hold water.”
And, as a person who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 27, I believe you will understand why I respectfully disagree with your opinion.
I also hope your Aunt did not have to suffer with her illness.
My two month old twins are supposed to get their vaccinations next week. We plan on fully vaccinating them, but probably stretching the schedule out. The recommended 5 at once seems a little much for a two year old.
I’d be curious to hear your reasoning if you want to share it Katie.
you know what: anyone can parade around the professional respect thing. I have a former associate who recently died of cancer. She was opposed to chemo because “the doctors and drug companies are trying to kill us” So she went to this bozo in Texas who also claimed to be a “respected member of the medical profession” She is now dead from what I believe is a side effect of his “well researched nontoxic treatment” and as far as I know they still are using her as a “success story”. Anyone can theorize about something because we as human beings like to be in control, know the cause, know why some bad thing happened, that it wasn’t just random. As for the age of onset…maybe it means something, maybe it doesn’t. So what. Maybe its just the age that something tends to develop. I know with different kinds of cancers a lot of them have a particular age range they manifest in most of the time. It doesn’t mean a thing about the “trigger”. It just means that’s when it shows up and there isn’t any deeper meaning than that. I have heard a lot of theories about MS based on where i live. So far they still can’t figure it out. They just don’t know. Every few years someone comes up with a theory, something in the soil, a nearby plant, even the ethnic background of people in the area. Anything that is somehow different. Every theory is shot down. Some things we just do not know. And what if they do find out that in prone people there is a “trigger” and what if it turns out to be something none of us can avoid? Then what. I don’t think it is implausable that vaccines could trigger some things in a very small number of individuals, however the usual response to this is for uneducated parents to decide that the “shots aren’t worth the risk cause my kid isn’t gonna catch it anyway” Uh, yeah…your kid probably won’t catch it because everyone else’s kids are vaccinated. But what if en masse the anti vaccine crowd succeeds in scaring a majority of American parents away from vaccinating their children? Suddenly those kids WILL be getting sick and dying in far far greater numbers than the handful that have adverse reactions. It would seem far more prudent to use any information uncovered to target kids that should skip some or perhaps all vaccines and they will still reap the benefits of the neighbors kids having had their shots. Instead of just feeding mass hysteria and drug company conspiracy theories.
I would like to add; I forgot to mention this…ANYTHING that goes in your body can cause a reaction in some people. The point of this is that its RARE. And something RARE does not nullify the fact that for ninety nine point nine percent of us out there it is a good thing. It just means to use caution and yes, find out those who are more likely to have a reaction and protect them. But don’t keep something so potentially beneficial from the vast majority who will benefit. Did you know that there is this thing called Stevens Johnson syndrome that can kill you or leave you seriously damaged or blind???? It is a reaction to various drugs including sulfa drugs, ibuprofen and antibiotics. Does this mean that we pull these drugs from the market? My son broke out in a horrible rash all over his body the first time he had amoxycillin. I was told not to ever give it to him again because they just didn’t know if it was a one time thing or if he would react worse. Does that mean I should tell all my friends that amoxycillin is evil and they better not give it to their kids no matter what? No. Part of why I think doctors get so reactionary about the vaccine thing is the lack of intelligent discussion about it. Its all or nothing. either no one reacts ever ever ever or else its all a big conspiracy and the drug companies are knowingly killing our kids with vaccines. Please. It is not far fetched that there are a small number of people who can have a bad reaction. But it the hysteria could die down and the accusations and the conspiracy theories, maybe the medical establishment would be more forthcoming with research to pinpoint kids likely to not respond well. But I think the current witchhunt atmosphere around this issue puts them on the defense. If they say even one thing that a tiny minority of people could have a reaction, then they will probably be sued up the yin yang. So of course they are listening to their lawyers instead of really researching this. Do you blame them? Here is another case in point: local news story on a SIDS “cluster”. Well, all the kids died within days of their shots. I am sure you can imagine the outcry when a local news station covered this. What was not mentioned was that in at least one case, the home was filled with human chimneys puffing away. i don’t know about the others. However smoking is DEFINATELY a risk factor but they are making this big stink about the shots. No one wants to say, I smoked around my baby (or my grandbaby or niece or friends baby) and they got SIDS and it may not have happened if I had tried harder to quit. It is however, relatively easy to blame a large multimillion dollar company and/or the government with conspiring to cover up something without which my baby would not have died.
W–I really suggest reading The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears before starting vaccinations. I feel like it is a very ‘fair and balanced’ book (many anti-vax people think it is ‘pro-vax’ actually even though it part of the reason we decided to delay the MMR and did a schedule where we did some vaccine only appointments in order to avoid too many antigens at one time) and even if you do plan to follow the ‘regular schedule’ at least you will know why you want to do so! If you are breastfeeding also your baby is protected in many ways so there is no rush to get them all in quickly. We followed/are following a ‘relaxed’ schedule and did not do all the recommended vaccines with our 1 year old. I agree that it is a personal decision you have to make for your child and situation. The book also offers advice on vitamins and supplements you can do before your baby is immunized to help reduce possible side effects. Obviously, I highly recommend it!!