Thank you so much Kittee, that means a lot coming from someone I respect so much. ♥

I agree! X

I love your post- I think you hit many ideas that I took into consideration. I still side a little with the idea that it should be the parents choice (because I think it gets more parents to give a second look at healthcare) but part of me still gets wrapped up with societal duties. I think it is slightly selfish for healthy kids opt out of vaccinations because some kids (in the US) can’t get vaccinations. There are some kids for various different reasons can’t be vaccinated because they are too sick at that time, or have severe allergies. These are the kids that should be protected by herd immunization.

Love this post! I also, as an expectant mother fretted over this decision, but ultimately came to the same decision as you. We as humans are in this together and it is my job to keep the children and adults who, for medical reasons, cannot get vaccinated. It is not about us, it is about them. Kinda like being an ethical vegan, it’s never about us, it’s about the animals. Bravo for writing this, and thank you!

“It seems to me that when it comes down to it, those who choose not to vaccinate their children are only able to exercise this privilege because the vast majority of people are providing herd immunity.”

I don’t believe for one second that the families who choose to protect their children from the potentially deadly consequences of vaccines are trying to somehow get by on “herd Immunity.” The families I know (and the ones I know best include a veterinarian and a scientist) did everything they could to make sure their children contracted those diseases so as to enhance their children’s immune systems and to confer lifetime immunity. They avoided vaccines because vaccines are inherently dangerous.

Sayward, I’m from a much older demographic than probably most of your readers. Like almost all my age cohort, I had both sets of measles, chicken pox and mumps; I’m grateful I did because the diseases confer true immunity. What’s more, the diseases are actually good for the immune system. http://www.vaccination.co.uk/questions/q10.htm

I don’t know one single person who had any bad effects from those benign childhood diseases, but I do know several families whose children are damaged for life because of the vaccines.

Here are some question I want answered:

if the vaccines are so effective, then why should anyone whose child has been vaccinated even care about non-vaccinated children?

if you believe the vaccines are so effective, please read this article http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1202865 about a mumps outbreak where most of those contracting the disease had been vaccinated. In contrast, I know of no one who had mumps that contracted it again.

As a scientist, do you realize that after one is vaccinated, one sheds the viruses, so the vaccines can cause “outbreaks”?

There are many, many problems with vaccinations. The questions I think are helpful are “How would I feel if my child contracted these diseases that have been around forever and are really minor, if uncomfortable? How would I feel if my child were one of the unlucky ones who is damaged for life by vaccines?”

I think every parent needs to read the pro-choice literature and keep in mind that the pharmaceutical companies have a lot to gain by making sure you’re terrified and pressured into vaccinating your children. But don’t forget that if your child is damaged, the vaccine producers have arranged their own immunity: immunity from being held accountable for the damage they cause.

Dr. Sears wrote a great post on fb recently exploring both sides. It’s long, but I believe answers questions others have left in their comments.

DR. BOB’S DAILY:

WHEN WE STOP LISTENING TO EACH OTHER, WE LOSE OUR HUMANITY

Why does the vaccine debate have to get so ugly? Why are some people on both sides of the issue so harsh to each other? Why can’t we all just get along? If the Beatles were still around, I’m sure they’d write a song. I don’t know if they’d call it “We All Live in Two Separate Submarines” or “Lucy in the Sky With Red Spots All Over.” Whatever it would be, the chorus would include “Everybody Calm the #$*@%!& Down.”

If both sides could calm down and start listening to each other, everybody would be able to get along. Now, I figure that 95% of the population probably doesn’t care. No, that’s not right. They care, but they are happy to leave well enough alone. Most will vaccinate, some won’t, and everybody simply chooses to love and respect each other. But such people are not vocal. They are the silent majority. It’s the vocal minority that stirs it up. Am I one of those? Ya, I guess. So, I’m writing to myself as well as to everyone else. But I’ve never called anyone names, except for stupid. I’m talking to all the pro-vaxers who get ugly and hateful in their comments, and the anti-vaxers who get hateful and ugly in their comments. If you all don’t start respecting each other, we’re not going to get anywhere.

Let me lay out a few talking points:

Those who are pro vaccine simply want one thing. Or rather, they don’t want one thing. Diseases. They don’t want measles (a disease that is virtually preventable with the MMR vaccine). They don’t want whooping cough (a disease that is mostly preventable with the DTaP vaccine). They don’t want chicken pox (a disease that is . . . OMG, do I really have to keep saying it . . . preventable with the Varicella vaccine). They don’t want the flu (not going to say it). They don’t want any of these diseases that are still around. And, even more importantly to them, they don’t want their babies who are too young to be vaccinated to get these diseases. AND, because vaccines aren’t 100% effective, they don’t want their vaccinated children to catch them either. Add to that the immunocompromised; nobody wants them to catch what would be a far more serious disease. Then, they don’t want diseases that have been eliminated, like polio and diphtheria, to return. It’s that simple.

So, when the anti-vaccination crowd doesn’t respect such ideas, it’s no wonder the pro-vaxers get pissed. Now, I’m pretty sure that the anti-vaxers don’t actually want pro-vaxers to get sick. They probably don’t want anyone to get seriously sick. They accept that there is a disease risk for their own children, but they can’t possibly wish it on anybody else.

How do anti-vaxers attack these goals? By claiming that vaccines don’t work. If vaccines don’t work, then all the pro-vaxer attempts at disease prevention are fruitless, and the anti-vaxers don’t pose any risk because the vaccines they didn’t get wouldn’t have helped anyway. This makes pro-vaxers understandably angry.

This is one of the most provocative areas of debate, but it’s one that I believe is improperly understood by one side. I firmly believe that vaccines do work. They do provide immunity. I do believe that vaccination is immunization. I don’t believe it’s perfect immunity, and neither does anybody else on the pro-vax side. Some vaccines provide a very high level of immunity, like 99%. Some really suck, like this year’s flu shot. DTaP vaccine is somewhere in between – maybe 85 to 90%, but it wanes quickly. To say that vaccines don’t work at all is incorrect, in my opinion.

What’s the number one argument that anti-vaxers put forth to demonstrate that vaccines don’t work? It’s the finding that in some outbreaks, more vaccinated people catch a disease than unvaccinated people. Conclusion? Vaccines don’t work. I look at it differently. If a vaccine is 80% effective, and 100 people are exposed to a very contagious disease, and 95% of the people are vaccinated, then what’s going to happen? 3 or 4 out of the 5 unvaxed will catch it. Maybe even just 1 or 2. And about 19 of the vaccinated people will catch it. This happens all the time. Does it mean the vaccine doesn’t work? No. It means the vaccine isn’t perfect, but it still prevented about 80 people from catching it, then spreading it around to hundreds of others. And if it’s a vaccine that 99% effective, that’s even better. But what’s tough is that some vaccines wear off quickly, within just a few years, as is the case with the whooping cough portion of the DTaP. Many 4 to 5 year olds are susceptible before they get the booster, and many 8 to 11 year olds even more so. That doesn’t mean the vaccine doesn’t work well for a couple to three years after the initial series and each booster. To say that vaccines don’t work doesn’t accomplish anything useful, in my opinion. I’ve studied so much data that show vaccines work, and I am convinced. That’s why I offer them in my office. If I didn’t think they worked, I wouldn’t bother.

I know that some anti-vaxers will still hold to the belief that vaccines don’t work, but I think such non-believers are the minority. I’m not saying you are bad people in any way. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with you as people to believe that. I’m simply saying that I don’t agree with you.

Now, on another note, I think that most anti-vaxers do believe vaccines work. They aren’t willing to risk the side effects, but they do acknowledge that they at least work. These believers would point out to all vaxers that “Hey, your kids are safe, or at least as safe as the vaccine’s effectiveness is. If MY kid catches a disease that your child is vaccinated against, your child is probably going to be fine.” This assurance isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we have.

I know that this doesn’t protect those too young to be vaccinated, and that these little ones can catch the disease from a sick unvaxed person (as well as a sick vaxed person in whom the vax didn’t work). That’s scary, and it’s especially tragic when it results in a fatality or permanent disability.

What makes the vaxers angry is when the non-vaxers say “Hey, you have nothing to worry about because our kids can’t make your kids sick.” They can, in one of the above scenarios. Non-vaxers shouldn’t claim otherwise. By at least acknowledging this, you might make the vaxers less angry at you. AND, other than the infants and the immunocompromised, almost all vaxers can rely on their immunity. You are all pretty well protected. Not perfectly, but well enough that you should be able to live life without fear.

Now for the other side, because there are always two sides. How do the non-vaxers feel? It’s probably more correct to call them non-vaxers than anti, as many of them get some vaccines, or are not opposed to them but just want them to be safer. I think that their number one issue is this: They want a choice. They don’t want to be forced into a medical treatment they are not comfortable with. That’s probably the number one freedom that they want preserved. IF vaccines were 100% harmless to every single person that got them, I think that we could insist on vaccination. BUT because they are not, because occasional severe and even fatal vaccine reactions do happen, it is unethical to force them on anyone. Yes, I know they are safe for MOST people, but not for all.

And this is an issue that creates so much discord. Back in the 70s and 80s, when severe (but rare) vaccine reactions began to be reported, victims were crying out for help and no one was listening. The medical community was in complete denial that severe vaccine reactions were even possible. These victims were ignored. A generation of doctors were trained that severe vaccine reactions can’t happen. So, it’s taken many many years, but now almost everyone in the medical community agrees that they CAN happen. They aren’t common, but they can happen. They are still some naysayers, however, who use pseudoscience to demonstrate that those who have severe vaccine reactions have genetic problems which would have eventually caused the same problems anyway, given time. The vaccine just happened to trigger the problem sooner, or triggered it coincidentally. Yet the vaccine isn’t the cause. So, these naysayers continue to make victims and their families angry and up in arms. Those doctors are the minority, but they are a vocal minority, and families are worried that more and more doctors will once again believe that severe vaccine reactions can’t happen. And, will that lead to forced universal vaccination? Such parents are worried it will. So, families who feel their children are victims of a vaccine reaction will continue to be very vocal, as they should be. As long as the right to choose is threatened, which it currently is in the back rooms of the legislatures in most states, vocal anti-vax parents will continue to fight back.

How can pro-vaxers respond? Acknowledge that bad vaccine reactions can happen, that’s how. Stop trying to tell these parents and their children they are wrong. Have a little empathy. It didn’t happen to your child, but it did happen to someone’s. Have a heart. I know that the pro-vax vocal minority won’t, but all the rest of the quiet, majority vaxers certainly can. And you can get louder about it.

Anti-vaxers and non-vaxers can reciprocate by acknowledging that the diseases can kill and maim as well. It, too, is uncommon. Yet it happens.

What else do non-vaxers want? They don’t want to be discriminated against. They want to be able to attend school if they want (if not sick, of course). They want their children to be able to play with the vaxer’s children. They don’t want it to even be an issue that affects social and family life. And non-vaxers don’t want their pro-vaxer relatives to give them such a hard time.

And the vaxers want the non-vaxers to stay home if exposed to a contagious disease, as we are seeing happen with measles (a disease which is preventable with the MMR vaccine). And they should. I think it IS a non-vaxers responsibility to accept a quarantine if exposed to a disease that other people don’t want to catch. It sucks to have to miss school and work, but I kind of think that non-vaxers sign up for that when they make that choice. This would help reduce the spread of the very diseases that the vaxers are trying to prevent, and they’d thank you for it. Vaxers who are exposed generally aren’t required to quarantine, but if they actually do develop symptoms, then of course they would stay home too.

I think that non-vaxers also want health care. They want to be able to go to the doctor without being read the riot act every time. Read them the riot act once, then move on. They don’t want to have to call 10 different pediatricians just to find one who isn’t prejudiced against their kind. This trend is actually going in the wrong direction; instead of become more understanding, more pediatricians in my area are discriminating against these people compared to a few years ago.

A final bit of food for thought. Let’s talk about rights. Which right is more important, the right to not get sick with a disease or the right to make health care decisions for yourself and your child? The way I see it, the diseases were here first. They are ubiquitous to our world. Whether created by God or by evolution, they are here. They are the status quo. Because we have invented a medical treatment to try to change the status quo, yet that treatment can cause harm to a very small percentage of people, it is my belief that we shouldn’t force anyone into accepting this treatment. Life happens, death happens. It’s terribly tragic when death happens before it’s time. Nobody wants anyone to die. And no one wants their child to suffer a severe vaccine reaction. So, it is my opinion that ethically speaking, we must give precedence to what the status quo was or is, that diseases exist and cause some casualties, and those who decide they want to take part in the disease prevention can enter into vaccinations by their own free choice.

I know, I know, pro-vaxers will say that anyone who doesn’t vaccinate is benefiting from all those who do, and I agree. They will go on to say that it’s not fair that most people accept the risk of vaccines in order to be protected from the diseases, for the good of society. To that, I will answer, “Wait, you are saying that most people will accept the WHAT of WHAT? The risk of vaccines? But wait, there is no risk, right? That’s what you’ve been preaching. So, if there’s no risk to vaccines, then there’s no problem if you get them for your child and another family doesn’t. Your child is protected.”

Either there’s NO risk to vaccinating, so you can’t bring up such a point, OR, there IS risk to vaccinating and that’s the very thing that anti-vaxers are trying to get across in the first place. Pro-vaxers can’t make both points.

Bottom Line: Because there will always be those who don’t vaccinate, we’d better figure out a way to get along and love each other, because there’s only one planet (for now). Mars colony is a long time away.

I love to write things that are funny, fun, controversial, fun, stupid, pointless, fun, and funny. I hate it when I have to get serious. I want to get back to writing stupid stories about funny people in my office. But this is a serious issue, one that isn’t going away, and one in which nobody seems to be making any progress toward reaching an understanding. The answer won’t be to make everyone vaccinate, neither should the answer be to allow diseases to run rampant and kill people left and right. The answer needs to be somewhere in the middle, and it needs to include love, understanding, and calm-headed people who will actually stop and listen to each other.

Taking tomorrow off.

Dr. Bob

I’m glad you stress the idea of community here because that’s always what I get a sense of as lacking in the debate. I always use the line from Seinfeld “we are living in a SOCIETY!!” It applies in so many situations, including the vaccination debate.

I don’t have any (human) children but I enjoyed reading your thoughtful post. Really I just wanted to comment and say Waits is so freaking adorable, squeee! How did you even with those eyebrows?

WELP NOW I AM CRYING SO THAT’S GREAT. But like, in the best way, because opening this post I was SO NERVOUS about one of my favorite bloggers, the only blog I’ve followed since I was a wee college undergrad 6 years ago (wat), could be one of those people that hurts my heart and puts my health at risk by not vaccinating.I have so many feels around vaccines, as someone who is immunocompromised and could just be mowed down by some of these illnesses, as well as someone who’s disabled and honestly terrified of parents who would rather have their kid get measles than be nueroatypical.

Thank you for this beautiful post, for detailing your journey as a mama, and for the deeper reasoning resonates with my heart so much. I’m very grateful for everything you write, Sayward. Please post a million pictures of you and your adorable family exploring one of the happiest places on earth. <3

Hands down…best blog I have ever read concerning vaccinations. Honest, insightful….loved it!

“That said, we do know that there are serious risks associated with vaccines, and I’m not talking about friggin’ autism here. I mean seizures, Guillain-Barre syndrome, intussusception (where the intestine ‘telescopes’ in on itself), nerve dysfunction, etc, are all noted on the vaccine inserts, which are written by the manufacturers themselves. This is not hysteria or conspiracy theory. This is coming straight from the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccines.”
Exactly! Thank you for bringing that up! Most conversations don’t mention the other (very real) risks. We ended up vaccinating our daughter, but we didn’t start until she was 3 because we were so conflicted. The Vaccine Book also helped with our decision…that, and preschool…man, the first year of preschool was brutal! I think she was sick at least once a month!

funny, i decided to NOT vax after reading dr. sears (plus a host of other publications). and don’t bother with the oil of oregeno, etc. if you’ve vax’d- unfortunately once your body is working out toxins those methods for surviving cold/flu season are made less potent. :( in the end, your child will shed live virus from vaccines—- passing on to others for a few weeks even. the preservatives in the vax is the most awful for our bodies- being linked to leukemia, etc. BUT- usually no one thinks about that because it will happen years down the road and then you can blame it on some other environmental factor. Good luck!

Thank you so much for writing this. I respect you tremendously as a person and as a scientist and as a mother.

Fantastic Post, Loved it. My thoughts exactly.

You articulated all of these important points especially well, in a logical, rational, calm, intelligent way, that wasn’t insensitive to the other side. There is way too much polarization on both sides of this issue. Everyone is just arguing but no one’s message is being heard.

I don’t have any children myself, but if I did, I would vaccinate them. I’ve read Sears book, and three others on the topic – a pro vax book, an anti-vax book and another neutral book – and that’s the conclusion I came to

Thanks for this post!

Cara, I have not idea what “older generation” you belong to, but measles, German measles, chicken pox and whooping cough are not “benign diseases” and never have been! Perhaps you don’t remember all the babies born in the late 1960s to mothers who contracted German measles during their pregnancies and the birth defects that those babies had. Perhaps you have never seen a child with a fever and hallucinations from measles — I saw that when my brother had the measles. There can also be life-long complications from chicken pox. Whooping cough can be deadly if it gets into the child’s lungs.

Thank you for writing this, this is the most balanced, helpful perspective I’ve heard so far and it is so important. It has been unbelievable to see how mean and ugly people have gotten about this issue so quickly, this is a lovely balm to soothe attempt to sooth the imflammation <3

I freaking love you, man.
That’s all.

I thought this was a thoughtful, admirable post. Also, I am a relatively new follower and ohhhhhh my goodness, baby Waits! Those ‘brows! Wow!

Copying and posting this under Cara’s post so that she will see your response. Thanks NotEvelyn!

I understand that vaccine-skeptics sincerely believe that they are not relying on herd immunity, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are.

I guess it comes down to (and please, let’s be intellectually honest) – do you think more children would die or be hurt if NOBODY got vaccinated (so children dying/injured from disease), or do you think that more children would die or be hurt from EVERYBODY getting vaccinated (so children dying/injured from vaccines)?

If nobody got vaccinated, and if there was NO herd immunity . . . think about that. The death rate from measles alone is 1-2 per 1000 cases. That’s incredibly high if every child in America is exposed to measles and unprotected!

But there are dozens of thousands of vaccinations given *every day* in America. And there aren’t children dying from vaccine-related complications every day.

I’m not saying that vaccines don’t carry risks. They do! And I hate that pro-vaxers pretend that vaccines are “perfectly safe” – the words of the doctor talking about vaccinations on NPR this morning. That’s bullshit!

But it’s also disingenuous to pretend that measles are “no big deal”. That polio isn’t actually *thisclose* to making a come back in some of these low-vaccination-rate communities.

MMR might hurt people, but NOT as many people as measles, mumps, and rubella would hurt if nobody was vaccinating. And that’s just the truth (math + science).

And the fact that vaccine-skeptics can opt out of their risk and pretend that there’s no real danger from these diseases? That these diseases are “really minor, if uncomfortable”? Well, to me that’s just intellectual dishonesty.

Clearly we disagree, and that’s fine. I appreciate your well-articulated and respectful comment.

As I wrote, every child in my school (I was born in1958) had those diseases and I know not one who was damaged. Not so for the vaccines for those diseases; as I wrote, I know several children who were damaged for life from vaccines.

How dangerous can those diseases be in comparison if I, at 56, know no one with any damage from them and know more than a few people whose children were permanently and severely hurt by the vaccines. My research shows that most problems from the diseases are due to poor nutrition.

My mother had German measles when pregnant with me. Had she had them when she was a child, she would have been immune. I am immune because I had them as a child. The vaccines don’t confer immunity, so the best thing you can do is let your child get the mumps, measles & chicken pox. This is what many parents who don’t vaccinate do. Do you think a high fever is as bad as a life-time of brain damage?

I remember each of those illnesses & yes, they were uncomfortable and unpleasant, but I’m very grateful I was not vaccinated against them.

Parents may be interested in these articles that discuss how allowing your child to be exposed helps their immune systems in the long run and that vaccines may be connected with lack of immunity

http://www.chiro.org/Immunity/

http://www.vaccination.co.uk/questions/q10.htm

For those who won;t check out the links, here’s one paper: Measles Virus Infection Without Rash Leads To Disease
In Adult Life. Lancet 5 January 1985 Renne, T (Department
of Epidemiology State Serum Institute, Copenhagen,
Denmark). The author of this study found that measles
vaccination in childhood was related to the following
diseases in adult life: “immunoreactive diseases,
sebaceous skin diseases, degenerative diseases of
bone and cartilage, and certain tumors.”

I submit that the disease are far less dangerous than the vaccines and that if you do some research you’ll find that the incidences of the were going down before the vaccines were invented http://vaccineliberationarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Immunization-Graphs-Complete.pdf

In any case, I’m finished. It’s disappointing that it seems most on here have succumbed to the fear-mongering & propaganda.

Thank you for so eloquently writing my feelings on this debate. As a society, we are responsible for shouldering burdens for those who cannot, protecting those who cannot protect themselves. I do not have children yet, but faced with the same duality (scientist/hippie) you have, I know I will vaccinate my children (albeit on a delayed schedule).

THANK YOU for giving a ‘middle ground’ response to this. While I would LOVE to believe that we would be better off without vaccines, and there is no doubt that they DO sometimes cause problems, I truely believe that we are better as a community WITH them. I also LOVE the idea that you chose and alternate schedule and hope that you will talk more on that in a future post. Bravo for sticking your neck out on this controversial subject!

I must say I’m surprised at this post.

I’m a scientist too, and a father of two. I specialise in climate science and have been in this field for nigh on 15 years. Not that I’m saying that a grad student doesn’t qualify to research science! I’m just trying to validate my argument here (and feel free to email me to discuss it further if you wish to do so).

We had ‘chemtrails’ protesters outside my workplace recently and they were also climate deniers. We invited them in to speak with them about their concerns but their paranoia and anxiety made sensible discussion impossible. When they mentioned us funding ‘mind control’, there was really nothing left for us to say. It was not a reasoned debate. The same thing seems to happen with arguments about vaccination, as you say, but from what I have seen the most extreme views come from the more paranoid, anxious side of the debate: those who fear vaccinations, and those who wish to profit from that fear. E.g. See: http://www.inquisitr.com/1821059/anti-vaccine-doctor-jack-wolfson-didnt-care-if-his-kid-infected-yours-now-hes-under-investigation/

The thing is, it doesn’t really matter what these people say, because, in the instance of my field for example, our children will be dealing with the effects of human-made climate change regardless what a few people believe about it.

The same goes for vaccines.

When outbreaks of dangerous diseases occur, some people will die. Some of these people will be healthy individuals, others will be those with weak immune systems or infants who are too young to have the boosters required for maximum immunity from these diseases. Why isn’t there a soaring death rate in America right now then? Because of medical intervention. How many of these children who have measles are being given fermented foods and raw foods at home and being healed that way? They’re not. They go into hospital, they go into quarantine, and their parents consent to this when they see the severity of the disease. Also, your information may be somewhat out of date, because most of the parents who are against vaccination have been found to be concerned about the supposed autism link, which as you say has been disproved many times.

Not to mention the suffering that child will go through, the ‘chemicals’, drugs and treatments s/he is given in hospital. It’s ironic that these are often the reasons that parents wish to avoid the vaccines in the first place. No one cares about side effects from treating mumps or rubella what the alternative is that the child may day.

If these diseases could be treated at home with a guaranteed success rate, there would not be high death tolls and complications arising from the epidemics that occurred before we had the vaccines. Some children do come through these diseases fine, but some do not, and even a child who seems well to a parent can suddenly take a turn for the worst.. If you haven’t read Roald Dahl’s plea regarding this after his daughter died from measles, please do: https://roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/timeline/1960s/november-1962

His daughter was otherwise perfectly healthy, before contracting and dying of measles. How sad that his plea is still so relevant today.

What you have omitted from your post, and what Dr Sears omitted from his book, is that if vaccines carry a very *small* risk, and if the proposed choice is about hedging your bets, as many people believe it is, then the winning bet for minimal risk is to vaccinate. Please don’t take my word for this, but look up the statistics that prove it. Yes, there is a small (much, much smaller than you suggest in your post*) chance of serious and mild side effects from vaccines, and no one is pretending differently which is, as you say, why you can read about these side effects in package inserts (just as you can for any medication you take for anything, ever, which all carry risks of side effects). But highly infectious diseases like measles, polio, etc, carry far higher risks of complications. Look up the statistics and see for yourself. To not vaccinate and risk infection is a hug gamble with a child’s health, no matter how healthy he or she appears to be.

*I say this because the evidence shows that allergic reactions are listed as side effects but equally a child can be allergic to food like soy, nuts, even bananas.. So this is not to do with supposed ‘hidden chemicals’ in vaccines but to do with allergic history that runs in families. It does not apply to all children, but to specific risk groups, which scientists are getting better at identifying. Children who are identified as allergic beforehand are told not to get the vaccinations. They don’t get to go to Disneyland this year.

I will also add here that delayed vaccination is not recommended here in the UK: in fact with some vaccinations, e.g. the MMR jab, the longer you leave it the more the risk of side effects increase! This is not hidden information and easy enough to find online. This is perhaps why many of the most anxious parents who choose alternative vaccine schedules actually end up causing the very symptoms they were afraid of, which only propels their fear of vaccines further.

One of your commentors advocates natural immunity from measles, but this only works when everyone in a population contracts measles. When this happened in the past, all those who could not fend it off, died. That’s why the vaccine was created, to reduce death rates, and it has done so. So yes, we could allow measles, polio, whooping cough etc to resurface, and allow the ‘weakest’ to die. But we don’t condone this as a society, because it’s akin to saying that we should let elderly people and the weaker babies (e.g. premature babies) die in infancy. Without modern medicine there would be no hope for them at all today.

In terms of risks, consider it this way. Statistics show that you are more likely to die or become injured in a car crash than from a vaccine – any vaccine. Please look this up and see for yourself. This is what the evidence says, all opinions and arguments aside. But are you going to stop driving? Am I? I often take my children in the car. I also make sure they are up to date with their vaccinations. The second option is the far less risky one of the two. Yet no one is about to stop driving based on this evidence.

So this leads us to my final point, which pertains to the reasons for having these vaccines. Any anti-vaccinator is basically arguing that driving is necessary and unavoidable, while vaccines are unnecessary. Again, I urge anyone interested in this topic to look up the statistics behind car accidents, death tolls, and arising complications i.e. physical injuries and psychological damage. By anti-vaccination logic, we should not be driving either.

If only the anti-vaccinators put their energy into safer roads for our children, the world wold be a better place than it is. Putting immuno-compromised children, infants, the elderly, and those allergic to vaccine ingredients at risk is not fair to anyone. And it is not a ‘personal’ choice, but one that, as you say, impacts the entire community, and in the case of an epidemic which we may be in the thores of with measles in the US, it could be a global problem.

In countries that are still ravaged by, for example, polio, citizens are crying out for vaccines. It’s our evolutionary imperative to fear for our children and want the best for them. To fear a poisonous snake or an infectious disease makes sense. But in the absence of these fears, some people become afraid of illogical things like vaccines, chemtrails, etc.

I only hope that there is no death toll from the current measles outbreak in America, and I thank the medical profession for treating the effected children as best they can at this time.

Before I had children I made the decision to vaccinate, and before my son was old enough to vaccinate ( 2 months old) he got sick. Really sick. We took him to the local hospital and they put him in a croup tent. He kept getting sicker. I begged the doctors to transfer him to Cabel Huntiongton hospital ASAP. They refused and said they would call the cops if I tried to take him. He was dying before my eyes. My mom came to visit with her large purse with blankets. I unhooked him ( I was a nursing major) and put him in her purse, and she ran with him. We took separate cars in case the cops were called. I arrived 10 minutes after her and he was already being hooked up to the ventilator. They knew right away he had pertussis (whooping cough). My son spent over 6 weeks in a coma on life support. His lungs collapsed and he caught E. coli. He had a port, IVs in his head and a feeding tube. They told me he probably would not wake up. But then he did. He still had a long fight and he beat pertussis. This was in 2004 when vaccines and autism hand not been debunked. I would rather have a child with autism than a dead child anyday. Mom instincts told me to vaccinate and I stand by my choices. We chose not to vaccinate against chicken pox or the flu though, it’s weighing the risks and the rewards. Choose wisely my friends.