My son had whooping cough and it was anything but benign. 6 weeks in a coma and on a ventilator, doctors told us the outlook was not good. He spent a total of 3 months in the hospital, picking up nosocomial diseases along the way. He was 2 months old at the time. He was one of the lucky ones to pull through, for a lot of infants it’s fatal.

I’m afraid you’ve completely misunderstood the science of vaccine shedding, which is completely different to transmission of an actual disease. Here’s how it actually works (using flu as an example):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18174020

That’s because the risks are small compared with other things, eg driving puts your child at a higher risk of death or injury.. Look up the statistics and see for yourself.

Sigh. I have been such a big fan of yours and have suggested your blog to so many. I started out as a blindly vaccinating parent and many events (too much to go into here) led me farther and farther into my own research instead of that blind trust I gave the government/medical establishment when my first babies were born — hundreds of hours spent reading medical journals, books, CDC pages, news reports from other countries about vaccine injuries (other countries are much more open about vaccine risks, deaths and injuries than the U.S.) and so on (here are many to start if anybody is interested https://www.pinterest.com/magicandmayhem/vaccine-research/). I am glad for you if you and your children are not vaccine injured or not yet showing signs of injury, but I can’t hang around any more blogs that express these sentiments. I wish you and your beautiful family the best.

Beautiful post, as always. What’s the reasoning for the flu vaccine caveat?

Cara, I think you need to educate yourself more. Not vaccinating is dangerous. You always can find a quack that supports your nonsense, reality is, every child that is NOT vaccinated is a ticking time bomb. People who undergo chemo, have no immune system for a while, pregnant women, children with cancer and many others you would consciously jeopardize, including your own kids. There is no excuse – absolutely no excuse to NOT vaccinate. It’s always the ignorant, non-medical people who think to know it all. I never had chicken pox and it can become extremely painful and dangerous for adults – the minute a vaccine was available, I stood in line to get it. Same with my kid. I would never forgive myself if my kid had pertussis or any other disease based on my negligence to not vaccinate. That’s what it boils down to: gross negligence!!

I’m aware of the statistics. I was just glad to see that she mentioned concerns other than autism. I wasn’t worried about vaccines causing autism, and neither are a lot of other people who decide to postpone or opt out all together.

Thank you, for being willing to disagree AND stick around. =D I’m so glad to have you.

And I am soooo with you 100% on wishing we could all band together and put our energy to better use. I am so distrustful of pharmaceutical companies. More oversight, safer vaccines (there has to be a better way!), more transparency, third-party verification of claims and of possible side effects, YES YES YES.

Hi Mike, I’m sorry, I’m trying to understand your post. You seem to be arguing FOR vaccination, but your tone and set-up (you’re a 15-year scientist and I’m just a grad student) make it seem as if you’re arguing AGAINST me. Which doesn’t make sense since I am FOR vaccination.

Am I reading your tone wrong? Did I miss something? I feel like I’m not understanding what it is you’re trying to express, and I’m also feeling like you maybe didn’t read my whole post, and for some reason think I’m anti-vax?

Thank you for sharing! I’ve come to the same decision for my kids, although I’ll admit I didn’t do as much research. It just seemed like the right thing to do for my kids and the thought of them dying from a preventable disease scared me more than any side effects.
I really like your thoughts about being a part of the community and that getting vaccinated helps keeps those around us healthy. I’ve never thought of it that way.
Thank again for sharing, hopefully you don’t get any hate mail over this and people remember that, like all things parenting, everyone has to make decisions that are right for them and their families.

I really wish the mainstream system would do a better job of explaining how vaccines work. Comments suggesting actually experiencing the disease gives “true immunity” and ” is good for the immune system ” suggests vaccination doesn’t. But it does. Please learn the science before making emotive but ultimately ignorant statements. I very much support critical analysis of all medical interventions. It is only because of persistent public pressure that mercury is not linger an ingredient in all routine childhood vaccines. But let’s not chuck the baby out with the bath water.

People are anxious. And with good reason.

The incidence of conditions which science knows are connected to immune system function are exploding out of control.

Vague memories of a report linking vaccines and autism are a,natural response in the absence of any other meaningful information or ability to stop the avalanche of allergies, add, asburgers, and the like.

We feel like the well-being of our children is out of our control and that is a terrifying place for a parent to be.

And I think there are sound reasons for this fear. What I think we instinctively know but have trouble articulating isthere is something seriously wrong with the quality of humans we are producing. Our immune systems are how we ensure survival of the species. How we adapt to change. Survive infection. Repair damage.

And something is going terribly wrong. And there is a quiet little voice in the back of our collective heads,telling us that if our immune systems are failing, then as a species, we are in serious trouble.

We don’t understand all the reasons, and vaccines are something we can control. it’s understandable, but not helpful.

I believe there are many pieces to the real puzzle.

Discovery of and investigation into the human biome (all those bugs that live in and on your body) is opening scientific eyes to wisdom known by our grandparents but seemingly lost to rational modern life.

I believe that this field will become the future of modern health care.

But there are a lot of people who make a lot of money out of things continuing as they are.

And this should worry all of us

Because those quiet inner fears are spot on – we are currently gambling with the future of the human race.

Science can already resoundingly confirm that many “routine” interventions in fertility, pregnancy, labour, delivery, and,early life have significant impacts on the composition of that colony of bugs,which make up at least 80% of our immune system. Variations in this cocktail of bugs are definitively linked to “immune system diseases, which science tells us includes diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Ms, IBS, arthritis, depression, and many more.

Questioning modern medicine is good.

We’ll considered critical analysis leads to better outcomes, improved products, better choice and better outcomes.

Poorly informed, emotional knee jerk regurgitation of debunked mythology damages everyone’s capacity to contribute meaningfully to the debate.

So, to all the parents who argue that they have emergency researched medical evidence and Have chosen to reject vaccination, I hope you aren’t selectivly critical.

I hope you critically examined fertility treatments, a new the alternatives.

I hope you critically researched the evidence behind the routine use of ultrasound and glucose tolerance testing in pregnancy (there isn’t much!)

Or the potential negative impact of inducing labour and the use of artificial hormones to “enhance” labour. Or the impact of routine antibiotics in labour. Epidural impact on fatal distress. Or the fatal distress caused by continuous electronic monitoring. The incidence of life long respiratory, spinal, immune system and digestive consequences of caesarian delivery? Did you find out that clamping and cutting the card before it stops pulsing can deny your baby up to 1/3 of their blood? And let’s not get started on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding.

So, good on you for caring about the welfare of your kids.

Make sure your consistent.

And rational.

And effective.

We’ve got a long way to go.

Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics…
Statistics always slant toward the agenda of those formulating them. Always. When I put my child in a car and enter traffic, my alertness and conscious capacity to drive defensively has an enormous impact on our “odds” of surviving the trip unscathed. But once I allow you to inject poison into my child’s blood stream, it’s out of my hands. Your deaths by automobile stats have zero baring on this discussion.

Ditto.

Another important issue that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the fact that many of these diseases, when contracted by adults who have never been inoculated, present much more severe symptoms and have a much higher fatality rate.

Hi Bonzai, I also did a huge amount of research and asked why my children should be vaccinated against sexually transmitted disease such as Hep B. It was explained to me that these viruses can be transmitted from a needlestick injury, such as used syringe that’s been left in a public area. The viruses have a much longer infection time frame.

Thank you Sayward. As with so many of the decisions we make as parents, sometimes it will end well and other times it wont. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make active choices, choices that show we are part of a community.

I will still be here – part of this community you have so generously created.

Not so well educated, dad, aren’t you? If your child contracts pertussis because you deliberately decided what’s best for the child (not), what do you think your child will get in the hospital? That’s right, more “poison” as you declare it – a lot more and you could be lucky if your child comes out of it alive. Have you seen children with chickenpox? The scars they might have and later on they’ll most likely get shingles too – all thanks to a well educated dad. Hopefully your children will be even better educated and vaccinate your grandchildren.

I agree with Cara. Nice thought out blog post, but we don’t vaccinate because we are “scared” of vaccines. We don’t because I know the risks and the risks outweigh any benefits. Since you are so adamant on this issue I am SURE that you have got your MMR boosters correct? I mean if you want to protect everyone I am sure you will gladly show the records of the boosters that you have got, since if it was longer than 15 years ago, you probably don’t have any more immunity to the measles.

whew! I was sweating for ya when I saw the title of this post BUT that was a great blog post!! So well written. I am all for everyone making their own decisions when it comes to the vaccine debate, but I feel like it gets so passionately about who is right vs. wrong that it loses complete focus on the ” hey, lets look at this logically and look at the pros/cons on BOTH sides then make an educated decision”. I have friends that choose not to vaccinate and I do not look at them any differently or judge them for it. It’s their choice. At the same time, all I can think about are those mothers in other countries where vaccination is not widely available, if at all, and they are fighting to keep their babies alive from senseless diseases….If anti-vaxers lived in a third world country where disease was rampant what would their stance on vaccination be then?

I’m impressed that you respectfully outlined your decisions. It is an interesting addition to the conversation. Thank you.
What a touchy subject to talk about our children, and how we choose to keep them safe. I am interested in how parents assess risk in these situations. You often hear of the deadly risks involved in vaccinating, when in reality, statistically, not vaccinating raises your child’s risks of negative consequences. It’s that idea that “doing” something (in this case vaccinating) even if the risks are lower that a negative outcome will result
, is preferable to not vaccinating and having a higher chance of experiencing a negative outcome. It’s a strange thing to think over.
I’m also interested in intelligent people’s views of science. Respectfully, I disagree that dr Sears is based in science. If his methods were the safest, all doctors (or at least the vast majority) would recommend the schedule. He didn’t discover something new, but he is making BANK over convincing parents that he knows something every other doctor doesn’t. It Doesn’t sound very ethical to me.

http://www.salon.com/2010/10/13/vaccine_book_sears/

While smart people have differing opinions, the science had been clear.
I’m so grateful that my vegan daughter has access to modern medicine. My heart couldn’t take the alternative.

Thank you for this!

What Happened to Scarlet Fever = Penicillin

“I am a godless heathen with no spiritualism to guide me.
But I do believe in goodness. I believe in our humanity. And I believe in community.”
Hahahaha, poetic. This is exactly my sentiment.

I really, really loved this post! So concise, so unbiased.
I too agree with vaccinating the standard childhood vaccines.

There was something going around tumblr last week about a little boy with
leukemia whose dad was arguing that unvaccinated-by-choice kids shouldn’t be at his (public) preschool, because his son *couldn’t* be vaccinated because he was ill. And THAT is who we need to consider in social contract. People that haven’t been immunised because they couldn’t. That little boy is vulnerable. And if he were to get sick, it would likely be far more aggressive and risky than in a healthy person. And realistically, we accommodate to children with allergies by having nut-free lunchboxes, why would we not do the same for someone else whose health is circumstantially extremely vulnerable?

I don’t know about over there, but public pre-schools,
kindergartens and day cares (and even my dog’s puppy school!) do checks for
vaccinations.

Anyway, babies and toddlers, the aged, the allergic to vaccine ingredients and immunocompromised are all vulnerable and all deserve safety like everyone else. There are also reasons why people weren’t vaccinated – aged and missed out, were rural living and missed out (such as indigenous communities*) and asylum seekers. These people need and deserve herd safety too.

* If you think that preventable, communicable disease can’t devastate indigenous communities, then read any history book about Canada, us, Australia, to infinity and beyond.

The argument does seem to have a lot of back of forth. And I
think there is too much aggression and not enough transparency and open,
informative explanation that acknowledges risks.

Two things I really dislike about the ‘aggressive’ pro-vaccine crowd:

1. Stop acting like those that don’t vaccinate are cruel idiots. They obviously
think they are doing the right thing. Look how much literature they have read
and time they have spent investigating. Don’t be mean.

BUT. In my mandatory reporting class, we were told that “in cases of neglect,
it is easy to be swayed by the fact that the parent/caregiver ‘meant well’… if
you always look at the intent, then neglect won’t be that evident. You have to
assess the *consequences*.”
Not saying that not vaccinating is neglect, but weighing the intent
vs consequence is really important.

2. The Jenny McCarthy bashing. I totally disagree with the autism sentiment,
not even disagree.. that’s just not how it works. But the arguments against her
immediately turn misogynistic and horrible. It’s fine to say “don’t get health
advice from someone who is not a health professional”. No need to bash her as a woman or her career decisions.

Anyway, thanks for the post. Loved it x

Twitter is telling me the link to this blog post is spam/malware/phishing and won’t let me post. I don’t know if it’s just a Twitter malfunction or someone has flagged the link… >.<

Anyway, great post. Vaccination time has come around again for me + 2 kids today. We delayed a while with vaccines, doing the alternative schedule thing, not seeing it as an entirely black-and-white and living in relative isolation. Planning international travel so we'll have extra on our schedules soon. We are tucked in, so safe and sound, in our little privileged corners of the world with our Herd Immunity and healthcare access, not knowing what disease outbreaks really look like…

You said this so much better than I ever could… Her comment made me angry. Too many people have this ignorant view that they can only associate with those who validate their opinions, and all it does is contribute to the ongoing vitriol on this topic or any other. That goes for both sides.

I’m still researching. Undecided, leaning towards not vaccinating, but undecided. Regardless of the choice we make, I appreciate this post (it’s something I’ve been wanting you to post about for a long time) and I will continue to look forward to your writing like I have from the beginning. I think you’re awesome.