Vaccines - For or Against?

[bleedingheart]

Poll question: Vaccines - For or Against?

As the mother of two asthmatic children, one of whom has a slightly suppressed immune system, I am thankful for vaccines.

Now I know that there is a lot of issues swirling about regarding autism and vaccines right now and if there is a problem, well then something should be done to fix it. However that said I am not going to stop getting vaccines or having my kids vaccinated. In fact one of my children has Aspergers (which is somewhat in the autistic spectrum...but he, his father and grand dad...all appear to have some variation of the issue...so I don't think vaccines are the root cause in our case)

My mom grew up in the era when kids you played with would one day never come back outside to play...they were victims of diseases like Polio, Thyphoid, Rubella and even some kids died of Chicken Pox.

She poignantly remembers her neighbors putting the tiny casket of their daughter in a taxi cab (she was laid out at home) to take her to the cemetary after she died of diptheria.

My son who had been getting pneumonia 5-6 times a year got much better after the pneumonia vaccine...saving him from having to go for monthly trips to the hospital for gamma globulin IV's...

So who here would willing give up vaccinations for themselves or their children?

Note: I an not saying that vaccines shouldn't be tested and be made safe but the anti-vaccination movement seems to be using the mercury issue to push their agenda.

[donco6]

1. I tend to lump the anti-vaccine crown in

with the anti-evolution crowd. Same whackjobs.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. It's the preservative thimerosal that is the problem. nt

[bleedingheart]

6. while that may be the problem there are people who want to

throw the "baby out with the bathwater" and do away with vaccines...

[Junkdrawer]

8. RFK Jr. just wrote a great new article on how the drug companies...

have been hiding the truth on thimerosal.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/16/thimerosal/index_np.html

Mirrored on Truthout:

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/061605HA.shtml

[bleedingheart]

13. if the preservative is a problem then it should be excluded

and the parents should be able to sue.

I have no issue with removing the preservative but I do take issue with those who would do away with all vaccines.

[Junkdrawer]

14. Did you know that Santorum and Frist have written laws that...

prevent the parents from suing - or even warning parents of the dangers?

Although we met with Senator Rick Santorum briefly, his staff was condescending and patronizing, and made statements that were simply untrue, like there was no scientific evidence that linked mercury in vaccines to autism. And without telling us, they invited Senator Bill Frist's people into the meeting. They were observing the interaction very closely. Senators Frist and Santorum are co-sponsors of a new bill that, under the guise of protecting America in the war against terror, would go so far as to say that states cannot regulate vaccines or warn people of their potential dangers. It would shield vaccine makers from lawsuits.


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/16/clark/index_np.html

[BlueEyedSon]

15. They stuffed it into a completely unrelated bill... was it the PATRIOT act

[bleedingheart]

16. Yes - but that is business as usual for the GOP...

I think they are vile people.

[Junkdrawer]

17. Well, with this move, Santorum has just mobilized more people..

to work against him than he can possibly imagine.

He should rot in Hell for this.

[trotsky]

9. Still no conclusive proof of that.

Plus it was never in the most common childhood vaccine, for MMR.

[lenidog]

3. I agree with you vaccines should be made safe and thoroughly

tested but I think the anti-vaccine crowd should talk to some elderly people who lived in a world where there was smallpox, polio, diptheria and countless other diseases. The people who had their brothers, sisters, daughters and sons, die from or were crippled by diseases that no longer exist. Maybe then they will get back to reality.

[Modem Butterfly]

4. Tha's like asking if people are for or against Diptheria...

[bleedingheart]

7. well unfortunately there is a growing number of children who are

going unvaccinated....so many in fact that I have run into problems at daycare centers because there are kids who have been sick with illnesses that 10 years ago were considered "wiped out"...Whooping cough is one that has reared its ugly head more frequently due in part to those parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids. I know this because my vaccinated daughter got a mild version of it due to an unvaccinated kid. Unfortunately even a mild version of it can be deadly for an asthmatic kid.

[Junkdrawer]

11. Vaccines in "single use", non-preserved vials are safe...

Vaccines in "multiple use", thimerosal preserved vials are not safe.

[donco6]

12. Yes! We've had that here.

Whooping cough. We have so many parents that opt out of vaccination (on their form they claim religious or other reasons, but I think money is the biggest) that we're getting these diseases too.

Colorado is among the lowest in child vaccination rates.

[trotsky]

5. 100% in favor.

The irony is that vaccines have been so enormously successful at saving lives and ensuring quality of life that many people now feel the vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent.

Am I a stooge for the pharmaceuticals? I've been accused of such. But in the grand scheme of things, vaccines are a tiny, tiny portion of their profits. Some American pharmaceuticals have even gotten out of the business because there wasn't ENOUGH profit in it. I just don't see the motivation to not keep our vaccines as safe as possible.

[Kraklen]

10. I don't think that's the issue.

I'm sure there's a few nutjobs who want to do away with vaccines, but I think most of the controversy is in regard to the choice of preservatives.

[trotsky]

18. There's actually a pretty large following

that thinks modern cleanliness combined with antibiotics (and quarantine if necessary) should be able to handle most of those diseases that used to plague us a century ago.

They worry that kids are exposed to "too many" pathogens during their series of immunizations and can "overload" their immune systems (a myth), or that vaccine pathogens are contaminated and will cause worse problems.

If mercury has a role in autism, we would be best served by reducing the massive amounts of it we find in the environment and consume and breathe every day rather than the miniscule amount of molecules found in a vaccine injection.

[Junkdrawer]

20. RFK Jr. said just the opposite about environmental mercury/Thimerosal...

Some skeptics dispute that the rise in autism is caused by thimerosal-tainted vaccinations. They argue that the increase is a result of better diagnosis - a theory that seems questionable at best, given that most of the new cases of autism are clustered within a single generation of children. "If the epidemic is truly an artifact of poor diagnosis," scoffs Dr. Boyd Haley, one of the world's authorities on mercury toxicity, "then where are all the 20-year-old autistics?" Other researchers point out that Americans are exposed to a greater cumulative "load" of mercury than ever before, from contaminated fish to dental fillings, and suggest that thimerosal in vaccines may be only part of a much larger problem. It's a concern that certainly deserves far more attention than it has received - but it overlooks the fact that the mercury concentrations in vaccines dwarf other sources of exposure to our children.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/printer_061605HA.shtml

[trotsky]

21. I can only repeat what I've read, just like you. n/t

[laundry_queen]

19. Not all those against some vaccines are fundies.

Nor are they whackjobs.
The problem is, is that the science of vaccines hasn't been as thoroughly tested as it should be. Mostly because there are those who think it's immoral to have any child go unvaccinated for a study. I also take issue with the subjective way reactions get reported. I have many friends whose children have had severe reactions (We're talking stopping breathing and brain damage) and only 1 has been actually recorded as such. Add that to my dislike of pharmaceutical companies and my questioning of their motives in developing some of these vaccines, and I decided to delay vaccinating my children (I think the biggest problem is vaccinating tiny infants - no one knows the long term complications, it's never been studied). They will never receive the MMR. I've studied in detail the risks vs benefits and I think it's tossup, it's just what you're willing to live with. I couldn't live with knowingly injecting my children with under-tested substances that may harm them.