Vaccines: What’s Really at Stake?

I’ve had a couple of friends over the last month ask my opinion about childhood vaccines.  They know that my husband and I chose not to vaccinate our son and they knew this decision came after hours upon hours of reading, research and prayer.  I recognize that our decision is not the most popular one.  In fact, we have faced criticism from the medical community as well as a friend or two.  Although I have done quite a bit of research on this subject, I am not an expert, and I recognize that this is a very personal and difficult decision for many parents so I will never try to force my opinion on others.  However, I think that it is only fair and right that all parents know the whole truth about what they are really being asked to put in their baby’s body.  These children are a gift from God; a blank slate on which we, as their parents, either build good health or poor health.  They have little say at this point over how healthy or how sickly they will be.  But we have much of the say.  We are ultimately responsible for them, and to God, and therefore, I think that having all of the information before making a decision so vital to their health is wise. 

Let’s begin first with vaccine ingredients.  Ask your pediatrician for the informational insert that comes with each vaccine.  This will list the ingredients in that particular vaccine.  If he or she refuses to give them to you, you may want to consider finding another doctor.  No doctor should be intimidated by a parent wanting to be informed.  My son’s doctor gave them to us.  For an online list of the ingredients, click here.  From that list, please notice some ingredients in particular: 

• Human diploid cells (lung tissue from aborted fetuses)
• Thimerisol (the toxic compound that, because of it’s mercury content, has been suspected by many as contributing to autism)
• MSG (monosodium glutamate, a food additive that is best avoided for good health)
• Formaldehyde
• Aluminum in various forms (if you recall, there is also speculation about an aluminum-Alzheimer’s link)
• Various parts from chicks, mice, and monkeys   

Ask yourself, are these “natural” ingredients or manmade additives, chemicals and toxins?  Do these sound like things you want being absorbed into your newborn’s body? 

What about the rise in the number of vaccines included in the schedule today as opposed to 25 years ago.  Generation Rescue (www.generationrescue.org) estimates it to be a 260% increase!  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there are approximately 25 shots scheduled for the first 15 months of life, and many times, a combination of these shots is administered all in one visit.  Isn’t it possible that this amount constitutes immune system overload?  Dr. Mercola, a board certified family physician who has been practicing natural medicine since 1990 says,

“By suppressing our immunity vaccines actually make more diseases available to our body.  Vaccinated children suffer more colds, ear infections, and rhinitis than unvaccinated children as a likely consequence of vaccinations.  Unvaccinated children stand a much better chance at avoiding disease, because their immune system has not been tampered with.”

I have seen this to be true in my own son’s life.  He has had no ear infections, no severe colds, has not required antibiotics since he was 6 months old, and is one of the healthiest children I know.  God knew what he was doing when he created our immune systems.  Our body works best when it is allowed to fight invaders naturally if at all possible.  When we interfere too much and too frequently with toxic ingredients, we run a risk in hindering our children’s immune systems for years to come. 

We are told by Mayo Clinic that, “vaccines help stimulate your immune system to fight off certain diseases,” but that, “a compromised immune system can’t recognize and fight off bacteria, viruses or other germs the way a healthy immune system can”.  Basic biology tells us that a baby’s immune system isn’t fully developed until they are several years old.  But then we are asked to add viruses, germs and some of the most toxic foreign invaders (see vaccine ingredients above) to our child’s admittedly immature immune system.  Am I missing something here?  It seems like a logical A+B=C to me.  To read Dr. Mercola’s full article entitled, “Vaccines Against Natural Processes,” click here. 

What about the necessity or efficacy of vaccines?  When was the last time that you heard of a major (or minor) outbreak of polio or diphtheria in the United States?  Now, the medical community would say that this is because of vaccination and that unvaccinated children could launch another life-threatening outbreak of some kind.  However, there are plenty of studies that show that these diseases were on the decline even before widespread vaccination, simple due to improvements in sanitation in developed countries (cleaner water, for example).  Dr. Robert Mendelsohn M.D., said “there is no convincing scientific evidence that mass innoculations can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease.”      

We also need to compare risks.  The CDC reports on their webpage that “approximately 30,000 VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) reports are filed annually, with 10-15% classified as serious (causing disability, hospitalization, life-threatening illness or death).”  But those who have studied vaccination and its risks (such as advocacy groups) believe vaccine side-effects to be grossly underreported.  Compare this to a U.S. News & World Report from November 2008 which says that with regards to the risk for these childhood diseases (pertussis in particular), “In 2003, 13 children in the United States died from pertussis.”  I am in no way minimizing those 13 precious children who lost their life to this disease.  What I’m hoping to call attention to, and what I hope all parents consider strongly, is the vast difference in the chance of death from childhood diseases verses the significantly higher chance of life-threatening or life-altering complications over the course of that child’s life from vaccination. 

Let’s consider a child’s overall health.  Are children healthier over the course of their life with or without vaccines?  What we need to remember is this debate is not only about measles or chicken pox, diphtheria or polio.  It’s not even solely about autism or Alzheimers.  And the more research you do, you will find that there are many parents that are convinced that vaccines are responsible for their child’s SIDS, ADHD and asthma as well.   But it goes beyond even these.  Don’t we want our children to be healthier overall, from birth through to their older age?  Don’t we want our children to suffer less colds, ear infections and allergies and grow up to be cancer-free, disease-free, healthy adults?  As Dr. Mercola says in the aforementioned article, “To give one another disease to get rid of one disease is not a fair trade.  Allopathy is pathetic medicine because causing cancer by ‘preventing’ many innocuous childhood diseases is not a fair trade-off.”  Of course, the CDC has not admitted to any link between many of these diseases and vaccines (although the courts have), but when I consider how big the money-making business of vaccines really is, I am not surprised that causal links have not made it definitively to the surface of public knowledge yet.  For example, think of how many prescription medicines have been slapped with a black-box warning years and years after they have been on the market, doing their damage.  I am not willing to take the risk with my children. 

The debate continues.  But for now, we as parents need to decide what is best for our children’s health. . .but only after we have all the information.  Pray for God’s wisdom as you research and see this process as good practice for all the tough decisions we will have to make on behalf of our children. 

For those of you who have already vaccinated your child and would like to look into a gentle detoxification for children, contact a good naturopathic doctor (N.D.) in your area, or try www.naturopathic.org and click on “Find a Doctor.”  He or she will probably do a hair analysis test to check for toxicity and then offer advice for an age-appropriate cleanse.  This can make a world of difference in eliminating vaccine chemicals and additives from your child’s system. 

For more resources:

http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html (This site includes M.D. after M.D. coming out and admitting the dangers of vaccines.)

http://www.thinktwice.com/

http://www.nvic.org/

http://www.generationrescue.org/ (Jenny McCarthy’s website–she is a strong advocate for using an alternative vaccine schedule, at the least)

http://www.informedchoice.info/ 

Vaccinations:  A Thoughtful Parent’s Guide by Aviva Jill Romm

Evidence of Harm:  Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic:  A Medical Controversy by David Kirby

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