Is Vaccination Really Necessary?

Should I Vaccinate My Kids?

This has been a mind-boggling question of mine since I recently started hearing stories of babies having adverse reactions from vaccines.

I’m the mama of two sweet boys, Max and Milo. Max is 2 and has been vaccinated and Milo is about 10 months and has also had all of his “shots” up until this point.

But ever since I joined the natural health field I’ve been questioning whether I should have ever let anyone put those vaccines into my boys!

I also feel conflicted because I’ve never really questioned what was in the vaccines, what diseases they are supposed to prevent, or what sort of bad reactions could come of it. I just took my boys to the pediatrician’s office and let the nurse inject them with a collection of  substances. The doctor sends me home with the same informational handout on vaccinations that I’ll admit I never read. I just assumed that since “everyone is doing it” and the government says it’s safe then it must be the best thing to do.

Now I can’t help but wonder if I’ve made a mistake. Maybe the gut wrenching feeling I had every time I brought my boys in for their shots was my instinct telling me I shouldn’t be letting this happen.

How could this possibly be so terrible when the pediatrician tells me that he vaccinated all 5 of his kids? Or that in all his 15 years of work he hasn’t seen one bad reaction to the vaccines? The list  goes on.

Why does this have to be such a hard fight? All I want to do is make the best decision for my kids. I want them to be the healthiest they can be and live a long and happy life. Isn’t that what the vaccine industry wants for my kids too?

The CDC’s (Center for Disease Control) National Immunization Program invites everyone to join in celebrating National Infant Immunization Week April 21st-28th.

But, how do I know if immunizing my infant is really something I want to celebrate? Especially after finding out some things you’re about to read…

What Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg?

Do vaccines control the outbreak of disease?  Or do they actually contribute to the spread of it?

Parents, you’re probably familiar with the 5-shot series known as DTaP that is given at 2, 4, 6, and 18 months and again between 4-6 years of age. In early 2010, California had the largest spike of pertussis cases in more than 50 years. But, interestingly enough, most of these cases were in people that received the DtaP vaccine. According to Reuters Health, 92% of the cases in California that the CDC was referring to were in vaccinated individuals. But the CDC claims,

“Yet without diligent efforts to maintain immunization programs in the United States and to strengthen them worldwide, vaccine-preventable diseases will remain a threat to children. As illustrations, it’s only necessary to consider the 2010 outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough), which killed 10 infants in California.”

The CDC is a credible source right?! I mean…it’s run by our own government for crying out loud! But, there’s always another side of the coin, especially when big money is involved. By the way, the CDC is  a $27 billion a year industry.

Here’s another CDC claim about measles,

“In the 1950s, nearly every child developed measles, and unfortunately, some even died from this serious disease. Today, few physicians just out of medical school will ever see a case of measles during their careers.”

But Jini Patel Thompson who wroteShould I Vaccinate My Child,  points out some interesting results of a study done by the WHO contradicting this statement,

“An unpublished study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on a “measles susceptible” (malnourished) group of children showed that the group who hadn’t been vaccinated contracted measles at the normal contract rate of 2.4%. Of the group who had received the measles vaccine (MMR), 33.5% contracted measles.’

Who Will Be Proven Wrong?

Jennifer Craig, PhD takes us back in history to conclude that it’s pretty much going to take a lot of people who have had adverse reactions to change it. She says,

The idea that putting noxious substances under the skin will prevent disease is based on a false premise, the premise that cowpox prevented smallpox. Despite the huge volume of contrary evidence, this myth is still believed. Dr. Maclean told us in 1810, experience forbids us to expect fair and magnanimous proceedings and we may be assured that, under no circumstances, will vaccinators abandon so lucrative a practice, until the practice abandons them. The growing numbers of parents with vaccine-damaged children are the only ones likely to alter the current state of affairs. As consumers they can exert their power and refuse the product and thus allow the practice to abandon the vaccine makers.

But Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases told WebMDthat,

Unvaccinated people put themselves and others at risk — particularly infants too young to be vaccinated, who can have the most severe complications…

There has been a surge in measles cases in the U.S. and the CDC tells us that it’s due to people who have not been vaccinated with the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Now will the WHO come out with a study in a year from now that warns us that this surge was actually in people that were vaccinated?

So, who is wrong and who is right? Should I be one of these non-vaccinators working to abandon the vaccination process? Or should I celebrate the National Infant Immunization Week with the CDC?

Either way, I’m still left with an unsatisfied taste in my mouth at the fact that I even have to ponder this.

This argument can get to be just as heated as topics like abortion! And speaking of which, for all of the people that are anti-abortion but still vaccinate their children…there is an ingredient in vaccines called human diploid cells, which come from aborted fetal tissue.

So…What’s In A Vaccine Anyway?

I stumbled upon lots of crazy ingredients as I started taking it upon myself to do some research instead of just following the leader. The Immunization Action Coalition informs us that,

To date, there are two human diploid cell lines which were originally prepared from tissues of aborted foetuses (in 1964 and 1970) and are used for the preparation of vaccines…

Click here to view the article and to see the list of vaccines that use aborted fetuses.

And there was much more that I wish I would have known about before I allowed my boys to be injected!

According to Naturopathic Physician, Keith Post, ND these are the filler ingredients we can find in our vaccines:

  • Aborted human fetal tissue
  • Dead animal tissues, such as chicken embryo, rabbit brain and dog or monkey kidney
  • Pig, horse or calf blood
  • Toxic chemicals, such as formaldehyde (think embalming fluid) or phenol
  • Antibiotics and yeast (think Candidiasis)
  • Toxic heavy metal compounds made out of aluminum or mercury. The mercury compound is called thimerosal and is the subject of current litigation, because many parents and researchers link it to the alarming increase in post-vaccination autism.

But, according to a recent article from the Tribune, the link between vaccinations with the ingredient thimerosal and autism has since been discredited. Supposedly Andrew Wakefield published an article that the General Medical Council claims had manipulated data and misreported results. Did he get paid to come forward and plead guilty for “false data”? Does mercury really cause autism?

Either way, vaccines really contain toxic chemicals and metals including aluminum and mercury!? I asked my son’s doctor about this and he told me that yes they do make the vaccines with aluminum but the mercury was taken out. After researching I found that there are in fact still trace amounts of mercury in vaccines. Even if it’s just trace amounts, isn’t it still very bad to put any aluminum and mercury into my 2 month old baby?! Why didn’t the doctor tell me this before we immunized!?

Informed Consent

Doctors are required to explain the side effects and dangers of adverse reactions. Is that supposed to be the “hand out” that I get after my kids get their shots?

Barbara Fisher served for ten years on the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee and now says that even though she gave the vaccines to patients herself during her early years, she is now opposed because of the hazards they present. She objects now to pediatricians blindly shooting foreign proteins into the bodies of children without knowing the eventual damage they may cause. Fisher explains,

There are significant risks associated with every immunization and numerous contraindications that may make it dangerous for the shots to be given to your child. Yet doctors administer them routinely, usually without warning parents of the hazards…No child should be immunized without making that determination, yet small armies of children are routinely lined up in clinics to receive a shot in the arm with no questions asked by their parents!

Here’s a list of just some of the vaccine reaction symptoms.

  • Pronounced swelling, redness, heat or hardness at the site of the injection
  • Body rash or hives
  • Shock/collapse
  • High pitched screaming or persistent crying for hours
  • Extreme sleepiness or long periods of unresponsiveness
  • High fever (over 103 F)
  • Twitching or jerking of the body, arm, leg or head
  • Crossing of eyes
  • Weakness or paralysis of any part of the body
  • Loss of eye contact or awareness or social withdrawal
  • Loss of ability to roll over, sit up or stand up
  • Vision or hearing loss
  • Restlessness, hyperactivity or inability to concentrate
  • Sleep disturbances that change wake/sleep pattern
  • Head banging or onset of repetitive movements (flapping, rubbing, rocking, spinning)
  • Joint pain
  • Muscle weakness
  • Disabling fatigue
  • Loss of memory
  • Onset of chronic ear or respiratory infections
  • Violent or persistent diarrhea or chronic constipation
  • Breathing problems (asthma)
  • Excessive bleeding (thrombocytopenia) or anemia

Is It All About The Money?

My friend Mary, has a grandchild who suffered an adverse reaction to a vaccine. Click here to read all about her story. Mary attends a holistic moms group and has told me about a mom whose little baby turned into a “vegetable” hours after the DPT vaccine and other mothers who watched their baby die shortly after being immunized. After hearing these stories, I decided to dive into this a bit further.

I found in an article called Vaccine industry receives government financial bailouts via Vaccine Injury Compensation Programon naturalnews.com that it’s estimated no more than 10% of adverse vaccine reactions are actually reported. The FDA even admits as many as 90% of physicians don’t report reactions.

There are about 20-thousand adverse reactions reported each year. So you could assume that there are actually 200,000 patients who react negatively to a vaccine. The naturalnews.com article claims victims are basically paid to keep quiet.

The compensations vary from $250,000 for the death of a child, or a life time of medical coverage for a brain damaged child. The awards are federally funded, “bailing out” vaccine manufacturers from financial liability. As in most settlements, awarded parents are gagged from talking of their case by the risk of losing their “hush money” covering lifetime medical expenses. Many parents are still programmed to believe their child’s sudden mental or physical health downturn had nothing to do with all those vaccinations they allowed their pediatrician to deliver.

So with all of that research, I still find things written by physicians that is contradictory. For example, in the article, Should I Vaccinate My Child? A Physicians Perspective by Bruce Gellin, MD, MPH and Executive Director of the National Network for Immunization Information- he says,

Studies have proven that vaccines are very safe. And the small risks associated with vaccination are being reduced through ongoing medical advances and through constant monitoring of our national vaccination program.

So, that’s it. Info from both sides. Now I have to decide… In case you decide against vaccination, here are some alternatives.

Vaccination Alternatives

Seek out a homeopathic or natural health practitioner, acupuncturist or chiropractor familiar with treating children. He or she will provide treatments that build immune function. If your child tends to get frequent colds or ear infections, consider a  colostrum powder supplement.

Consider homeopathic medicines,  Vitamin A (10,000-20,000 units per day in the form of beta-carotene or mixed carotenoids), vitamin C (500-1,000 mg. per day), or herbal complexes  to treat colds, coughs, and ear infections.

But, probably the most important way to stay healthy and maintain a healthy immune system is by making good diet and lifestyle choices. Avoid junk food, eat your veggies, get enough sleep, have a positive attitude and reduce stress. Then, when we face an epidemic, our immune system will be able to stick it out!

+Ashley Steinbrinck writes regularly about natural health and happiness for Natural Healthy Concepts. Visit the site today to browse a wide selection of herbal nutrition supplements, homeopathic medicine and natural skin care! 

Suggested documentary:

http://www.greatergoodmovie.org/home

Related articles:

The surge in cases is largely due to people who have not been vaccinated with the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine, the CDC says. A significant percentage of these people are children and teens whose parents exempted them from school vaccination requirements.

“Unvaccinated people put themselves and others at risk — particularly infants too young to be vaccinated, who can have the most severe complications,” Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a news conference held to announce the new report.