The Vaccine War

As if it weren't enough that we have to make decisions about whether or not to vaccinate ourselves, we also have to decide what's supposed to be safest for our children. In the midst of the plethora of You Tube videos and websites touting the dangers of vaccines there seems to be very little real information. Anecdotal evidence is pushed as proof and botched studies are still quoted everywhere, even though some of them (such as the original paper on how the MMR vaccine caused autism, by Dr. Wakefield) have been retracted and the results never duplicated. I've yet to find one paper that shows any correlation between the vaccine, the preservatives in the vaccine, or any other single component of the vaccine, and diseases such as autism. I have, on the other hand, found numerous studies that show serious outbreaks of supposed "dead" diseases in the US, such as the measles and whooping cough. Seeing infants that are too young to be immunized getting these diseases from older, unvaccinated children (who can carry illnesses that don't do them as much harm) is absolutely devastating.
As a child born in 1976 I've never personally seen someone afflicted with polio, mumps, rubella, or even the measles. And not many in the US in my generation have. We don't really have to deal with these diseases, specifically because our parents vaccinated us against them and they decreased to such an extent that they're practically unknown now. It's called "herd immunity," but it only works if the majority of the herd IS vaccinated or immune. Because so many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children there has been a spike in the number of outbreaks of preventable diseases in the US, and, honestly, that should scare you as a parent. I know it scares me. The argument that we no longer have these illnesses in the US doesn't really work either, since we travel to foreign countries all the time where things like polio are still rampant. We happen to live in a pretty affluent community of people who enjoy discovering different parts of the world, which also exposes all of us to the diseases that still exist in those parts of the globe.

Now, before you get all angry and start to yell about how Jenny McCarthy's son got autism after an immunization, or that mercury is bad for us, and we know that, I want to say that I DO have serious reservations about vaccines. Especially new vaccines that haven't been time-tested, such as the HPV vaccine for adolescent girls. I don't get the flu vaccine and my daughter isn't fully vaccinated, although she has had quite a few, such as the DTaP and Hib vaccines. That being said, when I traveled to Indonesia you can believe I went and got caught up on at least a few vaccines that I was missing. I also don't like the vaccine schedule for children, mostly because I don't see how 5 to 7 shots per visit can be good for anyone, let alone a 3 month old. And while I'm not particularly afraid of the mercury or preservatives in vaccines, I do wish there was more choice in preservative-free vaccines. I can get organic fruit, veggies, and meat, so where's my organic vaccine?

I'm not trying to pressure parents to vaccinate their kids (although I do think it is a good idea to at least partially vaccinate), but I really want parents to do REAL research on vaccines and make an informed decision. I know a lot of folks who believe that the pharmaceutical companies pressure the FDA to approve vaccines and push them on us, the public, and I don't necessarily disagree with those people. The pharmaceutical companies make way way way too much money off of us, and quite often for drugs that are unsafe or have disastrous side-effects that show up years or even decades later. The choice to vaccinate is hard enough, even without the fear mongering from both the anti-vaccine movement and the medical establishment. I don't want my child to end up with autism or some other brain damage from a vaccine that I volunteered  her for, but I would also be devastated to see her crippled for life because of a new outbreak of polio.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's an impossibly difficult decision with no simple answer, but don't just go along with the mania and believe the hype. From either side.