I am old enough that I had most of the childhood illnesses for which vaccines are now available. I had both kinds of measles, chicken pox, mumps, and (I believe) whooping cough. I did have a number of vaccinations as a child, including small pox, tetanus, and probably some others. In my early 20s, I was among those who took the first version of the vaccine for polio developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. When I was in the Army, all new recruits were vaccinated against everything for which vaccines were available, including plague, probably in anticipation of our being sent to Vietnam. My son had all his vaccinations on schedule, and the same is true for my grandchildren.
At the same time, however, I know a number of doctors (primarily members of the International College of Integrative Medicine) who are generally opposed to the immunization process. The one who has been most vocal in opposition to vaccinations is Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, whose website details her concerns. The other two doctors from ICIM who oppose routine vaccinations do so because each had a child who experienced an adverse reaction to one of the childhood vaccines.
My intent here, however, is not to argue in favor of or against immunization. My concerns at this point are primarily with the way the “discussion” is being conducted. Both the vaxxers and the anti-vaxxers want what’s best for their children. The vaxxers are absolutely convinced that they have the data to prove that the vaccines are perfectly safe. The anti-vaxxers aren’t so sure. They look at the same data, and see different things. I can see why: According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, serious problems happen only once in 100,000 times. The vaxxers conclude that the vaccines are perfectly safe, while the anti-vaxxers say, “That one could be my child.” And, of course, it is someone’s child….
From a communication perspective, all the “yelling” (on TV and in print) doesn’t help either side make a case. With the advent of the measles outbreak, the vaxxers are doing most of the yelling. One of my questions would be whether everyone needs to be vaccinated for all of us to be safe. Even if we were able to get 99 percent of the U.S. population vaccinated, that would still leave 1 percent unvaccinated in the States. And what happens when people travel? Measles is a virus. I don’t know about the measles virus specifically, but we do know that the viruses that cause colds and flu change over time. We have seen that in particular with the flu virus this year, where the vaccine prepared for it wasn’t especially effective. We also know that the GMO crops require increasing amounts of herbicides and pesticides because the “bugs” and weeds adapt quickly to the poisons, while bees, birds, and bats can’t change so quickly. I should also add that, at least so far, the only year I got the flu was the year I had the vaccine.
We don’t know for sure how many medical doctors don’t vaccinate their own children, but the number usually given is 5 percent. When you look at the list of ingredients common in vaccines, you can see why some physicians might be reluctant to vaccinate. Dr. Joseph Mercola points out that vaccines cause children more adverse reactions than any other drug. For statements like this, he has been put on the medical quack watch. (Dr. Tenpenny is on the “quack” list as well.). According to Mercola…
The US has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world. Yet, American infants are given the greatest number of vaccines—26 doses of vaccines by the end of their first year. Can this really be a coincidence? If vaccines were doing a good job at safeguarding children’s health, the US should be enjoying extremely low infant mortality, shouldn’t it?
Mercola’s statement seems supported by the evidence:
For the complete article, see Infant mortality rate in the States.
It seems strange to me that those who point that out are put on a “quack watch.” Perhaps other countries, who vaccinate much less than we do, know something we don’t. We might do well to look at vaccination rates at ages at which children receive which vaccinations in the countries with the best records of infant mortality to see what they are doing differently.
Both the vaxxers and the anti-vaxxers have information supporting their cause, and both sides seemingly have vested interests in the outcome of the “discussion.” One of my concerns is that when it comes to war, the side with the biggest bombs and most tanks usually wins—at least in the short run. The Pope thought he had won the argument with Galileo, but Galileo’s world view is the one we (at least most of us) hold today. The vaxxers have the weight of the pharmaceutical industry, news media, and a variety of other vested interests on their side. That doesn’t mean they are right. They might be, of course, but the only way for them to know for sure is to have a reasonable, fact-based, discussion about the issues and concerns.
All the yelling back and forth doesn’t aid the process of learning. It is, however, a reflection of our political process, in which candidates for office say very little about what they have to offer and spend piles of money on negative advertising about their opponents. We need to find a better way, not only for our political system, but also for our system of health care. In the U.S., we spend more on healthcare and get less than people do in many other countries, and it would be nice to know why.
It would be nice to have science-based answers to the following concerns:
- Do the vaccines cause autism? My guess is probably not, as brain structures associated with autism have been observed in the womb. It would be nice to know the cause. If I had to guess, I would guess “environmental pollutants,” but I do not know the history of the problem. Perhaps it has always been with us, but the autistic didn’t survive in previous ages.
- How many children (and it’s usually boys) have neurological damage following vaccinations? If the rate really is about 1 in 100,000, what are the chances that I would know two people whose children had neurological damage following vaccinations?
- Is it possible to develop vaccines that would cause zero adverse reactions, or to develop a test that would determine which children might be susceptible to such damage if vaccinated?
- Is it possible for a vaccine to provide complete immunity? Measles has been spreading rapidly in the States recently, with many cases among those who had been vaccinated. This past year has seen an epidemic of Ebola in West Africa, with a few cases occurring in the States and in Europe. Now that a vaccine has been developed, will vaccination be sufficient to protect doctors, nurses, and others working with those who have the disease, or will they still need to wear all the special protective gear and take all the special precautions?
- Smallpox was (evidently) completely eradicated following the development of a vaccine. What made smallpox different from measles? My guess would be that not everyone was vaccinated against smallpox. Did the vaccine prevent the occurrence of smallpox in new populations, or was it something else? Was the smallpox vaccine 100 percent effective, or did some vaccinated people get the disease? Did some of those vaccinated have adverse reactions?
- Many of us whose childhoods occurred before the advent of vaccinations got the common childhood diseases and survived. It would be nice to know how many children suffered complications from the diseases in the days before vaccinations. I have read that having the disease produces 100 percent immunity as compared with about 75 percent immunity for the vaccinations. If that’s true, it would be nice to know why. I wonder whether better disease management would be a more effective solution than immunization.
It’s difficult to investigate such problems fairly when both sides have a vested interest in the results, but we need to if we’re going to end the vaccine wars in a way that moves science forward. Science based on vested interests, after all, isn’t really science, is it…. It took the Catholic Church 500 years to decide that Galileo had a valid point. Do we really want to have the vaccine wars last that long?
