I am not here to tell anyone what to do, I am not a doctor, I have no medical training, it's your child and your decision. Please consult with a medical professional that you trust to make such decisions. This post is merely meant as a resource for parents that care enough to research first without blindly doing something because 'everyone does it' or 'experts' endorse it as safe - just as doctors endorsed x-rays for pregnant women and smoking back in the day. While parents who decide not to vaccinate are usually college-educated people with above-average salaries, I believe the tide is also shifting to include all kinds of parents from a variety of income brackets to question the science behind vaccines and the claims from the manufacturers themselves. More and more people know someone who has been vaccine injured, so it is only logical to question the safety of vaccines.
Also, more parents now actually take the time to read the manufacturer's inserts, you know, just to see what's injected into their kids. Most are surprised at what they read.
Parents have every reason to question vaccines because the government branches that are supposed to lookout for the health of the people, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are simply put - 'in bed with' the billion dollar
vaccine industry.
So are vaccines safe? All I can do to answer that question is provide you with some information. There is plenty of information on the alleged benefits of vaccines on government and medical establishment websites. Let's reiterate that,
government and medical establishment websites. As in, the same government that is financially invested in the success of vaccines and is closely tied to vaccine manufacturers to the point that they are nearly one and the same. Former employees of vaccine manufacturers work for CDC and the FDA, and vice versa. The very people that decide which vaccine will be injected into children all over the nation have huge
conflict of interest and ties to vaccine manufacturers (more about that
here and
here).
What about unbiased information? Safety studies that are not conducted by the vaccine manufacturers themselves? Studies that pose no conflict of interest? There aren't many, because it's not in their financial interest.
General Safety
To start with, one of the main reasons vaccine safety can and should be questioned is that
there are no long term independent studies on vaccine side effects or safety. None. Nada. Zilch. If you can point me to one, please do. But all I've found is doctors' statements on the absence of such studies and nothing on the CDC website. Most studies are both sponsored by the manufacturers and are short term, neither of which has the interest of your child in mind.
Moreover, giving the same exact vaccine dose to every child regardless of their weight, medical history, genetic predisposition, and other individual considerations can hardly be considered safe or logical. Everyone knows that vaccines have side effects, it's no secret. It is estimated that only about 10% of these are reported to the VAERS database. It is up to you to decide if you are willing to risk serious potential side effects for the 'greater good' or if you are willing to risk the chance of an infectious disease. Either way there are risks.
The following graph shows the correlation of the mortality for children under age five and the number of vaccines on each country's recommendation list. This is perhaps the most compelling evidence to question the safety of vaccines and the sheer number of recommended doses.
Effectiveness and Science
It is also common knowledge that vaccines are not 100% effective. While it isn't always possible to pinpoint the effectiveness percentage, it varies anywhere from 25% to 95%. (
a,
b,
c,
d,
e,
f,
g) In the case of Gardasil, an HPV vaccine mainly targeted at girls, the lead vaccine developer actually admitted
Gardasil and Cervarix do not work, are dangerous, and haven't been adequately tested.
"Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70% of all H.P.V. infections resolve themselves without treatment in a year, and the number rises to well over 90% in two years. Harper also mentioned the safety angle. All trials of the vaccines were done on children aged 15 and above, despite them currently being marketed for 9-year-olds.
So far, 15,037 girls have reported adverse side effects from Gardasil alone to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (V.A.E.R.S.), and this number only reflects parents who underwent the hurdles required for reporting adverse reactions. At the time of writing, 44 girls are officially known to have died from these vaccines. The reported side effects include Guillian Barré Syndrome (paralysis lasting for years, or permanently — sometimes eventually causing suffocation), lupus, seizures, blood clots, and brain inflammation. Parents are usually not made aware of these risks."(h)
Vaccines were developed before many advances in modern medicine and current eye-opening research about the complexities of the human body, yet they still function on basic assumption from nearly a century ago.
"The theory behind vaccines is that they mimic infection by spurring B cells, one of the two major types of white blood cells in the immune system, to produce antibodies as part of the adaptive immune system. It is widely believed that these vaccine-induced antibodies, which are part of the more specific adaptive immune system, teach the immune system how to directly respond to an infection before the body becomes exposed to it.
But the new research highlights the fact that innate immunity plays a significant role in fighting infections, and is perhaps more important than adaptive immunity at preventing or fighting infections. In tests, adaptive immune system antibodies were shown unable to fight infection by themselves, which in essence debunks the theory that vaccine-induced antibodies serve any legitimate function in preventing or fighting off infection." 1, 2
Aluminum as Adjuvant
Most vaccines contain aluminum as an adjuvant to increase immune system response. It has never been adequately studied for safety and it's affects on the brain of young children have safety concerns.
"Aluminum is an experimentally demonstrated neurotoxin and the most commonly used vaccine adjuvant. Despite almost 90 years of widespread use of aluminum adjuvants, medical science's understanding about their mechanisms of action is still remarkably poor. There is also a concerning scarcity of data on toxicology and pharmacokinetics of these compounds. In spite of this, the notion that aluminum in vaccines is safe appears to be widely accepted. Experimental research, however, clearly shows that aluminum adjuvants have a potential to induce serious immunological disorders in humans. In particular, aluminum in adjuvant form carries a risk for autoimmunity, long-term brain inflammation and associated neurological complications and may thus have profound and widespread adverse health consequences. In our opinion, the possibility that vaccine benefits may have been overrated and the risk of potential adverse effects underestimated, has not been rigorously evaluated in the medical and scientific community." Journal of Current Medicinal Chemistry
Vaccines and SIDS
For a mother, waking up to find your baby blue and not breathing is probably the worst nightmare. The definitive cause of SIDS is not known but there are many theories. Nobody can say for sure if toxins in mattresses or vaccines are partly to blame. Babies are surrounded by environmental toxins, including vaccines, and there is really no way to pin-point just one cause.
"JAPAN In 1975, about 37 Crib Sudden Deaths were linked to vaccination in Japan. Doctors in one prefecture boycotted vaccinations, and refused to vaccinate. The Japanese government paid attention and stopped vaccinating children below the age of two years. When immunization was delayed until a child was 24 months of age, Sudden Infant Death cases and claims for vaccine related deaths disappeared. Japan zoomed from a high 17th place in infant mortality rate to the lowest infant mortality rate in the world when they stopped vaccinating. Japan didn't vaccinate any children below the age of two years between 1975 and 1988, for thirteen years. But then in 1988, Japanese parents were given the choice to start vaccinating anywhere between three months and 48 months. The Ministry study group studied 2,720 SIDS cases occurring between 1980 and 1992 and they established that their very low SIDS rate quadrupled." - Scheibner, Viera, Ph.D.
Newborn Hepatitis B Vaccine
The first vaccine all newborns receive at birth in the United States is the Hepatitis B vaccine.
"The primary reason that the CDC recommended hepatitis B vaccination for all newborns in the United States in 1991 is because public health officials and doctors could not persuade adults in high risk groups (primarily IV drug abusers and persons with multiple sexual partners) to get the vaccine."
"As of March 2012, there was a total of 66,654 hepatitis B vaccine-related adverse events reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), including reports of headache, irritability, extreme fatigue, brain inflammation, convulsions, rheumatoid arthritis, optic neuritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) and neuropathy. There have been more than 1500 hepatitis B vaccine-related deaths reported, including deaths classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)." Note: only about 10% of actual incidences are reported
The Hepatitis B vaccine is perhaps the most controversial of all. Contrary to public belief, it isn't necessarily a deadly disease as it is portrayed.
"Infants who contract hepatitis B, either from their infected mother or infected blood transfusions, are at highest risk for chronic infection. But for the majority of healthy teenagers and adults, who come down with hepatitis B infection, symptoms include nausea, vomiting, low grade fever, pain and swelling in the joints, headache, and cough for two weeks before the onset of jaundice and enlargement/tenderness of the liver that lasts for three to four weeks. Fatigue can last up to a year but "most patients do not require hospital care" and "95 percent of patients have a favorable course and recover completely" with the case fatality ratio being "very low (approximately 0.1 percent)" according to Harrison's Principles of Medicine (11th Edition).
Those who recover completely from hepatitis B infection acquire life-long immunity. One medical textbook (Robbins Pathologic Textbook of Disease) points out that among those who do not recover completely from hepatitis B infection, fewer than 5 percent become chronic carriers of the virus, with just one quarter of these in danger of developing life threatening disease later in life. " Source
Weakened Immune System
It's a known fact that just like a virus, vaccines weaken the immune system. The problem is that in addition to a virus, vaccines contain many toxic ingredients that further weaken the immune system - something absent in a real virus scenario.
Every vaccine insert will warn that it shouldn't be injected into a person that is currently ill or has a compromised immune system. Manufacturers know this, doctors know this, yet often they fail to follow these guidelines and children needlessly suffer as a result. Assaulting an immune system that's already working hard to fight whatever it is the body is dealing with, can end up like
this.
"All vaccines are immune suppressing, meaning they affect immune function for a period of time and can make some people more susceptible to coming down with a viral or bacterial infection.. The chemicals, adjuvants, lab altered viruses and bacteria and foreign DNA/RNA from animal and human cell substrates in the vaccines may compromise immune system function and depress immunity -- that is the trade-off you are risking.
The conventional belief is that it is acceptable to exchange this small overall immune suppression for immunity to one infectious disease. However, remember that this means you're trading a total immune system suppression, which is your main defense against all known disease -- including millions of pathogens -- for a temporary immunity against just one disease.
This may help explain why people who get a flu shot may actually be more likely to acquire an infection from another virus, as was shown to be the case with H1N1 (swine flu)." - Dr. Mercola
Chronic Diseases
While we are seeing a decrease in infectious diseases and huge advances in treating them to minimize lethal outcomes, as a nation we are sicker than ever before. Children are chronically ill. Autoimmune diseases are on the rise. Cancer, asthma, allergies, ADHD, autism, rheumatoid arthritis (even in children), diabetes... How do we know vaccines are not the cause of the
rise of autoimmune diseases?
"I believe that the exposure to yeast, egg, animal, or human proteins in the context of immunogenic (antibody producing) stimuli has the potential to result in sensitization to these proteins or even to break human immunologic tolerance to “self.” The latter is especially relevant to infants, since their immune system is only starting to make the distinction between “self” and “foreign.” Setting this distinction the wrong way from the start, in my view, is likely to pave the road to allergic or autoimmune manifestations." - Research Immunologist Tetyana Obukhanych PhD
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| Original course: http://bit.ly/11OghcO |
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| Original course: http://bit.ly/11OghcO |
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| Original course: http://bit.ly/11OghcO |
VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) Database
If you are not aware, the government does have a way to track adverse reactions to vaccines with the
VAERS Database (the government website is near impossible to search, this is an easier
MedAlerts database search engine).
"Since 1990, between 12,000 and 14,000 reports of hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following vaccination are made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, annually, but it is estimated that only between 1 and 10 percent of all doctors make reports to VAERS. Therefore, the number of vaccine-related health problems occurring in the United States every year may be more than 1 million." - Barbara Loe Fisher (mother to child who died follow DPT shot)
Vaccine Injury Compensation awards $250,000 for the death of an individual following a vaccine or more to cover lifelong medical bills for those injured/brain-damaged. Over the years about $1.5 billion dollars has been paid out to vaccine injured families. But
compensation is tough to get and parents have to fight the system for years.
A Call for Increased Safety
Since vaccine manufacturers take no responsibility for their products and are protected by our government, it is your responsibility to make the decision for your child. You are liable for side effects, even if deadly, and you are liable if your child contracts an infections disease. The difference is that the latter is out of your control and the former is not.
Something tells me that parents would be a lot more open to vaccinations if the ingredients were not so questionable. Is it impossible to produce vaccines without aborted fetal cells, formaldehyde, aluminum, Polysorbate 80 (producing
infertility in animals), thimerosal, etc.? At such a massive scale, maybe not. It may be just my opinion, but it seems all the side effects of vaccines are more so from the toxic ingredients - not so much from the viruses they contain (although that's up for debate).
The questions parents have about vaccines are all legitimate and I wish our government, doctors, and scientists would actually listen to these questions. When a mother witnesses her perfectly healthy baby wither and die within hours, days, or short weeks post vaccination - nobody dare tell her it was a 'coincidence'. She has every reason to conclude the vaccinations caused it. We cannot ignore these mothers just as much as the mothers whose children die from infections diseases that vaccines can
possibly prevent.
When will we start treating children as individuals and not a herd? How can we create a simple, inexpensive test to determine if a child has a genetic predisposition to a serious adverse reaction before making an injection? When will doctors stop vaccinating children who come to the office sick, resulting in more serious adverse reactions? When will pediatricians stop the name calling, harassing, and downright violence against parents who question vaccines? When will the
massive conflicts of interest between the pharmaceutical companies and those who make vaccine schedule decisions be resolved? When will long-term independent vaccine safety studies be conducted?
Decisions, Decisions
With the information available, it's up to you to decide, I know it is not easy. While I have a very strong opinion on the subject, I shared as little of it as possible as I don't want my opinion influencing yours.
Vaccines do not have to be all or nothing. We are all well aware that the number of recommended vaccines has skyrocketed and that itself is reason to worry. I suggest approaching each vaccine individually to first decide whether you need it for your child, then possibly find a single-dose vaccine manufacturer of that particular one. In case of a serious reaction (other than the usual redness, fever, etc.) you will know exactly what caused it. Remember that you can always decide to vaccinate, but you cannot un-inject your baby once you go through with it.
This post is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to vaccines, not even. You will never be able to find, read, and analyze
all the information. Neither can a doctor. That is something you need to make peace with. If you are religious and/or believe in God at all, I also suggest praying for guidance, we may not know all but He certainly does.
For more information see the
NVIC portal and please watch
The Greater Good and visit their
Catalogue of Science for further reading.
Books for further reading and research on vaccines:
A Shot in the Dark
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations
Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children
Confessions of a Medical Heretic
Evidence of Harm
The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child
We are all adults, please keep the comments civil, if not politically correct. No bashing or name calling please.
Please share with us your opinions, stories (both of adverse reactions and 'vaccine preventable' diseases), sources, etc.
How did you decide whether to vaccinate your children or not?
Some Sources Used for this Post:
(does not include all PDF files used)
http://progress.umb.edu.pl/sites/progress.umb.edu.pl/files/129-141.pdf
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/can-we-continue-justify-injecting-aluminum-children
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21880755
http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/is-there-solid-science-behind-vaccinating-pregnant-women/
http://wakeup-world.com/2012/11/12/time-for-a-wake-up-call-the-vaccination-hoax-debunked/
http://journals.lww.com/jaids/Fulltext/2007/11010/Selection_of_Hepatitis_B_Virus__HBV__Vaccine.4.aspx
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