A friend posted an interesting photo on Facebook:
Caption:
CDC Vaccine Schedule.
What do you guys think about this?
This lead to my post:
Ivan Lawrence What are the dates that each of the vaccines became available? And to people who don't vaccinate, please don't fill up the hospital I only go to for non preventable emergencies... (Yes this is a low blow)
Which was met with the response:
Everyone needs to do their own research and not just blindly listen to what their pediatrician tells them. I have done a lot of research on them and decided that I did not want that poison in my child's body. I spoke to our pediatrician, and he too, does not believe in the new vaccine schedule. He said that the child's immune system CANNOT process it all. Some of the dosages that they give are enough for 2 GROWN men. and yet you want to inject that into a small child; no thanks. So, say what you will about me (low blow and all) but I would rather have my children the way that God made them then with out the crap the scientists make. And I have seen 1st hand a completely normal child become autistic after receiving their MMR vaccine.
Which lead to my rebuttal:
Ivan Lawrence I agree that we should all do our own research... Well, I think we should research the plethora of information that exists from reputable scientists whom have documented and reproducible findings.
For example, I saw a Penn & Teller show where they covered Vaccines, that lead me to ScienceBlogs.com's verification of most of what they said (http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/08/16/penn-teller-deconstruct-the-anti-vaccine/) and ScienceBlogs.com came from a group of experts to help us average joes learn more science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ScienceBlogs).
I also looked into the answer of my question about when the different vaccines were released thinking that most of the new vaccines since the 80's were new since the 80's (http://www.immunize.org/timeline/).
And this all comes full circle for me when I see the old guy at church who has walked with a limp most of his life after winning his childhood fight with polio, a fight that people who are vaccinated don't have to fight. Remember, because of vaccines there are some diseases that no longer exist, they are just gone!
I agree somewhat with your statement about wanting kids to be "as God made them" but I also believe that science is a blessing from God and not using it is like not looking at the serpent on Moses's staff (http://goo.gl/pKQbR). We do not have a full understanding of all things, and I am not a scientist or biologist, but I do try to observe and think for myself.
Prior to the 1900's life expectancy was 30's, now its 60's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy) which correlates to a bunch of things (science advances, religion restoration, etc.) but remember correlation does not equal causation... if correlation DID equal causation then we should all begin to pray to the great FSM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster) as the creator and begin to wear full Pirate Regalia.
These are my opinions, you are allowed to have your own. Please don't take things too personally... You think you're right and I think I'm right, but mostly I hope that all of our kids remain heathy and live long lives regardless of their parents opinions.
As I hope I am accurate in my data and conclusions I also feel very strongly that both parents (me and the other poster) are just trying to do what we think and feel is best for our kids. And if we feel that one way is best we would then feel we need to share these opinions with others to help their kids. So really I think we should just all focus on the greater concept of helping our children be strong, healthy, and enjoy long lives! I hope the decisions I make are right just like others hope their decisions are right... and I am glad that we can all freely share our opinions with each other!
UPDATE:
There is more info and opinions:
With a link: www.regardingcaroline.com/pubmed
My thoughts:
Science is hard...
UPDATE:
There is more info and opinions:
My thoughts:
Ivan Lawrence Did you read through any of these studies? I just read through some and have to say I am VERY glad I am not a research scientist Also, almost everything is a non committal conclusion "May cause", "sugests a link", etc. Additionally, some of those paper were written in the 90's, where is the followup?
The main problem: there is no hard data in either direction! Meaning, it is a gamble, your kid might get a debilitating desease that kills them or causes extra chalenges throughout their life... or... they might have a debilitating metal desease that can cause extra chalenges throughout their life. Or your child might be like the vast majority and have no negative effects. One real tough part about being a parent seems to be making the call and having no regrets, even if you made the wrong choice, did you make the best choice you could with the info you had at the time?
What about other factors like technology. The advent of cell phones or WiFi and the increased amount of radio waves penetrating our bodies? Air pollution, for example, has recently been proved to cause heart desease... what are the odds that vaccines either have nothing to do with it or are simply a catalyst?
Science is hard...
1 comment:
As a scientist, the answer to this for me is obvious: VACCINATE! By the way, the research showing a link between childhood vaccinations and autism has been completely discredited. Other researchers looked more carefully at the data and concluded that the guy who originally published it didn't really see what he thought he saw. I think those of us living in 21st century America really have no concept of what some of the diseases we vaccinate against are really like, because we don't see them. Our concept of getting sick is that we always get well eventually, but stuff like measles and diptheria--it kills people, especially little kids. A woman at my work got meningitis a few years ago, and it was kind of horrifying to get the e-mails. She went home on a Friday with a bad headache, by Monday they were telling people that if you wanted to say your last goodbyes, you should head to the hospital.
Now, I'm all for being "natural" or whatever (says the Nor Cal hippie girl who buys organic, does yoga, and takes crazy herbal supplements etc.), but this is one particular case where I think technology trumps nature! Childhood mortality used to be incredibly, incredibly high (still is in a lot of places in the world). We have vaccines to thank for the fact that we really don't have to wonder these days how many of our kids will make it to age five.
Incidentally, there's some pretty good evidence that some new cases of narcolepsy may have been triggered by the H1N1 vaccine (swine flu). At any rate, there's a huge increase in the rates of narcolepsy in Europe among people who received the vaccine from a certain manufacturer. Now, it's not confirmed that my sleep issues are really narcolepsy, and even if they are, I doubt my vaccine came from that manufacturer (from what I understand they only distributed in Europe). But, even if I did get whatever I have from that vaccine, I don't regret getting the vaccine. That's a pretty big statement when you consider just how debilitating this illness is. However, on balance, I think vaccines have done me much more good than harm. Statistically speaking, without them, I'd probably have been dead years ago. So if the medical technology that has enabled me to make it alive to my mid-30's has also caused some less-desirable side effects along the way, I can live with that.
By the way, there's a really great PBS documentary from Frontline about this issue: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/. I highly recommend.
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