Vaccinations, are they necessary?

I don?t know anywhere in Hong Kong that sells Mothering. I get my copy by subscription. It costs an extra US$10 to get sent here. I?ve found the mark up of shops selling overseas publications to be huge in Hong Kong that even if you could buy it here a subscription would probably be cheaper.
 
i read the article. this is exactly what i am worried about. i have been reading a lot about vaccinations, and the more i read, the more scared i am for my child.
 
I think when reading such articles it is important to question every statement that is made.

For example could there be other reasons for the high number of reported disabilities in today?s society?
It seems to me that my brother and my son have almost the same problems with reading. My son has been diagnosed with dyslexia and is getting extra help whereas my brother was just labeled as thick. I do wonder what would have happened if my brother was at school now rather than 30 years ago. Likewise today there are many different levels of autism but in the past only the most effected where consider to have this problem.

Could the rise in these problems be due to something else which has occurred at the same time as the rise in vaccinations?
For example there has been a huge drop in breastfeeding over the last 50 years. It is now well known that breastfed children are less likely to have asthma. This means that children who are formula fed are more likely to have asthma. This fact really biases the non-vaccine argument as mothers who chooses not to vaccine are more likely to breastfeed their children. Diabetes is another illness that we know is a much lower risk if you have been breastfed.

The article asks ?And could we be compromising the integrity of our immune systems by eliminating all experience of natural infection??
One thing we know is that breastfeeding actually improves the effectiveness of vaccines and more antibodies are produced. So you could argue that it doesn?t seem to matter whether you get the illness or the vaccine the body will make antibodies if it is able to.

The infant mortality rate is much lower now than in the past. Could it be that because more children are living there are more to have chronic illness rather than acute illness and die?

Another interesting fact is that the infant mortality rate is much higher amongst the black communities in the USA than amongst the white middle class. But the white middle class are more likely to have vaccinated their babies. The white middle class are also more likely to have their children diagnosed with learning disabilities. This could be for lots of reasons ? not just the vaccination rate. Is this because they need a reason why their children aren?t performing well or just because the authorities are more likely to listen to them?

The article also states, ?Mothers taking their children to paediatricians to be vaccinated placed a blind trust in the complete safety and effectiveness of those vaccines.?
But isn?t that the case with all medicines? When was the last time you were told the possible side effects of the drugs the doctor prescribed for you?
I took my dog for an operation recently and the vet make a point of explaining that with a general aesthesia with dog may not wake up. Have you ever had a general aesthesia? I have twice ? neither time was I or my family told this! But it is true for humans as well as dogs.

Lot of these sort of articles (from both sides) are just playing with statistics. And as a statistician I can tell you it is possible to argue either side with figures to back you up. The important thing is to read between the lines and question everything as I think both sides aren?t as open as they could be.

It is obvious to me that there are problems with having vaccines just as there are problems with not having vaccines. And I definitely think we should be fighting to make vaccines safer but so far no one has convinced me that the actual working of vaccines is hazardous for either my or my children?s health.

Best wishes,
Barb
 
and the people who wrote against vaccines never said that vaccines don't work. they're only focusing on the other substances that are put in the vaccines - mercury (which i think the newest vaccines that our chldren are getting are the new batch that doesn't include the mercury), preservatives, etc.

before i take a western medicine, i do try to find out about their side effects. that's why after reading so many inserts of western medicines for the past 10-15yrs, i've finally decided that they are my & my children's last resort.

thanks for your inpur barb. i think you've been very helpful, as always. =)
 
i have decided to jab my daughter with her 2 yr o vaccinations, against the advice of her homeo doc. after extensive research, i do believe that vaccines work, despite the potential side effects & all those things that i don't wanna be in my daughter's system. i guess i will feel so much more secure with her vaccinated.

plus i yet have to asked the schools that i plan to send her to whether they accept a child who hasn't been vaccinated......

but then i haven't made her 2 yo check-up appmt yet....
 
This thread made me really mad, so I feel I have to butt in and give my two cents worth.
By not vaccinating your children, you are not only putting them at great risk, but also others. Because of the recent anti-immunization misinformation campain, illnesses that were eradicated are making a comeback in some industrialized countries! There hasn't been mercury in vaccines for years, and it has been proven time and time again that there is no link whatsoever between vaccines and autism.
Please read the World Health Organization pages on common misconceptions regarding vaccines before you make your decision.

http://www.who.int/immunization_safety/aefi/immunization_misconceptions/en/
 
I feel that I need to make some kind of comment here. I have read most of the medical journals about vaccinations and I am also one of the people for whom they haven't always worked. However as a doctor who has worked in paediatric departments I would like to say that there is no question about the benfits of vaccination as far as I am concerned.

Chicken-pox was one of the subjects brought up- someone had a vaccine and it failed. Well a vaccine works on the principle that you introduce something to the body in a safer format and it forms the antibodies so that if it comes across the disease you are several steps ahead on making a response. You may not make that response though and that applies to the vaccine or the disease. I had confirmed chicken-pox as a child but discovered I wasn't immune at medical school. Likewise I had the rubella vaccine aged 10 and did not form an immune response to it. In drugs you always try and balance safety and effectiveness, and that means there will always be those people for whom it doesn't work. That is the case no matter what we do in life.

As other people mentioned a great number of diseases we don't even worry about now- who considers diphtheria a risk, yet it was a great killer in the past, and everytime people panic about vaccinations the herd coverage drops and more people become sick. There have been recent measles epidemics in the UK and it is notable that they are always in the areas where the parents are better educated.

Hope that helps. I am not prepared to go into each vaccine but this is some background and my opinion.
 
thanks, dr cookie, this is the kind of response that i was hoping to generate from starting this thread. as i said previously, i am no medical dr & all i know about vaccines are from books & publications (pro & against). which might not even be true!!

so that measle epidemic in UK that you mentioned, are those vaccinated?

ontheroad, it's nice how you feel so strongly about the subject & share your views & thank you for the link. let me check it out & come back. =)
 
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