Why You Should Vaccinate Your Kids -

Recently, my husband and I revisited the topic of vaccinating our children with the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule. It was sparked by a documentary I watched by Jeff Hays entitled, “Bought.” It is a really compelling argument against vaccinations. It pretends to be objective, but it doesn’t present one positive thing about getting your child vaccinated, so I would say it is not. After watching the film, it initiated a lot of questions and doubts in my mind. I’ve always been on the fence about vaccinating my kids, mostly because a few of my close family members are “anti-vaxxers” and I believe them to be trustworthy, smart people. My husband, on the other hand, has always been in favor of getting our children vaccinated. Just before my daughter Lily was born three years ago, I began my research into immunizations.

I felt frightened when I would hear that VAERS and theFederal Department of Health and Human Services are incompetent at helping or funding families who have had a documented adverse reaction to a vaccine. Or when I read about the Merck company falsifying the efficacy of their mumps vaccine in clinical trials. What I am searching for is evidence based care for my kids, the same as when I wrote up my birth plan. I want research backed results to help me conclude the best decision for my children. And guess what? After all this time I’ve spent carefully crossing my t’s and dotting my i’s, I’ve come to the same conclusion the CDC has. It is safe and effective and necessary to vaccinate your children on the recommended immunization schedule. Since I don’t pretend to be an expert on the facts, I want to compile a list of reasons to vaccinate using reputable sources and people who ARE experts in the realm of immunizations.

1. The Likelihood Your Child Will Contract A Preventable Illness Is Much Greater Than The Likelihood They Will Experience An Adverse Reaction To Vaccinations.

Please look through this report of diseases contracted in the United States from 1950-2011 from the Center for Disease Control’s website. Notice how the numbers steadily decline with the introduction of vaccines and notice how in the last decade or so, outbreaks have arisen because people opt not to get vaccinated and not to protect themselves.

cases-deaths

On the other hand, the overall incidence rate of severe allergic reaction to vaccines is usually placed around one case for every one or two million injections. So, your chances of contracting a preventable disease are significantly higher than complications from a vaccination. I think most take for granted how few people die from measles, mumps, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and all those illnesses that used to be common.

2. Baby’s Immune System CAN Handle MORE Than the Current Vaccination Schedule

I found this information from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia interesting,“Children are exposed to fewer immunologic components (like proteins and sugars [polysaccharides]) in vaccines today than in the past. The table below summarizes the number of proteins and polysaccharides contained in routinely recommended vaccines administered over the past 100 years (click for the table). Although we now give children more vaccines, the actual number of immunologic components in vaccines has declined.”

Publichealth.org says, “Based on the number of antibodies present in the blood, a baby would theoretically have the ability to respond to around 10,000 vaccines at one time. Even if all 14 scheduled vaccines were given at once, it would only use up slightly more than 0.1% of a baby’s immune capacity.”

3. Herd Immunity Is Everything – Especially For The Flu Vaccine

Dr. Walt Orenstein, professor at Emory University and former director of the CDC’s National Immunization Program from 1988-2004, explains it best here:

“There is evidence that influenza vaccination can induce herd immunity, or community protection. What does that mean? It turns out that mathematical modelers can estimate the actual number of transmissions an infectious person with influenza could transmit to if all they came in contact with were susceptible people. Influenza, most estimates, are one and a half to two people. What this means is if I have influenza, and all I come into contact with are susceptible people, I will, on average, transmit to two people, who will in turn each transmit to two people, etc.If we reach an immunity level of 50% in our population, then of my two contacts, one is likely to be immune, and one susceptible. Thus, I would transmit to one person, and instead of growing transmission, it would be flat. If the immunity level goes above 50%, on average, I will transmit to less than one person and transmission will then die out. Since influenza vaccine on average is about 60% effective, and if the herd immunity threshold is 50%, then if we can achieve about an 83-84% vaccine coverage level in most seasons, we can essentially stop influenza transmission. Thus, for influenza, for those of us who are vaccinated, it is particularly important that we advocate with people we come in contact with that they also be vaccinated, since in most influenza seasons, those of us who are vaccinated would have a 40% chance of being vaccinated. Thus, herd immunity, or community protection, is very important to minimize the impact of influenza-caused disease.”

This explanation helped me to understand why getting a flu vaccine has a purpose for everyone, not just those susceptible to complications from the flu (very young & very old).

Herd big group of people — Moo. We’re a herd.

4. Vaccinations DO NOT Cause Autism

Most people don’t bring up this argument anymore because it’s been disproven so thoroughly, but regardless, it is good to note vaccinations do not cause autism. The vaccination attacked with this claim is the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine. As of 2014, there are 107 studies that show no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. In fact, the MMR vaccine actually does the opposite. It PREVENTS autism. Getting rubella can cause autism, as well as many other negative outcomes. An estimated 1228 ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) cases were prevented by rubella vaccination in the United States between 2001 and 2011. The rise of autism is a sad reality in today’s world, but it doesn’t make sense to blame it on vaccinations. The fact that boys are almost 5 times as likely to have ASD than girls begs the question of how could vaccinations cause autism? Are boys and girls not vaccinated in the same way, with the same drugs, at the same time?

5. There Are More “Harmful Elements” In Breastmilk Than A Vaccine

The CDC says, “Some vaccine ingredients could be toxic . . . at much higher doses. But any substance — even water — can be toxic given a large enough dose. But at a very low dose, even a highly toxic substance can be safe.We might not be aware of it, but we are exposed to small amounts of these same “toxic” substances every day. For example:Mercury: Babies are exposed to mercury in milk, including breast milk. Seafood also contains mercury.

Formaldehyde: Formaldehyde is in automobile exhaust; in household products and furnishings such as carpets, upholstery, cosmetics, paint, and felt-tip markers; and in health products such as antihistamines, cough drops, and mouthwash.

Aluminum: The average person takes in an estimated 30 to 50 mg of aluminum every day, mainly from foods, drinking water, and medicines. Not all vaccines contain aluminum, but those that do typically contain about .125 mg to .625 mg per dose, or roughly 1% of that daily average.”

The FDA reports the maximum amount of aluminum an infant might be exposed to in the first year of life through vaccinations is 4.225 mg. But

breast-fed infants ingest about 7 milligrams of aluminum just in the first six months of life!Here is a great guide to concerning ingredients in vaccines and how they are used.

6. Vaccinations Are Rigorously Tested, Even After Release

I’ll just give you a brief rundown of the vaccine development process. First, there’s an exploratory stage of laboratory testing and creating. Then there are pre-clinical trails where the test on animals and do challenge studies. Then, the vaccine is hopefully selected by a private backer for an IND (Investigational New Drug) application and hopefully the FDA approves it. Then the vaccine goes through THREE stages of human trials to test efficacy. Next, the vaccine needs approval and licensure by the FDA and post-licensure monitoring, including Stage 4 trials and the Vaccine Safety Datalink. Oh and let’s not forget about VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) which goal is to detect possible signals of adverse events associated with vaccines. The historyofvaccines.org goes into more explicit detail on the trial process. After learning about the effort it takes to develop a vaccine, usually a 15-20 year process, one has to wonder how unlikely it is to have a flawed vaccine, even a newly released one, administered to your child.

7. If You Do Not Vaccinate Your Child, You Are Putting Every Infant Your Child Comes Near In Danger

I didn’t come to this realization until much later. Choosing not to vaccinate your child is also making that choice for other children and undervaccinated people you are around. Measles outbreaks have become prevalent again because it is extremely contagious. You might not know you have it and spread it onto a little unvaccinated infant until it is too late. If you feel strongly enough about not vaccinating your children, please be cautious allowing them near children under age 1.

Adorable baby cooing — Please keep me safe!

8. Despite What You’ve Heard, It Is Not All That Lucrative For Drug Companies to Make Vaccines

So there’s really no incentive for them to be screwing us over. Consider this fact: most vaccinations provide lifelong immunity, while most other drugs create dependency. Manufacturing drugs that you will use for the rest of your life – anti-depression, sleeping pills, cholesterol medication, etc – is much more lucrative than making vaccines. Sure, vaccine sales as a whole rack in about 16 billion a year according to the World Health Organization, but just one drug can rack in 4-10 billion a year.

I understand that this article perhaps has not changed your perception towards vaccinating your children. That’s okay because more than anything I just wanted to articulate what I’ve learned and why I’ve come to support vaccinations after being confused for so long. Hopefully I will be the little voice in your head that initiates a discussion and further research into your decision whether or not to vaccinate your child.

Why You Should Vaccinate Your Kids