Are You Ready to Get Educated About Vaccines?
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is clearly the leading Internet resource, providing objective, unbiased information that you will need to make intelligent, informed decisions about which vaccines you, your children or other members of your family may want to use.
If you have further questions about vaccination, make sure you consult a trusted health care professional, who has taken the time to become educated personally about vaccines. And if your doctor threatens or belittles you, refuses to treat your family if you want to use an alternative vaccination schedule , or will not take the time to discuss your vaccine concerns with you and allow you to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions, I suggest you find one who will. Remember, it is yourchoice and your responsibility to get educated about vaccination, and your doctor should treat you with respect and work with you on this.
I also encourage you to get involved with the work that NVIC is doing to protect your right to choose which vaccines you want your children to get, including the legal right to use all, some, or no vaccines at all. Register for the free NVIC Advocacy Portal that educates you about threats to your legal right to make vaccine choices and puts you directly in contact with your elected state representatives so you can help protect vaccine exemptions in your state. Stay informed about what is happening in your state and make your voice heard.
14 Dangerous Side Effects Linked to Vaccination, IOM Report Says
In the first comprehensive safety review in nearly two decades, the Institute of Medicine found convincing scientic evidence for a causal relationship between certain vaccines and serious adverse health outcomes. This includes:
Chickenpox Vaccine
Vaccine strain varicella zoster infection after vaccination without other organ involvement;
Vaccine strain varicella zoster infection and subsequent infection resulting in pneumonia, encephalitis, meningitis or hepatitis in individuals with demonstrated immunodeficiences;
Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) Vaccine
Measles inclusion body encephalitis
Febrile seizures, a type of seizure that occurs in infants and young children in association with fever
Short-term joint pain (arthralgia) in children and women
Other findings revealed:
Six types of vaccines — MMR, varicella zoster (chickenpox), influenza, hepatitis B, meningococcal, and tetanus-containing vaccines — are linked to anaphylaxis (severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction). The HPV vaccine was also linked to anaphylaxis in yeast-sensitive individuals.
Injection of any vaccine in general can lead to sudden fainting (syncope) and symptoms of deltoid bursitis, or shoulder inflammation
Two Canadian flu vaccines were linked to oculo-respiratory syndrome characterized by conjunctivitis, facial swelling, and mild respiratory symptoms.
Scientific research suggests that many people, who experience an adverse reaction to vaccines, have individual susceptibility that can make them at higher risk for experiencing acute and chronic health problems after vaccination due to biodiversity (genetic variations) within populations; age at the time of vaccination; immune deficiencies; coinciding infections/illnesses; and other environmental exposures, (such as toxins, traumas).
Vaccines & Side Effects : The Facts
DTP and SIDS
That’s the case with the myth linking the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The first dose of the vaccine is administered when a baby is 2 months old, which coincides with the time of life when the risk of SIDS is highest. Thus, you would expect some SIDS deaths to occur in this age group, whether children receive the immunization. In fact, a number of studies dating back to the 1980s looked at the incidence of SIDS deaths occurring at the time of the DTP vaccine. The researchers concluded that the number of deaths was at a level about equal to the number that would be expected to take place by chance. In short, there just isn’t any scientific evidence linking the vaccine with SIDS. Even so, many of the myths surrounding vaccines seem to have a life of their own. Below, you’ll find a description of some of these unfounded claims, as well as a look at what the scientific evidence shows.
Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine and Autism
Autism is made up of many chronic developmental disorders and is often first diagnosed in toddlers. The number of cases of autism is reportedly on the rise, and some critics insist that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is to blame. Others say the increase can be attributed to better reporting of autism cases by doctors. In 2001 and again in 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Immunization Safety Review Committee, an independent body of experts who have no conflict of interest with pharmaceutical companies or organizations that make vaccine recommendations, studied a possible MMR-autism link and found no evidence supporting such a connection. A panel of experts brought together by the AAP reached the same conclusion. Most of the authors of the original study linking MMR to autism have retracted their support of the study.
Risks of Thimerosal?
Since the 1930s, some vaccines have included a mercury-containing preservative calledthimerosal. It has been used as an additive to vaccines because of its ability to prevent contamination by bacteria or fungi. Critics have argued that thimerosal-containing vaccines are the cause of a number of neurologic and developmental disorders, ranging from autism to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and speech and language delays. The IOM safety committee studied this issue and concluded that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. Since the end of 2001, most of the vaccines recommended by the AAP are available in thimerosal-free formulations. Some vaccines, such as the MMR, polio, and chickenpox vaccines, have never contained thimerosal.
Multiple Immunizations and Immune Disorders
Because some immunizations are given together, parents are often concerned that multiple vaccines might trigger health problems associated with the immune system. Can they increase your child’s risk of infections? Can they lead to the development of type 1 diabetes or various allergic diseases including asthma? After looking at this issue, the IOM committee concluded that there is no evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between multiple immunizations and a greater risk of infections and/or type 1 diabetes. As for a link with asthma and other allergic disorders, there simply isn’t enough evidence to either accept or reject a connection with multiple vaccinations given together.
Hepatitis B Vaccines and Multiple Sclerosis
Although critics have claimed that hepatitis B immunizations can cause or trigger a relapse of multiple sclerosis, the IOM safety committee could find no scientific support for this theory. The same report also concluded that there is no evidence that the hepatitis B vaccine causes other types of nervous system problems, including Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Share Your Vaccines Reaction Story with the Media and People You Know
If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury, or death, please talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with one another, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More About Vaccines Side Effects
I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at www.NVIC.org:
NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, and school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.
Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care
If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.
However, there is hope.
At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.
So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.
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