Immunizations: should you? or shouldn't you?
Be informed... Make wise choices... make informed decisions! Should you decide that immunizations or vaccinations are not for you and your children, or that there are certain vaccinations you desire to refuse... then, after prayerfully considering all the angles you are able to research, you may want to copy these two resources and present them to your doctor. First... Pray. Next... study. Then... proceed.
42 Page packet of information for parents exploring vaccine options
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/4172/ImmChoice.html
Refusal of Recommended Vaccines http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/4172/VacRefuse.html
Religious and Philosophical Exemption Worksheet http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/4172/VacWkst.html
What you should know about Immunizations...
What Doctors and medical professionals aren't telling you
Are they really a "Shot in the Dark?"
http://www.909shot.com
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a national, non-profit educational organization founded in 1982. It is the oldest and largest national organization advocating reformation of the mass vaccination system and is responsible for launching the vaccine safety movement in America in the early 1980’s.
PARENTS
HELP PREVENT VACCINE REACTIONS
BEFORE YOU VACCINATE, ASK EIGHT:
1. Is my child sick right now?
2. Has my child had a bad reaction to a vaccination before?
3. Does my child have a personal or family history of:
- vaccine reactions
- convulsions or neurological disorders
- severe allergies
- immune system disorders
4. Do I know if my child is at high risk of reacting?
5. Do I have full information on the vaccine's side effects?
6. Do I know how to identify a vaccine reaction?
7. Do I know how to report a vaccine reaction?
8. Do I know the vaccine manufacturer's name and lot number?
VACCINATION DECISIONS FOR PARENTS
Vaccination is a medical procedure which carries a risk of injury or death. As a parent, it is your responsibility to become educated about the benefits and risks of vaccines in order to make the most informed, responsible vaccination decisions.
1. Your doctor is required by law to provide you with vaccine benefit/risk information materials before your child is vaccinated. Consumer groups, including the National Vaccine Information Center, worked with government health agencies to develop parent information booklets on each mandated vaccine. Ask your doctor for the booklet and take time to read it before your child is vaccinated. You may also ask your doctor to show you the information insert provided by the drug company which manufactured the
vaccine(s) your child is scheduled to receive.
2. Your doctor is required by law to keep a permanent record of all vaccinations given, including the vaccine manufacturer's name and lot number. Ask for a copy of the doctor's record on vaccinations given to your child to keep for your records.
3. Your doctor is required by law to report all adverse events, including injuries and deaths which occur within 30 days after vaccination to federal health authorities. If your doctor refuses to report a reaction following vaccination, you have the right to report to the government yourself.
4. If your child is left permanently brain damaged or dies as a result of a vaccine reaction, you may be entitled to benefits under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. By fall 1995, the federal vaccine injury compensation program had compensated nearly 1000 families at a cost of $600 million.
DO: Become educated about childhood diseases and vaccines. You have the ultimate responsibility for your child's health and well-being and you, not your doctor or state or federal health officials, will live with, and be responsible for the consequences of your decision.
Ask your doctor to give your child a physical exam to make sure your child is healthy before you permit vaccination. A sick child can be at increased risk for having a vaccine reaction.
Write down your child's personal and family medical history listing major illnesses and diseases or medical conditions, especially previous reactions to vaccinations, and have it included in your child's permanent medical records. Before permitting vaccination of your child, ask your doctor if any of these conditions will put your child at risk for having a vaccine reaction. A child who has had a previous severe reaction to a vaccination can be especially at risk for even more severe reactions if more vaccine is given. If
you are not satisfied with the answers you are given, get a second opinion.
Monitor your child closely after vaccination. Call your doctor if you suspect a reaction. If your doctor is not concerned and you are, take your child to an emergency room.
Obtain a copy of your state mandatory vaccination laws. Become educated about state vaccine requirements, your rights and legal exemptions to vaccination.
Don't be intimidated by medical personnel and forced into a vaccination decision before you are comfortable with your decision.
This information is provided by THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER (NVIC) a national, non-profit, educational organization founded in 1982 and dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. NVIC supports the right of American consumers to make informed, independent vaccination decisions for themselves and their children.
http://www.909shot.com
http://www.vaclib.org/
http://www.vaclib.org/indexdoc.htm#index
http://www.knowshots.com
http://www.knowshots.com
http://www.nvic.org/_ (http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.909shot.com/state-site/state-exemptions.htm
Another site to give you information:
http://www.vaccineinfo.net 
I just got this... thought you'd be interested in reading it, especially if you are a parent who struggles with the decision to vaccinate or not vaccinate your children. More importantly, if you have had negative experiences with vaccines, this will likely be of interest to you.
'Twas the
Night Before
Christmas
Provided Courtesy of
P.R.O.V.E.
I wanted to share this with the list because it is an example of how one mother of a child who became autistic after vaccination is expressing herself to educate others . It encourages me to see so many parents out there taking the education of vaccine risks that doctors are health officials are failing to do into their own hands and sharing their stories across cyberspace with parents everywhere.
Dawn Richardson-
Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education
Disclaimer: If any name in this story resembles that of a multi-billion dollar vaccine manufacturer, it is purely 'coincidental'. The author was merely searching for a word that rhymed well with Jerks.
Twas the night before Christmas,
and all through Merks house,
not a study was completed,
not even on a mouse.
The vaccines were injected,
hastily and without care,
in hopes that the mothers,
would not be aware.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while bacteria and viruses,
danced in their heads.
And mamma in her kerchief,
and I in my cap,
had just settled down,
for our usual peaceful nap-------.
When from down the hall,
there arose such a clatter!
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to my child's room, I flew like a flash,
tore off all his covers, what is wrong? I did ask.
My child was screaming, for why I didn't know,
he was so hot and sweaty, he had a toxin like glow.
When what before my wondering eyes did appear?
It was an allergic reaction, from his toe to his ear!
Being a sharp little mommy, very lively and quick,
I knew in a moment - it was from those triple-sticks!
More rapid than eagles, my anger did rise,
as I cursed and I shouted,
and called out bad names!
You Idiots! You Jerks!
You are Harmful and Lame!
Injecting mercury in a child,
you must be insane!
To the triple combinations!
To vaccinating them all!
Now dash away! dash away!
You've poisoned us all!
As I cope with my child,
like a wild hurricane he does fly,
so many odd behaviors,
he no longer looks me in the eye.
So back to my Pediatrician's,
me and my child we flew,
after days worth of tests,
it was Autism, ........ who knew.
When finally back home, I felt so aloof,
no more singing or pretending,....not under my roof.
Sometimes banging his head,
sometimes spinning around,
he could climb over a fence,with a leap and a bound.
He could not handle touch,
on his head or his foot,
when he did keep on clothes,
they were often tarnished with soot.
A roomful of toys, he doesn't really care,
he is happiest when alone,
acting as if we're not there.
I miss when his eyes they would twinkle!
How he would eat a strawberry!
He loved to smell roses, he would laugh and be merry.
Now his sweet little fingers,
can no more tie a bow,
why the change that occured?
Merk says they don't know.
As I listen to their nonsense,
tongue pressed hard in my cheek,
I feel the smoke circling, my head like a wreath.
They are two faced and smelly,
they say they've researched,
their research I'm afraid, is as solid as jelly.... .
With ego's so plump, they're like a pompous old elf:
And I laughed when I listened to them,
in spite of myself.
With a wink of their eye, and a twist of their head,
they assure us, and lie to us,
that with vaccines, there's no dread!
I spoke not a word, as I set out to work,
to urge all the lawyers,
to sue the pants off of Merck.
Their shield was then lifted,
because of someone in Congress who knows,
and giving a nod, the class-action suit arose.
Their testimony began,
"There's no evidence vaccines are scary!"
But our researchers they proved,-- quite the contrary.
The judge read the decision:
"You have stolen their health,
and for that we award parents, all of your wealth."
Merk sprang to their sleigh,
after they were denied an acquittal,
and away they all flew, like the down of a thistle.
In the courtroom mothers exclaimed,
as they held their children tight,
"Finally a Merry Christmas for all....
....and for all a Good Night!"
December 2000, written by anonymous in Houston
- kinda like sleepless in Seattle.
Disclaimer: If any name in this story resembles that of a multi-billion dollar vaccine manufacturer, it is purely 'coincidental'. The author was merely searching for a word that rhymed well with Jerks.
And another letter by Mary Sturges: (2001)
"OK, I just got the GREATEST resource in the mail. I have been putting off buying this thing because I didn’t want to spend the thirty bucks, but I am telling you, it is a WEALTH of vaccine, vaccine-reaction, and epidemiology information. If you are interested in vaccine safety and want to be able to defend your stance to your doctors using the most conservative and medically-acceptable facts possible (as I do—since my doctor, oddly, doesn’t accept
"Mothering magazine" as an authority), this is the resource to have. You will consider the money WELL SPENT. It’s the CDC’s publication, "Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases," also known in the jargon as "The Pink Book." You order it directly from the CDC (Center for Disease Control), and it’s about $30 with UPS shipping (the only option). The one you want is the revised 6th edition, published in January 2001 (a revision of the January 2000 one). You can get it by calling
(877) 252-1200.
Here is why you want it:
- Extensive information about the manufacture of each vaccine
- Extensive information about the history of each disease in our country
- the CDC vaccine price list, telling you which vaccines are available in which format (for example, which ones can be had singly)
- Exact info about how close together doses may be given (good for those of us who want to wait until our children are over one or two, then get them caught up over the spring and summer before winter HiB and Pertussis season hits)
- Information about VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System
- Information about NVIC, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation fund
- including which reactions are considered "covered" and how quickly they must be reported
- Tables of vaccine additives, explicitly telling you what’s in each vaccine
- Epidemiological information about each disease since 1950 or so -- how many cases of the disease each year, and how many deaths each year.
Did you know that bovine serum, as Brenda-Lee mentioned, is indeed in several vaccines—but not all of them. It’s in Oral Polio, Varicella (Chicken Pox), vaccinia, rabies, and Hep A. Want to know which vaccines contain Streptomycin? Egg protein? MOUSE protein? (No, I am not making that up.) Yeast? Human DNA? Mercury? Or any of the other 50 things on the list? This lists them all.
Did you know that from 1996 back to 1980, there have been only 32 total Rubella deaths? 19 Mumps deaths? 161 Measles deaths (with 123 of those occurring within three years, apparently an epidemic period)? That there are an average of 50 Tetanus cases a year, with about 1 in five being fatal? How about this one --- since 1980, there have been only SIX Diphtheria deaths, out of a total of 44 total cases? (Most years, obviously, there are only two or three cases reported,
with fatalities being pretty rare.)
SO, when your doctor tells you there is no such thing as a single measles vaccine, you can tell him that according to the CDC, there is—it’s called AttenuVax, it’s made by Merck, and the price per dose in the retail sector should be about ten bucks a shot. Also, your doc can write YOU a prescription for the vaccine, and you can get the local pharmacy to order it for you (this is what I am doing with the DTaP vaccine, because I definitely want the mercury-free version).
Anyway, now that I have the book in my hot little hand, I will be crunching the numbers as I promised you six months ago, and will let you know when I have something for you-all as far as a statistical cost-benefit analysis. Hang on; maybe by mid-March? Maybe sooner if you pray for me to get a couple extra hours in my days? Always interested in advancing the cause of INFORMED MOMYS-hood,"
-----Mary Sturges
Some Views.... to further help you in your decisions....
Putting Toddlers at Risk with Mandated Vaccines
By Jane Orient, M.D.
Federal Zealots Push One-Size-Fits-All Medicine By means of vaccine policy, the federal government is effectively making critical medical decisions for an entire generation of American children. The mechanism is a public-private partnership.
"Recommendations" come from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a small group whose members have incestuous ties with agencies that stand to gain power, or manufacturers that stand to gain enormous profits, from the policy that is made. Even if such members excuse themselves from specific votes, they are permitted to participate in discussions and thus influence the decision.
ACIP recommendations frequently become mandatory through actions of state legislatures or through state health departments to which legislatures have delegated such authority. State policy is generally enforced by school districts, which set requirements for school attendance. Some children, as reported by ABC’s 20/20, are being home schooled because they have not received all the required vaccines.
An Inversion of Medical Ethics
Mandates have a profound effect on medical practice.
Once a vaccine is mandated for children, the manufacturer and the physician administering the vaccine are substantially relieved of liability for adverse effects.
The relationship of patient and physician is shattered: In administering the vaccine, the physician is serving as the agent of the state.
To the extent that the physician simply complies, without making an independent evaluation of the appropriateness of the vaccine for each patient, he is abdicating his responsibility under the Oath of Hippocrates to "prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone". Instead, he is applying the new population-based ethic in which the interests of the individual patient may be sacrificed to the "needs of society."
If a physician advises against a mandated vaccine, he faces increased legal liability if the patient is infected with the disease. In addition, he may risk his very livelihood if he is dependent upon income from "health plans" that use vaccine compliance as a measure of "quality."
It is perhaps not surprising, although still reprehensible, that physicians sometimes behave in a very callous manner toward parents who question the need for certain vaccines. I have even heard reports of physicians threatening to call Child Protective Services to remove the child from parental custody if a parent refused a vaccine—even after the child had screamed inconsolably for hours after each of the first two doses.
The federal policy of mandating vaccines marks a monumental change in the concept of public health. Traditionally, public health authorities restricted the liberties of individuals only in case of a clear and present danger to public health. For example, individuals infected with a transmissible disease were quarantined.
Today, a child may be deprived of his liberty to associate with others, or even of his supposed right to a public education, simply because of being unimmunized.
Yet, if a child is uninfected, his unprotected status is not a threat to anyone else. On the other hand, immunization of a child who is already infected (or who becomes infected in spite of the vaccine) is of no protective value to anyone. This represents a reversal of the earlier policy of preventing exposure to infectious agents. In fact, it takes exposure—as to contaminated needles or promiscuous sex—as a given, while begging the question of whether protection against hepatitis B has any overall effect on morbidity
or mortality in a population that also exposes itself to worse hazards.
With hepatitis B vaccine, the case for mandatory immunization with few exemptions is far less persuasive than with smallpox or polio vaccines, which protected against highly lethal or disabling, easily transmissible diseases.
Most physicians probably recommended immunizing most patients against these diseases, while defending their authority to give contrary advice. In contrast, an informed and conscientious physician might frequently advise against hepatitis B vaccine, especially in newborns, unless a baby is at unusual risk because of an infected mother or household contact or membership in a population in which disease is common.
Vaccine Risks
We await the release of full information concerning the licensure of hepatitis B vaccine and the mandate for newborn immunizations, as requested under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Vaccine Information Center.
It is imperative that independent scientists have the opportunity to review the raw data. In the meantime, physicians are morally obligated to seek informed consent and to provide full and honest disclosure of the risks and uncertainties of the vaccine, in comparison with the risks of the disease.
Information given to parents about this vaccine often does not meet the requirement for full disclosure. For example, it may state that "getting the disease is far more likely to cause serious illness than getting the vaccine." This may be literally true, but it is seriously misleading if the risk of getting the disease is nearly zero (as is true for most American newborns).
It may also be technically true that "no serious reactions have been known to occur due to the hepatitis B recombinant vaccine," However, relevant studies have not been done to investigate whether the temporal association of vaccine with serious side effects is purely coincidental or not.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), established by the CDC and the FDA, contains about 25,000 reports of adverse reactions associated with hepatitis B vaccine, or to a vaccine cocktail that includes hepatitis B. (A copy of this data base is available on request from snavely@primenet.com. Compressed, the file is about eight megabytes and may take half an hour to download.)
About one-third of the reactions were serious enough to result in an emergency room visit or hospitalization and there were 440 deaths, including about 180 attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
More than 20 million persons are said to have received the vaccine in the United States. Thus, there are about four serious reported reactions for every 10,000 persons receiving the vaccine.
If only one-tenth of the reactions are reported to VAERS, as is often assumed, there are about four serious adverse events for every 1,000 persons receiving vaccine. This is not an unreasonable estimate of the degree of underreporting with a passive reporting system. Moreover, Congress heard testimony concerning medical students who were told not to report suspected adverse events.
Dr. Harold Margolis, a CDC hepatitis expert, told Congress that the incidence of SIDS has decreased at the same time that infant immunization rates have increased. In other contexts, the campaign to put babies on their backs when they go to sleep is credited with a dramatic fall in SIDS; it is possible that the decrease might have been greater without hepatitis B immunizations.
Data in VAERS are too limited to answer such questions as this: Does SIDS occur on the day after hepatitis B vaccine with a greater-than-expected frequency? Does it occur at a younger-than-expected age? Are the autopsy findings different in babies who just received the vaccine (in other words, was SIDS truly the cause of death)?
The fact that the vaccine just happens to be given during the time period that babies are most likely to die of SIDS complicates the analysis. Also, there are a number of other confounding variables (sleep position, socioeconomic status, and possibly smoking behavior of the parents).
The presence of findings such as brain edema in healthy infants who die very soon after receiving hepatitis B vaccine is worrisome, especially in view of the frequency of neurologic symptoms in the VAERS.
Examining just the first of eight listed effects shows about 4,600 involving such symptoms as prolonged screaming, agitation, apnea, ataxia, visual disturbances, convulsions, tremors, twitches, an abnormal cry, hypotonia, hypertonia, abnormal sensations, stupor, neck rigidity, paralysis, confusion and oculogyric crisis. The last is a striking feature of post-encephalitic Parkinson’s disease, or it may occur as a dystonic reaction to certain drugs such as phenothiazines.
The CDC admits that the results of ongoing studies on a potential association of hepatitis B vaccine and demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis are not yet available. Post-marketing surveillance in the first three years after licensure showed that Guillain Barré syndrome was reported significantly more often than expected, with a relative risk between 1.3 and 2.8.
Of possibly greater interest is the fact that the observed number of convulsions was only 6 to 20 percent of the expected number, suggesting underreporting by a factor of 5 to 17. If optic neuritis and transverse myelitis were underreported by this amount, complete ascertainment probably would have demonstrated a significant increase in the vaccinated population.
The question of an association between apparent increases in behavioral disorders (such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and the increasing number of childhood vaccines has been raised, primarily by parents, but I am not aware of appropriate studies addressing the issue.
Asthma and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, causes of lifelong morbidity and frequent premature death, have increased substantially, with childhood asthma nearly doubling, since the introduction of many new, mandatory vaccines. There is no explanation for this increase.
The temporal association, although not probative, is suggestive and demands intense investigation. Instead of following up on earlier, foreign studies suggesting a greater-than-chance association, the CDC, through vaccine mandates, is obliterating the control group (unvaccinated children).
Dr. Barthelow Classen testified concerning his studies, which suggest that hepatitis B and other vaccines could increase: the incidence of diabetes mellitus. Of note, VAERS contains more than 4,000 reports of abdominal symptoms that could have been due to pancreatitis, which was probably not specifically sought and thus missed if present.
Risk and Reward
For each individual, the risk of a serious adverse vaccine reaction (not known but possibly as high as 4 per 1,000) must be weighed against the risk of disease. (Note that a risk as low as 1 per 1,000,000 may be cause for regulatory action in the case of involuntary risks, and one in 10,000 for voluntary risks.)
In the United States, seroprevalence for hepatitis B surface antigen, a sign of a chronic carrier state, is between 0.1 and 0.5 percent (1 to 5 per 1,000) in normal populations, compared with up to 20 percent in the Far East and some tropical countries, and 30 percent in needle-using drug addicts or persons with Down¹s syndrome, leukemia or chronic renal disease requiring dialysis, among others.
Thus, for a member of the "normal" population, the risk of serious adverse reaction to the vaccine is probably of the same order of magnitude as the lifetime risk of becoming a chronic carrier for hepatitis B.
Although the carrier state may disqualify the individual from certain occupations, only a small percentage of carriers develop chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Overall, the annual incidence of hepatitis B in the U.S. is currently about 4 per 100,000. The risk for most young children is far less. In 1996, the number of deaths from viral hepatitis (of all types) reported in children under the age of 14 was 11, and in children under the age of one year was 1. The number of reported cans of hepatitis B in children under age 14 was 85 in 1993 and 279 in 1996, according to CDC figures, or between 2 and 6 per million.
There may be a genetic predisposition to adverse effects. Although much of the vaccine testing was done in Alaskan natives and Asians, adverse events in the United States have been predominantly among Caucasians. Nearly 80 percent of adverse events associated with hepatitis B vaccines alone involve women, who are more susceptible to autoimmune reactions.
This female predominance deserves serious study, not off-hand dismissal ("nurses tend to overreport," said a CDC official). Universal immunization could lead to disproportionate injury to susceptible populations, who might also be the least affected by the disease one is trying to prevent.
Conclusions
Public policy regarding vaccines is fundamentally flawed. It is permeated by conflicts of interest, it is based on poor scientific methodology (including studies that are too small, too short and too limited in populations represented), a methodology which is, moreover, insulated from independent criticism.
The evidence is far too poor to warrant overriding the independent judgments of parents, and attending physicians, even if this were ethically or legally acceptable. Indeed, evidence is accumulating that serious adverse reactions are being ignored. Although this article has focused on the hepatitis B vaccine, similar questions should be raised about others as well.
Jane Orient is executive director of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons.
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