My Vaccine Manifesto | Suite101.com

I have been researching vaccines/vaccination/immunizations since July of 1999. In nearly 2 years spent researching at the library, countless hours in comfy chairs or standing in front of bookshelves at places like Barnes & Noble and Borders, and sitting in this computer chair until my butt is numb reading site after site of 'evidence' and 'scientific proof' from BOTH sides of this debate, my current stance on vaccination is THIS (and I say current because my research is ongoing -- if I discovered tonight in the course of reading excerpts from medical journals and studies conducted by independent physicians/immunologists that vaccines are 100% safe and effective -- I would go out and begin vaccinating my daughter tomorrow -- but for now, that is not the case...and therefore...) 1. Vaccines have never been proven to be SAFE for infants/children/adults. Often the side effects prove to be worse than the disease against which the vaccine is purported to provide immunity. I am not willing to risk my daughter contracting lifelong health problems from injecting her with heavy metals like mercury and deadly chemical preservatives like formaldehyde. The list of auto-immune disorders that MAY be caused by vaccines is VERY long: juvenile diabetes, juvenile arthritis, autism, ADHD, PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder), athsma, high blood pressure, inflammatory bowel syndrome...to name only a few.

2. Vaccines have never been proven EFFECTIVE. Any number of different authorities in the medical community and in government agencies will tell you different things about when boosters are needed for each vaccine. In other countries they administer boosters for some vaccines yearly, here the same vaccines supposedly provide 'immunity' for 4 years. Why? Because noone KNOWS for certain. Also: DTaP is now reported not necessarily to provide immunity to Whooping Cough (the 'P': Pertussis), instead doctors now say that if the child contracts Pertussis, it should be a MILDER case. Same goes for the relatively new and well-known Varicella vaccine -- which does not protect children against naturally contracting Chickenpox AND has been reported to have killed 14 children since I last checked the NVIC site (National Vaccine Information Center) http://www.909shot.com Why risk side effects and long-term health problems when the vaccines do not even give the protection they promise?

3. But what about the collective good? What about exposing other children to my UNVACCINATED child? I ask you: WHAT ABOUT IT? I think that as mothers we would all make the same choice if asked to choose between the good of the community versus the health and welfare of our own child -- we would ALL choose our children. To me, in making my decision not to expose my child to the health hazards and chemicals and toxins in the vaccines, I have chosen the health of my child and the welfare of collective society is NOT an issue. Being as diligent as I am with my child's health, you won't find me taking her out into crowded areas or leaving her in group daycare at the gym or some other public venue -- I simply won't do it -- so you don't need even to worry about me in that sense! Second: There is NO definitive proof that VACCINES alone are the cause of the decline of infectious disease. Sure the timetables SEEM to coincide, but there were MANY other factors and advancements in healthcare and science during the same era: the use of antibiotics for one, the increased use of sanitation in hospitals AND a growing awareness of hygiene in the home -- so vaccines may have been a contributing factor in the decline of infectious disease but the did not save the world on their own.

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