Randall Neustaedter OMD, LAc

What is the problem with vaccines?

      It is time for the two-month well-baby visit at the pediatrician's office. Your healthy baby is beginning to smile and coo, breastfeeding is finally going well, and you are feeling like proud parents. Then the doctor says it's time for the baby's shots, and she rattles off a list of six diseases with unrecognizable names. Are all of these vaccines necessary? Why so many at once? Are there any side effects? The brochures you receive are overwhelming, but they minimize the side effects, and the doctor insists the shots will prevent deadly diseases. Do you simply go along with the program? Maybe you have heard about bad reactions to vaccines, and you have some apprehension. The needle is poised. What is your decision?

      Like most parents, you may feel poorly informed about this medical issue, and so you leave this decision to the doctor. Your pediatrician must have your baby's best interests in mind. Or is there another side to the immunization decision? This is a choice that could affect your child for the rest of his or her life. We are trained to accept doctors' recommendations without question, but wouldn't it be wiser to approach this decision like any other consumer issue and read enough about it to make an informed choice?

      Ask the parents who regret not being well informed, the parents whose children were seriously injured by vaccines. Internet sites overflow with the sorrowful accounts of children maimed or killed by immunizations. The stories ring with the sharp tones of betrayal and tragic loss. Parents ask why weren't they told that their healthy, happy, normal baby could die from a vaccine. They are further enraged when their concerns about a relationship between the recently administered vaccine and their child's symptoms are denied by their doctor, the drug manufacturer, and the government. These authorities usually claim that the onset of symptoms after a shot is pure coincidence.

      What are parents doing about this? They are forming advocacy groups and confronting what they see as coercive medical laws that force vaccinations on their children, vaccines that may be dangerous or unnecessary. One of these parents had the power to make a difference. When. When a vaccine apparently injured two of Congressman Dan Burton's grandchildren, he demanded some accountability. The result—congressional hearings began in August 1999 investigating the culpability of the hepatitis vaccine and a vaccine industry that may be spinning out of control. These hearings asked some hard-hitting questions. Why target children for a sexually transmitted disease? Why risk the serious adverse reactions associated with this vaccine? Is the profit motive fueling the vaccine campaign?

      Revenues from vaccines total more than $1 billion in the United States, $3 billion worldwide. It is expected that this figure will increase to $7 billion in the next few years. To ensure continuing profits vaccine manufacturers conduct their own research, pay for ad campaigns encouraging parents to get the shots, and foot the bill for state legislation to mandate each vaccine for every child in America. Drug companies enjoy a guaranteed market for their product. After all, in many states parents are threatened with imprisonment or removal of their child from their home if they refuse.

      Has big business locked a stranglehold on the citizenry? Is this the setting for corruption and cover-up? Some people point a vigorous accusatory finger at vaccine manufacturers, charging that these companies conveniently bypass the usual checks and balances of the medical and legal systems. Why are vaccine adverse events hidden from parents, buried in the medical literature or in obscure reporting systems? Who is making policy decisions? Who is looking out for the health of our children? Doctors employed by drug companies also advise government recommendation panels. The same doctors who write position papers for the American Academy of Pediatrics are also paid consultants for the drug companies who make the product. Conflict of interest? Business as usual in the world of vaccines.

      Your pediatrician is not allowed to question vaccine utilization. Liability issues, boards of medical examiners, and policies of HMOs govern the doctors' recommendations. Step outside this set of rules and they risk their jobs or their licenses. On the other hand, pediatricians are trained in the benefits and absolute necessity of vaccines. They too are shielded from the reports of adverse effects and insistent that parents vaccinate their children. It is not uncommon for pediatricians to lose their temper and refuse to continue care for a child when parents decline a vaccine. Can you question the pediatrician's advice? Remember, you have hired the pediatrician's services and you are the guardian of your child's health. You will live with the consequences of your decision.

What is an adverse reaction?

Children suffer two types of adverse events after vaccines. One is an acute, short-lived set of symptoms that culminates in recovery or death. This category includes allergic reactions, nervous system disorders such as paralysis or seizures, arthritis, and a whole range of minor reactions including fevers and swelling at the injection site. In recent years concerns have increased about the second category of adverse reactions, the chronic and unremitting problems that sometimes occur following vaccines. An association with asthma following vaccination, as well as studies showing a connection between vaccines and diabetes and autism, has raised alarm bells among consumers. If vaccines are capable of causing such long-range problems, then perhaps our strategies for disease prevention require re-evaluation. Could these chronic diseases be the result of the bombardment of the infant's immature immune system by the repeated assault of bacterial and viral toxins mixed with chemical additives contained in the routine shots given at the doctor's office?

Do vaccines work?

      The answer may seem obvious and the question heretical to any red-blooded citizen raised in the last half of the twentieth century. The vaccine industry and medical textbooks inform us that immunization is the greatest miracle of preventive medicine. Is it, or have we merely exchanged acute childhood illnesses for lifelong, chronic damage to the immune system?

      Some vaccines are more effective in preventing disease than others. The protective effect of the whooping cough vaccine varies dramatically from study to study. The fact that a disease has declined in the population is not proof that the vaccine works. The incidence of many infectious diseases was already declining prior to the use of vaccines. Between 1900 and 1920 the mortality rate from diphtheria decreased by 50 percent, prior to the widespread use of the vaccine and prior to the invention of antibiotics. When vaccines are introduced, statistics are sometimes manipulated to artificially decrease the number of reported cases for a disease. During the polio epidemic of the 1950s the criteria of diagnosis for paralytic polio were drastically altered after the vaccine was introduced so that the number of reported cases was guaranteed to fall. When the whooping cough vaccine became widely distributed, physicians tended to stop diagnosing whooping cough in their patients, again giving the appearance of a reduction in the number of cases. It is estimated that only ten percent of whooping cough cases are ever diagnosed. This creates the illusion of effectiveness.

What can you do?

·       Become informed about the issues surrounding vaccines. Read books, visit websites. Become a sophisticated and informed consumer. This could be the most important decision you make for your child's health. Do not blindly accept the recommendations passed down by pediatricians.

·       Learn about the diseases and the vaccines, weigh the potential risks yourself.

·       Decide which vaccines you do or don't want. You may decide that some are prudent and others are unnecessary for your child.

·       If you decide to vaccinate, then choose the right time for the shots. The recommended schedule may not be optimal for your child. Delaying vaccines has been associated with less serious side effects.

What are your options if you choose not to vaccinate?

      Schools may tell you that your child will not be admitted without vaccines, but all states allow exemptions to vaccination. Nearly half the states allow a philosophical exemption, which means that parents can choose not to give vaccines based on their personal beliefs. All states except Mississippi allow a religious exemption. Obtain a copy of your state's immunization law from your State Health Department and read the requirements. A religious exemption should be worded to conform to the language of the law. Several attorneys specialize in this area, and they can help you obtain a religious exemption.

A question of philosophy

      We are moving away from a fear of isolated diseases toward a view of the body as an entire organism. We now think in terms of the body's immune system strength and its ability to maintain health. The dramatic increase in immune system disorders has led many health care providers and consumer advocates to question the role of chemical exposure and medical interventions, including vaccines, as a cause of immune failure. The coincident emergence of immune system disorders (AIDS, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, MS, and diabetes) with the mass vaccination of populations has led to suspicions that an entire generation has suffered immune system crippling from the vaccines that should be protecting us from illness. It is time to question our assumptions.