Quote: Nancy Jocoy

.... It is interesting that those of us who are old enough to remember these diseases, while concerned, seem to all have personal experiences with the devestating effects of them and are not so quick to write them off completely --- ...

Yes. Diptheria, polio, tetanus, smallpox ..... and many more....

People who remember terrible epidemics (here) cutting a swath through the population with terrifying frequency, and people who have observed the horror and misery in emerging and undeveloped nations of childhood deaths by the hundreds of thousands due to preventable diseases .... well, I have to say that my very real concern about over-vaccinating and my very real distrust of both the pharma industry as well as the oversight agency that is in their pocket (IMHO) are tempered by the knowledge of the profound numbers of lives that have been spared with vaccines.

Okay so vaccinating for deadly and disfiguring diseases seems reasonable. But what's their excuse for giving the same vaccine multiple times? The same "just to make sure" or "we'd never get them in the office otherwise" crap the vets come up with? And what's with all the stuff in the vaccine that's been called into question. Why can't they just have the killed virus and enough liquid to suspend it? And why are they using so many potentially unsafe things like mercury and aluminum?

For me it's more a question of how often and what other substances are in there than vaccinating or not.

Will,

I think there are a number of things going on:

Pseudo-science vs real science. People are more willing to believe anecdotal evidence and ignore peer reviewed studies.

We've forgotten. Childhood diseases have been controlled for so long in this country that today's young parents have no experience with nor memory of a time when children died from these diseases.

This has truly evolved into an interesting discussion.

I have some immune issues that I do feel were the result of a bad vaccine I received in high school. It has effected my life deeply and cause me to change career paths twice. Would I have this vaccine again, would I suggest vaccines for my neices and nephews? Absolutely.

I will take the allergies, I will take the off chance of lupis and other immune diseases to prevent my family the loss of life from a preventable horrible disease. Diseases know no borders, travel has never been easier, which means that the disease across the world is in your yard with your kid much faster than anyone can ever predict. The pain of losing a family member to disease or tragedy cuts deep, you never forget that loss. You have not seen grief until you see someone you know bury their daughter or son.

I do believe as someone else suggested that denying a child a reasonably safe vaccine for a deadly disease is child abuse. I think highly of modern day vaccine protocols that make childhood death a rarity rather than in my grandmother's day where three of her siblings didn't make it to adulthood due to things we now have vaccines for.

 Quote: cathy goessman

Okay so vaccinating for deadly and disfiguring diseases seems reasonable. But what's their excuse for giving the same vaccine multiple times? The same "just to make sure" or "we'd never get them in the office otherwise" crap the vets come up with? And what's with all the stuff in the vaccine that's been called into question. Why can't they just have the killed virus and enough liquid to suspend it? And why are they using so many potentially unsafe things like mercury and aluminum?

For me it's more a question of how often and what other substances are in there than vaccinating or not.

The killed virus, if not killed completely, is the live virus. That was the problem with the salk vaccine for polio so they came out with sabin which was attenuated and could not give the actual infection. But I believe the killed vaccines are more effective - at least that is the case for polio but because of an early issue with a lot of salk vaccine the US shifted to sabin.

I know I had both types - a shot record as a baby of the salk vaccine and I remember standing in line for sugar cubes.

Live vs attenuated - polio
http://www.loti.com/sabin_vs_salk.htm

Mercury is in thimerosal, a preservative to prevent bacterial contaminatin. So yes, needs to go, I shudder to think of those of us who played with mercury and asbestos as kids.

OK, my last post on this topic!
This is a good site for those with questions and who want alternatives to the current recommendations for childhood vaccines. I think the book Dr sears wrote about vaccines would be worth purchasing if you have small children...

http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/labels/Alternative%20Vaccine%20Schedule.asp

Beating a dead horse here, has anyone watched the Hidden truth documentary?

The only reason I keep bringing this up is because there is documentation throughout history of "pandemics" and it's very interesting to see how diseases appear in a population and how they recede... and the difference now is that pharmaceutical companies or individuals looking for grant money can skew the information to make it appear that more people are actually afflicted by a disease by simply broadening the symptoms that constitute that particular disease. I'm not downplaying the fact that some diseases are dangerous and all the pertinent info on this thread.

There is also some question about childhood diseases like mumps (which I had,I remember it well) actually serving a purpose in the maturation of a humans immune system (or something to that effect, it's been a while since I watched the documentary)

Unfortunately, mumps can also sterilize a male, about 10% of males having mumps had some reproductive side-effect.........pretty nasty.

And while this is academic for most of you, I did ER medicine for several years, and I actually had a patient that died of Tetanus ( the old "lockjaw", in layman's terms ) and it was *horrible* to see - and that was right here in the U.S.
And of course it occurred to someone that had let their immunizations lapse. A needless and totally preventable death.

Toxin vaccines efficacy is a whole different ballgame from vaccines against other diseases/viruses though. Tetanus absolutely does work for it's intended purpose, and it is proven. Other types of vaccines (mostly to viruses) are NOT proven to work (which is the case with almost ALL canine vaccines) and can have nasty side effects.

No reason on Earth to not keep a tetanus shot current that I have heard.

 Quote: jenni williams

Toxin vaccines efficacy is a whole different ballgame from vaccines against other diseases/viruses though. Tetanus absolutely does work for it's intended purpose, and it is proven. Other types of vaccines (mostly to viruses) are NOT proven to work (which is the case with almost ALL canine vaccines) and can have nasty side effects.

No reason on Earth to not keep a tetanus shot current that I have heard.

Jenni,
We have eradicated Small Pox through the use of vaccines. It may have accounted for over a million human deaths in the past 3000 years.
Polo was a killer of thousands every year, and it crippled far more than that each and every year. And now ........it's incredibly rare.

And you're saying that:
"Other types of vaccines (mostly to viruses) are NOT proven to work".
I'm sorry, I can look at the data and I have to disagree with you there.