Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Are Vaccinations safe? Should I give them to my child?

Recently, the subject of vaccination safety and the link from vaccinations to autism is getting a great deal of press. There are still naysayers that state that there couldn't be any possible connection, (weren't there pretty adamant 'flat-worlders' at the time of Columbus as well), but the evidence continues to pile up.

Barbara Loe Fisher, president of NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center), continues to sound the alarms for parents to be informed, and to carefully consider this potentially life changing event of vaccinations.

Fisher has stated: "We have to do the scientific studies to really determine whether a policy of using 48 doses of 14 vaccines before age 6 is a wise policy."

The NVIC also recommends that parents ask themselves at least these eight important questions before allowing their children to be vaccinated:

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 afamily history of vaccine reactions, convulsions or neurological disorders, severe allergies or immune system disorders? 4) Do I know if my child is at high risk of reacting? 5)Do I know how to identify a vaccine reaction? 6)Do I know how to report a vaccine reaction? 7)Do I know the vaccine manufacturer's name and lot number? 8) Do I know that I have a choice?
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What are the risks vs. benefits? What is the proof that vaccinations actually help in the first place? What is the evidence that vaccinations might be mildly to fatally harmful?

I was recently called by someone who had looked at my website. This father was rather desperately attempting to find 'mercury-free' vaccines. I wished him well in that search but also cautioned him to look at all of the possible side effects of vaccinations, not just the mercury.

Conformity to an idea or a practice in and of itself has little to no merit. To quote Eric Liddell from one of my favorite movies of all time, Chariots of Fire: When asked how far his pride would take him in defending his belief of not running track on a Sunday, he responded: "Just as far as my conscience dictates."

Get informed, look for resources, make a stand.

Dr. Bill L.

3 comments:

becca said...

good thoughts. i was at a playgroup on monday and mentioned that eli wasn't immunized. shock set in as i told the others he didn't HAVE to be and i didn't think it was a good idea at all, especially for infants. they tried to be relatively polite while conveying they thought i was crazy. it's scary that that is the mainstream mindset.

Dr. Bill Lawler said...

Kudos for you...I remember taking a son to the ER for a broken bone once. The nurse asked me how current he was on vaccinations. I said, he hasn't had any.
She closed the door, and gave me a hug and told me she was proud of me!
She said that she's seen a lot of bad reactions to vaccines but didn't say much because she worked at a hospital that did them...

jimbo said...

have you heard of homeopathic vaccinations? i met a girl whose brother in law had them in lieu of the scary ones for his mission...