Vaccines - Paducah,KY

There are more vaccines because they make scientific advances. 20 years ago there were many more vaccines than 50 years ago when people died of polio.... Which is now eradicated, thanks to vaccines.

There are more vaccines now, because scientists have discovered more ways to protect us.

For most kids, there is no downside to the vaccines - except maybe a sore arm or leg for a day or so.

There are some situations - some kids have reactions, some kids have a heath condition. But for the most part, there really is no downside to getting the vaccines.

Herd immunity is a good thing. It means that the more people who have the vaccine, the more protection there is for those who are unable (usually do to health reasons) to have the vaccine.

Vaccines are a good thing.

Those of us living in rich Western nations have lost the social memory of diseases which once killed many of our children. I choose to remember, and to save the lives of children who would have died 60,70,80,100years ago.

Does anyone have any idea how many people use to die from diseases that we have vaccines for now?
Do you know what the death rate is for people in countries where the vaccines are not available?
Do you know that people are dying from them again because of all the fear mongering regarding vaccines?
I had chicken pox - it was miserable and I still have a few scars from it 40 years later.
I had mumps - very painful.
My sister had German measles - she almost died.
My Mom had whooping cough when she was 6 months old and was not expected to live.
My mother's aunt had 8 kids the first three died before they reached their 2nd birthday.
My great grandmother died during the Spanish flu of 1918 leaving 6 kids from 12 to 6 months in age motherless.
Thank you for your concerns but I'll not willingly go back to the days when burying children was common.

Questioning things isn't a bad thing, but be careful where you get your information to base your decisions on. There has not been a single reputable study done to show that vaccines aren't safe and effective. If you want to learn about vaccine safety, do some actual research. Don't just watch movies or read books from sources such as Jenny McCarthy. Everyone has their own motives, big pharma included, but numbers don't lie. Beware googling and blindly believing what you read or watch, stick to medical journals and studies done by inpartial parties. You'll find that we are MUCH better off than we were even 20 years ago. The most alarming thing to me is that the rates of measles and pertussis is skyrocketing due to people choosing not to vaccinate.

Last year I had to do a research paper for college... I decided to choose the effects of vaccines. (This was a 10 page paper, mind you... Lots and lots of research.)

Originally, I was going to write from an anti-vaccine point of view... But the more research I did, the more I became pro-vaccine.

Then a friend of mine lost her two-week-old baby, after her son brought home pertussis after playing with a friend whose parents refused to vaccinate (and thought his coughing was just allergies, only to find out he had full-blown whooping cough a couple weeks later...)

So, I am very pro-vaccine. The bulk of concern around vaccines is that they "cause" autism, even though there has been no true link established between the two... Some children have had horrible reactions to ingredients in the vaccines ( if children have food sensitivities (especially egg) or seem prone to allergies, they should be put on a less aggressive or delayed vaccination schedule to reduce the risk of reactions...) But even if there was, I would rather have an autistic child than a dead one.

As far as herd immunity goes, it can only be effective if AT LEAST 95% of the "herd" is resistant to a disease... So when you consider the amount of children too young for vaccines, too old, immune-challenged (and can't be vaccinated), etc. it is NOT wise to rely on herd immunity to protect your child who is able to be vaccinated. Lots of people feel like the herd immunity will provide protection and choose not to vaccinate, which puts those who CANT be vaccinated at risk. (Like my friends infant...)

I would never judge anyone for seeking information. :) I'm glad that you did so, instead of believing a random documentary to be solid fact.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm

This is from the Center for Disease Control... It tells what the rates of infection and death were before vaccines, and what the effects of these diseases are. I am VERY grateful that the chances of my child having to suffer from one of these is very low thanks to vaccines.

Yeah, and why do we all have to wear seatbelts and bike helmets now!? I mean, we all survived without them!
And why do parents care where their kids are after school? We ran around until it was bed time and we survived just fine!
And we all ate cookie dough and now you're not supposed to. Why? We all survived!
And we all survived those childhood illnesses, too.... Didn't we?

No. We didn't all...

WE, those of us fortunate to be here typing on the computers we never had as kids, survived, but there were a lot of kids who didn't survive those things. We know better and so we do better. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy. I'm not a fan of big pharma, either. But just as they want to make money, so do the book authors and publishers....

There are several significant reasons WHY there are more vaccines now. Big Pharma and potential profit are certainly some of those "reasons."

On the other side of the balance, 'Big Disease' has killed huge numbers of people for most of our history, and is still killing people in less developed economies. Disease prompts Big Pharma and the whole medical establishment, and patients themselves, to seek cures. Vaccines are better than a cure, since they prevent much disease before a cure is even needed. (And of course a disease, once it strikes, often requires treatments which themselves are dangerous to some people.)

There are also profits, fame and influence to be had by people who sustain the panic. And people who are wildly concerned about any issue NEED to influence other people to take up their cause so they feel vindicated in their beliefs and fears. Since you're already leaned in that direction, my guess is that you'll keep leaning, and try to bring others along with you. It's just human nature, and you can see it in action everywhere: in politics, religion, diets, parenting. It's what people do.

But let me try to persuade you to consider leaning the other way for a few minutes. A vaccine is one of the MOST effective ways to prevent miserable, debilitating, often disfiguring, paralyzing or fatal diseases that used to keep children from growing into healthy adults.

Yes, vaccines can harm some people. Medicine doesn't know how to predict most potential sensitivities yet, and side effects to ANY drug, including the ones we can buy over the counter, are fairly common. A few of those side effects can be serious or even deadly – there are a surprising number of deaths from acetaminophen, for example. The fact remains that millions of lives have been improved and lengthened by vaccines, and for vast majority of children who receive vaccines, no significant side effect ever shows up.

And the vaccine is no longer believed by most investigators to cause autism; in fact, I know 3 autistic kids who were never immunized, and not a single autistic child who was immunized. The supposed "connection" has been disproved in several studies (but that fear, once ingited, will be forever recycled on the internet).

It's a matter of weighing the pros and cons. Herd immunity is real, and for the last few decades, was well working to protect even those children who didn't get vaccinated. But now that so many families are choosing not to vaccinate, very dangerous diseases, like whooping cough, have been breaking out in previously protected populations.

Food for thought.

Are you also in the dark about how many children died back before there were vaccines? Do you know ANYTHING about the scourge of smallpox? Polio? Do you know what an iron lung is? How about diptheria or whooping cough? How about red measles? German measles will cause terrible birth defects and fetus death when a pregnant woman is exposed.

My mother told me about so much of this when she was a little girl. She is SOOOOO grateful for vaccines now. Medicine has advanced so much since the days when these terrible diseases took our children and family members from us.

You can watch ANYTHING that will scare the beejeebers out of you. Including looking at what happens to children who DO get these diseases. We've had two moms on this forum this year alone whose children caught whooping cough - one was an infant. The mother wrote from the hospital. It was a SOBERING example of why all this bantering about is just being argumentative. Everyone who says "not my child" is just riding on the back of others for herd immunity. How presumputous to think that herd immunity will continue while people frighten moms into joining the "not my child" bandwagon.

There are more vaccines for many reasons. As science progresses, they are able to protect against more diseases, so some of today's vaccines couldn't have existed 20 years ago. They are also learning more about the long-term effectiveness of the vaccines and determining that boosters may be needed and/or multiple doses at a young age to better protect. Life expectancy rates have risen by several years even since I was a child and, while vaccines are obviously not the sole reason for this, it is a contributor.

All it takes is one kid acquiring measles to create a massive outbreak among unvaccinated kids living nearby. With so many parents afraid of vaccines, measles rates are on the rise again. Why risk it?

Vaccines protect us from diseases that are potentially fatal and/or debilitating. Why take the risk? We are so lucky to have these vaccines available to us. I just can't understand the choice not to vaccinate.

Well, I was mentioning this to my grandma after the birth of my first child. How there are so many for a baby so young- it seems overwhelming. She looked at me like I was crazy. She explained how her sister died from complications of polio. She said.. sure the vaccines may not be 100% and people may question their safety, but look at the alternative. That really stuck with me.
So you can do or think what you want. What scares me is that people think that the vaccines are more dangerous that the disease it protects you from. The more people that think this way, the more cases of pertussis, measles, etc we are going to be seeing.
That just doesn't make sense to me.

It's okay to be concerned; it is also important to do real research when one is concerned.

I agree so much with Suzy B.'s suggestion of the Sears Vaccine Book. Honestly, when I was pregnant, one source which I felt was reliable stated that vaccines were linked with autism. Yep, I could have had a Mom Freak Out, but I continued to read up and checked out both Dr Sears and the CDC's websites. We decided to use a delayed vaccination schedule for our son and he is now current with all of his shots.

Peg is right that there will always be a fear-mongering contingent looking to gain prominence and popularity. Andrew Wakefield, the fellow who authored the study stating that vaccines cause autism was hired by parents who wanted to sue big Pharma because their children were autistic. Here is a great article on the irreversible harm this duplicitous jerk has rendered:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/antivaccine-hero-andr...

Idiots believed this guy, or at least felt his claims were interesting enough to garner media attention. More airheads like Jenny McCarthy supported this baseless claim and thus, we now have babies dying of measles.

Even if everyone else thought I was nuts, I would still vaccinate. There are so many things babies and children and the elderly can die from that we cannot prevent.-- I am not going to pass up the opportunity to protect my child because of a very small percent of negative reactions.I'm sure parents in third world countries are not sitting around poo-pooing vaccinations.-- they are desperate for them.

We don't need a vaccine for every single virus a kid can catch - only the ones that are life-threatening,

So many advances in medicine. That's why we have more vaccines now.

I know there are many who don't allow them but I would never NOT protect the kids I am responsible for. I have seen people living with Polio, I have seen boys have mumps and measles, one or two grew up sterile due to the illness. I have had a break out of shingles because I had chicken pox as a child. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It's like someone is pouring tiny bits of lava on a spot over and over and over. The pain is nearly unbearable. By getting the chicken pox vaccine you limit the chances of that child getting chicken pox a tremendous amount.

I have a friend who did vaccines for her kids. Her daughter reacted badly to one of them and they felt she was autistic from it. She's finally coming around and getting to be the kid she was before that vaccine.

BUT even knowing that happened and knowing that person I still had the kiddo's do their vaccines. I would rather they had a reaction to that vaccine than have some of the diseases that the vaccines protect the kids from.

Those diseases are horrible. Yes, some do have adverse side effects. A person can have a reaction to anything at any time. Even foods they've eaten all their lives. They can react and die. I think vaccines are mostly safe and do what they are meant to do.

All things have ingredients we don't understand, we don't know why that ingredient is needed but it is or they would not spend the money to put it in there. I will always vaccinate the kids and if further vaccines come available for other illnesses I will probably do those too.

Here's a quote from Dr. Sears: "Vaccines have become the most controversial topic for parents and doctors today". With that, I would suggest looking at Dr. Sears book called, "The Vaccine Book". I do believe it looks at each vaccine so it can help you can make an educated decision. There are alternative vaccine schedules. My god daughter's mom has researched this topic extensively and she suggests this book to any one who is quesitoning vaccines.

I think one big reason (among several) is that - if you can get it on the pediatric recommended schedule - it is indemnified from liability in most instances.

http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html

A tax on the vaccine pays for damage from the vaccine - not the manufacturer nor the administrator of the vaccine.

If I can make and/or administer a product relatively risk free, I'm probably going to make more of it and try to get more people to buy it (and I'd love CDC "recommendations" which turn into state mandates).

JMO.

Vaccines today are excessive and not all safe though many choose to believe they all are. My oldest was vaccinated for everything (before I knew better for my second two). She was even vaccinated for Chicken pox. She still got chicken pox. Get the Dr Sears Vaccine book so you can get a wise and safe amount of vaccines.

You know, it's always funny to me when people talk about "big pharma" and all of the money they supposedly make on vaccines. Most vaccines are the loss leader, no joke. There are more vaccines now than when we were children because scientists have figured out how to prevent more diseases. It's a good thing.

Because we're making medical advances all the time, and prevention is the best cure. I'm very skeptical of the role of corporate profit motive in our society, but I also believe in looking at things through an educated lens, and that includes the science of statistics.

If you're concerned about the effect of corporate profit motive on public health, look at the hormones and antibiotics given to livestock. Look at the rates of respiratory illnesses and their connection to air pollutants. There's a whole lot to worry about in our modern society and economy. But the science doesn't back the vaccine thing up.

I do know why. As other posters have mentioned it is because science marches onward.

I think your argument that the number of vaccines we had when we were younger was somehow better and the the number now is "crazy" is flawed. What is the magic number for vaccines? Why is fewer automatically better? Do you know that in, say, 1983 the number of antigens in the childhood vaccine schedule was over 3000 and the number of antigens in the schedule now is around 150? That means that we are giving our kids more shots, and protection against more diseases, but with less of the stuff that would tax the immune system. Vaccines have gotten WAY more efficient.

Here is some more info for you:

http://www.vaccinateyourbaby.org/safe/autism/overburdenin...

http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/123/1/e164.full

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/ta...

ETA:
The second link is an article discussing why the Sears schedule is not all its cracked up to be. I know a lot of people like Dr. Sears and think his schedule is safer, but I don't buy it. Many reasons are outlined in the article, but primarily, when a shot is added to the vaccine schedule, it has to be carefully evaluated with the other vaccines already give to determine its safety and efficacy. Not so with Sears' schedule, he just breaks them up, which may lower their effectiveness.

There are more vaccines because scientists have developed them to protect us from preventable diseases.

POLIO is re-emerging in Syria. Seriously - two years of not vaccinating a large population of kids (many if not most Syrian children born in the last few years have not had any vaccinations) and it's back.

Herd immunity is a good thing. It means that when a threshold of population resistance to a disease exists, the chance that an infected person will be able to spread their disease and spread it again becomes very low.

When there are only a few non-vaccinators, the 'cheaters' get away with it because the vaccinates protect them. When more and more people elect against vaccination, the overall population level of protection falls and outbreaks become likely. Whooping cough for example.

We refuse the vaccines that make sense to refuse, like the HPV vaccine. Sorry, but my 10 year old and 13 year old don't need it. I'm not going to replace my parenting at this age with a vaccine that has been poorly tested and researched, and is being pushed on children that aren't at an age where it makes no sense for them to have it.

Instead, we have always had open discussions about sex education, expected behaviors, and making appropriate choices. When my children reach and age where they decide to become sexually active, they'll know about this vaccine and be able to make the choice to receive it.

As for other vaccines, we've always used the delayed schedule from the very beginning and avoided vaccines that don't make sense to the doctors or to us. Life threatening diseases and diseases that can cause severe lifelong problems are researched and weighed. Some we've refused, some we've accepted.

So we're pro-vaccine but we're not blindly following recommendations. We're also not delusionally paranoid about big pharma.