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Is it Safe to Vaccinate my Baby?
Arguments over vaccination continue to surprise health workers, who recognise the effectiveness and safety of prevention compared with the uncertainty and danger of trying to treat an illness once it has appeared... an ounce of prevention... But their frustration in trying to persuade parents to protect their children is no greater than the fears which drive a minority of loving parents to refuse voluntary schemes and avoid compulsory ones. The argument that vaccinations don't work, or at best, work poorly has been pretty much abandoned by all but the most extreme critics: the evidnce is overwhelming, not only for protecting individuals, but for mankind. The eradication of smallpox and the near eradication of TB is down entirely to vaccination. Instead, critics now argue that the vaccinations have been so successful that it isn't necessary to expose infants to the "terrible risks", because the illnesses are no longer rampant. This overlooks the reality that, when campaigns are reduced or interrupted, the formerly controlled diseases return and claim lives. Polio, whooping cough, measles and other fatal or debilitating diseases have all returned in countries which have terminated or reduced their programmes, Such as Sweden and Britain in the 1970s and 80s or The Netherlands in the '90s. Are there risks with vaccinations? Yes. About 11 vaccinations in every 100,000 is associated with an adverse event. Some of these are due to poor hygene on the part of the person giving the vaccination; some are related to the preservatives or other substances given with the vaccine, including substances to increase the body's imune reaction to the injection. Some are an imune response in a sensitive person; some may be due to the vaccine. But of these 1 in 10,000 adverse effects, almost all clear up with no undue consequences within hours, days or weeks, perhaps with a little paracetamol or a soothing cream. Of the very few remaining there is little to suggest that the vaccine was to blame. The truth is that placebo vaccinations ~ innoculations that mimic true vaccinations (usually sterile water injections) have the same rate of adverse effects as the real thing. Failing to have a child imunised and relying on the imunisation state of others is highly irresponsible; there is no way to know how many others are relying on your child being protected so their's need not be and it takes only a small percentage drop in the rate of imumusation to allow deadly diseases back into the population. Many of these illnesses are still with us, of course, but the effectiveness of imunisation has lulled us into a state of ignorant bliss: who minds if their children get measles or the flu, or a cough? It will only strengthen them, right? Yet if there was a vaccine announced today for viral meningitis, parents would be queuing up and demanding it. We know it is deadly, but we have forgotten that measles and flu kill more people world-wide even today in countries lacking good preventative programmes. And they will do the same in our affluent country if we allow the rates of vaccination to fall. |
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This intel was contributed by David Rich
David Rich
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May, 2012
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