Who Is at Risk When Parents Don’t Vaccinate?
EmailABC’s Michelle Schlief, of our medical unit, reports from Boston: The Centers for Disease Control has just reported the death of a child in Minnesota from invasive Hib disease. Four other children under 5 were sickened by Hib but fortunately survived. Three of the children had received no doses of the Hib vaccine and one had not received all of the shots that are called for in the vaccination series. This tragic death is cause for nationwide concern that American children may be at risk for infectious diseases, said Dr. Paul Offit, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the author of "Autism’s False Prophets." He says parents who did not vaccinate their children "cross the line" because they put everyone’s children at risk of infection. Normally infants get a series of primary immunizations followed by a booster shot to keep their immunity up. There is a current shortage of vaccine in the US that has forced the CDC to stop recommending the normal booster shot in kids. This fact has much greater impact given the fact that many parents have decided not to have their children vaccinated with the primary series of immunizations, says Dr. Jon Abramson of Wake Forrest University. Dr. Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and parent of a child with autism also wonders if too many parents are choosing not to vaccinate, or to delay vaccination "because of unwarranted fears…If this is the case we need to realize that organisms like the Hib bacterium and measles virus are still circulating in the community and children are still at risk." Dr. Offit, points out that every parent has the right not to vaccinate their children because it is a matter of individual rights and free choice. "This country was founded on those principles. But this isn’t a smart choice, he said. Dr. Offit thinks that the outbreak of measles last year, when 135 kids in at least seven separate outbreaks became ill, should have been one of our first wake-up calls to the fact that America is now vulnerable to infectious diseases that we long thought were virtually banished. Some of the kids sickened in the measles outbreak were too young to be fully vaccinated, but they should have been protected by so-called herd immunity. "For many diseases you can’t immunize a certain percentage of the population, but by immunizing a high percentage it prevents the others from getting the disease," explains Dr. Offit. There are hundreds of thousands of kids who can’t be immunized because they are too young, they’ve had chemotherapy or an organ transplant, or because their immune system has been compromised for some other reason, he said. It is this very herd immunity that Dr. Offit says is now breaking down in Minnesota. Dr. Offit is a public champion of vaccinations and has frequently taken on the claims of those who are against vaccinations or are for delayed vaccination schedules – including Dr. Andrew Wakefield and actress Jenny McCarthy. "Its an awful, awful thing," said Dr. Offit. "A child died because of this choice."
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ABC needs to get out of the vaccine debate if they are not willing to present both sides of the story in a truly unbiased manner. Using Dr. Offit as the “expert” source of information for this story just proves the bias of ABC. The fact that Dr. Offit is a vaccine patent holder who personally profits from the toxins we inject into our children was conveniently left out of this article.
The evidence that vaccines are harming our children is in front of me all the time in the face of my three year old son, who has autism. No one can tell me that vaccines did not harm him when I have personally witnessed his deterioration every day since he received his MMR shot.
Posted by: BJ | January 26, 2009, 9:43 pm 9:43 pm
we have autism in our family as well, and one of my kids started very similar to other kids in my family, but I din’t let him watch any tv, at all. The kids who have full blown autism were brougth up under alot of stress, alot of yelling, alot of tv, ALOT of tv, ALOT of videos. One watched so much TV they jokingly called him “potato” for a nick name because he was such a couch potato at so young an age. my sib emailed me this cute picture of this baby sitting on the coach just staring so intently at the tv. I thought it was funny at the time too. Until i had my own kids, or was about to, and was concerned about al l this autism in my family, and read about it, and was horrified by the link to tv and autism. So very few studies but every one showed HUGE links. Links far more significant than even one Vaccinne study. thing is, you dont start t oreally pay attention to what you’ve done until your kid is 2 or 3 and by then, the damage can be irreversable. Brain developmemnt start happening from day one. You screw this up from day one, for a few years, formative years, you never get a second chance. You want to protect your kid? Get him his shots, and turn OFF the tv for his first three years of life. The American Academy of Pedatrics reccomends NO TV, NONE for hte first three years of life. IT’s THAT serious to their developement. Look it up. it’s true.
Posted by: michelle | January 26, 2009, 11:05 pm 11:05 pm
and of my sibs and their kids, they say ‘it happened so suddenly”….i remain quiet, but really, no it didn’t. there was something about these kids all the time. It was a slow progression. Just one day my everyone finally noticed. I had a son who started out very similar, fussy, colicly, and as he matured had teh same issues with being scatter brained, not listening, acting out,etc. I worked with him,and no tv, none. he worked through his issues. on very rare occassions if left over a sibs house I would catch him in front of the tv, I’d scold my sib “no tv for him!” and she’d say “you’re so extreme,and he’s too m uch to handle. Look at him. he loves it…” How is he today???? great. not a trace of autism. He worked through his issues, through his lack of focus, through his hyperness and need to gain control of his moods and his anger and his lack of attention. My others didn’t have his issues, he was more work, and it was tempting to just say “ohforget it! you’re too much work!” but i didn’t. My sibs actually taught me what not to do. I swear he would be another autism statistic had i not had autism in the family and was concerned about himm from day one. By 4 he had most of these issues worked out. I swear, the differenc was, I was aware of them from day one.
Posted by: livin' in the heartland | January 26, 2009, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
Per Dr. Offit’s quote… “Its an awful, awful thing,” said Dr. Offit. “A child died because of this choice.”
…what about the millions of children suffering from adverse vaccine reactions? Autism, Seizures, ADHD, ADD, OCD, Aperger’s ,etc?
Posted by: htbenz | January 27, 2009, 7:03 am 7:03 am
The problem is we do not know “who is at risk”. It’s like vaccine roulette. Parents want to prevent their child from getting sick from preventable diseases. Parents want to trust the vaccine program, and Parents need help when their child has a reaction to vaccines such as inflammation and associated plaque problems. Parents need to know the real odds of a reaction and what to do when it happens. I am so tired of the arrogance that prevents publishing answers or options. I don’t trust the research completely because my pediatrician thought a reaction to vaccines was normal and no need to report any unusual. Why?
Posted by: jmiller | January 27, 2009, 7:58 am 7:58 am
To Michelle aka Livin in the heartland.
I appreciate your concern about television as I have always been a stout opponent of tv and commercialism, especially when exposing it to children and in fact do not even own a television.we stay in touch with the world through the internet and newspapers.
And yet I have two sons with autism.
Posted by: mommyto2 | January 27, 2009, 10:08 am 10:08 am
Paul Offitt’s job is infections in hospitals. These have gone from NONE to a couple of thousand and today to Millions.
They are picked up when you go to hospital and they resist modern drugs which use them as food.
Shouldn’t he help to reverse millions of infections and get back to 40 years ago ZERO level before venturing to new fields?
Alternatively move into vaccines completely.
Might be good to develop vaccine for those hospital infections but I suppose a captive market of unknowing babies will take mercury et al in their shots but adults MIGHT just complain before injecting themselves with the worlds most toxic substance with few exceptions?
Its touching that he thinks an injection could save just one life when people like him are losing hundreds of thousands of lives from those hopsital infections that also end sometimes in death.
It’s an awful, awful thing that his hospital infects his patients when they go there.
Would he like to say how many died at just his hospital last year from MRSA et al?
Posted by: John Fryer | January 27, 2009, 10:58 am 10:58 am
ALL CREDIT to Paul for this:
Dr. Offit, points out that every parent has the right not to vaccinate their children because it is a matter of individual rights and free choice. “This country was founded on those principles.
HURRAY and AMEN to that!
Thing is it’s not true.
Many go to their doctors and GET BULLIED.
Get the shots or I will call DSS.
My reply:
OK I’ll go and call the cops to have you arrested for pumping carcinogenic mercury into my child.
OF course Paul is right vaccines are essential but my vaccines years and years ago came with a 1 in 50 million chance of an adverse effect.
Today an excess of 5 per 1 000 DIE in the first year of life and more than this don’t die but get autism. The problem with 310 vaccines now compared to 10 is that the quality control is diluted 30 fold and the risks are increased 10 000 times.
Go back to safe vaccines and you will have your customer breaking the doors down to get them.
GARDASIL out for 2 years and more than 30 deaths in one country alone. Now that’s a great introduction for a teenager looking for promiscuous sex. All she gets is a gratuitous death.
Posted by: John Fryer | January 27, 2009, 11:07 am 11:07 am
Getting your kids vaccinated is dangerous, im chose to do my editorial about ‘should parents be forced to vaccinate their children’..i think it’s wrong. you shouldn’t have to. & the effects they have with some are just horrible
Posted by: Ronna | February 4, 2010, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm