Should I vaccinate my baby?

Sarah - posted on 06/01/2012

Exactly Joanna!

Firebird - posted on 06/01/2012

Also something to keep in mind, is that while yes, drug companies do make money off of vaccines, this is NOT the reason vaccines were created in the first place. These diseases were causing so much damage that it was in the best interest of the general populace to try and put a stop to them. That's why they were made.

Sharon - posted on 06/01/2012

having seen archival footage of babies with whooping cough and children with polio, I would never not vaccinate.

Sarah - posted on 06/01/2012

Alura, what I think you need some information on is HERD immunity. Basically, herd immunity means that roughly 82% of the population needs to be immunized to halt the advancement and spread of any illness (this percentage varies based on each illness). In essence, the 82% who are vaccinated would protect the other 18% because the 18% odds of coming in contact with the illness is so rare. The problem is that with all the misinformation out there, our herd immunity has fallen below 82%, that is why you see the increase in these illnesses again. Ones that are making a HUGE comeback are measles, rubella, and polio. The population who is most at risk are infants too young for immunizations, children who aren't immunized, the elderly, the immunocompromised, and pregnant women and their unborn babies (chicken pox and rubella in particular can cause brain damage to a fetus exposed).

Just a side note here, and this is only my opinion: I don't look at vaccines as being orchestrated per se by the drug companies. Although they DO make money from making them, it isn't them who encourage people to use them. It is the government. At least in Canada (I don't know if they are in the USA), the government pays for vaccinations. This is because the cost of vaccinating everyone is far less than the cost of medical care should someone contract the illness. I just think in this case, the drug companies are fullfilling a need.

Sharon - posted on 06/01/2012

Simple answer: Yes you should.

Firebird - posted on 06/01/2012

Vaccinated children don't usually contract viruses that they've been immunized against. When they do, it's usually children who have compromised immune systems. Getting the vaccines normally reduce the severity of the illness if it does hit a person who is vaxed. As for the Autism.... mercury is the reason people blame Autism on vaccines, however, to dispute this accusation, North America removed mercury from all vaccines except for two. Hep B, and multi dose flu shots. Both ARE available without the mercury.

Krista - posted on 06/01/2012

Alura, babies can't be vaccinated until they are two months old. So each and every one of them is vulnerable. If all the other children were vaccinated, then there would be nobody from whom they could catch whooping cough.

As well, what a lot of people don't understand is that a vaccine isn't a 100% guarantee against catching something. What it IS guaranteed to do, however, is to vastly reduce the odds of you catching that disease. And if you do get it, it's likely to be a lot less severe.

And frankly, it takes more than one unvaccinated child. But right now we have a heck of a lot more than one unvaccinated child in America, thanks to all of the misinformation and fearmongering out there.

Alura - posted on 06/01/2012

Joanna i live in America. ive been doing my research and it just confuses me how it only takes one unvaccinated child to start an outbreak.. why do the vaccinated children still contract the virus? whats the point of a vaccination if it cant protect your child against an outbreak?

Firebird - posted on 06/01/2012

Alura, may I ask what country you're in?

Jen - posted on 06/01/2012

Yes. Vaccines save lives. There is no reputable medical evidence that they are harmful.

Anti-vax propaganda likes to put you in fear of Big Pharma and while the pharmaceutical companies certainly have brought pain upon themselves, they would be better served by not promoting vaccines as all those illnesses would easily come back and think of the fortune made with Advair prescriptions for whooping cough alone!

Where vaccines are used, disease rate goes down. When vaccine usage stops, we see resurgances of diseases like whooping cough (had it myself in 2005 because I didn't know we needed boosters after 25), measles and rubella.

Let me tell you of my experience with whooping cough. I was 34 at the time. I was bedridden for 3 months. I literally could not move or talk without coughing. I had to sit quietly and either read or play video games. If I did anythign else, including trying to get myself food or go to the bathroom, I'd cough. I'd cough till I fell to the floor from lack of air. I'd cough till I urinated on myself. I'd cough till I'd vomit. When I could finally move, I had to clean myself up and try to get back to the couch or bed. It took me almost a full year to recover completely.

When my ex-husband's grandmother heard I had it, she flipped out. She came over from the Ukraine just after WW2. Her family was in a German internment camp. Her baby daughter died from whooping cough. She was hysterical that I would die too.

So yes, this is my own anecdotal testimony which isn't anymore reliable than your average anti-vaxer. Just look at the years of evidence that they are safe vs not one single reliable study that shows ANY link between autism and vaccines.

Sure, some people are allergic to the ingredients such as egg allergies. That's a risk with any medication.

But I'd rather have the shot than spend time in an iron lung.

Dove - posted on 06/01/2012

One of my friend's has a very young infant who has been in the hospital for over a week (maybe 2 or more by now... I'm bad with timing) with whooping cough. They do not have any idea who he came in contact with in order to be infected. I've been reading about their struggles with him and his breathing and such daily on Facebook. PLEASE think very carefully about this decision to protect your child and so that your child when older can help to NOT infect the babies that are too young to be vaccinated or the people who can not be vaccinated due to allergies and such.

Krista - posted on 06/01/2012

The supposed "link" between vaccinations and autism has been thoroughly debunked and discredited.

As long as you do not have a family history of allergies to vaccines, they are perfectly safe. If you are concerned, you can talk to your doctor about delaying some vaccines, or spacing them out a bit, so that your child isn't getting as many at once.

But otherwise, please do vaccinate your child. Whooping cough is making a comeback, due to people not vaccinating their kids. It's a horrible disease and it kills babies. Please don't risk it.

Jodi - posted on 06/01/2012

Well done on doing your research, but please don't believe everything you read. Vaccines do NOT cause autism. Make sure your resources are reliable, not propoganda based on scaremongering.

Sarah - posted on 06/01/2012

Vaccines absolutely DO NOT cause Autism. For me, we chose to vaccinate because we didn't want to put our children's lives, or the lives of others in our community at risk. Simple as that.

Kaitlin - posted on 06/01/2012

There are thousands of threads on this topic within this site. They get very heated, and usually are locked when it gets to a few hundred responses. Go and check them out, they're all the same.