There's a lot of stuff going on in the media lately regarding vaccinations.
There is the standard scaremongering and recriminations because of the two measles outbreaks (in Christchurch and Auckland).
And there are the blanket reassurances that there "will be nothing to worry about" with the Swine Flu Vaccine soon to be rolled out.
This all comes hot of the heels of the recently released Gardasil Vaccine for "cervical cancer".
As I start on this I will just come out to any fervent pro-vaccinators out there. We don't vaccinate our children. Not one of them has ever had any jab of any immunisation out there. The littlest one didn't even get the Vitamin K shot. I think I can reliably say that none of our children will ever be vaccinated.
I realise in the eyes of the pro-vaccine crowd this makes me a stupid, irresponsible, danger to society parent who has damned my children and those in our community to hell. With my callous, thoughtless, practically insane decisions I have quite obviously acted with reckless contempt for my children's health and that of their friends.
But here's the thing I made a decision. A conscious informed choice. I looked at both sides of the debate and I along with Les read widely, researched and we made a decision that we felt is in the best interests of our children. We didn't simply listen passively to the health system slam us with horror stories, throw condemnation on non-vaccinators and spout half truths and flat out untruths and then do as we were told. We made an INFORMED decision.
And we didn't just make it once we made it for each baby. We made it at the start of kindergarten, school and with any serious out break in our local area. Each time we made the decision our conclusion was that it was in the best interests of our children not to vaccinate.
It is our second priority as parents to keep our own children healthy, (the first is love) and that is what we are doing.
I would never tell another parent what decision to make with regards to their own child. That said I do cringe whenever I hear someone say they are taking their child for jabs- as if it's just some routine task like a haircut or buying a pair of shoes.
There is a great blog post here on Random Sanity on this subject which gets the point across more clearly than I can hope to in the time I have to devote to this post... here's a quote from the post that sums it up... PLEASE READ THE POST.
"I mean even writing this, I realise I’m not going to change any minds. However, if I can make one person question the issue and do some research, then I have achieved what I wanted. If they decided, BASED ON RESEARCH RATHER THEN MEDICAL HEARSAY that vaccines are safe for their children and themselves, then more power to them. You say tomatoe, I say tomato. I have no problem at all with people who vaccinate their children AFTER they’ve researched the issue thoroughly. Do I think they’re wrong? Absolutely. Will I condemn them for their choice? Absolutely not."Seriously stop reading my post and read that other one. Please.
Now the reason that I originally wanted to write this post (about 2 months ago) was because of the Gardasil vaccine and Les. At the time I was seriously fired up that a generation of teenage girls and their parents were being threatened and scared and mis-informed and that it was apparently ok.
If you've watched the adds for Gardasil you will know that they refer to it as a "Cancer Vaccine" It isn't. Seriously IT DOES NOT VACCINATE AGAINST CERVICAL CANCER. FULL STOP. BUT it is ok in New Zealand to imply that it does in an advert.
I know that it's ok because Les lodged a complaint with the BSA and it was declined. It's OK for the health department to LIE and MISLEAD you on television.
And it's ok to say that this chemical cocktail which hasn't been around for very long at all is safe to put into young girls bodies and have it mess with part of their sexual health.
In a very unusual move for me I actually asked my teenage sister to seriously consider taking my advice and not have it. She had already done her own research and decided against it. But honestly it makes me want to cry. As I sit here typing I have tears running down my face and I'm quite queasy.
If you have heard of Thalidomide and DES then you will know that it takes a little more time to see the full effects of any drug on the system... in the case of Thalidomide it took around 9 months and with DES it was a whole generation before women discovered a drug their mothers took in pregnancy had left them sub-fertile and in some cases completely infertile among other even more serious side effects.
And yet our government is happy to plough on and recommend that our daughters be the trial group for yet another vaccine. I know I should be surprised I mean look at the Meningitis B Vaccine. And the next on the list will be swine flu.
But I'm an idealist, for some reason I just can't help myself, and I think the world should be fair. So when I read things like this post on the science of advertising and how it was applied in the Gardasil case I feel cheated and betrayed.
And WHY? I mean really how many people have been protected? This many? Really?
If the gardasil thing interests you then you may also want to read this.
And if you wanted to know how there is medical evidence it could make things worse read this.
I'm going to get off my soap box now. I'll leave you with a few links on some general stuff. If you are someone I love I just ask you to simply think and question and research and question some more and then decide what's best for you and yours. Don't just blindly stumble into putting chemicals into your own or your childs body. Make an INFORMED decision.
Links;
"One Less"
Mandatory Vaccination
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