Bill Moyers Essay: Are Immunization Exemptions Fair to All? from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Steven Soderbergh's recent film Contagion is the most plausible experience of a global pandemic plague you're likely to see until the real thing strikes. Stark, beautiful in its own terrifying way, and all too believable, the story tracks the swift progress of a deadly airborne virus... from Hong Kong to Minneapolis... Tokyo to London... from a handful of peanuts to a credit card to the cough of strangers on a subway. Rarely does a film issue such an inescapable invitation to think, "It could happen. That could be us. What would I do?"
Perhaps because the movie had invaded my head, for several days I kept coming across stories in the news about contagious disease. And the conflict between religious beliefs and immunization. Nothing new here about the basics: All fifty states require some specific vaccinations for kids. Yet all of them grant exemptions for medical reasons - say, for a child with cancer. Almost all of them grant religious exemptions. And 20 states allow exemptions for personal, moral, or other beliefs.
Some parents still fear a link between vaccinations and autism, a possibility science has largely debunked. Some parents just want to be in charge of what's put into their children's bodies.
And some parents just don't trust science, period. So, you can see there are many loopholes. But now seven states are considering legislation to make it even easier for mothers and fathers to spare their children from vaccinations, especially on religious grounds.
In Oregon, according to a story by Jennifer Anderson in The Portland Tribune, the number of kindergartners with religious exemptions is up from 3.7 percent to 5.6 percent in just four years, and continuing to rise. This has public health officials clicking their calculators and keeping their eye on what's called "herd immunity." A certain number of any population group needs to have been vaccinated to maintain the ability of the whole population -- "the herd" -- to resist the spread of a disease. Ms. Anderson offers the example of what in my day was called "the German measles" -- rubella. All it takes are five unvaccinated kids in a class of 25 for the herd immunity to break down, creating an opportunity for the disease to spread to younger siblings and to other medically vulnerable people who can't be vaccinated. If you were traveling to Europe between 2009 and 2011, you may remember warnings about the huge outbreak of measles there -- brought on by a "failure to vaccinate susceptible populations."
Here in the U.S., several recent outbreaks of measles, have been traced to pockets of unvaccinated children in states that allow personal belief exemptions. The Reuters news service reports 13 confirmed cases of measles in central Indiana. Two of them were people who showed up for the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Patriot and Giants fans back east have been alerted. So far, no news is good news.
But this is serious business, made more so by complacency. My generation remembers when measles killed. Killed at as many as 500 people a year before we started vaccinating against them in 1963. My wife and I both lost grandparents in the great flu pandemic of 1918 that killed as many as forty million globally. Our generation was also stalked by small pox, polio, and whooping cough before there were vaccinations. In a country where few remember those diseases, it's easy to think, "What's to worry?" But as the movie so forcefully and hauntingly reminds us, the earth is now flat. Seven billion people live on it, and our human herd moves on a conveyer belt of constant mobility, so that a virus can travel as swiftly as a voice from one cell phone to another. When and if a contagion strikes, we can't count on divine intervention to spare us. That's when you want a darn good scientist in a research lab. We'll need all the help we can get from knowledge and her offspring.
For all its many qualities, including some fine acting, Contagion was frozen out of the Oscars -- not a single nomination. In fact, none of my favorites were nominated. Nonetheless, let's go to the movies for some insights on our politics today, because when it comes to storytelling, Hollywood and Washington are co-dependents. Political conspiracies, skullduggery, and infighting have long provided solid plotlines for moviemakers. In turn, politicians try to embrace the values that movies depict as the noblest virtues of the American character: selfless courage, patriotism, sincerity and compassion. Both know that movie entertainment informs our image of what leaders should be but at the very same time capably and handily distracts us from certain grim truths.
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Claire McCarthy, M.D.: I Really Want to Know: What Can I Do for Parents Who Are Afraid of Vaccines?
Abby Goldberg: The UN and Cholera in Haiti
http://www.ebcala.org/areas-of-law/vaccine-law/co-author-of-lancet-mmr-autism-study-exonerated-on-all-charges-of-professional-misconduct?utm_source=Elizabeth+Birt+Center+for+Autism+Law+&+Advocacy+List&utm_campaign=9f11ed7488-Wakefield_Colleague_WalkerSmith_Exonerated3_7_2012&utm_medium=email
Dr. John Walker-Smith, considered the father of pediatric gastroenterology, has today been restored to his much-deserved reputation of high esteem. His appeal of the U.K. General Medical Council’s 2010 decision to remove his license for serious professional misconduct has been quashed in its entirety. This decision raises questions about the validity of the 2010 GMC proceeding in general.
The GMC proceeding was a multi-year, multi-million dollar prosecution against Drs. Wakefield, Walker-Smith, and Murch. It related to a controversial 1998 study published in The Lancet suggesting a possible link between autism, the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and bowel disease. Based on the GMC prosecution, both Drs. Walker-Smith and Wakefield lost their licenses to practice and the Lancet article was officially retracted. The GMC alleged that the physician-authors had failed to obtain necessary ethical clearances and that they had subjected the twelve children in the study to unnecessary medical procedures.
Justice Mitting... found that the GMC’s conclusions were “based on inadequate and superficial reasoning” and that “the finding of serious professional misconduct and the sanction of erasure are both quashed.”...
This blog is about vaccines and neither you, nor the link you provided, nor apparently any of the vaccine critics have bothered to post what the court had to say about the idea that vaccines causing autism.
"There is now no respectable body of opinion which supports (Dr Wakefield's) hypothesis, that MMR vaccine and autism/enterocolitis are causally linked".
Point #7 in the decision.
W&N
it was pending for hours yesterday and now it's deleted ?
[ Heather XW Commented 21 hours ago
"The majority of the population is not covered by measles
vaccine-immunity. If you follow the CDCs booster protocal a
person in their 50s should have had 4-5 MMR or single measles
vaccine injections. Since the vaccine immunity wanes these
booster protocals are vital in maintaining vaccine induced herd
immunity. The herd immunity believers say you need 90+%
compliance in order to keep measles away. We are well below
that number. So where are all the 100,000s of measles
diagnosis? Where are the 1000s of deaths? Are you vaccine
boostered? And why is it that infectious disease always trumps
vaccine induced deaths and chronic disorders. I'm not
anti-vaccine, I think it should be a choice for the patient
with clinician involvement. The government has no right in
mandating medical procedures that can kill." ]
meanwhile; these are very good points, the logic is unavoidable once you think it through but to much reality for some , i guess.
I repeat , this country will never have a safer schedule or safer vaccinations with individuals like you who just continually deny the problems associated.
Patient BB a child with the measles rash, exhibited two weeks post MMR vaccination. Her father a pediatrician (parents are divorced) insisted the classic measles rash has no association with the vaccination.
I can go on with countless examples.
Why you do not read about the issues with vaccinations? Are you you afraid? Too much vested? What happens if you are open to a real dialogue, any true meaningful exchange? I always read and research both sides which is why I have read what the CDC puts out there and more.
If you decide you actually would like to entertain any notion of understanding my position which is, the need for accurate reporting, safer vaccinations and schedule then start with:
"Vaccine Epidemic" edited Louise Kuo Habakus, M.A. and Mary Holland, J.D. Research Scholar, NYU School of Law.
I am done with this thread.
A side thought on the matter: but since vaccinations come from big private companies, they probably have a few billion ($) reasons to want to pressure people not buying their products to start doing so. . .
This.
My mother made sure that my brother and I had all of our vaccinations. She remembers. Those that haven't had close encounters with these deadly illnesses don't realize just how dangerous they are.
Right now I am residing in a small, poor Caribbean nation that can't measure up to us for wealth or education. However, the people of this island (who describe themselves as at least 110% Christian) try hard to do a good job managing routine public health. A much higher percentage of their children receive all of the immunizations they are supposed to have and routine health services are available without cost. Not coincidentally, this nation has one of the highest incidences worldwide of people who are over 100 years old.
We may be getting better and better at letting people do what they want without regard for the consequences, but we are descending by every measure in the many global measures of health, longevity, and general well-being, Not much of a record of achievement in the last 30 years.
Many children are dying and becoming disabled by vaccines here in the US. We have a national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) that collects this data. In 2011 32,297 reports were added to the VAERS. According to the FDA only 10% of actual adverse events are ever reported so we can assume the real scope of death and injury from vaccination is....
322,970 victims in 2011.
These victims matter to me. My son sustained a sever brain injury after being injected with DTaP, MMR, Hib, Varicella and PCV 7 in one day. I for one am concerned about the fraud in the pharmaceutical & scientific industry and am opposed to the chummy relationship between the US government regulators and pharma.
I have a home in Exuma and love the Caribbean people. I have had long discussions about this issue with my friends there. Did you know their vaccine schedule isn't equal to the US. They do not receive all the vaccines that we do here and their booster protocol is *much* less. 2 year olds in the US can receive up to 30 injections. You tell that to any Bahamian mom and watch the blood drain from their face.
continued
My friends who have relocated to the US and put their children in public schools have had to get a load of "catch up" vaccinations in order to achieve the US standard. So let's not make unfair comparisons.
You should read more on the issue. I would start with the recommended schedule and know the vaccines offered, then I would read the manufactures product insert sleeves that the pediatricians never give you.
Here is what a vaccine research scientist has to say about the matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ--PQBgam8
www.autismrawdata.net
~ Heart disease is not infectious and it is multifactorial so can't have a "vaccine". I'll just let you Google "pneumonia" and "vaccine".
~ Please don't let blind distrust masquerade as motherly instinct.
Pneumococcal vaccination does not protect against pneumonia caused by microbes other than pneumococcus bacteria,
hope this helps... dont hurt yourself trying to think now
It's not about a government; it's about 250 years of acquired knowledge.
If you persuade people to follow your superstition, then some of them will be killed unnecessarily - no differently than if you shot them at random.
Perhaps if Mr. Moyers had been told, over and over, that that reaction and several others had nothing to do with vaccines, because "vaccines can't do that," only to be eventually told by several specialists (yes, MEDICAL specialists, like neurologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists, and even pediatricians) that, in fact, "vaccines did that," he might think to do a bit more research, after which he would find thousands of parents whose children had the same reaction, and who were told the same thing.
It's a very, very sad fact, that, really, none of us "get it" until it happens to our own child.
Mr. Moyers, take a good hard look. The number of parents who wish they could take back the vaccines that killed or permanently damaged their children is greater than the number of parents whose children died from "vaccine-preventable illnesses."
Do YOU have the right to determine what gets injected into someone else's body?
The rest of us know that the chances of your baby being hurt by hepatitis is much greater than in taking the vaccine.
If one is worried about Hepatitis B, one can always give the vaccine before sending the child to school.
However, the Hep B vaccine has serious risks:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/new-study-hepatitis-b-vac_b_289288.html
"New Study: Hep B Vaccine Triples The RIsk of Autism in Infant Boys"
http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/us-concedes-hep-b-causes-lupus/
http://www.vaccines.net/1TOPEDJ.pdf
http://vaccinationeducation.com/hepatitis.html
"FRANCE STOPS VACCINATING CHILDREN WITH HEPATITIS B
15,000 French citizens filed a lawsuit against the French government for understating the risks and overstating the benefits associated with the hepatitis B vaccine. Hundreds of people were reported to have suffered from auto immune and neurological disorders, including multiple sclerosis, following hepatitis B vaccination. As a result, in October 1998, the French Minister of Health ended the mandatory hepatitis B vaccination program for all school children."
You can get vaccinations that aren't "heavy mixes of the cocktail of everything". Almost all vaccinations work amazingly well and the troubles at a very small percentage come from the cheap 5x cocktail. Spend a little money and get your child separate vaccinations.
Also, don't listen to one off physicians and their opinions. The science is from larger studies and peer review. That is how it works. Anecdotal occurances aren't scientific with science. Too much opinion.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500803_162-4090144-500803.html
Healy goes on to say public health officials have intentionally avoided researching whether subsets of children are "susceptible" to vaccine side effects - afraid the answer will scare the public.
"You're saying that public health officials have turned their back on a viable area of research largely because they're afraid of what might be found?" Attkisson asked.
Healy said: "There is a completely expressed concern that they don't want to pursue a hypothesis because that hypothesis could be damaging to the public health community at large by scaring people. "First of all," Healy said, "I think the public's smarter than that. The public values vaccines. But more importantly, I don't think you should ever turn your back on any scientific hypothesis because you're afraid of what it might show."
As an example, Healy points to the existing vaccine court claims.
CBS News has learned the government has paid more than 1,300 brain injury claims in vaccine court since 1988, but is not studying those cases or tracking how many of them resulted in autism.
The branch of the government that handles vaccine court told CBS News: "Some children who have been compensated for vaccine injuries…may ultimately end up with autism or autistic symptoms, but we do not track cases on this basis."
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500690_162-4086809.html
http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol28/iss2/6/
Since the scientific community is clear on the safety and efficacy of vaccines...
And since the anti-vaccs continue to get basically every part of the science wrong...
The conclusion is obvious.
Thanks for reminding us that it is for very good reasons that the world rejects the anti-vaccs POV.
W&N
All this hysterical bashing of unvaccinated children is unbelievably stupid.